MMSC Annual Group Ride

Once a year the Motorcycle RiderCoaches in Minnesota get together and go for a group ride. We met early on a Saturday morning in the fog in the southwest corner of the metro area. The moist morning air was cold. We were all squirming around before the start trying to stay warm.

Ural National Rally Day 2011

Ural National Rally Day 2011 – September 10, 2011. I was rider #121 out of just over 300. The rules were pretty simple – get out and ride your Ural around and collect points. Points were given for each kilometer ridden in addition to the bonus points!

Announcement: Big Trip of 2011!

This post is to announce my “Big Trip” of 2011. I have been delaying this post for some time even though I have been thinking about the ride since January. The reason for the delay has been due to the silliness at work which nearly made me cancel the entire trip due to financial reasons. This past weekend, I decided to just do it anyways. I will figure out the funding later. I would regret it if I didn’t.

My “Big Trip” for 2011 is to ride to the BMW MOA Rally in Bloomsburg, PA, visit the missing New England states, and then circle the Great Lakes back through Canada. Unfortunately, my wife can’t get the time off work this year, so I will be solo. I will be riding my 2001 BMW R1150GS as the SV needs a bit of TLC (chain, sprockets, and speedo cable). To save on funds, I will be camping as much as possible. If you have some suggestions, I would love to hear about it. Please use the “Contact” link above or leave a note in the comments!

As last year, I will be using google latitude, so you can follow my progress (see "current location” on the right side). I also hope to make regular posts and tweets as I’m travelling (depending on internet availability).

I plan to ride 4,000 miles, over three weeks, visiting fifteen states and two provinces. I hope to leave Minnesota on July 17 or 18th and then head east; I should be back in Minnesota by August 6th or 7th. This is the rough plan:

MN – WI – MI – OH – PA – MD – DE – NJ – NY – CT – RI – MA – NH – ME – NH – VT – QC – ON - MN

If you have suggestions on fun places to visit or ride, I would love to hear about it!

We had a lot of fun meeting up with people on our trip in 2010, so I would like to do that again. If you are interested in a meet-up during my trip, please use the “Contact” link above!

 

YouTube Video: 2011 Big Trip Announcement

SKUNK Rally 2011 - Sidecars!

This weekend was the 8th annual SKUNK Rally. SKUNK = Side Kars Up North Klub. It’s an exclusive club. To become a member you must live Up North. North is defined as any place North of a South place.

The event was Friday night through Sunday. I had originally planned on going and camping out on Friday night, but changing the tires and some other maintenance on the Ural took a bit more time than I planned. Instead, I left on Saturday morning and made the ride to Cameron, WI – about 100 miles one way. The rally was held on the grounds of the Pioneer Village Museum -- a neat place. As you can see from the photos, the weather was perfect. It was sunny and about 80F.

They had quite a lot of exhibits, and I ran out of time trying to look at them all.

You can even learn how to use a loom.

Old stoves:

Old washing machines:

Old gadgets. I like the old telephone switchboard in front of the red chair.

Woodworking tools from the last 150 years.

I arrived just after lunch and was the 21st sidecar there. There were five Urals there, and as I arrived the 2011 Gear-Up left. In total, 22 sidecars attended and about 70ish people.

My 2009 Ural Patrol dressed for summer:

A neat Triumph rig.

A Burgman 650 sidecar rig (more pics of this one in the full album):

The errant two-wheeler even showed up.

a Harley rig:

Kevin’s transportation for the rally:

Note the yellow dust in all the photos? It’s tree pollen from the pines.

Amazing how much pollen these trees were putting out in the few hours the sidecars were sitting there.

I like this sign: “Ural – 50 Years of Impeding Traffic”

Lilacs were also in full bloom and smelled great.

Cool custom sidecar frame on this Moto Guzzi.

The second lever is for the sidecar brake. Nice!

I love his backrest too.

Kevin from Scrambler Cycle (Orange) giving advice to Jeremy (left). This is Jeremy’s first sidecar -- a mid eighties sportster rig he built two days ago. Congrats!

Dinner! Lasagna, bread, salad, and ice cream for desert.

This guy “won” the gnome for riding the furthest to the rally – 416 miles. I was surprised he beat the Canadians on mileage.

Jeremy “won” the goofy hat for being the most inexperienced sidecarist at the rally – two days! The honor was almost mine as I only have about two years.

This was my door prize. A patch from the now defunct 3rd Wheel club.

The organizer (and cook) at the museum was presented with this hat. Yea, it’s a raccoon and not a skunk. She REALLY liked it.

I had a fun time shooting the breeze with the other drivers (you drive a sidecar). Talking about riding, trips, and sidecars all afternoon was a fun time!

Full flickr album of all 71 photos including every sidecar there: 2011 SKUNK Rally.

YouTube Video:

2011 Donnie Smith Custom Bike Show

Last weekend, we went to the 2011 Donnie Smith Custom Bike Show in downtown St. Paul. My wife loves looking at lots of different kinds of motorbikes, so I took her to the show.

She really enjoyed looking at all the different motorcycles. This one was her favorite: “Dream Evil” a 1971 Harley Davidson

This was my favorite Harley there: 2007 XR1200 Grand National Replica (It has a Buell XB1200 engine, does that count?)

This 1922 HD was my second. Notice the copy of Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly catching the leaky oil underneath. It’s very absorbent!

A couple old sidecars:

Some of the motorcycles had interesting mods:

and interesting accessories:

Some great paint:

and funky designs. Don’t get your pant caught in that belt!

This KZ650 was rebuilt by some local high school students in 100 hours. Including the custom paint. Nice!

I liked this motorcycle’s focus on the color scheme that carried to unique parts – like the wheel hub and caliper.

even the spark plug wires were yellow.

This one looks like it could be very painful should something go wrong…

Jack Riepe, this one is for you. I mentioned your name, and she gave the big smile below.

Lots of motorcycles, people, and vendors. This being my first “custom” bike show. I was surprised how many people had an adult beverage in hand. I’d guess at least 50% vs the less than 10% at the IMS show. I know it’s a different crowd, but an interesting observation.

Full Flickr set with 131 photos.

I gave my wife my GoProHD and told her to get some footage of her favorites. She hadn’t seen Gary’s video, but I was able to edit something similar together. This is my version of Gary France’s custom bike show vid.

YouTube Video:

2011 Minneapolis Motorcycle Show

International Motorcycle Shows setup in the convention center in Minneapolis, MN February 4-6. My wife and I attended on Saturday along with hundreds of others. Thanks to Lloyd and BikeBandit.com we only paid $1.50 for two tickets. Thanks for the free ticket Lloyd!
We arrived in time to catch the tail end of the first stunt show from “Team No Limit” with Jason Britton and Eric Hoenshell. By chance, we ended up at the front of the line for autographs, so we both got two posters signed! My wife was excited. I think she has one hanging up at work now. I plan to add mine to the motorcycle poster wall in the workshop.

We both love stunt shows, and it was impressive to watch Jason and Eric make their Kawasaki’s dance around the floor. Jason even managed to bunny-hop his entire bike six inches into the air. Wow! We’ve seen them both on TV, and it was a treat to see it in real life. I hope to finish the video I captured in a few days.

The show was busy in the afternoon, but it was noticeably smaller compared to 2009 or 2010. There weren’t as many bikes or major manufactures – only Honda, Suzuki, Victory, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Indian, and Harley Davidson showed up.

A number of local dealers did a decent job of filling in the gaps with other makes including Ducati, BMW, Moto Guzzi, Aprillia, and Ural. I was surprised so many locals showed up as I heard the dealer spots were running $50,000 a weekend!?

There was a small custom bike contest running too with a number of interesting bikes. Most of them looked good standing still, but would have been very uncomfortable to ride.

This one reminded me of Gary France’s red bike –“Tradewinds”. I like Gary’s bike more.

A very custom R6:
 
This one just had an LCD screen as the only gauge and speakers on the sides:

Neat to be able to adjust the suspension on the ride, but ouch. I named this one “nut grinder”

Local guy’s sportbike setup for the ice.

Check out the spikes on the rear tire!

Cool Harley XR1200 racer:

Great looking bike: 1934 GT-17 Moto Guzzi 500cc 
This was the first show I’ve intended where I wasn’t looking for a bike or really any gear. We didn’t expect much because of the poor economy. We went to see what was there and to enjoy the shows.
One of the new bikes at the show was the Honda CBR250R. Keith asked me to look at it for him, so I did. Here are two photos of guys around 6 foot tall sitting on the bike.
 
It isn’t as aggressive as other sportbikes ergonomics-wise, but I didn’t think it was as comfortable as the Ninja 250. However, the handlebars/controls can easily be lowered or raised to preference. According to cycle-ergo.com, the forward lean and the knee bend are the same.
For a $4500 MSRP bike with fuel injection and ABS, we thought it was a pretty good buy. I’d expect to get it for $4000. None available to test ride right now, so no comments on its performance. On paper, it looks quite good. I’d like to give it a ride!
This Ninja looked cool hanging in a case:
 
The Minnesota Motorcycle Safety Center had a new gadget on display. Their moto trainer:

It’s setup much like a driving wheel and pedals for a car video game, but instead it has motorcycle controls – bar, levers, brakes, and shifter. I enjoyed watching different people try it. I think it will make an interesting teaching tool to provide coaching as things are happening. It could also allow students to experience different situations in a safe environment. Unfortunately, it didn’t lean into the turns. Maybe the next model!

Since there weren’t a lot of bikes, we spent much of our time at the talks and shows going on during the event.

The above talk is explaining how suspension works and how to adjust it properly. Good stuff to remember.

We also listened to talks about building a café racer, dirt bike skills for the street, buying a used bike, and how to get kids racing dirt bikes.
One of the highlights for us was the MotoFlix movie theater. They played motorcycle movies throughout the day. We enjoyed part of “Roof of Africa” a film about an extreme Enduro Race and “Globeriders: Indo-China”.
There was also interviews with Peter Starr director of “Taking It To the Limit” (on the right).

After the show, we stayed for a special screening of “Taking It To the Limit”. All profits were donated to fight prostate cancer. We both enjoyed the film, and I can see why it has won so many awards. It really reminded me of “On Any Sunday” The movie was about different motorcycle events and races in the 70s/early 80s. It had interviews and voice-overs from the racers of the time and had a variety of footage including superbikes, dirt track, grass track, hill climbs, desert racing, and sidecar racing.
One of my favorite scenes was the sidecarcross. Crazy stuff! We were both amazed at how little gear people wore during some of the events like the hill climb. A number of competitors were only wearing t-shirts, jeans, and a helmet; all of them came falling down the hill. ouch!
All in all, we both had a great day at the show, and we were glad we went. There could have been more bikes and manufacturers, but we found other things to enjoy.
Full Flickr Album here.