Two weeks is Austin is as much as my liver and belt can take. Finally took off today on a three day mission to New Orleans, and Halloween. I love the #$%* out of Austin, but its time to get back to my "special purpose". Seeing as how I lived there for three years, its doesn't really feel like I'm on a trip anymore. It just feels like I'm home without a job or girlfriend and no particular need to ever be sober. Time to go.
Still, I'm not leaving without a few memories that don't involve canned beer and lost cameras. Ethel from Lovejoy's convinced me to attend the Harvest Classic Vintage Bike Show in Luckenbach, some 80 miles from Austin. Though I decide to just show up for the day, its one for the ages. Despite a smattering of HD parade floats with country music coming from the dash, the majority of the bikes are amazing. The Best of Show competition is stiff, with entries ranging from early century Indians to genuine Austin ratbikes with BMW airhead engines. The sohc contingent is strong, with an emphasis on CL scramblers and early trail bikes, but English bikes easily match their numbers. There's a twin-engined Norton bobber along with 5+ Triumph trackbikes, as well as 2 Vincents and a Sunbeam thrown in. For my money (or appreciation of lack thereof), the smarts money's on the ratbike BMW boxer with the homemade sidecar.
Also, in keeping with the theme of meeting sohc4 people in the flesh, I meet kghost. He's riding a '75 400F that won last year's competition. Its amazing. We talk for about 20 minutes, and he invites me to McAllen, TX for free room and board and all the free tach cables and/or stock tachometers I can carry. I sorely wish I could take him up on his offer, but monday brings rain to Austin, and I didn't ride 2,000 miles to Texas to ride through more rain. As much as I'd like to take another pleasant detour, I need to get to New Orleans, to my girlfriend, to Halloween. And to, uh, my girlfriend. Like I said. Its been a while on the road.
But the bike that steals the show is a bike whose owner hasn't even bothered to enter the competition. Outside the front gate is a HD panhead (I know nothing about HD lineage, I'm likely wrong) that hasn't seen a rag or cleaning products in 20+ years. It has animal bones, plastic toys and remnants of old bumper stickers holding it together. I walk past it the first time and there's 10 people surrounding it. I walk by an hour later, and there's still ten people around it, taking photos and trying to comprehend the enormity of how a bike becomes that dirty, and how someone resists the urge to clean something for 20 years. Its the closest thing to an acropolis on two wheels. Except it somehow still lives, and still runs.
Speaking of things that still run, my bike is doing alright, but the airbox boots and screws have still not arrived. My triumphant scoring of a stock airbox means #$%* without any means to actually attach it. As per usual, bikebandit takes the order quickly, but then takes 3-4 days to actually process it. When it arrives, it is missing a name to the address. It gets misdelivered to a neighbor, who declines the package, and back it goes to San Diego. I call bikebandit and am initially pleased to hear a recorded voice telling me they care about their customers, but am disappointed when I talk to an actual representative who fails to follow the fine example of the recorded voice. Nothing can be done, so I get a refund on the first order and order again. We'll see if this gypsy organization redeems itself and gets the parts to me in NOLA. If my bike runs into rain, breaks down, and I somehow die as a result of it, I'll make sure someone mails the mess in my shorts to their San Diego loft. Bastards.
So now I'm in Huntsville, TX. I'm not sure why I decided to come here, but after finding out that there's a prison museum, I can guess why. I will wear my finest leathers and be the first person in line for the tour at 10 am sharp tomorrow. And hey, I avoided Houston altogether. Win, win.
Here's some pics from the Harvest Classic, some of which I referenced in the above text. Apparently I should start using a hosting site, as this site cannot upload pics large enough to see detail and such. But hey. Enjoy. Oh, and as an added bonus, my chain installation must have worked since Its still attached and I still have all my limbs all unlacerated and such.
1. Awesome hardtail BMW ratbike with coffin tank.
2. Gorgeous sohc 350 twin.
3. King of the Rats. Ragged and so not right.
4. Moneyshot Jap bike porn, Kaw triple with homemade expansion pipes.
5. Twin engine Norton. Weird.
