Thunder on the Smokey 2008

4th annual motorcycle rally in Marquette, KS

Olpe, KS 5-14-08

The day started out a little different with the Salina and Lindsborg ROMEOs meeting in nearby Gypsum for the ride to Olpe.  With Richard in the lead six of us began a leisurely jaunt toward our first planned rest stop in Council Grove.  I was just enjoying the ride and lack of cross wind when I noticed blinkers ahead indicating a turn to the south.  The little green sign said Wilsey, one mile.  What the heck! must be a little cafe there that Richard wants to check out. No such luck, it's been many a year since Wilsey has seen a cafe or much of anything else for that matter.  The little town made someone's list of Kansas ghost towns and that's what the downtown was, just boarded up buildings.  What had once probably been a thriving community was now a ghost town.  No one took any pictures, we just stopped in the middle of the old main street and gawked like tourists.

When we pulled onto a side street in Council Grove before we got to the convenience store it became apparent that Richard was in his tour guide mode today.  This stop was to check out The Hermit's Cave.  You can Google that one if you're into Council Grove History.

Marty and Richard in the Hermit's Cave.

 

Another 40 miles put us in downtown Ople at the Chicken House, one of the more famous chicken restaurants in Kansas.  Most of the crew had already arrived and the parking lot was full of bikes.  The preliminary count was 53 but I'm thinking with some of the late arrivals there had to be at least 60.  

The ROMEOs are accustomed to ordering off the menu and as you can imagine the tastes of a geezer crowd this size are pretty varied.  If you didn't like chicken you were out of luck today, it's a chicken house and by damn chicken is what you got.  The salads were already on the tables and it wasn't long before a plate of fried chicken was down and ready to eat.  Pretty tasty bird.

After the parking lot social hour the crowd started dwindling and we mounted up for the trek back home.  We were joined by Denny on his big black Gold Wing.  I like riding close to Denny, we have the same taste in music.  The parade only got the ten miles to Emporia before we wheeled into a parking lot to check out a custom sidecar rig we had spied on the ride down.  It was a beauty as you can see from the photo.

Dairy Queen in Council Grove is a biker friendly place with picnic tables and, once the leaves get grown, shade trees.  We met the owner on a previous stop, he was out back washing his Gold Wing.  Told us he was the town mayor.  We didn't see him today but wondered how his political career was going.

The trouble with these ride reports is how to end them without getting poetic, lyrical, eloquent, or philosophical, and exposing my limited journalistic talents.  Let's just say we made it home and it was a good motorcycle day.

BOW

Our Fearless Leader forgot his camera today so he delegated me to pick the BOW.  This shiny Honda CBX reached right out and smacked me with one of it's six header pipes as I walked by. 

ROMEOism

After the day's ride and while attending a church supper a friend commented that her BMW riding brother from Ottawa had gone to lunch in Olpe today.  Small world, sorry I missed you John.

Olpe, KS 5-14-08

ROMEO lunch at the world famous Chicken House

Swisher Big Mo

Being the owner of a couple of unusual motorcycles, a Royal Enfield Bullet and a Kawasaki W650, and since I have never seen anyone else riding these models it has occurred to me that I might also be a tad unusual.  This anomaly certainly doesn't carry over to my four wheelers, a Buick Le Sabre and a Chevy S-10.  But what about that goofy looking three wheeled lawn mower?

It's a Swisher Big Mo, made by a company in Missouri.  Mine is a 1996 model but it looks about the same as one twenty years older.  I don't know when they were first made but it was the first zero turning radius (ZTR) mower.  Eight whopping HP from a single cylinder Briggs engine and a 32" cut.  I haven't used a push mower since owning the Big Mo, it's that maneuverable.  This machine hasn't caused me a bit of trouble in 12 years.  You can imagine my aghast when last Thursday as I started mowing after returning from the ROMEO lunch and my faithful mower just halted and refused to move.  The engine was running fine, ditto the blades, must be a drive belt.  After all it still has the original belts.

Off with the square hood/gas tank cowling thing I expected to see a shredded belt lying amongst the pulleys.  Not seeing anything like that but determined to fix what was broken (owning a REB makes you like that) I turned to the internet for information.  I found the company web site is short order and read that they had stopped making the Big Mo in 2001, something about no place to mount a cup holder (joke).  Obviously a call to the factory was in order.

Dealing with Classic Motorworks, www.enfieldmotorcycles.com, one becomes accustomed to picking up the phone and getting immediate technical assistance (tell me how to set the valves).  It took twenty minutes on hold but when I finally got to talk to someone I was assured that, yes, parts were still available and yes someone could answer my questions.  The guy I talked to was pretty sure some kind of pin in the transmission had sheared off and would be easy to replace.

You can see from the photo what I had to do to get to the transmission but just as I was lifting the cover to take a peak I noticed the real problem.  There is a pin that holds a drive sprocket on the transmission shaft, just like a motorcycle.  That pin had sheered and the shaft was turning without turning the sprocket.  A few hours later with a new pin, new belts and a sore back it was as the Brits say.....Bob's yr uncle and I'm back in business.

While running around for mower parts I stopped in at Tractor Supply to pick up the belts I needed.  As I was checking out I noticed a whole case of Anti Monkey Butt powder for only $4.95.  This stuff is advertised in lots of motorcycles mags as the ultimate chaffed butt solution, Tractor Supply......who would have guessed.  I supposed farmers get monkey butt from riding a tractor all day.  Can't wait to try it.

Halsted, KS 5-8-08

    Since I'm so late in blogging anything about the last lunch ride I'm going to take a page out of Richard's playbook and use his ride report in my blog.  I didn't even ask, so sue me.  Here it is:

Guys - Thirty-nine bikes and forty attendees swamped Shakeys for a good time today. Our group left about ten and meandered our way there, being in no hurry on such a gorgeous day. We were some of the first to arrive and were able to park directly in front of the cafe for a change. Others filtered in behind and ferreted out spots all up and town the street where they could find places to park so I had to take photos of small bike groups to show what was there today but that's alright. Being such a nice day we hung outside for a bit longer than is typical anymore

 

before someone noticed the group was dispersing, and fearing the food would disappear like last week, we ventured inside. Practically every table and chair was occupied by a ROMEO. Good thing we showed up because it would have been 'slim pick-ins' for this place without us.

Choices abound at the buffet although I couldn't rightly tell 'ya what it was, but it was edible, and the menu was the preference of a few. Sometime mid meal, Doug Bump made the announcement that his friend, Mike McClure had a birthday today and we all got to sing the B-day song to him. A little off key maybe, but our hearts were in the right place. Mike just turned 65 so the government officially turned on his Medicare card that he's been carrying for some time now.

A good array of bikes were displayed, so choosing the BOW was a task.

I thought we would do something a bit different today and recognise the TOW.

Since there was only one, it was a no brainer. My kinda deal. TOW of course is the Trike of the Week and a real beauty she was. It's a new acquisition by Cecil Kelly and someone mentioned the MSRP on these babies is over 40 large. Pretty as it is, you won't see one in my garage anytime soon. Leonard spotted an appealing one but it already had the nod for an honorable mention. It was a Suzuki GS550 'barn find' that is 'On The Road Again'. Mitch Albertson from Towanda told me he found it at a neighbors leaning against the fence and rescued it for 150.00.

I was impressed with what he had done to it and how it looked. It's kind of a Street Tracker, now. Looks good, sounds good! Something more of us should attempt doing.

Long distance today was snatched up again by the newest of the ROMEO long riders...John English with 218 miles from Shawnee but was pushed pretty hard by Roger Haack from Lawrence on his Beemer with 190.

No ROMEO lunch is complete without Ice Cream, and Scoops

is just a hop skip and jump up the road.....except for Paul who got lost.  I think I counted more than a dozen at the famous little place and more than a few were enjoying their world class malts. 'Course, I'm on a diet!  

Halsted, KS 5-8-09

ROMEO Lunch at Shakey's

Cassoday, KS 5-4-08

  On the first Sunday of the month tiny (pop. 95) Cassoday, at the southern end of the senic Flint Hills, is transformed into the motorcycle mecca of the plains.  Hundreds of motorcyclist converge on the self proclaimed Prairie Chicken Capital of the World once a month for what was once a biker breakfast but now is more akin to a day long rally.  Food vendors, sellers of cheap leather goods, motorcycle related clothing and patches, new bike displays, a screaming dyno testing rig and bikes of all years and brands all combine to make Cassoday THE  place to see and be seen.  From customs to rat bikes, bikers to motorcyclists, I saw everything except a Royal Enfield and a W650.

  My riding buddy, Richard, had a stack of Bike to the Borg flyers to pass out that touted Lindsborg's monthly biker breakfast.  We were joined by his neighbor, who is an Army Reservist, and another AR from Maryland that was in Salina undergoing some training.  Steve, the Maryland guy, had ridden his big Harley from Maryland and jumped at the chance to experience some midwest culture.  We joined some other Army types in Newton and the 12 of us rode together to Cassoday.  I thought Richard should lead the H-D parade with his scoot but he hung back so we brought up the rear with the scoot and the Dubya.

  Once the flyers were handed out the rest of our time in Cassoday was spent walking around checking out the bikes and the characters that ride them.  In the process we located some decent BBQ, not a bad day. 

  As we inched our way out of the congestion of bikes to head for home and guy walking by looked at the Dub and told me that he used to have one of those.  Finally someone knew what I was riding.

  Earlier, as we watched a group of foot padding cruiser riders snake into town, I commented that getting in and out of this mess of Sunday riders without crashing would be a major accomplishment.  That vision came true a few miles north of town where a rider had failed to negotiate a curve and was lying on his back a few feet from his upside down bike.  Up the road a ways we met the sheriff and the EMTs.  We heard later that a helicopter evaced the guy out.  Hope he is OK.

  The rest of the ride was uneventfully save for a few tourist stops so Steve could soak up the wonders of Kansas in the spring.  Except for my back screaming bloody murder by the time I got home it was a good day.

 

Cassoday, KS 5-4-08

On the first Sunday of the Month motorcyclists from all over the state converge on tiny Cassoday, KS