Sunday 4th November - What a day, what a ride, what a New England Fall Ride!
Who would have thought so many bikes would fail in one day? Read on and here the now fabled story of the annual New England SOHC Fall Ride 2012 (artistic license has been used in describing some of these events
):
Preparations were made in earnest the night before...here is Alex (Crush) fitting his new tires/wheels onto his trusty 550 by torch light
And the next day brought cold temps (36F starting). We waited as Anders donned the yellow banana suit to take him back to NH (his bike would last as long as the I-95 on-ramp where it would fail with all loss of power -bad wire in the harness - he "phoned a friend" and John came down from NH with some wire and tools and he fixed it roadside and was on his way).
Meanwhile Alex was champing at the bit to get going...
And then we were off...at least briefly...we met with Treeve (Knowsnothing) a few miles down the road (no photo unfortunately) and must have been feeling the cold as he was trying to wimp out early claiming his oil cooler lines were leaking as the newly fitted exhaust was rubbing against them. Lucky for him we had the tools to fix it - simply tightening the leaking clamp solved the issue
Nice try Treeve!
Next up we met with Ben (Azuredesign) on his Beemer further down the Bay Road who had earlier texted me he was suffering from carb issues. We found him looking forlorn at the side of the road so we all decamped to the nearest gas station were he made attempts to fix his leaking fuel line using zip ties....it was a dangerous job so he had to wear his helmet...
Watch out with that cigar Peter!!
...and as Treeve looked on in amazement, Alex had to plug his ears with purple ear buds to protect himself from all the swearing
With all bikes gassed up, leaky fuel lines and oil lines fixed we set off for Rt 44 passing through heavy Saturday morning traffic...when...Alexs not-so-trusty 550 lost all power
...stopped at the side of the road on a downward sloping hill was not the best place to troubleshoot so he pushed his bike down to a spacious parking area entrance to an industrial estate where after diagnosing a partially seized engine that would squeak like a mouse when kicked over he made the fateful phone call...trailer
by this time choking back the tears...as Bethanie looked on pensively
and the rest of the guys stood around as though at a wake
while the mighty 750s glinted defiantly in the sunshine
We waited with Alex until the trailer could arrive...taking turns on each others bikes...I found out that Treeves blue CB750 has a very fierce rear brake and proved the point by unintentionally leaving a long black skid mark as I raced up to an all too fast approaching stop sign. Meanwhile Alex was trying to bribe Treeve for the keys to his 750...
...but to no avail and as soon as the trailer arrived and Alex was all packed up we set off in search of lunch...and found this wonderful gem:
...which had some very very nice young waitresses...and some sassy older ones...who took good care of us.
Once fed and watered we rode on to our final photo stop of the day...Duxbury beach!
with a long bridge (walking only) to the beach...
with scenic views from the bridge
and
and the setting sun gave me a chance to practice my rock star poses
'
before we finally got to the beach
and took the Fall Ride 2012 survivors photo
*Notice the sun being blocked on Peters face by Ben big head!
and notice no shadow with me in the photo....
And so it was time to return to the bikes and catch the light to ride back home to Boston...
and the final one...
"the stairway to heaven" shot (bikes at the end of this bridge)
Thanks all for a very memorable Fall Ride 2012!
Good luck to Alex(Crush) in sorting out this 550 this winter in time for the Spring Ride 2013 (with 13 in there I can only imagine the number of bikes breaking down!).
cheers
Andy
