Death Valley Days Archives

[StuGotz]

I’m disappointed we haven’t much to show for +/- 20? years of events…I was simply looking to determine and refresh my memory as to when the first DVD event was. Perhaps drum up some support for a 20th anniversary. This event, including Torrey, deserves special recognition as it was one of the first annuals some of us attended. But we’d need the date for that. So folks, and I’m talking to those early member attendees, what have you got? Share info and pics. Maybe we can get the admins to come up with what they have, and place it neatly in a file for archival treatment. 
 

Thanks in advance.

 

MB

[chrisolson]

34 minutes ago, StuGotz said:

I’m disappointed we haven’t much to show for +/- 20? years of events…I was simply looking to determine and refresh my memory as to when the first DVD event was. Perhaps drum up some support for a 20th anniversary. This event, including Torrey, deserves special recognition as it was one of the first annuals some of us attended. But we’d need the date for that. So folks, and I’m talking to those early member attendees, what have you got? Share info and pics. Maybe we can get the admins to come up with what they have, and place it neatly in a file for archival treatment. 
 

Thanks in advance.

 

MB

 

 

You could try clicking on "Previous Years" Link under any of the event forums in the catgegory BMWSportTouring Annual  Events

 

 

[StuGotz]

Chris, thanks, I’m aware of that feature. My point is, there’s nothing from way back there. And I DO remember photos posted and ridetales/ check in threads from the early days. Did some archives get dumped ?

[mrduck]

Not sure when this was started, but used to be on MLK weekend in Febuary with the pre run in November, and DV can be a cold place in winter. The run to Pahrump where the fountain's froze solid and bikes wouldn’t start ( oil turned to thick goo) was when we decided to hold the DV run on Veterns day weekend in November. This year 2022 on weekend of November 11 hopefully back in Beatty, but we may have to work around road closed (Daylight Pass, between DV and Beatty)………..stay tuned……
 

Don J

[StuGotz]

Chris Olson feel free to move this thread to a more appropriate category if you wish.

 

Thanks

[chrisolson]

15 minutes ago, StuGotz said:

Did some archives get dumped ?

Nothing regarding events got left behind ... we made a concerted effort to consolidate what we could find but historical Torrey content was one of the last efforts ... and looks like it got short changed

 

BUT

 

There is also something else going on ...

 

Our new vendor in their infinite wisdom has a "policy" that content past a certain age must be archived ... meaning it sorta disappears  from the internal search ... its still there but its being ignored.  Obviously this is a problem for sites like ours who have been around a while and value its event history as well as mechanical posts from earlier bikes.

 

I've made a "stealth" change in the background to add 15 years to  the  current archive time ...  and we'll see if that passes any vendor checks ... if it does I"ll extend it.   The unarchive process runs in the background and may take days.  If there are still issues, there are some alternative steps that can be taken to bring old content forward out of forced archive ... BUT ... it will not be a simple or quick solution ... but I think doable.

 

For now, I've found  and am in the process of more immediately restoring Torrey XII  from Fall of 2006 ... I should be able to list it in the previous years for Torrey later today

 

Another wrinkle ... as know, before the change,  photos were not hosted locally and some (many) of the 3rd party hosting have disappeared so there will be posts with gaps where there used to be photos ... and those are NOT retrievable unless the original poster kept duplicates and will upload them to BMWST now.

 

Until I can completely resolve the archive issue , you can use the google trick of searching for :

 

site:bmwsporttouring.com torrey

 

 

or substitute the appropriate search word such as DVD.   Our content is still there, just for now, a little bit harder to find really old stuff.

 

 

********
If using the google trick, you find a complete or partial Event thread you'd like listed, please post the link to it here and I'll attempt to restore it and put it in the appropriate forum.

********

 

 

 

 

[StuGotz]

Nice job Chris. As always. Yes, the photos that are unavailable due to 3rd party is quite frustrating. As you read narrative in the ride tales, you find that individuals aren’t always named. They appear as “that group from San Diego”, or such…hence , it’s impossible to know who attended without a firsthand account, which isn’t always as accurate as we’d like…..which leads to my original inquiry. 
 

Again, thanks. The journey for history will continue. BTW, with Bill Walkers help, it appears Jan 2002 in Furnace Creek was the first DVD group ride. 
 

Which would make this year the 20th (year) anniversary.

 

MB

[BrianT]

Originally the Furnace Creek January DVD was not ours, we just all went to it.  It was hosted by a BMW group I think were called the Village Idiots and had a hundred or so riders every year between camping and hoteling at Furnace Creek.  The powers that be at Death Valley NP decided the organized BMW event needed some kind of event insurance and basically put an end to the event.  Which is when members of this site started doing our own DVD event in Jan at locations other than Furnace Creek to avoid the required group insurance for an event, not to mention much friendlier hotel rates.  For the life of me though, I can't remember when that was or who headed up the first BMWRT.com event.  

[BrianT]

Digging through what's left of the archives in Ride Tales That Last, I think I found the first pre run in Dec of 2004 making MLK weekend 2005 our first actual BMWRT.com event there.  See Jamie Edmunds OG post here.  Death Valley - Beatty / MLK Pre-Run

 

The reason I seem to think this was the first one we hosted is because the Exchange Club hotel still had the old original wooden bar and casino on the first floor of the building on the corner which we used as our meet up / hang out spot for riders.  After the first year, the owner of the big casino down the street bought the exchange club for the sole purpose of shutting down the casino there to force people to his modern casino down the road.  In Jamies pre run there's a pic of the old original wooden bar. 

 

In that post Jamie also refers to feeling bad about elbowing in on the IBMWR.org / Villiage Idiots and trying to make our event a little different so it sounds like this might have been the start of it for our official own event.  

[chrisolson]

 

 

 

 

[chrisolson]

 

 

 

[StuGotz]

On 9/6/2022 at 8:29 PM, BrianT said:

Digging through what's left of the archives in Ride Tales That Last, I think I found the first pre run in Dec of 2004 making MLK weekend 2005 our first actual BMWRT.com event there.  See Jamie Edmunds OG post here.  Death Valley - Beatty / MLK Pre-Run

 

The reason I seem to think this was the first one we hosted is because the Exchange Club hotel still had the old original wooden bar and casino on the first floor of the building on the corner which we used as our meet up / hang out spot for riders.  After the first year, the owner of the big casino down the street bought the exchange club for the sole purpose of shutting down the casino there to force people to his modern casino down the road.  In Jamies pre run there's a pic of the old original wooden bar. 

 

In that post Jamie also refers to feeling bad about elbowing in on the IBMWR.org / Villiage Idiots and trying to make our event a little different so it sounds like this might have been the start of it for our official own event.  

Nice work Brian. So then, we’ll make 2025 the 20th year of DVD? This one’s on you…😜 

 

One thing is for sure. There are so many folks gone. Reading the stuff Chris posted just proves, nothing or no one lasts forever. 
It’s been a hell of a ride. And a hell of an event. Thanks to all. 

MB

[BrianT]

1 hour ago, StuGotz said:

Nice work Brian. So then, we’ll make 2025 the 20th year of DVD? This one’s on you…😜 

 

One thing is for sure. There are so many folks gone. Reading the stuff Chris posted just proves, nothing or no one lasts forever. 
It’s been a hell of a ride. And a hell of an event. Thanks to all. 

MB

For sure MLK 2002 and MLK 2003 were not our events.  Not sure about MLK 2004.  It was definitely at Furnace Creek, but I don't know for sure if it was us or IBMWR.org Village Idiots sponsoring it.  That might have been one of the years I missed where either Gleno looped his GSXR trying to wheelie it at 100 mph + captured by Arizona Al cam for us to all see or when Philly Flash totaled an RT at 5 mph by dropping it cylinder head first onto a rock.  Both of those events I missed.

[chrisolson]

@StuGotz , @BrianT

 

I had reset the auto archive to only archive posts more than 25 years ago .... the un-archive process should be complete or so I'd think .... I do see posts in Ride Tales That Last from 2001 so possibly the unarchive has worked. 

 

Search results still prove tricky however and I have no answer for that other than double check with the "Google Method" listed above to find something you're pretty sure should exist. 

 

Its possible some content did go missing when we transitioned software ... there were some inconsistencies in the old data format that had accrued over time that the migration software caught and attempted to correct.  However I do know for sure that no member content in the primary forums was deliberately discarded during the move from the old UBB software.