2004 ROADRUNNER RALLY HEBER ARIZONA May 21

Check out the 2005 Vendors and Door Prizes.

2005 Roadrunner Rally Pictures:
Gallery 1

25th Silver Anniversary Roadrunner Rally Recap

If you didn’t make this most recent rally, you may wish you had.

The 2005 Roadrunner Rally was unique in several ways. We had 3 BMW Dealers represented this year, all providing Demo Bikes to ride, apparel to wear and all manner of other trinkets to purchase. I should take this moment to say “Thank You” to Victory BMW from Chandler, Iron Horse BMW of Tucson and BMW Motorcycles of Scottsdale for their support of our rally. Look at the “When and Where” in your BMW Owners News and show me another local rally that has even one dealer with demo bikes and accessories, let alone 3. We are truly fortunate to have BMW Dealers in Arizona who know where their business comes from and supports local club activities. Thanks Again, you folks are the best!

Another terrific addition this year was the return of “The Dirty Bird”. Remember the first year of this event put on by RJ Strayer? The year it rained? No poured! The GS riders returned to camp looking as though they had just traversed the Florida Bayou. Well this year it was dry and we had 20 riders participate, all competing for a set of world renowned Jesse Bags. A huge “thanks” goes out to Al and Julie Jessie for their generosity, to Brian Boles for researching the Pines to Durfee course and printing the book for the contestants. Dave and Peg Kidder spent part of their day at the check point and Chris Life rode sweep. We only lost one rider during the event. Not really, he headed to the valley to get a tire replaced after signing up for the event. So he never actually competed in it. He was rewarded later Saturday evening when he won the Enduro Riding suit that was raffled off. Thank you goes out to Victory BMW for providing that suit.

BMW Motorcycles of Scottsdale provided 2 Rev-it Summer Jackets to be auctioned on Saturday night. I got one of them for a fraction of list price. Iron Horse BMW Motorcycles donated a couple of cases of door prizes including several BMW Motorad fleece jackets, sweatshirts & windbreakers. All of our on-site vendors were generous as usual. We were happy to see Helen2Wheels back at our event this year. We had enough door prizes to give approximately one third of our 349 attendees a gift. If you won something, say Thank You to those on the PITS board of directors who spent countless hours on the phone contacting vendors to get those freebies. We had a larger than usual P.I.T.S. attendance - 47 members made it this year.

Camp Shadow Pines served up some pretty good chili on Friday night and excellent steak on Saturday night. Tumbleweed Junction played for us both nights and Azita entertained us with her erotic belly dancing between the bands sets. She was definitely a popular addition this year.

Our Rally Registration system was again flawless, due to the effectiveness of our outgoing club Treasurer, Clint Alston. Clint had many helpers with registration this year, too many for me or my memory to mention. The same was true of our Hospitality Table. We sold out of Rally shirts, as was the plan, and then took some additional orders. I should thank my bride, Doreen for taking charge of Hospitality and for helping me stay sane throughout the entire process. We had a fairly profitable rally this year. Clint will provide us the final numbers when they are in. Clint also sponsored the Poker Run again this year. Unfortunately or fortunately, someone came up with a high hand in the beginning stages.

Many of our club members volunteered at the rally. I hesitate to try to name them all since I always miss someone. But let it suffice to say that we had all the help needed and more. To those who volunteered, I want to say “Thanks”. Mike Fruciano provided us with some “Thank You” gifts for the rally workers. If you didn’t get one, give me a call. Mike also produced the Rider Awards for us at his cost.

Producing a well run rally is a lot of work and requires a lot of people doing many things to make it all happen. The preparation for a rally begins as soon as the last one is over. It’s a year long process and consumes a lot of individual time and group meetings. It all comes down to volunteers. If enough folks don’t volunteer then the event doesn’t happen. In my humble opinion, this 25th Anniversary Rally was our best, and they’ve all been good!

Again, a great big “Thank You” to those who helped and to those who attended.

Michael Conner, President
President@azbeemers.org

Visit the 2003Rally and 2004Rally Recap pages and photo galleries