Hocking Valley Vintage Rally 2003
June 20-22, 2003
Athens, Ohio
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On Friday I put a 1969 BMW R69US into the back of the truck and drove from Louisville KY 275 miles to the rally site 10 miles east of Athens OH. This was the tenth annual rally put on by Larry and Lisa Kamody at the Redbird Ranch campground on Rt 329 near Stewart, OH. Friday evening there was a group ride on a twisty Rt 144 to a restaurant at Coolville to the south. | |
Saturday Morning
| After a night filled with a frog chorus, Saturday dawned clear with fog rising off the lake. |  |
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Dew laid heavily on the tents and grass, the big campfire in front of the club house was still smouldering, and the smell of coffee was in the air. |
| During the wee hours of the morning, we had heard the sounds of thrashing and chomping in the field around us. |  |
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Dawn revealed several large horses grazing, some of which came as close to the campsite as they could get, perhaps curious about all the people in their field. |
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| Coffee was served in the club house... | after which everyone mounted up for a ride through the forest up Rt 329... | to the restaurant on the left in Amesville 12 miles away. |
Tech Session
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| Later that morning there was an impromptu tech session to investigate a knocking sound in an R69S when the clutch lever was pulled the slightest bit. | A flywheel problem was suspected, requiring the removal of the transmission for access, which was accomplished by a novel method. | Sure enough, this bike had an aftermarket shiny lightweight aluminum flywheel screwed to the center of a stock steel flywheel that had been turned down, and four of the six 6mm screws had broken. The flywheel maker should have used 8mm. A good used flywheel was produced from the group and installed. |
 The method used to remove the transmission was elegant. The three methods that I knew were to uncouple the universal joint and then either (1) remove the mufflers, rear fender, wheel and swingarm, or (2) remove the mufflers and motor mounts and shift the engine forward on a jack, or (3) remove the mufflers and battery tray and the rear motor mount and jack the rear of the motor upward. The 4th method shown above at the rally is the easiest and quickest that I have ever seen: * Remove the battery. *Uncouple the universal joint. *Remove the two bolts holding the fender to the frame at the battery. *Remove the rear two bolts holding the fender to the shock mounts, and loosen the front two bolts so the fender can pivot on them. *Remove the bolt holding the bottom of the fender to the frame crossmember. *Remove the axle. *Remove the two bolts holding the bottom of the shocks to the swingarm and final drive. *Remove the swingarm pins. This frees the swingarm which is then attached to nothing. *Pull the swingarm back against the fender, which will rotate slightly on its two remaining bolts. *There is now room to remove the transmision. |
Saturday Afternoon
The highlight of the afternoon was a scenic 50-mile ride through the forests and villages of the Wayne National Forest with a stop at the site of the Millfield Coal Mine disaster. |
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| We pulled into a flat area of soil mixed with coal dust and got off to walk to a brick chimney towering over the woods. | The base of the tower was surrounded by an almost impenetrable thicket of trees and broken masonry. | We were told that this had been the smokestack of the mine's Power Building which had no lack of coal to burn. Massive boilers generated steam and vented their collected smoke through this hole into the chimney. | It is hard to believe that these woods were once this scene during the disaster, with the Power Building and its chimney looming through the fog in the background. |
Saturday Evening
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| A dinner was held at the Red Bird Ranch's dining hall... | followed by voting for the Best BMW, Best European, Most Technological and Best American. | At twilight everyone got two door prizes and the awards were announced. | The R69US was honored to be voted Best BMW. |
