[14] Bmw Moa Rally In This Week Discuss

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BMW MOA International Rally riders and vendors gather at MetraPark on July 23.

Photo by LARRY MAYER

BMW MOA International Rally riders pass a row of portable toilets in a MetraPark parking lot as owners and and vendors gather at MetraPark on Thursday, July 23, 2015

LARRY MAYER/Gazette Staff

Pinstripe artist Russ Mowry works on a military insignia for retired Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance Carlos Snead as BMW MOA International Rally riders and vendors gather at MetraPark on Thursday.

LARRY MAYER/Gazette Staff

Pinstripe artist Russ Mowry, right, checks the artwork location he will do for Carlos Snead's bike as BMW MOA International Rally riders and vendors gather at MetraPark on Thursday.

LARRY MAYER/Gazette Staff Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save Jordon Niedermeier

The motorcycle riders pulling into town for the BMW Owners of America International Rally do not fit the biker stereotype.

Russ Mowry, a New Hampshire resident and owner of Greybeard Handpainted Pinstriping, said he is still surprised at the occupations of people he meets at a BMW MOA rally.

“You never ever know who you’re talking to. It’s fascinating,” Mowry said.

He said people think riders are all mechanics, but he’s met underwater salvage divers and astronauts at the BMW rally.

Mowry, who flew Army helicopters in Vietnam, has a story of his own.

At one point, the pinstriper flew corporate choppers. His career ended abruptly when the NBC news helicopter he was flying crashed into a residential neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. Nobody was killed in the crash, but it changed his career path.

“I’m 71. I’ve been doing this since 60,” Mowry said. “I was a corporate pilot, a military pilot and this was always my fallback plan.”

Mowry attends motorcycle rallies around the country and pinstripes motorcycles from a tent pitched next to his Ford cargo van. He’s attended the BMW MOA rally every year since 1999. Before that, there wasn't much of a market.

“Back in the '90s, there was only two colors of BMW, black and white, and maybe red. (Owners) really weren’t into pinstriping and stuff,” Mowry said.