Northern Colorado IMRG Informer Newsletter (Jan 2023)
WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR
Welcome to the New Year. Starting with this Informer, we’re going to try and expand upon it going forward to bring you more items of interest in addition to the information on upcoming rides and events. If you ever have anything you want us to include in the Informer, shoot it in an email to us at [email protected].
What did you resolve to do in 2023? Work less? Make more healthy choices? Hopefully one of your resolutions is to get in plenty of riding throughout 2023. Northern Colorado IMRG can certainly help you with more riding!
UPCOMING MEETINGS & EVENTS
At the next Chapter meeting on January 21st, we will have a ride planning workshop. Be sure to join us with your ideas on rides and activities you would like us to plan for in 2023. For this meeting, we would like you to jot down your ideas on the “2023 Ride/Activity Planning” page at the end of this newsletter ahead of time. Then bring this page with you to the meeting. We will go through these suggestions to gain more insight on your chapter activity ideas, collect more details, and to determine the group’s overall interests. During this workshop, we will gather and discuss all the suggestions, but won’t necessarily be committing to the ride or inking it on the calendar.
In February, we plan to conduct a separate working session with the Road Officers to determine a final schedule for 2023. This will be a combined annual Road Officer Training and final scheduling session for current and prospective Road Officers. Remember, while we can throw out all sorts of ride ideas, we can only do them as a group if we have pledges from the Road Officers to lead and sweep, and otherwise coordinate the ride. Having this separate Road Officer session after the Chapter meeting where we gather your ride ideas will allow Road Officers to have more time to put some thought into the suggestions and actual schedule.
LOOKING BACK
We finished our 2022 year out with Wreaths Across America at the Grandview Cemetery followed by our Holiday Social at the dealership. It is a very humbling experience to be able to pay tribute to veterans who are no longer with us by laying wreaths upon their grave sites to honor them. Participating in laying wreaths for Wreaths Across America is an annual tradition for the NoCo IMRG. Consider joining us at next December’s ceremony, or contributing to a wreath.
Learn more about Wreaths Across America.
In December, the NoCo IMRG celebrated our Christmas get together at the Fort Collins Dealer-ship. Thank you to everyone who made it out to the Holiday Social. We certainly enjoyed ourselves.
Thanks a bunch to Susan for her beautiful quilt donation, which we placed in a silent auction. Rambo was the lucky winner of the auction.
We enjoyed a great meal catered by Qdoba, and had lots of giveaways handed out through ticket drawings.
Because many had prior commitments or were unable to get their bikes out of their driveway and neighborhood roads to dry streets due to the snow, the Changing-of-the-Year ride was canceled. Also due to residual snowy and icy roads, and poor weather forecast for New Year’s Day, the New Year’s Day ride itself was canceled.
However, we still got together for lunch at Nordy’s BBQ in Loveland. We had a good turn-out, and it was a great start to 2023. While we always have good intentions at the beginning of the year to do the Changing of the Year ride, it rarely works out. Perhaps going forward, we just focus on a New Year’s Day Get Together to start the year just like we did at Nordy’s?
NEW YEAR… NEW BOARD
We begin the New Year with a new NoCo IMRG Board. Most of the members are not new to the Board per se, but some have new roles. As a reminder, the 2023 Board members are:
- President – Randall Holman
- Vice President – Scott Christensen
- Secretary – Jim Banks
- Treasurer – Ted Wolfe
- Road Director – Mark Whaley
- Membership Director – Karen Holman
- Photographer – Nate Wright
And of course, Jeff Sroufe is also our DAD (Dealer Advisor Director).
Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us, and you can always send email to [email protected]. We may not be perfect, but we are all passionate about riding, and contributing to the Chapter any way we can to make sure you gain something from being a member.
You can see and learn more about our Board Members on our chapter website.
A SPECIAL THANK YOU…
Many thanks to Dawn (former President), and Paul (former Secretary) for all of their contributions since the inauguration of the NoCo IMRG in 2018.
Both Dawn and Paul have served in multiple roles helping lead our chapter and we appreciate all of their time with the Chapter Board and helping to shape the Chapter into what it is today.
While Dawn and Paul are no longer on the Board, they are still active members and are still commit-ted to helping the Chapter.
DON’T FORGET!
Don’t forget to renew your Northern Colorado IMRG Chapter Membership for 2023!
Northern Colorado IMRG Chapter memberships expired December 31, 2022, and it’s once again time to renew your membership for the 2023 calendar year. We know it’s very hectic this time of year, but won’t you please consider renewing your membership today, if you have-n’t done so already? The dues remain at $25.00. You can pay your dues by filling out the membership form (download from nocoimrg.org/membership-form) and mailing it with your check to the dealership, or drop it in the Northern Colorado IMRG drop box at the dealer-ship. You don’t want your membership to expire, so please fill out the form, write that check, keep up to date, and support your local IMRG Chapter. If your dues aren’t received by the end of January, we will have to remove you from our communications channels (email, Slack).
Here are a few benefits of having a NoCo IMRG membership:
- We are a great group of people who like to laugh, have fun, and enjoy camaraderie (and of course ride)
- We have lots of different types of group rides throughout the year – short & long rides, breakfast & dinner rides, day & overnight rides, flat land & mountainous rides.
- Our rides & events are scheduled well in advance and placed on an official calendar so you will always know what’s coming up.
- Our group rides focus on safety with proper riding formation, and are guided and planned by our Road Officers.
- We get an exclusive membership discount at our sponsoring dealership on motorcycle apparel and accessories.
- You have the opportunity to attend motorcycle skills training sessions conducted by our very own certified motorcycle instructor at no additional cost – you will become a better and safer rider.
- There is no pressure, and the level of participation in our Chapter is entirely up to you.
2022 was an incredible year for us! We rode 2,961 miles as a Chapter with a total of 22 riding days. We had several Road Survival Skills trainings, two major overnight trips: one to the Durango Rendezvous, and the other to Steamboat Springs/Craig, many day rides – both short and long, flatlander rides, and mountain rides. We also had monthly Chapter meetings where we discussed Chapter business, but mostly came together to be with friends and our NoCo IMRG family.
Let’s come together and make 2023 another awesome year!
OFFICIAL ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS IS OUT OF THE WAY
We have completed and submitted our renewal form to National IMRG to continue to be a Chapter for 2023. Also form 990 has been filed with the IRS. The 990 is an annual informational tax form used by non-profit organizations (e.g. Northern Colorado IMRG), and provides the IRS an overview of the organization’s financial information to ensure it still qualifies for tax exemption.
NOCO IMRG IS ON YOUTUBE
A lot of Northern Colorado IMRG content is posted on our YouTube channel consisting of chapter highlights, videos from our rides, videos from our motorcycle skills training sessions, and other miscellaneous videos. There is currently 107 videos posted with a total viewing time of a little over 9 hours.
One video posted in April of 2022 has become very popular and stands out from all our other videos. This video features Paul showing how to jump start an Indian motorcycle. The video has a total play time of just over 3.5 minutes. It has been viewed 1.4K times with a total watch time of 51 hours!
Watch the video here!
To see all the Northern Colorado IMRG videos on YouTube, navigate to nocoimrg.org/videos.
SAFETY RECALL
In November 2022, Indian Motorcycle issued a safety recall for some 2021-2022 Indian Scouts and some 2022 Chiefs after determining they may experience a failure at the fuel pump during operation.
- An out-of-spec fuel pump from a parts supplier will be replaced free of charge.
- Fuel pump may fail during the normal course of motorcycle operation, potentially causing an engine stall
- Only motorcycles built with two specific fuel pump part numbers are believed to be affected
See the recall details on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website.
Additionally, you can always use Polaris’ new search tool to quickly learn if a specific on-road vehicle is part of a safety recall by entering your Vehicle Identification Number (VIN).