Skills & Survival – BMW Motorcycle Owners of America

Navigating the load-out for a long trip (part 1)

Wes Fleming — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:32:54 +0000

When it comes to filling your panniers, top case, tank bag and dry bag for an extended motorcycle trip, we often struggle to decide what comes with us and what stays home. From “I use this every day” to “but I might need it,” we have to balance limited space and gross weight limits with our needs, wants and comforts. There’s no one correct set of stuff to take and no one right way to pack…

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CORNERING CONFIDENCE online course for MOA members: A review

Mark Barnes — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 15:28:35 +0000

In preparation for my podcast interview with Jon DelVecchio, I took the online version of his Cornering Confidence course, which closely follows the structure and content of his well-known book of the same name (reviewed by Ron Davis in the October 2018 BMW Owners News). MOA members will also recognize Jon from his articles published in ON and his riding skill clinics at rallies and other events.

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1st prize: SURVIVAL!

BMW MOA — Tue, 14 May 2019 19:48:40 +0000

When I took my first real motorcycle ride, it was on much of the Long Island Expressway. That was a big deal for me, as it was a rather long riding experience. There was a feeling of having conquered something – and equally important, having survived it. That notion of enduring something and living to tell the tale probably rates low with most riders; they go somewhere, come back and repeat the…

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Another perspective: Riding in the left mini-lane

BMW MOA — Thu, 02 May 2019 22:15:10 +0000

Having recently purchased Jim Ford’s book The Art of Riding Smooth, his article “Squeezing Satisfaction and Fun Out of Straight Roads” (Owners News, March 2019) caught my attention. While many of Jim’s recommendations are shared between the two publications, I have a different view on the four advantages he mentions in both. A vanishing point is the point at which receding parallel lines…

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Riding alone

BMW MOA — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 19:02:09 +0000

At the beginning, I had to ride alone. In my mid-40s and under the spell of a quixotic impulse, I bought a new red 1991 BMW K 75S. But I was unprepared to ride. I couldn’t test ride the Beemer or ride it home, because I didn’t have a motorcycle license. Besides, I hadn’t put my leg over any motorcycle for a quarter of a century, back when I had swapped a Yamaha Trail 80 for a used VW bug.

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Taking the SMARTrainer to the Quebec club’s rally

BMW MOA — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 15:13:04 +0000

Over the U.S. Independence Day holiday in 2015, I had the pleasure of attending the BMW club of Quebec’s annual rally. My plans for this ride to Quebec started months earlier when Tom Pemberton asked if I would be willing to attend the rally as a SMARTrainer coach. I was a bit apprehensive about going into French-speaking Quebec. I had heard second- and third-hand stories of how rude and unhelpful…

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