Thursday morning I got started about 9am for the #1 daughter's in Shawnee, KS. It was quite a pleasant ride until I hit a detour around Edgerton, KS that threw me onto I-35. Once I got off the super slab I started to hit the big city traffic and by the time I got to Julie's I was damn glad to get off the bike.
Friday morning I hit it at 7am hoping to miss rush hour traffic. What I hadn't counted on was the sun being smack in my eyes so bad I couldn't read the street signs. I managed to make it out of town and it was smooth sailing all the way to Green's camp ground. Well except for a couple of wrong turns, thank goodness for the GPS. My 457 mile ride had turned into over 480 and about seven hours.
First to greet me as I pulled up to the registration tent was a tall guy with a painter's hat on. He said, "you must be Leonard from Kansas". It was the infamous Chris Janes from Michigan whom I had chatted with on the Royal Enfield e-groups. He had rode his Bullet 700 plus miles from Michigan and instantly had my respect. I got signed up, paid for my bottomless beer cup and with Chris's help got my tent set up. Don, a RE rider from Missouri, was already set up with the smallest tent I have ever seen.
We chatted for awhile until a car pulling a green RE on a trailer pulled up. I helped Mike Baird from Illinois unload his bike and was watching while he unpacked a tent identical to mine. "My son used this last", he said, "I hope everything is here". Yeah right, sure enough there were no poles. Undaunted the resourceful Mike found a tarp belonging to the camp ground and made a lean two affair using his car and some rocks for support. RE riders learn to cope with adversity.
I should mention here that this rally is a combination Moto Guzzi/Royal Enfield affair with a Guzzi club running the show. The sponsor, Interstate Motorcycles of Rolla, MO, http://www.interstatemotorcycles.com/, sells both brands. The Guzzi folks were real friendly and everything was very smooth, meaning the hamburgers were good and the beer was cold. A little blues/rock/country group called Memphis Smith was putting some good music and it was a relaxed evening.
My first night of tent sleeping since I was a kid wasn't all that bad, I managed to get a few winks in between the fireworks the college kids down the way were shooting off and Slam "That's what I'm talking about" Dunkus having a good time until the wee hours.
Pay backs came at 8am when four REBs fired up to ride to Meramac Springs Park for breakfast. We let them warm up a long time. I will say this, the coffee was already made when I got up and was very much appreciated.
The plan for the day was to meet up with Kevin Mahoney, the head man from Classic Motor Works, www.enfieldmotorcycles.com, go to lunch in Steelville then ride some of the back roads in the area. At lunch there were seven Bullets, including one sidecar rig and a brand new Deluxe provided by Interstate Motorcycles for Kevin to ride. Conversation around the table was interesting as Kevin goes all over the world in his role as the US importer for RE. Enfield riders are a diverse bunch as was evidenced by Larry Fisher's story about restoring a steam engine for a museum. All of the folks at lunch owned more than one bike but had a soft spot for the Bullet.
Six of us made the after lunch ride as the sidecar folks had other plans. Nice little hilly, twisty road with six antique looking Brit thumpers riding together must have been quite the sight. Kevin was having a little trouble keeping with Chris and his 20T front sprocket because the bike he was riding had less than 100 miles on it and still needed to be treated gently. I was bringing up the rear so Kevin and I were falling a little behind and that was OK until Bubba got on our tail with his ton and a half dually pickup. He rode my tailpipe until I got tired of it and slowed down enough so he could get around a harass Kevin for awhile. After a while he flew around the whole bunch of us and things relaxed again.
We returned to camp with time to spare before the start of the evenings festivities which included beer, blues and the biggest pork steak I've ever seen. There were a ton of door prizes provided by CMW and Interstate. I won a size Medium Guzzi t-shirt but was able to swap it for a Royal Enfield pin. The prize for the oldest rider went to an 85 year old gentleman that made a one day ride of 480 miles to get to the rally. I was impressed.
The fire works display took off soon after supper and I was quite impressed with the show. We were close to the launch site and when the wind picked up things were booming directly overhead. A big bond fire more cold beer and the little band capped off the evening.
Everyone must have been tired as there weren't too many around the fire and things quited down early. My second night of camping was a little more restful.
Up before day light Sunday, the coffee was already made and I started breaking camp. I said my good byes and rolled out a little after 8am for ride to Kansas City.
A couple of hours into the ride doing 55-60 through some nice country and the REB is running so good I'm starting think I might ride all the way to Salina today. It sure would be good to sleep in my one bed rather than Julie's couch. Kaboom! The REB brought me back to reality with a resounding backfire. What the heck? Oh well seems to be running OK now. As I slowed entering the small town of Cole Camp, MO the REB started popping and banging like the James gang hitting a bank. The backfires were bouncing off buildings of the narrow main street and people were turning to stare, some might have even ducked for cover. I pulled into a Casey's and shut her down then filled up but it only took a little over a gallon. To gather my wits and let the bike cool down I went inside and had a snack then came back out to pull the plug and check the points. Everything looked OK so I started it up. It's running fine but I sprayed some WD-40 over the manifold looking for an air leak and nothing showed up. Nothing to do but push on and it never missed another lick, ran like a charm. I did slow down some, trying to hold it under 55 where I had pushed up to 63 before.
The ride on into Julie's was uneventful save for wind that was picking up and the misting of rain as I entered traffic. I got to my daughter's just before a big storm hit the area. Must be my lucky day.
For the last 200 mile leg of my journey I got started at 9am and had a nice ride all the way into Saline County. Getting close to home just west of Gypsum on hwy. 4 I had the only close call of the trip when a guy on a Gold Wing almost pulled out in front of me. I was watching him and grabbed a handful of brake and saw me and did the same. I'm sure it gave a fellow motorcyclist a new appreciation of motorcycle visibility.
The bracket holding the muffler was the only thing to break. This was discovered at the camp ground. Don found some #12 electrical wire in his tool kit and I lashed the muffler to the passenger foot rest. The muffler didn't fall off so I guess it worked.
The odometer read 1002 miles when I reached the house about 2:30pm on Monday October 1st. I used one quart of oil and the rear tire was visibly worn from the ride. I didn't keep accurate account of the gas mileage but the last tank was 181 miles on 2.77 gallons, that's about 65 mpg. And that is where I made my only real screw up of the trip. I filled the tank on the center stand and when I got home I parked on the side stand and by the time I got in the house and opened the garage door gas was dripping on the ground cause the cap doesn't seal too well.
I enjoyed the trip, the rally was about what I expected, got to meet some nice people, look at lots of cool bikes and by golly I might try camping again.
Click on the photostream for more photos.
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