Mac-Pac
Eating & Wrenching Society
(AKA Southeastern Pa. BMW Riders)

Background

By Joe Dille, Brian Curry, and others.

Well... A long time ago there was a fledgling internet mail list called the Internet BMW Riders. This was back when e-mail and the Internet was a new thing. The directions to how to join the list was published in the BMWMOA Owners News. Using some cryptic commands I was able to join. Before the BMWMOA ON article the list was 500 strong. After the article it jumped to 1000. I was part of this expansion. I enjoyed the varied discussion and comradery, particularly the technical bits. The list was quite helpful when I was restoring my R90s. This list is still going and is known as the big list, or just "The BEEG".

The Jamesway chain of stores was going out of business and they were clearing their shelves. They had Mobil 1 for ~$2.50 per quart. Knowing that the cheapest part on a BMW motorcycle is the rider I posted this information to the list and said that I had cleaned out the Souderton store, but it was a chain and there was more to be had.

I got a private e-mail from one Mike Dulany saying that he lives near the store. We e-mailed back and forth a few times and discovered we lived about 3 miles apart and we are about the same age and both have 2 kids. He suggested that we meet for breakfast. Against my wife's protests about meeting someone from "the Internet", we set up a breakfast at the R&S diner in Sellersville. Mike and I had breakfast along with one of his friends who also came on a bike. We had a good time.

The next time we decided to meet for breakfast we decided to put out an invitation on the BEEG list. A number of people showed up and we had a good time. (I don't remember the date, location, or who attended. If you want a historian you need to hire a better one.) At the breakfast we wrote down the e-mail addresses and started to e-mail each other off the BEEG list. We did this a number of times and each time the group and list of e-mails grew longer. Bruce McKelvy was at one of the early breakfasts and he mentioned that he had a well stocked 5-car garage (actually a 3+2 car garage) and he would host a wrenching session for the group.

We came to Bruce's house and worked on a number of bikes, including fixing the body work on Mike Ormont's K100RT. Bruce likes to eat, so there was always pizza at these gatherings. We had a great time and the list grew. At the time there was a similar group in the Pittsburgh area called the Shack Pack, and in the DC area called the Slack Pack. While various names for our group were developed, since we met at Bruce McKelvy's house Mac-Pac was suggested. The name stuck.

By this time we were at least 20 strong including Brian and Anton. The list of e-mail addresses had grown to a point where it was difficult to copy everyone on each message and difficult to make sure you had the lastest address list. Brian managed to get a free list service. This was great and the list was now a Real List. A number of us met at the first IBMWR president's breakfast in NJ and the list grew a little more.

The ISP providing list service was sold. The new owners eventually figured out they had a service running, they were not being paid for. They killed our free account so we needed to move the list to a new home. I was already hosting and administering a list for our quarter midget racing club. Hosting the list with my ISP was not a problem ($20/year), but I did not want to administer another list. Brian agreed to keep administering the Mac-Pac list if I would set up the account. (Little did I know Brian would become the LN.) was born and boy has it grown!

Technically speaking, I did not join mac-pac, you all joined me. Boy, am I glad to have you. I have enjoyed the playful banter, technical discussions and eating. I especially enjoy the eclectic group of people and interests. I look forward to our next meeting.

Our members are from many other clubs, such as New Sweden, Dutch Country Riders, Blue Flame Beemers, Toxic Landfill Riders, Etc.  We even have an MOA charter (Club #289).

We meet to do maintenance and repairs on our bikes. Most of the group work is done at a member's house or at Earle Bare's metalfab shop in Lionville, where we have a decent amount of work space and tire-changing equipment.

Links to club DATA, photos, and miscellaneous information (mostly useless, but occasionally informative)

The infamous motivational posters.

Mac-Pac Regalia

2007 Rally information (including lodging).

A Mac-Pac greeting.

Jim's, Peter X's, Anton's, and Meredith's excellent adventure to the 2006 RA 2006 rally.

2006 MOA Rally stuff

Travels of the Mac-Pac banner

Main Line BMW go fast and all around good guy Nate Kern has been in the press lately, here are some examples:

• Part I: Chester County Life, a local magazine.
• Part II: Chester County Life, a local magazine.
• A photo of Nate racing.

Group Demographics (April 2005)

Mac-Pac Frapper (a map showing where we live)

A bunch of the group attended an ERC class March 11, 2006. Here are some photos.

The club is active in the MOA annual mileage contest. Here is a link to annual DATA.
2005 results

Scenes from the wall at the Tire Changing room

Some funny stories told by 'Pac members regarding the stupidity of some people ...

Group Riding Techniques from Motorcyclist Magazine, September 2006

Photos from Doug's Alaska slide show at the Duc and Duchess' house

Photos and more photos from the first ever Mac-Pac Rally

John Clauss' grandfather was inducted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2007.

Mark Barr's family loop tour, 2008

Jack Riepe's Kiss my Haggis article from the August 2008 MOA News (pdf)

Jack Riepe's If you can't stand the heat article from the February 2008 MOA News (pdf)

Mac-Pac at Beave Run 26-Sep-08

Jay Leno's garage on how to fit a helmet.

Dealers & Links

Nationwide dealer listings are at BMWNA's dealer website, but the local ones are:

Hermy's Tire and Cycle Route 61, Port Clinton, PA (610) 562-7303	www.hermys.com
DeSimone Motorcycles (formerly BMW Motorcycles of Cherry Hill) Cherry Hill, NJ	www.desimonemotorcycles.com
Main Line BMW 860 Lancaster Avenue, Devon, PA 19333	www.mainlinebmw.com
Touch of Class BMW Phillipsburg, NJ (908) 454-8886	touchofclasscycles@worldnet.att.net
Other links: The Pace - great sport-riding principles by Nick Ienatch. PA County maps - from PennDOT Mac Pac Yahoo group (list mirror site) Not a link, but useful information on Power Coating from Ron Rohner Name: Zig's Powder Coating Location: Quakertown/Perkasie near Lake Nockimixon Phone: 215-453-1332 Service: Can bead blast and powder coat in a variety of colors for motorcycles, cars, almost anything metal. I really like the satin black motorcycle parts he has done for me so far and I would recommend him. Handy wire sizing web site (http://www.gadgetjq.com/wiring_size_guide.htm)

Joining the list

It's easy to communicate with the other list members. List traffic is chatty, with maybe 20 or 25 posts per day.

Method 1 (recommended): Send your request to , the list administrator. The reason this is easier is that the second method described below, will ultimately generate an email to him anyway.

Method 2: Send a message to majordomo@jtan.com with the sole content being

subscribe mac-pac-l \
"Your Name, Town" <your@email.address>

By the way, that's a lower-case L at the end of "mac-pac".  Put your name and town in quotes and your address in angle brackets as shown.  You will get a confirmation message back; reply back to it in this EXACT FORM:

auth XXXXYYYY subscribe mac-pac-l \
"Your Name, Town" <your@email.address>

You'll get a reply confirming that you've been added, along with some other information. To get off the list, send a similar message, but using "unsubscribe mac-pac-l", and don't put your name or address at the end.  The address listed above is the administration address; do not send messages to it!  Messages to the list must be sent to mac-pac-l@jtan.com.  Take note: you must be subscribed to the list to post to it!  If you're not subscribed, you'll never know that your message was not delivered.

Note: your messages must be in plain text, not HTML or any other rich-text format.  Good tips for achieving that are here. And for some tips on using a mail client, look here. List etiquette is pretty much common-sense, but if you really NEED it to be spelled out, look here.

It's not a general-purpose mailing list.  The mac-pac list is just for convenient info exchange among the regional riders.  You'll get more details after you subscribe. If you want general BMW discussion, got to the IBMWR list.  For endurance riding discussion, try LDRiders.  There's a BMW Tech list also.  For info specific to BMW twins, try joining the Airheads , R1100, or GS lists.  And for non-topic-specific fun and banter, try the Village Idiots list. Look at the List Roundup Page for details for these and other mailing lists.

Eating (a very popular pastime)

Third Sunday Breakfast
There's a regular monthly breakfast meeting the third Sunday of every month at the Pottstown Family Diner, just off Rt 100 in Pottstown. This is the new location which has replaced the Woodside which we outgrew.  We gather in the atrium room on the east side of the restaurant, usually from 8 to 10 am.  You could park on the south side (West King Street side) or on the east side overlooking the motel.  You'll be able to see the bikes in either location from where we sit.

If you're going north on Rte 100 from Rte 422, stay in the right hand lane and go slowly through the first traffic light (West King Street) then exit at that little ramp just past the intersection.  From there you're straight into the Diner's lot.  Otherwise roll on up to the next intersection (Shoemaker Road) and come back around.

If you going south on Rte 100 stay to the left as you approach the traffic light (Shoemaker Road) where you can see the Wendy's, Comfort Inn and Red Lobster on the right and Amoco, McDonalds and PepBoys on the left.  Take that left turn and follow Shoemaker road past PepBoys, then down to the Diner on the left.

On MapQuest search on "180 West King St, Pottstown, PA" for the location.  That's not the address but "180" puts the red star where the Diner is (no, I don't know how MapQuest works and this might not work on your computer).

For those with the right toys the coords are N40 14.933 and W075 39.632.
For some pictures (including the sign in front) look at George Wright's page.

Second Tuesday dinner
Normally this monthly event is at 6:30 PM the Brickside Grille in Eagleview Corporate Center but the location is not considered permanent for several reasons.  Even the date is flexible if required by a rally or a holiday. Tune in to the list for the latest news.

Exotic Dinner, or "Sometime Dinner"
ED is an irregularly scheduled event.  Feel free to come up with a good suggestion, and contact Marc Grossman to coordinate it; the only goal is to get people to show up at a place where they can try some out-of-the-ordinary food.  Generally I'd assume this to mean 'foreign' but I think a good example of regional American cuisine would work, also. Past EDs have been at Thai or Chinese restaurants.
And in truth, it doesn't really have to be at an exotic location.  If you're tired of the group always meeting in a spot that's bad for you and your local buddies, propose something different!  Since Marc really is only interested in food that requires liquid Nitrogen as a side dish, take charge of this one yourself.

REMMRuns
Experimental concept by Bob Spena: Riding, Eating, and Meeting Moto Runs would combine a nice ride with a mid-ride meal (Sunday Brunch or early dinner was suggested) to be organized by anyone with a good idea. Contact Bob if you know of a good ride-to-eat destination.

White Elephant Exchange Extravaganza and Blue Toad Dinner
Photos from the 14th White Elephant Exchange Extravaganza and Blue Toad Dinner. Photos from the previous 13 were banned from the internet :-o

The Brass Ring
Some of the more Northern members have breakfast at the Brass Ring on Sunday monrnings.

The Brass Ring is in West Amwell, NJ at the intersection of SR 31 and CR 518. Route 518 is also the Lambertville-Hopewell Turnpike

Tire changing

The Mac Pack has a tire-changing machine at Metal Finishing Systems in Lionville. Details here.

Services by Members

Links to member's companies

Churchill Artisan Baker & Chocolatier

Heilman Karate Academy, Inc.

ArborCare Tree Experts

Hydro Scrub Power Washing & Restoration

Coupons

Dr. Tom Mohn, D.M.D

Arborcare Tree Experts

Member information

The information given here is so riders have a positive way to contact others when needed. The displayed data is "Anti-spammed" so the e-mail addresses are slightly altered.  You'll see what I mean.

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Reading Motorcycle Club

Just in case you're feeling adventurous.. :)

The Reading MotorCycle Club is located at 208 Jefferson St. in Oley, PA. The location appears to be a bit east of Oley itself off of Route 662 and above Route 73. The have a phone of 610-987-6422 and FAX at 610-987-3120.