MotoWolff

I have been hoping to make one of the BMW Motorcycle Owners Association’s National Rally’s for some time now. This year with the rally location conveniently located in Salem Oregon it was all too easy for us to attend! Most of my bikes are at home in Utah, but I keep a bike at our place in Portland as well, a 2009 BMW F800 ST. All we had to do was to be in Portland and jump on the bike and go!

My wife Sara and I just rode down for the day to check things out. The rally went from Thursday thru Sunday but we could only attend on Saturday. Salem is about 60 miles south of Portland but on the back-roads it took about an hour and a half to ride down.

On the way we stopped at a coffee shop in the little town of Silverton for a snack. While we were there we met a couple from Texas who had been at the rally and were now headed north. We enjoyed an interesting conversation with them before we each departed. I really do enjoy the interesting people you meet when you are out on the road!

We arrived on Saturday which was really the last day of the rally. I think there were quite a few people who had already come and gone but we were here now and it was all new to us. The vendors booths were interesting but I was hoping to see more stuff. I heard that the number of vendors was down from previous rally’s. There were quite a few seminars scheduled during the rally but we wouldn’t be attending any this year.

I particularly enjoyed the vintage bike display where there were many fine bikes to view. Apparently some owners brought their precious ones for the rest of us to enjoy. The bikes seemed to fall into 2 distinct categories. First were the show queens which were beautiful but probably never ridden, they were too perfect. Second were the original condition riders, which seemed well cared for but have been ridden all their lives. This second group was the most interesting to me and included what was probably a mid-1920’s era BMW. It was a nice collection of bikes.

After a few hours of looking at motos, shopping and eating we decided that it was time to go. We had a nice ride back home to look forward to and it was time to go. Perhaps if I had ridden a thousand miles I would stay longer, but this was just a day trip for us.