Monday May 16th, started out sunny with a promising look of no rain and an expected high of 60 degrees. I walked out to my garage, (built in 1910 and originally housing an old Franklin air-cooled sedan) and swung open the original barn style door to unleash the beast....My 1976 CB750 K6.
Swung a leg over, got her started, stopped at the local corner gas station to top her off and headed out of Brazil, In. pointed east for Indy. It was about 8:45am. My road of choice was US Rt. 40 and about 30 miles east of Brazil, two things occurred. I started bogging at WOT and a deer jumped out of the woods and ran across my path!
Well, I missed the deer, and after another five miles or so of riding, the bogging issue seemed to clear up on it's own. About twenty miles outside of Indy, I could already see the Indianapolis skyline looming in front of me, it was that clear of a day.
Continued on Rt. 40 through the city as it turns into Washington St., past the sole surviving building left over from the old Duesenberg Automobile factory on the west side, (Now being used as a maintenance garage for city buses)...
...and into downtown, passing the relatively new Lucas Oil stadium, home of the Colts and Superbowl 2012!
Indy has an automotive history that once rivaled Detroit, and as I ride through the downtown area some of this is still visible. Next, I ride by the old Cole Motor Car factory as I head into the east side of Indy...
At a little past 10:00am, I arrive at Joe's (CBJoe) house and pull into the alley behind it where Joe and Chris (IndyFour) are waiting. My tripmeter reads 61 miles.
We've ridden together before, this past fall, so the introductions are easy and we quickly get into the job of finding a mounting position for the big lizard...
He wasted no time jumping up on top of my headlamp saying it was his preferred spot and reminding me that the 'Big G' had been around and this was not his first rodeo. (It was then I decided that any future handling of the big lizard would only be while wearing my gloves)
Godzilla then let loose a mighty flame fueled roar at Chris's bike and turned his tank from flake sunrise orange to candy gold!!!
Needless to say, Chris was pissed!! But after seeing the Big G did no damage to his new rearsets he cooled off a little and we decided to depart. Leaving around 10:30am, we headed for US Rt. 52 and stopped briefly to top off our tanks. The sky was still clear and sunny and the temps were not too bad, but at about 20-30 miles out of Indy, that changed. The sun disappeared behind the clouds and the temperature dropped. It would stay that way until we were back in Indy later that evening.
We had planned on stopping in the historic & touristy town of Metamora In. for lunch, but at arriving there found much of the town shut down. After running into a local gas station, Joe came back telling us our options in Metamora were limited and we all agreed to move on to Brookville, In. for lunch. In Brookville we found the 'Dairy Cottage', a seemingly 'Mom & Pop' type operation that turned out to have very good burgers & fries. Although Chris didn't order the fries, he went with something called Jo-Jo's which were like thick batter dipped potato wedges. I don't think he liked them too much, eh Chris?
Outside while we were getting ready to get back on the bikes, 'The Stig' showed up to wish us well on our journey. (For some reason, he wasn't wearing his customary white?)
That's 'The Stig' on the left, and Joe on the right...(I'm not sure what became of Chris...)
From Brookville, In. we split off onto Indiana Rt. 252 for the rest of our journey to Ohio. After crossing the state line we split off onto Ohio 129 and went east all the way to Ohio 747.
Somewhere along the way, before getting to 747, we pulled over to check our directions and as we started to get back on the road, Chris's battery went dead and his bike wouldn't start. He tried to roll start it with no luck and eventually had to pull off the right side footpeg on his new rearsets so he could use the kicker. One or two kicks and it fired up and we were off again. It was also around this time that we ran into some light, misting rain but nothing too serious.
We took 747 south, to the Cincy suburb of Wyoming, Oh. and to Steve's house (PopWood). Steve was standing at the end of his driveway and guided us in as we approached his beautiful house. Godzilla had arrived around quarter to three in the afternoon, and my tripmeter now read 171 miles for a total of 110 Godzilla miles....
After getting acquainted with Steve, we enjoyed his hospitality with a tour of his house, (the man has excellent woodworking skills) an icy cold beer, and a seat around his kitchen island getting warmed up after the cold ride. At this point I'm gonna add that none of us were
too whiny about the chilly, sometimes wet ride after reading about Jerry's (and some of the others) epic ride. Compared to those, ours was a cakewalk...
After some rest, we headed back outside to figure out what went wrong with Chris's battery and found out it was only showing about 8 volts. After pulling it out we found the fluid levels were low, refilled it and hooked it up to charge while we checked out Steve's CB550 & 750 and got the bikes lined up for pictures.
Left to right: CBJoe, Steve's 1975 CB750, Steve's 1975 CB550, Chris's 1974 550, Joe's 2007 Triumph Bonneville, my 1976 CB750.
With it now approaching 4pm and with Chris's battery showing around 13 volts, he put his bike back together and we thanked Steve for his hospitality. Steve then led us out to the highway on his '75 CB750. We took Interstate 74 all the way back to Indy, stopped for one last fill-up of the tank, and I have to give a shout out of thanks to Joe & Chris for getting me pointed in the right direction to Interstate 70 and back to Brazil, In. I arrived home around 7:30pm with a total of 354 miles on my tripmeter. After figuring my fuel expenses, it looks like I averaged 45-50 mpg with alot of highway riding at 70-80mph. Not bad at all.
Steve, Joe & Chris, if I've omitted anything or am incorrect anywhere, please add it below. The handoff pictures as well as others taken by you guys should be added as well. Thanks go out to Big Jerry for organizing this whole adventure and thanks to my riding mates who made it enjoyable despite the weather!
~Jay (Schmthaus)
