Finger Lakes Club History

The Inspiration - 1972

The idea of forming a BMW motorcycle club was sparked by our neighbor, Bob Hyland, when I bought my first BMW in November 1972. Bob and his wife, Gene, were seasoned BMW riders and brought back several stories of rallies and wonderful people they had met. They sounded exciting, never having done anything like that ourselves. Driving a car out of state was an event to look forward to and not done very often, but to drive a motorcycle hundreds of miles throughout the United States and Canada was another matter. Me? Do that? It was an exciting idea. So when he said, "Let's see if we can start a club and take others with us," I replied, "Why not?"

The first organizational meeting was held at our home on December 10, 1972 and consisted of five couples. From that modest beginning, the Finger Lakes BMW Club, Inc. became a reality. Right from the start we emphasized a family-type club and wanted to keep it simple in structure and active in riding. The first year found Bob and me as a steering committee to get things rolling and meetings were held at Dick Smock's garage until we outgrew it after two years. We became chartered club No. 25 of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America .

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