One word...epic ride!
Another great riding weekend. 514 miles for me of pure motorcycle joy.
Left Roslindale in the rain on Saturday morning but rain got progressively less as went west on Rt 2. By Athol, MA where I was was meeting AlanF and BigKO (Ken) from Newport, RI it had dried up and we wouldnt see rain again until 8pm that night.
Met Alan at 9.55am in Athol and waited for Ken from Newport. When Ken did arrive at 11.05am he was a bit frazzled from the ride from Newport decided he had enough riding for that day and opted to return home rather than go North as the forecast was for thunderstorms in VT (which actually never materialized until the end of the day).
Ken saying goodbye to Godzilla
With Godzilla once again in our hands we set off for Brattelboro found a great set of roads - Tully Road to Athol Road to Rt 78N - amazing combination! Empty twisties and for the most part well paved. The bikes loved it! Got to Brattelboro at 12pm and 5 riders (Scott (Cupcake); Adam (Dragon), John (Tree), Anders (Anders), Bethanie (riding a Shadow) were waiting for us.
After a photo op and some chit chat we set off up Rt 30 towards Ludlow.
It wasnt long before we had a mechanical failure...Cupcakes CB750Fs centerstand had fallen off....easy repair!
Scott (Cupcake) holds up the centerstand trophy while Anders looks on
Anders from NH K8 with superb sunrise orange paint
Johns suprisingly fast 550k
Lunch in Ludlow and then a ride up Mt Okemo (left to right: John (Tree), AlanF, Anders, Adam, Scott (Cupcake), Bethanie
Coming down Mt Okemo -AlanF on Nighthawk
Not often you see a bike and ski lifts together...
John on his 550 very happy after a mountain gap run over Rt 17
Adam looking very happy as well on his speedy 550K....
and Anders the dark horse who beat us all on the corners on his K8...turns out he is a racer! And it showed as he carved up the corners. Impressive stuff.
and of course girls cant resits the K2
The bits in between the mountain gap runs were fast sweeping roads that were devoid of traffic or if there were cars they were soon "terrorized" by this unruly band of New England SOHCs and were quickly overtaken.
Coming down Rt 12 from Montpelier, rain came in the last 10 min of the ride into Randolph VT. Another SOHC mechanical issue came up... Anders K8 ignition switch plastic connector melted...causing his power to fail intermittenly. No fun on a dark wet road in VT! However we limped to the local hangout in Rasndolph, a Cumberland Farm gas station.....which caused great excitement with the locals....
.....this woman on her way out for the night all dressed up had just popped into the gas station for a bottle of wine.....she heard Anders plight and so popped her car hood and offered him some fuses!!
And then more locals got involved..
And here is Cupcake finally connecting the circuit and Anders had power again...the day was saved!
The plan had been to camp but given the rain and the fact that some of the group had not brought camping gear, Cupcake (Scott) had a friend (Steve) in Randolph and after a quick phone call he very generously offered to take in 7 bedraggled bikers he had never met, fed us and generally took great care of us! Thank you Steve! We dined on venison, chicken, pasta and salad cooked up by Steves partner Regina. Thank you very much!!
After a night of rain the sun came out....and here we are in the morning getting ready to leave:
a very dirty K2
The rest of the group wet onwards to North Conway but myself and Bethanie had to get back and for me it was to sort out the K4 in time for a run to the border (although John may be relieving me of that responsibility). Here we are at Silver Lake, VT on the way back Sunday
We passed through historic Chester, VT
Chester Train station
Yosemite Engine house, Chester, VT
Rail museum, Bellow Falls, VT
Hanging out and playing with trains..all aboard!
More of Bellow Falls, VT
Great weekend and thanks to Cupcake (Scott) for organizing the VT section and making it such a memorable ride. It was a real pleasure meeting all the other riders (Adam, John, Anders, Bethanie) and thanks to AlanF again for riding up with me.
Cheers
Andy
