Posted by Witch Doctor on August 28, 2000 at 03:27:32:
Lisa and I got home about four hours ago, and it has never felt so ggod to get home, even if the cats did trash the house while we were away.
Interesting little get together this year. Attendance was reportedly about 12000 participants, about 5000 bikes. Not bad for a town you can ride through in less than 30 seconds any other time of the year. We had gone in 1998 and didn't have as much fun as this year. The weather was decent (hot with about 10 minutes of rain), plenty of vendors this year, and except for an overabundance of nervous cops, everyone seemed to be having a good time. Lots of street drags by the HD crowd, two really lousy bands (although noone really cared), and the town stores not carrying beer kept the craziness down to a minimum.
I was talked into entering the baby bike in the show, greasy finger prints, soft paint and all. I don't know or even care how/if I placed, we went out to dinner with a BMW group during the awards ceremony. I built it to ride, and 5 hours without riding it was too long. Showing the bike kept us from participating in a lot of the fun stuff that went on at the same time.
On a different track, I don't ever want to do 500 or so miles in a weekend on it again. The bike is too small and runs way too hot for touring type use. I'd like to build a trike out of the GS750 in the car port, and tow the Savage behind it if I'm going to show. They are called cruisers for a reason. Traffic moved so slow in town all weekend that 3/4 of a quart of oil vaporized out of it. By the time I shut down for the night, the clutch was history, I'd have to rev up to 2500 rpm or so to shift from neutral to first. Luckily it all came back on line once I put oil in it this morning. If you are going to go to a summer rally with a lot of cruising involved, run 20W50 or 30W oil, 10W40 is too damn thin for the heat you'll build up. Also, the dealer put on a 140/90/15 rear instead of a 140/80/15, and by the time we got home from the last gas stop (92 miles) the odometer was saying I'd only gone 62 miles. Make sure the counter pukes sell you the right tire when you go in there. If I hadn't caught that problem this morning, I'd have run out of gas in the middle of nowhere Mississppi on Sunday, not cool, the little towns are completely shut down except for church on Sunday, even the gas stations.
All in all, we had a good time. Chad from Jackson rode with us, and we hooked up with Allison Taylor, Intudn and Stef, and saw one other Savage (owner unknown-black bike with a Rifle windshield, anyone here?). Anyone who can make next year should be there. It is hosted by the Christian Motorcyclist Association, is a true all brands rally, and if you have problems, the BMW restoration shop in town can fix you up enough to get to a decent suzi shop.
Keep it in the wind. I'm going to bed.
-WD