Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Lake Fayette - BMW Rally

Last weekend was the 50th annual Houston BMW Club Rally at Oak Thicket Park on Lake Fayette near La Grange. One of the original founders of the club and of MOA was there. Ron Goodall and friends started the Houston BMW club, then a few years later started the BMW MOA. He has attended all 50 local rallies and every national rally. 

Giving instructions to the servers


The new Motorcycle Rally Look


Approximately 72+ persons in attendance. Weather was prefect.
Only grabbed a few photos, none of bikes though.

Caught the sun setting just as they served the food.
Sunset Friday night on Lake Fayette.



Later that night walked out on a fishing pier to capture this image of the power plant across the lake.  


Actually the lake is a cooling pond for the coal powered generating plant. There are coal mines in central Texas so I assumed that was why the plant was located here, near the mines. No, the low sulfur coal needed is railroaded in from Minnesota. A turbine mechanic informed me that the Texas coal is high in sulfur, not desirable.

Since the lake is warmed year round, the fish stay active and grow large. Which attracts many bass fishermen to come here to try their luck.

Even though they have screened rooms and cabins to rent, rode the Warthog rig to the rally to sleep in. 
Slept peacefully for several nights. 

On the open road and rolling along, Ole Wart does great, but does not like creeping through towns at low speeds. Need to get a better fuel map downloaded to smooth out the low speed throttle. Was disappointed in the gas mileage too, 17.7 mpg! Maybe a new map will help the fuel economy. If not, then figure a way to carry more fuel for Alaska.

CCjon



7 comments:

  1. Yikes, 17.7 MPG is indeed a bit low....but then again, much better than the MPG I'm getting from the URRV!

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    1. Well the Warthog is a three wheel RV... with gas mileage to match. Several weeks ago I got 22 mpg, not sure what happened to reduce it by 5 mpg. One comment was I need to run at high rpm's where the torque is. That would cut the fuel demand. Will try it on the next ride.

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  2. Nice that they didn’t cancel the rally! When I first saw the title, I was thinking east coast ...

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    1. Thanks Richard, one can't cancel the 50th annual of anything... motorcycling really is a solo activity even with a group.

      Saw you and Bridget made it back to Arizona in time to have dinner with Redlegs. Spending the winter there?

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    2. Come near Houston and we'll go out for Mexican food with margaritas. Email me.

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  3. Running a lower gear on secondary roads will get you better mileage, amigo. It's counterintuitive, I know. A race motor doesn't want to do tractor duty; it's volumetrically inefficient & hard on all moving parts. A good engine builder could set you up with a custom cam grind that would get the power band down where you want it, but for now, run higher revs.

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