first time we’ve heard remarks like yours regarding the lack of articles geared toward our K 1600 riding members. As you know, the stories you read each month in BMW Owners News are written by MOA members and you’ve asked some interesting ques- tions that I hope will spur K 1600 riders to take action and contribute. Regarding a reason to stay, in addition to
BMW Owners News and the Owners Anon- ymous book, additional reasons to main- tain your membership each year are the MOA forum, the annual BMW MOA Interna- tional Rally, our ever growing list of Week- end Getaways and Chartered Club rallies, the member marketplace, mileage con- tests, the MOA Gear Store, MOA Hotline, Platinum Roadside Assistance and Tire Pro- tection and the discounts MOA members receive on things used everyday, including BMW Advantec Oil, KOA camping and much, much more.
–Editor
A theory of lean I have just read the letter from Tyszka and the answer from McNeil regarding "lean- ing out," or the transfer of a rider’s center of gravity away from the bike’s center of gravity. Shifting the rider off the side of the bike
results in the bike leaning to the opposite direction. The combined rider and bike center of gravity still acts through the tire’s contact patch. This contact patch is no longer in the center of the tire's tread. The physics can be used as observed by Tyszka and explained by McNeil to increase ground clearance when racing. If the road is where you are riding, you will not likely have any need of this riding style as you will not be rubbing the hard parts of your bike on the pavement, but there is yet another effect of leaning the bike by shifting rider weight. Most riders have likely noticed that tires always wear out first at the center of the tread and at very low mileage. You can shift your weight off to the side and cause the bike to lean over, resulting in wearing the tire away from the center of the tread. If you lean to the outside while corner-
ing, the bike will be banked deeper. If metal starts to scrape, reduce the amount of rider "lean out" and the noise will go away. If you "hang off" while traveling
straight, the bike will be leaned and tire wear will not be on the center of the tread. By using this theory and avoiding riding a bike on the center tread you should be able to stretch your tire life, but it will still wear out on center first. Lean in or lean out, and as long as the metal is not touching the ground, you are only changing where your tire's tread is wearing.
Mark Howson #37273 Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario
Write more Mr. Barnett Just when we have given up on people being able to write proper English and express themselves, along comes Bob Barnett in his letter to the editor, “Why we ride” in the March 2016 issue of BMW Own- ers News. Now certainly most of the authors of
columns, articles, and letters to the editor in the Owners News write well and even with great humor—Jack Riepe being at the top of that list. However, trying to explain WHY we ride and doing it success- fully with apparent great ease and elo- quence, Mr. Barnett has indeed set the bar quite high. We respectively ask Mr. Barnett to sub- mit either short or longer articles to future issues of Owners News. Suzanne and Stephen Weston #21714 and #21713
Parker, Colorado
Great product and service Several years ago I purchased a World Sport seat from Sargent Cycle Products for my R 1200 GS. The seat has been very comfortable and has held up well, and I’ve done three Iron Butt rides on the Sargent saddle. However, for some unknown reason,
the retaining pin on the passenger seat recently broke off, so I sent it to Sargent to be repaired, fully expecting to pay the costs since the warranty must have expired long ago. But Sargent repaired the seat and even replaced a rubber cover for the underseat storage compartment at no cost with no questions asked. It’s great to see a company willing to
stand by its products and support its cus- tomers in such an exemplary manner.
That’s a rare thing nowadays, and compa- nies like Sargent deserve our loyalty and support.
Raymond Seto #123105 Santa Paula, California
Remembering Patty A flood of memories came to me after reading Ron Davis’ “Little bike, big lessons” in the March issue of Owners News. My motorcycle career began aboard a
small Indian mini-bike (wish I still had it) and graduated to a Bridgestone 175 (wish I NEVER had bought it) and then onto a new 1973 Yamaha RD350 “giant killer.” My best memory came when Ron
recalled his girlfriend wrapping “her arms tightly around me and putting her chin on my shoulder as we tooled along.” I had a flood of memories of a pretty girl name Patty with long blonde hair who rode with me with her chin on my shoul- der so I could hear her talk. I had not thought of Patty in decades, and it was fun to recall a small piece of my teenage years. Thanks, Ron!
Mike Cloke #192163 Clarkston, Washington
Abbreviations? It was distracting to not know these unfa- miliar acronyms in the Motosafe article in the December issue of Owners News: first sentence, “...each BRC I teach...?” What is BRC? What is an HOV lane? From the pictures, I noticed they were
in California, but we don't have any in Wis- consin. I don't have much time to scan these articles and even less time to google abbreviations and try to guess at mean- ings. Can someone please clarify what the author of the article is talking about? Peter Feneht #148459 Madison, Wisconsin
Sorry for the abbreviation confusion Peter. BRC is an acronym for the Motorcyle Safety Foundation's Basic RiderCourse. The acro- nym HOV refers to High Occupancy Vehicle lane, or car-pool lane, where vehicles must typically be carrying two people or more occupants to ride there. Motorcycles are exempt from that rule.
–Editor May 2016 BMW OWNERS NEWS 17
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