Introducing……Club Mileage Awards

Have you clocked up 100,000km, 200,000km or more on one bike?

To celebrate the epic achievements of these milestones, the Club will be issuing Mileage Award Medallions and Certificates to those who qualify. It can be for any make and model of bike that has reached these impressive kilometres in your ownership, and must still be in your ownership.

To nominate your bike, email our Secretary, Geoff Hodge on secretary@bmwmcq.org.au with:

• Photo of the bike or you with bike - this photo will feature on your certificate so a good quality photo will enhance the certificate

• Where and when purchased and mileage at time of purchase

• Photo of the odometer to show the kilometres.

Presentations have started at the monthly meetings – so get your details in!

Bmwmcq Training Course Subsidy

Your club encourages all members to continue to improve as a rider and offers a financial incentive to foster greater uptake in rider training. A broad interpretation of training has been adopted to include First Aid Training and Traffic Accident site safety management. The intention of the subsidy scheme is to not only improve the road craft of individual members but also to enhance the safety and enjoyment of club runs and events for all participating members.

These are the simple rules to qualify for a subsidy:

1. Every financial member is eligible.

2. Subsidy is limited to one in three years for each member eg subsidy February 2022 re-eligible February 2025.

3. Subsidy provided in the form of a $50 reimbursement after course has been completed and invoice presented to the Treasurer.

4. The applicant must present details and receive approval for the intended training course from the Club Secretary prior to the course being undertaken.

There you have it, an incentive to help to make you a better and safer rider. If you undertake a course please let us know your thoughts on the success of the course, positive or negative.

Tony Gray - President BMWMCQ

AN EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL NEARLY 30 YEARS AGO. NOTE THE STATISTICS REPORT AUTHOR. EXTRACT COURTESY OF GARY BENNETT.

MAINTENANCE TIP - TUNING TIPS

By Tony Gray, Member #3905

Oneof the beauties of the much loved series of ‘airhead’ BMW Motorcycles is their simplicity. They are a very easy motorcycle to service and maintain and will return to their respectful owner years of reliable service. Many of these bikes are approaching (or have reached) 50 years of age and are still being used as daily rides, a true testament to their solid design and construction.

Keeping one of these bikes ‘in tune’ is relatively straightforward but does require much more frequent attention then their modern cousins without cable clutch & brake operation, points ignition and carburetors. Getting the carburetors synchronized requires a deft touch and a tuners ear but there is a simple device that makes the operation easier. I first saw one of these devices on a Youtube video - they were available from a supplier in North America. Following the old Chinese proverb of ‘anything you can do, I can copy’ I made my own for just a few cents. All you need is a couple of 4mm dia x 65mm steel bolts (standard pitch is 0.7mm) and 4 spark plug threaded caps. Cut the heads off the bolts then run two of the plug caps onto the bolt leaving enough exposed thread so it can still be screwed onto a spark plug. A drop of superglue to join the caps together and lock onto the threaded bolt and you are done. You now have two spark plug cap extensions.

When tuning the carbs you remove the plug cap, thread the extension to the spark plug, reinsert the plug cap and run the engine as per normal. With the spark plug extension now exposed you can use a long screwdriver to earth one spark plug and adjust the carburetor on the one active cylinder. Reverse the process to adjust the other cylinder. The engine will run perfectly on one cylinder.

Something Mid-week

Oflate I have been experiencing a few problems related to my shoulders. This has caused interference with my current occupation of driving buses, and so being unable to work I have some free time. One of the things that I have generally been unable to take part in are the mid-week rides, but Wednesday 19 April 2023 was an exception. Knowing that the excellent ergonomics of BMW motorcycles means that while I might suffer constant pain and discomfort in general day to day activities, even while resting and sleeping, while typing, and generally most all the time (even when pushing the machine out of the garage), while riding my BMW that pain simply seems to disappear. Must be the endorphins.

To quote Banjo Paterson in the Man from Snowy River: “so (I) went”; if not to find the horses by the big mimosa clump, at least to find fellow participants at Dayboro. I was supposed to be there at 08:45hrs, but in my current recovery process I rise at a time more comfortable to myself. This, and needing to refuel at Ferny Grove meant that I was not going to be there on time. However knowing that morning tea was going to be taken at Kilcoy I felt that I would catch them there.

Pleasant conversations were had over excellent refreshments. It was time to leave (Ian leaving the group at that stage, so with me as reserve 11 continued the journey), and we were given general instructions on the way to do, towards Somerset Dam and then Gregors Creek Road towards Toogoolawah. A left turn to the Mt. Beppo road, and right towards Esk then up the Hampton Road turning right to Cressbrook Dam at Biarra. The countryside was green and fresh, and the roads mostly dry. More fortunately there was not much traffic on the road, and so our progress was generally uninterrupted except by some roadworks along the way. Along the Mt. Beppo road past Toogoolawah I saw the sign to Watts Bridge Airfield. I have been to an air-show down there in the past. It is one of the many airfields constructed during the Second

The morning was a little overcast; indeed there was a slight drizzle at my place. I decided to travel through Mt. Crosby, Brookfield and Gap Creek Road to Ferny Grove, refuel and reach Dayboro (45 minutes late, about 10:30hrs) then over Mt. Mee and down into Kilcoy. This I did, the rain remaining light and arrived to find (quoting the Banjo again) the cracks gathered to the fray at CJ’s Pastries Kilcoy. There were 11 motorcycles (mine made the 12th) and we were all solo. It was a men’s business day, so it was nice to look at the friendly staff at the bakery with their feminine charms.

Arriving at Lake Cressbrook I was taken back to a weekend that Dave Bell organised there in the late 1990s. Others had recollections of other events held there. Entering from the road it is quite as descent to shoreline, and there were people out on the lake in their boat. I could hear what sounded like a remote-controlled car, but could not quite locate where the electric buzzing noise was coming from. Taking a short stroll I realised that it was a drone. This seems to be one of the realities of modern life, we might have been on camera! The venue not being catered we had needed to bring some lunch. I overlooked this, and was offered a sandwich and iced coffee. The Club spirit remains alive (represented even more so by that rider’s

From there it was over Mt. Glorious (remaining ever-cautious of the wet shaded corners so abundant on that road, and realising the incredibly intrusive nature of lantana, red and white flowers sitting with most of the roadside underbrush), Ben turning left down to Samford and the leader and I to School Road at The Gap, where he turned to home and I carried on to retrace my route from the morning. Traffic remained very light, and over the whole day we were interrupted by few vehicles.

It was a great (for me at least) 450km day, and if I convey my thanks for a memorable Autumn Day and reminding me of the joys of escaping mid-week I am sure it could not be that pristine R90S). It was a really nice spot.

Participants then decided on the way home, and ride co-ordinator Ben and I joined with David to return over the wall of Lake Perseverance back along the New England Highway to Hampton then down to Esk.