BMW Riders of Knoxville

Twenty-seven years of fun and friendship

Our club spans a history of 27 years. We were founded on April 18, 1982. It all happened when Greg Bell, a local school teacher and BMW R80/7 rider at the time, spotted Rich Gardner riding his Jawa California, and followed him home. When Rich pulled into his garage, Greg spotted an R60/2 and an R50/5 BMW. Seeing that Rich and his brother Alden Gardner were BMW riders, he fired off the names of several many other local riders of the marque, asking if Rich and Alden knew them. One after another, all the answers were "no."

            It was decided that a local owners club would be a great idea for camaraderie and the exchange of ideas about travel and maintenance of these fine machines. The club had already staged its second monthly ride before a name was chosen. Motorcycle camping, riding on our matchless regional roads, and rallying were the primary functions of the club.

            Politics also dominated the early club, most notably the issue of the mid-1980s tariff against foreign manufactured bikes over 700cc. We feel that our letters to Congress had an effect to lessen the tariff on BMW motorcycles, and we received a letter from BMWNA, thanking us for our efforts. Another such example of our letter writing anger was the Danforth "Killer Sportbike" ban proposal not long afterward.

            We finally achieved MOA Charter status as Club #156 on December 26, 1985. It was tough trying to get enough members at the time to join the BMW MOA in order to qualify, but we did it. Our club rallied with people from all over. Some of the folks that hung out with us were Deb Lower, Dave Cwi and David Braun.

            This was a pre-Internet era. Our dues started out at $5 and later went to $7.50, almost all of which was absorbed by the expense of publishing the newsletter. We were vigilant about casting out those who were late with dues. Rich had to fund a lot of things from his own pocket.

            The first version of the club eventually became a loose organization of folks that mainly camped a lot at Two Wheels Only in Suches, Georgia, and hit the regional rallies of the day. It came down to having no meetings and Rich was the glue holding things together with his well written newsletters. Come 1992, Rich said "enough," and was ready to dissolve the club.

            He ran an ad in the Knoxville paper, looking for anyone interested in re-forming the club. Bob Winter (another local schoolteacher) answered the call, among several others, and was instrumental in getting things going again, serving as club president for the next three years.

            We founded our first rally, now known as the ROK On Classic, in 1996. We have only missed one year since then, thanks to disagreements with an uncompromising campground manager in Erwin, Tennessee, the site of two of our rallies. We just couldn't stand him for a third edition! We skipped a year, and then moved the rally to Newport, Tennessee for a few years. At this time the rally is on hiatus, due to the mental exhaustion factor of only eight club members trying to entertain a hundred guests. You see, it is still difficult to get good help, even here in the Volunteer State. We have an average of about sixty members year to year, but we have a fantastic core group of folks that will do about anything, and most of them live in the Morristown, Tennessee area.

            Some of the other things we do besides monthly meetings are club rides, of which we could stand to do more, with all our fabulous roads. It's not just all about Deal's Gap for us!

            For all the years that the Honda Hoot was here in Knoxville, we staffed the map booth for HRCA, distributing maps to all the thousands of visitors and helping them "get lost." It pleased us to know that Honda asked the local BMW club to show their attendees all the good roads in our area. We were tickled! Sadly, the Hoot has gone the way of the dodo, thanks to today's economic climate.

            We also do volunteer work for the Ride for Kids organization. Our resident Iron Butt member, Geoffrey Greene, keeps us involved with this effort. It is mainly about staffing the parking lots and registration tables, but we do what we can.

            Past charity efforts have also been with ChildHelp, an organization to assist children from abusive home situations. The ChildHelp Tennessee Foster family Agency headquarters is located in nearby Seymour, Tennessee.

            This year, our own Dave Erny, the brains behind our ROK On Classic, has been asked to chair the Hospitality Booth at this year's National Rally: "Mountain Magic, Southern Style." Dave and as many volunteers as we can muster will be at Johnson City, Tennessee, to help you get fed, "get lost" and discover all the great things that northeast Tennessee has to offer.

            We are also hosting our own pre-rally event on the week of the National on these dates: July 12 through 15, at Two Wheels Only Creeks in Del Rio, Tennessee. Located just off US 25/70 near the North Carolina line, the grounds are owned by Jerry and Cindy Dobrianski, both long time ROK members and past presidents. Our rally is listed on the MOA and RA web bulletin boards, and the Adventure Riders web site. Our own Web site can be found at http://www.bmwrok.org

                Come visit us!

Phillip Daulton lives in Seymour, Tennessee, and works in the aviation maintenance trade in Maryville, Tennessee. He has been riding for 28 years, 19 of those on his R100RS. Phil served for five terms as ROK President, and edits the club newsletter.

Share the history, fellowship and spirit of your Chartered Club by e-mailing Mandy Langston at . Her number is 636-779-0135. It's a great way to get the word out about your rallies, meetings and other activities.