You will also see the following text in the
May edition of the Boxer Shorts, which should be in your mailbox starting on Wednesday, May 14th.
Don't delay, send your funds pronto to Larry Freitas to reserve your spot in the transport.
Fred Kolack
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All the glories of the Rocky Mountain West lie before us this July! Responding to constructive comments from several members who've "been there, done that" and are interested in saving 7 days of time just riding out and back, we have made arrangements this year to transport 14 motorcycles, at a round trip price of $800 per bike. If you are shocked by the price, please bear in mind that prevailing costs for an 18-wheeler to go down the road are now around $4 per mile. This is the least expensive of many alternatives that we pursued.
In the interest of being fair to all of you members, this is intended as a first come, first served reservation system, with your up-front payment to YB Treasurer Larry Freitas to hold your place. His contact phone and address are listed both on the YB website and in each issue of the Boxer Shorts. You have to commit quickly on this, as we HAVE to wrap up this endeavor by June 15th. We must consider this to be a non-refundable payment to cut down on musical chairs and false promises, but will try to be sensitive to individuals' changed circumstances. If the list of interested riders exceeds capacity, we'll start calling it a pre paid wait list, with the optimistic intent of filling up a second truck, which holds 9 bikes. Obviously, if you are on the wait list and your bike "does not get on the bus", your money will be refunded. If you want to ride your bike one way only, find a counterpart person who wants to ride the other way, and spell this out to Larry up front. IN ANY CASE, we have to fill up an entire truck, or the numbers don't work.
All fuel surcharges are included in this price. Insurance coverage for the transportation (but not the temporary storage out west) is provided, to a maximum of $220,000 aggregate. Jim Scott is an experienced motorcycle transporter. He uses 4-point tie downs on each bike. "Bungee'd" or otherwise strapped items are not permitted on the bikes. There is an overhead storage compartment in the gooseneck of the trailer to accommodate the additional gear of those whose bikes are being transported.
It is believed by some that Cranston, RI is the center of the known Universe. As you will see, the center of the Universe is actually more likely to be Denver, for reasons detailed below. To give you an overall perspective on distance; in round numbers, MapQuest shows that from Cranston, RI to Gillette, WY is 2000 miles, or 31 hours. From Cranston to Denver, CO is 1956 miles, or 29.8 hours. Mapquest also shows that Denver to Gillette is 350 miles, or 6 hours; 2/3 of this is due north on I-25 and 1/3 is more due north on State Route 59. I remind you that Interstate speed limits out there are a sensible 75 MPH.
Bikes will have to be dropped off on or before Sunday June 29th in Easton for departure on Tuesday July 1st, to arrive in Denver for unloading Sunday the 6th. This gives 10 days for riding out there before the MOA. Following the MOA, people can start dropping their bikes off starting Sunday morning the 20th for their return flights out Denver, and the bikes would all be loaded on Wednesday the 23rd, depart Denver on Wednesday morning the 24thth for a drop-off back in Easton, MA on or before the 30th, in advance of the Damn Yankees Rally on August 1,2,3. On the Boston end, you will have to pick your bike up within 3 to 4 days following delivery (and conversely, drop it off within the same time frame before being transported).
Plan to submit bike-specific information at the time of your payment to Larry. Additionally, you MUST leave a photocopy of your registration at the time that you drop off your bike, primarily so that Jim can prove that he does not have a trailer full of stolen bikes. You will also be given a tag to fill out and place on your bike's key ring, to expedite identification.
The pickup & drop-off point for the bikes in MA will be at 37 Poquonticut Ave, Easton, MA 02356. This is Jim's home and business location. Denver is a logical drop-off point for the bikes for two reasons... 1) easy arrangements for ground transportation back and forth between the airport and "YB Central" in Denver, detailed in a paragraph below, and 2) this represents the least expensive airfare point out of Logan, about $333 right now, with Jetblue or with USAirways. The price of airfare more than doubles if one flies that extra leg into Gillette, and we would be at a loss for the right kind of motorcycle offloading/storage setup there. Hope this approach makes as much sense to you as it did to us, when we set this up.
It will be each individual's responsibility to book and pay for his or her own flight and also arrange transportation between Denver International Airport (DIA) and the bike storage location. This exact location will be disclosed to those people whose bikes will be transported, which is an extremely reasonable and accessible 20 minute ride (18.3 miles) to/from the airport. Understand that half of this trip time is just getting off the airport property and onto the interstate.
I have also investigated various transportation alternatives between Denver International Airport (DIA) and the interim storage location so as to address this concern up-front for participants. The following surface transportation alternatives are: one-way taxi fare, in the realm of $42 to $47. SuperShuttle offers a discount coupon via an online prepaid service for $25 one-way or $46 round trip, door to door. After having done considerable homework, I found that this to be the least expensive way to go. Their link is http://www.supershuttledenver.com . The local contact is Beryl Atkinson whose phone number is: 720-374-4164 and the toll free national phone number is 800BLUEVAN. One way for you to save money here is if you know in advance that you're gonna fly both ways with other Yankee Beemers, you can get together in advance for $ savings by make shuttle reservations for more than one person in the same trip. The savings here is that the charge for each additional person is only $9 each way. Note that these prices exclude tips.
Since so much of the draw of going to Gillette is to squeeze in some of the fantastic scenic riding in Colorado, Utah, the Tetons and Yellowstone in western Wyoming, and Sturgis, the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore in southwestern South Dakota, it makes sense to have the bikes out there for some additional riding time by participants, before and after the MOA. And of course, there is the 5th Black Hills BMW Stampede in Spearfish, SD on July 13-15, the weekend before Gillette. Unfortunately, the Top O' The Rockies Rally in Paonia, CO, on the July 24-27 weekend following the MOA cannot be accommodated. Consideration of this event would interfere with getting the bikes back east in time for our own Dam Yankees Rally in Heath.
Don Lapierre and especially Phil Foster deserve a lot of kudos for all the time and effort that has been put into all the arrangements for this. Please contact Phil Foster or Fred Kolack if you have questions. I'll conclude by saying that we're going to make this trip (and all that comes in between) a whole lot of fun!
