Tech Tip Of The Month

Happy Spring Everyone!  

Chains, sprockets and center-stands, oh my! Ten years ago BMW had one model with a chain; now they make half-a-dozen. A chain-drive requires more maintenance than a shaft or belt drive. It's not difficult, but an absolute must if the life and longevity of the chain and sprockets are to be retained. A drive-chain should be checked regularly and lubed every 500 miles; more often if you are riding in the rain.  

This may sound like overkill, but it can mean the difference between a chain and sprocket lasting 4,000 miles or 20,000 miles.  And, at $500 dollars or so to replace (that's right, they're not warrantable), it's a valuable investment of your time and effort. With a center-stand your time and effort are significantly reduced, and this equipment will make any service operation easier and less stressful.  

If your cycle doesn't have one, we can put a genuine BMW center-stand on for you. If you have any questions about the parts involved, or the type of drive your bike has, please don't hesitate to contact us, we are always ready to help!    

Mark Eddy

Service Manager

Ask MotoAdventureGal NEW! 
Helping the Industry One Ride at a Time 

A couple of years ago I took a long motorcycle ride. My helmet time became the incubator for my dreams, goals and desires. I was on the road alone for seven months, and the ever-changing landscape provided extremely fertile ground for formulating my current career path - empowering other women riders to hit the open road and ride their dreams.

My long trip's big "aha" moment for me was to take the most asked questions about my solo riding - "Are you alone ... Aren't you scared ... How do I do what you do?"- and blend them into a personal mission statement. Instead of working my 9-to-5 corporate job, I now ride, write and consult with motorcycle dealers to bring more female riders through their doors.

Last year I launched the Women's Empowerment Motorcycle Tour with my friend and colleague, Karen Thomson, of AVID MotoTours. It's a new concept for motorcycle tours. We combine pre-trip coaching, on-tour seminars and post-tour personal mentoring to inspire women to get on their own bikes and explore. We leverage our combined 50-plus years of riding experience into an educational and empowering experience for women who want to take the next step beyond the basics and begin touring on their own.

For Pam Graves, one of our First Women's Empowerment Tour (WEMT) members, her big "aha" moment was learning on tour that "hanging off the bike around a corner really does work and feels great!" After a motorcycle accident prior to the tour, her confidence was shattered even more than her Star Stryker. Touring with us on a 2007 Harley-Davidson Softail Deluxe, she regained confidence and learned strategies for caring for herself and for her motorcycle while on the road. "I learned a great deal from WEMT, including what and how to pack for traveling, how to find alternative routes, how to stay safe, and how valuable it is to connect with the local people for information about the area as well as travel tips. After taking this tour of the Northwest with WEMT, I would definitely return to the area. I am much more confident about touring on my own now," says Pamela.

We've had tremendous support from the industry for the Women's Empowerment Motorcycle Tour. REV'It! Generously donated a jacket to the tour that we offered as a prize for a post-tour mileage contest, which helped us further encourage the ladies to continue riding. Rose Kincart of Warm & Safe sponsored Karen and I with heated jacket liners, and many other companies sent along product information and discounts exclusively for our tour members. 

Owner and dealer principal Ann Thye of Ride West BMW (sister dealership to South Sound BMW) has also been extremely supportive of the WEMT tour. Because our flagship WEMT Pacific Northwest tour is based in Seattle, through GM David Swezey our tour members have a priority-status repair shop as well as a gathering place for women riders in the Pacific Northwest. They've also given us a place to ship motorcycles and gear as necessary, as well as a venue for evening programs encouraging women to ride.

Looking back on all my roads trips, it's easy to see how every mile brought me one step closer to living a life I love. Through my passion for motorcycling and viewing the world from a two-wheeled perspective, I'm able to see how that has translated into other areas of my life. I am more open, more confident, and I am more capable of handling whatever comes my way. I'm excited to see what the next "aha" will be. 

About MotoAdventureGal:  

Alisa Clickenger is MotoAdventureGal. On a motorcycle she's crossed the USA multiple times, ridden up to Alaska, all over Europe, and traveled solo to Argentina in 2009. She rides and writes for a living, and leads a women's motorcycle tour that teaches and empowers women to tour in groups or alone. 

A Message From Our Owners

Big Plans for Ride West BMW 

A recent issue of Seattle Magazine had an article (actually a series of articles) dealing with the issue of traffic gridlock throughout King county.  There was a nice history of the debates and actions that have taken place over the past fifty years or so to bring us to our present woeful state.  We remember the Washington legislature talking about improvements to the 520 bridge back in the 1960's, forecasting that if we did not start planning now (then) there would be trouble in the future.  And this was just a decade after they built the major freeway through town under what would be the Washington State Convention Center.  There were nice write-ups on the progress that is now being started on the tear down of the Alaska Way Viaduct and the boring for the State Route 99 tunnel.  They talked about the upcoming construction of the new 520 bridge and the mess that this will entail in terms of trying to navigate throughout the region.  They talked about Seattle's rail, monorail, lightrail, streetcars and bus lines and how they will all intersect in an effort to move people from one place to another.  They talked about providing sidewalks for pedestrians and, of course, Mayor McGinn's bike initiatives.  And then they talked about the automobile and the problems that all of the single occupant vehicles are creating, the cost of all of this and where the money is supposed (emphasis on supposed) to come from. 

This brings us to the gist of this missive. There is one major omission from this entire presentation of articles:  Not one mention of motorcycles or motor scooters.  You would think that someone in the editorial staff at this magazine would have thought of the obvious, and that is to suggest an alternative that most of the rest of the world has been utilizing for decades.  If you travel to almost any major city in Asia, Central or South America, Africa or Europe, it is pretty hard to miss the fact that certainly one of the most important means of transportation is a motorized two-wheeled vehicle.  And it makes perfect sense.  They can fit several scooters in the same space that a car occupies in a traffic lane; parking is condensed to about one (for a standard sized car) to six or eight; gasoline consumption is minimized; wear and tear on the roadways is considerably reduced due to the much lighter vehicle weight; and so on.  We wonder why these types of articles continually miss one of the most obvious answers to our regions' transportation problems.  Matter of fact, we're going to pass this on to the magazine---perhaps they will either do a segment entirely on this issue or at least include it in future articles.

Ann and Keith Thye

ADV Rider -  Sound Rider -  GlobeRiders -  TourUSA  -  Back to Top