2017 Black Hills trip

In June Mike, Jodi, Jane and I rode to the Black Hills for 10 days of riding and sight seeing.  The trip out was dodging rainstorms on day 1 and fighting very strong cross winds on day 2.  We based out of Lead SD  for a couple of nights (Stayed at the Town Hall Inn) and several nights in Rapid City We toured the Sturgis motorcycle museum, saw the Badlands, Deadwood, Devils Tower, the Crazy Horse Monument, and Mt Rushmore.  We found a lot of good roads like Spearfish Canyon and the Needles Highway.  Also found a lot of good places to eat and a few microbreweries.  On the way home we took back roads almost all the way which was great other than having to sit out a thunderstorm outside of Sioux City.

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Road America - MotoAmerica 2017

Jane and I rode to Road America at Elkhart Lake the first weekend in June for the MotoAmerica Superbike races.  Natalie drove and was our support vehicle.

We stayed at the Othoff  and had to make our ttraditional trip to Schwartz Supper Club for steak. 

The races were good and there were several tributes to Nicky Hayden.  As usual in Wisconsin in July we had a few rain showers, but nothing that prevented the races from happening.  The crowds at the races were not too bad, but Elkhart Lake was dead.  I went to Siebkins on Saturday night and there were 6-7 people there. 

That said it was a great weekend and Jane really enjoyed the races.

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Chicago Bike Show 2/10

Jane and I ran into Chicago Friday to go to the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show. It was a good show, maybe a little smaller than last year.  This year we didn't make any major purchases which is unusual.  Last year I picked up my heated gear (I finally have to admit I am getting older).  We spent twice as much time driving as we did at the show, but it was fun.

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Retro Rewind Dubuque 1/7/17

I Checked out the Retro Rewind Cars and Guitar Revival on Saturday in Dubuque.  It's sold as the teaser for the outdoor Vintage Torque Fest that occurs in Dubuque in May.  I've been to Torque Fest and this is definitely much smaller to fit in the Five Flags Arena.  But they had a great turnout in spite of the cold weather.  It was a large "Hot Rod"  crowd and it was fun just talking to people and checking out all the activities. It starts to get me wound up for spring.

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There were quite a variety of motorcycles with a lot of un-restored originals or old customs.

Something for the kids complete with neons

 A lot of Rat Rods and customs (and PBR everywhere)

 

 
And after you check out the bikes there were various vendors to talk to, bands playing throughout the afternoon, the cool old theater was showing car and bike themed movies (I watched American Graffiti on the big screen, which took me back to my high school days when it first came out), and there were the magazine shoots going on with the several of the Pin-Up girls.