Formula 1 Race Sunday 9/27

F1 Pre-Race is on at 1:30pm. Late lunch at The Edge to watch it? Everyone is welcome.

Anamosa Hill Climb - September 13, 2009

You know the Anamosa hill doesn't seem that intimidating from the road. It’s a whole different look when you are standing at the bottom watching somebody try to make it to the top.

With the good weather there were record crowds and the riders put on show that disappointed almost no one. The only dissent we saw was one fan who commented "Get the f****** Honda off the hill so we can see the Harleys".

For more pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42006287@N03/sets/72157622363338572/

The Pace

I've been riding motorcycles for almost 40 years now. I've probably learned more in the last 7-8 years than I did the first 30+. Still it doesn't prevent having close calls (I've had 2 in the last week). It doesn't prevent the incidents like happened to the IC group last week. We still need to continue to learn every time we ride so that we can minimize the close calls.

This was floating around the group last week and got a good response so we wanted to make sure it got out to everyone.

http://www.ama-cycle.org/roadride/groupRideSignals.asp

Wednesday 9/16 Bike Night Cancelled

Bike Night for 9/16 will be cancelled. Anyone wanting to attend the visitation for David Ryan can meet in the Cedar Rapids Edgewood Road Super Target parking lot tomorrow. The plan is to leave the parking lot at 3:30 to arrive in Gladbrook around 5:00. It sounds like we will have people riding and driving so feel welcome to join the group.

Sad News

When we created the blog a few weeks ago it was to allow our group to share rides and good times on the bikes and with our fellow riders. We never gave a thought that we would have a need to use it to convey anything else.

I think that we are all in shock as we heard the news that one of our bike night regulars David Ryan lost his life in a motorcycling accident this last weekend in Wisconsin.

At times like this I often come back to a poem called “Parable of Immortality” by Henry Van Dyke.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, "There she goes!"

Gone where? Gone from my sight ... that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There she goes!” there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

While the original is about a ship I think it applies to our thoughts as we have lost someone we have known.

In the back of our minds we all know that the riding we love to do is very dangerous but we do it because of the feeling it gives us and probably more importantly because of the wonderful people we meet. David was definitely great company at our events and rides. All of our prayers go out to David’s wife and his two children at this difficult time.

As anyone gets information on funeral arrangements or memorials please click on the comments button below and leave a comment or contact me and I will update the post. Everyone please be safe.

Update: The funeral arrangements are posted below in the comments

Saturday Morning Ride

Saturday morning Alan, Terry, Sean and I met in North Liberty at Caseys for a quick ride. Our destination was for a few twisties on the Blairstown Road. We took the Green Castle Airport road over to hiway 6 then headed through Amana to get to the Blairstown Road. After that we headed to Watkins to check out their car show. They probably had about a 100 cars there with everything from classics, muscle cars, rat rods, to some real junk. After taking in the show we all headed home to take care of family duties. It was a beautiful morning and a quick fun ride.

AMA Rule Changes

This week AMA announced two rule changes for next year:

ALL classes will have a standing start for next year. They came to their senses and got rid of the Daytona Superbike "NASCAR rolling start"

Moto GT will be back next year with 3 classes. No annoouncment yet as to what the three classes will be, but I will speculate (hope) that they will go back to the original classes and add a class for the 600 four cylinders.

Davenport Swap Meet and Antique Motorcycle Races

September 4th was a beautiful day for riding. Tom, Fred, and I started out riding to DeWitt to go to TC’s for Lunch and to meet up with some old workmates. Tom tried the Tenderloin and said it was definitely worth a look for our expert tenderloin rating team.

After lunch we rode to Davenport to take in the swap meet. It was by far the largest and had the biggest crowd I’ve seen since we started going 8 years ago. You see everything imaginable at the swap meet from the really cherry classics to the absurd home made. I think the same can be said for the people, but the bottom line is that everybody there is into motorcycles. I think this year we saw more Triumphs than in years past with even one where they had reversed the head to have the exhaust out the back and the carbs out the front.

We met Rod and Mike later in the afternoon at the swap meet. They opted to stay and look at the bikes and feast on chicken on a stick. Tom, Fred, and I went to the Circle Tap for ribs. If you are looking for gourmet dining this is not the spot but if you want good ribs served on a plastic serving platter than this is the place for you.

We all met back at the track for a great evening of antique motorcycle flat track racing on the half mile dirt track. These guys really get after it on some pretty classic motorcycles. One of the highlights is watching the board track racers running with no clutch and no brakes. After the race we discussed it and these races are about as good as it gets and it’s right in our backyard.

For more pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42006287@N03/sets/72157622255236300/

Randy

Peoria TT August 23 2009

August 23rd the tourers took a trip to Peoria to watch the 61st annual Peoria TT. This is billed as “oldest continuously running dirt track race in the world”. Riding this year were Randy, Fred, Joel, Rod, Mike, and Dave.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather as the highs were in the high 70’s with a few clouds to keep it mild. The racing was pretty good back in the pack, but Henry Wiles walked away for his 5th straight win.




On the way home we stopped in Davenport at the Machine Shed where Rod and Mike had to rate the tenderloins. All in all another good trip.

More photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42006287@N03/3885385143/in/set-72157622234000900/

Bike Night

It was good to see everyone at bike night this Wednesday. The discussion this week about the future location for bike night ended with the decision to stay at the Vine through the end of October. With the cool weather and the days getting shorter we will have to see how long we have people willing to ride in.

There was an idea batted around about getting together at different places this winter to evaluate places to go next year. There was even a suggestion to develop a rating system for the bar/restaurant that is the “ideal biker hangout”.

In the mean time we can use this blog to communicate the schedule.