BMW MOA Rally 2025 - Lebanon TN, (including WV & KY stops)

[FirstR8]

The BMW MOA Rally was held in Lebanon, TN this year.
My wife, (Pebbles is her online handle, er, screen name, um, avatar ) and I registered and started our planning.
Pebbles has her own R1250GS and is a great riding partner!
One might say there are certain “benefits” to riding with your sweetheart!

Sounds like a good excuse to take the PASQ ADV1 out for a ride.
(Not that we need a good excuse).

Since it would take a few days to get there, we buffered in a few extra days and added some points of interest along the way.

They have an adage in the hiking/backpacking community that goes “you tend to pack your fears”.
If you are afraid of running short of food or fuel, etc, you tend to overdo it on that item.

Well, looking at the initial packout, we are apparently afraid of EVERYTHING!!!

A short clip of a windy section of Catoctin Mountain in Maryland
The black straps on the panniers are an extra precaution for securing the panniers as well as potential lash points for extra gear.

Leaving Maryland, we headed southwest to the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, WV.
Too many tourists and too crowded to get the PASQ in the picture.
Hopefully, this will be the only time we see the Mothman on this trip.
Nice PASQ hat!!

Due south along the Ohio River, is the required stop of Hillbilly Hotdogs in Lesage, WV.
A quiet, quirky little place, (well, it WAS quiet before Diners, Drive-ins and Dives told everybody where it was).
We arrived around 4:00 and almost didn’t get served because the lines were so long. But it was worth the wait!
I, of course, had the traditional West Virginia dog, (and fried baloney sandwich…but don’t tell my cardiologist that!)

A quick trip over the hill to Hampton in Huntington, WV and we were settled in for the night. We had the pool to ourselves and it felt great to soak for a while.

Lots of heavy rain was forecasted for the next day so we slabbed it down the interstate to Versailles, KY and the Woodford Reserve.
The tours were sold out so we grabbed the obligatory sticker and magnet and continued on to Louisville.

Most of the ride planning was to stay off of the interstates as much as possible. However, when bad weather is threatening, I adjust accordingly. Unfortunately, this was a week of sporadic summer showers. I was concerned about flash floods and ponding water that would be hard to see and judge.

Once in Louisville, Pebbles wanted to visit Churchill Downs.
Probably the only time I will be allowed on Millionaire’s Row.

We also took some time to wander around the Bourbon Trail and may have found a few “rest stops” along the way.
In my youth, I hiked part of the Appalachian Trail, this trail was way better!

We found a Louisville Slugger. (Won’t fit on the PASQ ADV1)

We found a tall, naked golden man named David.
I told Pebbles that if I took my shirt off, it would be like looking in a mirror, right???

We found a drink that was just my size!
(Also, won’t fit on the PASQ ADV1)

We toured Angel’s Envy Distillery with a tasting at the end.
(No motorcycles were ridden that day – Disclaimer for mom, Hi Mom!)

Tuesday was a zero miles day. We spent the day wandering around Louisville.
We took the time to reorg our gear and ship some dirty clothes and tchotchkes home.
(We did not ship any alcohol home - Disclaimer for US Postal Service Inspector - Hi Gary!)

Wednesday, we relocated to southern KY.

Along the way, we attempted to see how many gold bars the PASQ ADV1 could hold.

But they were reluctant to share any.
Almost like they were hiding the fact that they didn't have any?!?!

So we had to get some type of weapon.

How about the world’s largest folding knife?
You need a crane to open/close it, but it does work!

 

[FirstR8]

Since we had the pocket knife, we decided to whittle our names in a tree and got a little creative.

Pebbles, is that supposed to look like me???

If your travels take you near any of these locations, do yourself the favor of stopping to check them out.

We also jumped off of the interstate to swing by Abe Lincoln’s first fixer-upper.

Again, no way to get the PASQ in the picture without incurring the wrath of the National Park Service. (I would NOT do well in federal prison! I’m way too pretty, right Pebbles?!?)



Before reaching our next stop, the GPS decided to shave off 3 minutes by diverting us through someone’s cow pasture. If a car or tractor approached, there was very little room to pass and zero berm to pull over. The trailer tracked just fine.

Sure we could have hung around Louisville until the start of the MOA rally, but then we wouldn’t have gotten the chance to stay in an old time WigWam motor court. One of only three left in the US, (according to our host).

After checking into our (not so) spacious accommodations, we headed up over the hill to the Mammoth Caves National Park. Pebbles is not big on small spaces so we didn’t do too much spelunking. Pebbles waited until we were at the very bottom of the cave before asking how many earthquakes they have in KY? Talk about Jinks!!!! Jeez!

Back at the Teepee/WigWam, we had a really bad lightning storm right over top of us, while we were in this small structure with big metal rods sticking out of the top. So, not much sleep that night.

Thursday, we packed up and headed south to say hello to 5,072 friends and various vendors that helped to lighten our wallets a bit.

This one guy wouldn’t leave us alone even after we had purchased his product. He kept talking about trapezoids, torque and sag, etc.

I got all excited when I saw “mud wrestling” on the schedule. Turns out it was just a bunch of GSAs riding in the dirt.

We stopped to check out the Police bike demo.
Just like looking in a mirror, right Pebbles, RIGHT?!?

Several people asked Pebbles about the trailer. She explained how it was idiot proof and kept pointing at me. Others asked me how I found such an amazing girl that rides her own GS. No, she is not getting her own trailer!

We started the trip at the Hillbilly Hotdog so it was fitting to stop at the Hillbilly Haven on the way home.

TLR – (Summary for us old timers)

Overall, the trip was a success. I would have liked less interstates but weather and safety dictated otherwise. We managed to get short bursts of heavy rain almost every day, except the last two and they were the hottest days, over 100. We took water breaks about every 90 minutes. Between the heat and the buffeting of the interstate, we were beat at the end of the day. The trailer got a lot more interstate miles than planned. But it handled fine at “interstate” speeds and Pebbles confirmed that it tracked true and no wobble could be seen.

Unloading and rolling into a hotel lobby was just as easy as I had planned. No need for the hotel cart. Stack the pannier bags on the Nanuk and Cooler and roll into the lobby.

I need to rethink the retractable straps’ positions. If (when) I tip over, I need to be able to release the strap and that cannot happen if it is underneath. Same for the coupler lock. Need to be able to access it while on its side. May switch to locking the trailer at night and not while riding.

The Igloo Rolling 30 cooler that we bought from REI was a disappointment. It didn’t keep things cold for long. One day, I bought a bag of ice right before getting to the hotel and it was mostly melted by morning, in a cool hotel room. Can’t afford the added weight of a Yeti-like product so I will try a couple of other options and report back. REI has a generous return policy so there’s that.

If we were riding, just to ride, we could have culled a bunch of weight. However, we were riding to go places and do things. Thus, more outfits. And we didn’t feel like doing laundry on vacation. In time, we may get better at lightening the load. (sounds like an excuse to take another trip)

Total Trailer Contents Weight – Approximately 98 lb.
(plus the empty panniers and whatever is in the center console)

Suitcase – 29.4 lbs. (got lighter mid-week as we shipped home the dirty clothes and souvenirs)
Cooler – 40 lbs. (got lighter as the week went on)
Pannier bag 1 – 11 lbs. (got lighter mid-week as we shipped home the dirty clothes and souvenirs)
Pannier bag 2 – 12.6 lbs. (got lighter mid-week as we shipped home the dirty clothes and souvenirs)
CPAP – 5 lbs.
Laptop bag – 8.4 lbs. (carried on the bike, not the trailer)

My bike’s top case and left pannier were mostly empty, except for rain gear and riding gloves, etc. We used that space for stowing our riding gear when we stopped.

Pebble’s panniers were also mostly empty except for rain gear, extra gloves, etc. and again to store riding gear at stops.



I did not weigh the contents at the end of the trip. Too hot and too tired.
I failed to weight the empty panniers so that is not included anywhere.
I did not weigh the contents of the center console of the trailer.
I have jumper cables, a tool kit and a few other things in there.
When I weigh the panniers, I will try to remember the console as well.


Chairs – 24 lbs. (ended up not taking)



We did NOT see the Mothman for the rest of the trip.

I tried to get the trailer in as many pictures where possible (and without getting arrested). If this IT gig doesn’t work out, maybe I can get a job at PASQ as the marketing photographer.

They say that Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire could do, AND she did it backwards AND in high heels. You youngsters will have to Google “Top Hat” and “Swing Time”.

Well, Pebbles did everything that I did, managed to ride her own GS, without the benefit of a Russell Daylong saddle or cruise control. She is truly an amazing riding partner. And yes, there were “benefits”, (wink!, wink!, nudge!, nudge!)

 

[PBKrarup]

Very nice writeup, congrats to you both for an epic trip!

Gotta ask what camera were you using for the video of the trailer?

 

[FirstR8]

I probably should have added the disclaimer,
Video is heavily compressed.
The original files are really clear but they are too big to upload to the forum.

Both bikes have the Innovv K5 Motorcycle Dashcam,
4k front camera and 1080p rear camera.
with 512 Gb memory cards,
with continuious loop recording, set to one minute files.
It is wired into the bike and starts/stops with the bike.

The 4k is approx 200mb in the .TS format.
The 1080p is approx 120mb in the .TS format.
These numbers vary a bit and I'm not sure why but I'm not a videographer.
I just haven't taken the time to look into it. This is all really new.

Once I downloaded them and selected some interesting files,
I converted to MP4 and they ballooned up to 200-300 mb.

I used VLC media player to covert/compress to either iphone or youtube compression.
And removed audio since it was just the engine running.
This got them down to around 5mb, which are small enough to upload to the forum.
(10mb won't load).
(also, posts are limited to 10,000 chars. thus I had to post two halves)

I will continue to explore compression options and see if I can get a better output.

I downloaded the files for 6/13 - 6/17 at 238gb and then 6/18 - 6/22 at 475gb.
Approx 713GB in total for each motorcycle.
In the settings, you can select file size of 1, 2, 5 minutes and downgrade the 4k to 1080p to save on space.
Since this is the first big trip with the camera, I left everything at default.
I will also play with the frame rates so the Clearwater lights don't flash.
Some rainy day or this winter, I will pare down the boring ones. There are a lot of boring highway files.
1.5TB is a lot for a week of riding.

I have the 4k camera in front and there are a lot of wires that comes off the unit.
So I got smart when I installed the camera on Pebble's bike.
I ran the rear camera up front and only needed to fish one wire up there.
Everything else is neatly tucked under the seat.

I may look into raising up my rear camera onto the top case to get a better view over the trailer.
I amy also move the flag.

As of this posting, Innovv is offering the K5, K6 and K7.
I don't know that one is really that much better than the others.
So I'd recommend whichever is on sale.

On an unrelated note,
I also bought the new Innovv air compressor as it will go to 150PSI and is perfect for adding air to the trailer shock.
Currently, they are selling a bundle for the air compressor and a power hub block which is a big help for managing your wiring under the seat.
I will write up a seperate post when I have time.

 

[roddesu]

Well, looking at the initial packout, we are apparently afraid of EVERYTHING!!!

 

[roddesu]

What an amazing write up!! Thank you for sharing all of this. And it was really great to get to "re-meet" you when I was a bit less frantic (as opposed to last year's MOA). I'll be sharing this with some people!!