John Broad and I held the fort at Bahnstormers, Maidenhead to meet all the visitors who came to view and ride the new water cooled GS.  These people either already had BMW motorcycles or are potential new owners and we invited them to join the Club.  The day started slowly, but quickened after lunch, when Noel Robertson and Rosanna Di Felice from Southern Section, and our own John Wheeler arrived to back us up.

The emergency card and green helmet stickers that we gave away proved to be a useful method of getting people into conversation.  With most visitors being interested in finding out more about the latest offerings from BMW, there were a few strange comments.  One chap just criticised the GS for everything from the design of the front wheel to the problems of cleaning it; why did he bother?  Most were more positive though. We had two people, one with an associate member, joined and paid, and we look forward to seeing them on runs or social events soon.  Five or six more took the application forms away to consider.  It was interesting to find that several of the people who spoke to us had been members in the past, but had allowed their membership to lapse.  Inviting them to join one of the runs advertised in the magazine may rekindle their enthusiasm and hopefully will encourage them to consider becoming a member again.

Several people lived in London, but thought it was too difficult to go riding from there, as they could only go outwards from London, whereas we can go in any direction from Oxfordshire.

Our Chairman arrived in the afternoon bearing gifts; the vests with the club logos on them actually.  The picture below shows Steve being fitted for new ear plugs having found out that he could get a discount for being a member of the BMW Club.  While showing us his current earplugs, a young lady asked “can I squeeze your ear plugs”? A chat up line that I had never heard before.

I learned a couple of useful things during the day: the new GS is fly-by-wire and the GPS is controllable from the knurled programming dial on the handlebars, so it is similar to the K1600GT.

I will look forward to a more powerful RT version, which I believe is due out next year.