Picture Of The Month! Arizona On Hwy 273 (Click Image for a Larger View)

Every month customers send us killer photos and I see no reason to keep them to myself so what better way to say thanks for sharing than to post them in our Picture of the Month spot..

Our November / December POTM was contributed by my good friend, Charles Wickliffe . He says of the shot.." The photo was taken on Arizona Hwy. 273, between Show Low and Alpine, Saturday 9/15, early afternoon, partly cloudy, temperature around 70F, elevation 9100', taken with Samsung Galaxy 8 phone. The ride was over rolling hills through forests and meadows... I love this place! "

If you would like to contribute your own"worthy" shot for our newsletter, here's what I'll need. First.. just email me 1 or 2 of your best digital shots. It'll need to be at least 1024x768 in size or larger and preferably A. Of a late model BMW and B. In focus. C. No GS's for Gods sake.

2018 I-BMW Deals Gap Rally: Weather Be Damned.. (Promoted by www.I-BMW.com )

This years annual I-BMW Deals Gap Rally (our 19th) was held in Maggie Valley, NC.. an all new location quite a ways from Deals Gap proper, yet most didn't let that technicality or the fact that yet another hurricane was aimed right at the event spoil the fun. Every weather station in the country predicted that the fast approaching category 4 Hurricane Florence would strike down upon us with great vengeance and furious anger anyone who would attempt to ride or gather in the state. Did our group of aging misfits let that spoil the fun? F%@k no.

While most normal people were boarding up their windows and cleaning out the shelves of their local supermarket in preparation for the predicted "end of days" storm..... I-BMW members proved we don't bow to no stinkin' hurricane.. Of course, a few cancelled at the last minute, but I'd guess there were at least 20 who made the pilgrimage in spite of the ominous predictions. As it turned out... the storm stalled when it hit the coast which gave attendees the few days needed to complete the mission. We had near perfect weather.. How's that for good karma?

I've posted all the 2018 rally pics I could pilfer from I-BMW in the Pirates Lair Photo Gallery. Look for the album cleverly titled.... DGR19-2018. Hope to see most of you there next year for our 20th anniversary event.

Me, My Dad, and Johnny: A Tale of Two Heroes

The father of my youth was a tough, emotionally lean man. In the 17 years that I lived with my parents, I never saw him dance with my mother.. hug her.. kiss her, or even hold her hand. Not once. My sister and I fared a little better. I was told that he wasn't like that before he went off to fight in WW2. He came back changed. The army took a few years of his life and gave him back a chest full of medals and a scarred psyche from seeing things that shouldn't be seen and doing things that I can not imagine. For reasons only known to himself and his God, instead of displaying his medals for all to see, he kept them in a shoe box high in the closet as if they held little importance in the post-war chapter of his life. He didn't need to talk about them. He expected no accolades. He had just done what needed to be done. I guess that's what real heroes do.

It's been 31 years since he passed and I still miss him every single day.. In fact, for some reason I find myself missing him more the older I get. Sadly I only have a handful of pictures of us together. Perhaps as I approach the age that he died (63).. I have a clearer understanding of the man, what he must have went through in the war, and the pressures of supporting a family of four. Just last week I found myself in tears at the thought that I'll never see him again in this life or hear his voice. I wonder if he'd be proud of me. The fact that this ever-present melancholy is probably common to anyone who has lost a father offers little respite.

He was raised old school.. Taught that the man worked.. the wife raised the kids. Period. That's how his father was raised and his father before him. That being said.. while I know my father loved me, I have few memories of father/son activities. I do remember him taking me fishing a few times.. Having a catch now and then.. Him teaching me how to make home-made ice-cream in one of those hand crank machines that was required of every household in the 60s. And of course, the few times he took me for rides on his motorcycle changed me forever. I now wish I had thanked him for the effort he put into fatherhood... and the memories. My guess is.. a simple "thank you" would have meant a lot to him. Just another regret I have to live with. We all have to live with.

There is one memory with my father that stands out above the rest that I'd like to share. I treasure this one........... Read more...

What Men Really Want for Christmas: Pirates Lair Gift Cards, Tees, and BJs!

Through the years we've gotten more requests for gift cards than anything else except perhaps naked pictures of Amber. Who are we to deny the masses? This holiday season we are again offering Pirates Lair Gift Cards in a number of denominations to fit your congressionally pummeled budget. From $25 to $300! Our standard sized plastic gift card is sleek, stylish, and professionally made. Whip it out (the card, that is) and you will garner respect and admiration from not only your peers, but also the less fortunate around you.

Like buying underwear or choosing a hooker, buying motorcycle accessories is a very personal thing. Simply guessing what your favorite rider actually needs/wants/desires for his ride is a hit or miss proposition. Rather than putting yourself in the embarrassing situation of getting the wrong thing or worse.. something that he or she hates and has to return... you can't go wrong with one of our waaaay cool Pirates Lair Plundering tees or Pirates Lair Gift Cards. Ladies.. these are perfect for the holidays, birthdays, weddings, promotions, or just a way of saying.. "Sorry honey..but I didn't realize that the old guitar I sold at last month's yard sale for $40 was a 1965 Fender Stratocaster personally autographed by Jimi Hendrix." Remember.. nothing says.. "I love you" or "I'm sorry" to a man like shiny plastic or I suppose.. an unexpected BJ.. One that doesn't involve begging, cash, or undercover police officers.

Included with every Pirates Lair Gift Card is a single-fold, greeting card style gift card holder with a folded/glued pocket inside for easy gift card insertion and removal. And that's not all! We also include a small matching envelope. Folded size: 4 3/4" x 3 3/8" Actual cost of each card is $5 to cover cost of card, holder, envelope package, and insured shipping inside the US. For instance.. a $25 gift card will cost $30 to your door. Saavy? Foreign orders are welcome. Happy Holidays!

Year End Reflections - Deep Thoughts and Follow-Ups 2018

As we all know.. opinions can and do change after we've spent some time with something. Sometimes for the better.. sometimes for the worse. Wife # 3 comes to mind, but I digress. Thought I'd wrap up the year's last cheesy newsletter with some follow-up thoughts on a recent review..

Michelin Power RS: A New Generation in Tires July / August 2017 In our July 2017 newsletter I wrote glowingly of my initial impressions of the then new Michelin Power RS tires stating.. "With the risk of resorting to hyperbole.. this tire, IMHO is an industry game changer."

Now after a year of diligent testing under both legal and quasi-legal conditions, my opinion has changed somewhat. I've discovered a chink in the Pilot RS' armour. I've noticed multiple times that on certain type of pavment.. usually on a road with a high crown, my bike isn't tracking perfectly as if the air in the front or rear tires are low. It's always when I'm going in a straight line. When I stop and check tire pressure, it's perfect. Changing air-pressures doesn't seem to make any difference. Changing pavement does which makes me conclude that it's not a bad tire. It's a by-product of Michelin's Adaptive Casing Technology (see explanation in my original review.) A rare anomaly that the French testers missed or ignored as insignificant.

While the grip at full lean is exemplary.. faultless.. the absolute best I've ever seen without tire-warmers... the occasional straight line bad-tracking issue bothers the shit out of me. I'll also admit that I'm borderline OCD so there's that. I can't seem to find an air-pressure that makes the problem go away completely. The Pilot Power 3s did NOT have this problem.. Those tires were "almost" as good in the curves as the Power RS and always tracked perfectly in a straight line.

Rather than simply whining about it in this most holy of newsletters or to friends or on the various chat sites, I contacted a Michelin representative. As I expected, he mostly blew me off suggesting my tire pressures were off. I informed him that I've been riding for almost 50 years with over half a million street miles under my belt on almost every brand motorcycle made, shod with almost every brand tire ever manufactured including multiple sets of Michelins. "This ain't my first rodeo, mofo.." I mentioned I'd spent the last 6 months experimenting with various tire pressures and the rare tracking problem is still there on certain road surfaces. Never once did he suggest that maybe I had a bad tire, which leads me to believe they have heard of the problem before. I'm not the first.

That being said.. I've experienced the phenomenon 4 times over the last year. It lasts only minutes and then goes away as the road surface changes so yes.. it's rare. The other 99% of the time the tires are exemplary.. Would I buy another set of the new Power RS? As of this writing.. Probably.. My guess is... the French tire makers know there's an issue and A. They'll never admit it and B. they'll correct it at some point. I wonder if they learned that from BMW?

The Pirates Lair Database.. Lost In Space - "Oh, the pain, the pain."

Anyone who knows me can tell you I'm NOT a technology guy. I don't own, nor do I want a smart phone. My 10 year old flip-phone with 2" screen works just fine. I use it to talk and occasionally listen. That fulfills my needs. I still have a TV that's as thick as it is wide. The operating system on my 12 year old computer is Vista Home. I could go on.. Last week my reluctance to move into the 21st century caught up with me.

I've been using the same email program since I started this business 20 years ago.. Eudora 7 Pro. To this day I've never seen another email program with the same features or as easy to use. The company that produced it (Qualcomm) stopped offering it in 2006 so I've been without customer support for over a decade which is fine. It was problem-free until October 2, 2018 at 9:07 am.. That's when my beloved Eudora had a meltdown that made Chernobyl look like a garden party.

Somehow, someway that morning I woke up to a corrupted program. Not only did 90% of the emails I'd saved over the span of 20 years (over 400,000 of them) vanish into infinity and beyond, but 50% of my vast customer, vendor, and personal database went along for the celestial ride. Our on-call (and painfully expensive) IT guy came in and salvaged an old database I had saved a few years ago with maybe 60% of my address book and managed to drop those into a "modern" email program (Thunderbird), but the majority of my precious emails can never be retrieved. Lost in space like the Jupiter 2. Oh, the pain, the pain.

Honestly, I'm not whining. I had been warning years ago that I needed to upgrade. I knew the "reckoning" was coming.. I'm only bringing this up because many of our newsletter subscribers will NOT be getting future newsletter notifications because their names are no longer in our database. If you notice you're not getting our bi-monthly notices or would just like to make sure you haven't been deleted.. .. please email me and I'll check and/or add your name to our "new" database.

New Product Section: BMW K1600B (Bagger) & K1600 Grand America

Looks like the Germans hit the proverbial ball out of the park with the K1600 Bagger. Who'd a thunk it?! I sure didn't. We've been getting more requests for swag for that bike than all others combined. Up until a few weeks ago I didn't have much for it, but that oversight has been corrected. These last few weeks I've been working on an all new product line for the "bagger" and the Grand America and it's now gone live to the world.. While the menu is "lean" at the moment, I'll be adding products exponentially over the upcoming year. If you own a K1600B and have suggestions as to what should be offered on our site.. please let me know. This type of bike is out of my area of expertise and I can use some sage advice as to what a bagger owner might need/want/desire.

On our new K1600B Bagger web page (which also covers the Grand America)..includes many crossover products from our other BMW menus, but also the following juicy bits specifically for these bikes.. Wunderlich Engine Protection Bars and Bag Protection Bars, HeliBars, RKA Tankbags, Wunderlich Luggage Rack and Wunderlich Backrest, Remus Bagger Quad Stainless Steel Black Exhaust System, Synto Evo Levers, ZTechnik VStream Windshields, etc etc..

7. I think most motorcyclists will find this interesting... .Harley-Davidson Needs a New Generation of Riders

8. BMW has made a self-riding motorcycle.. a BMW R 1200GS. Why? I have no fucking idea...The motorcycle doesn’t need a rider as it can start, shift gears, lean on the curve and stop itself without any help. BMW hasn’t revealed more details of how this work or the technology behind it...

9. BAD NEWS to end the year : I just got confirmation from Remus USA that their K1200RS & K1200LT full exhaust systems have been discontinued and all have been sold. They were the last company producing them for both these bikes. Bummer.

10. More Bad News I was just informed that as of 10/15/18 Remus USA has also discontinued their K1200S & K1200R kits. I did NOT see this coming. As of today we now only carry Two Brothers and Akrapovic for those bikes.

Guess that kinda wraps this one up. This will be the last communiqué for 2018. What an interesting year it's been, but aren't they all? I know we don't tell you enough, but Amber and I really appreciate everyone's continued support, advice, encouragement, and occasional naked pics through the years. Best wishes to you all for a safe and prosperous 2019...

In spite of what the far left would like us to say, we sincerely hope that you and yours (no matter what bike you ride and/or religion) have a a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Remember if you're gonna drink... leave the bike at home... For our secularist customers... Happy Winter Season.

For the US troops serving all over the world thank you for everything you are doing for us and our country. Godspeed, soldier.

Take care.. ride safe...stay warm.. and watch out for flying reindeer... See you in the New Year.. in my mirrors.