Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Parade and the Peoria TT Race

Last weekend was a little busy but anything busy with bikes is fine in my book.
The Dual-sport club had set us up to ride in the Grayslake parade and we came with a pretty good show of bikes.











About my favorite style of Chevy 50's trucks but not quite my color, maybe a nice dark blue.



Now for this Indian, the color is a go. I was hoping for a pic minus the girls but they would not get off.



The owner of this car and another similar to this was really a cool guy. His one car was in a movie and he had all the actors sign the right front fender. I asked him if he was nervous about a actor driving the car and he just gave me a odd look and said no.
It's not like driving your modern car, just drop it on drive and go! Here is a example -- model T controls.
The one thing he told us about was his drive out to Colorado and driving in the mountains. He said it ran well and never broke down mechanically but he had two flats.
The parade was fun and the crowd was welcoming to us as some of the guys were doing wheelies.
It was by far the slowest parade and I never had a chance to take my hands off the bars to wave to the kids.
Hopefully some new folks will check out the website and join up.
Sunday morning was get up and ride down to one of the oldest races in America, the Peoria TT.
Last year was a great time taking in the sights and sounds. The weather for this year was great in the low 80's and sunny sky's. This time I brought mini folding chairs and we parked our self's at the top of the hill in turn one. We planned well with the trees and the sun direction to get shade for most of the day.



Our view of the start line and the crowd.
Crowd seemed bigger and also more bikes were on hand.

A little military action above and he gave a beautiful low hard banked right turn over the track.

Panoramic shot of the track. You can see the jump on the back stretch and it looks tiny here but standing by the landing side, it's about 30 feet high and it throws them between 110 and 120 feet.



Sorry the quality of the video is poor but you can still see how much the guys and gals back it into the turn!!



My buddy has never been to tower park in Peoria Heights so a stop was a must..

It doesn't look like much when you get there but once on the top you have a great view of the Illinois river and the town. The elevator hold's a record for the slowest in the world (not really) but it is 90+ seconds one way.


Home is somewhere out that way!!









Since my last visit a woodpecker has been added to the side for new attention.




Not a bad weekend and something like 350 miles for tooling around the countryside.
Tall shadows means fly home quick when you forgot to pack a clear face shield!! :O
As you can see I have Blue ant F4 interphone now and a review will be posted up soon. Also September 18Th I'm hosting another motorcycle tech day for the KLR clan

Sunday, August 15, 2010

lunch at the ACE Drive-in

Today was a little ninja ride over to lunch at the ACE Drive-in. The ninja was begging for a LITTLE speed blast on the highway so I took it over to my friends house. Also my friend Tom one of the two guys I did the Canada trip with picked up a new 1300 Honda. It's the first NEW bike I think I have ever seen him on and I'm happy for him.
Anyways, the Ace is a cool little place I have been passing by but never stopped at for the last 15 plus years. I saw Kurt's thoughts blog who lives around the area stopped there a while ago and it looked good.

The one thing that is good is the homemade root-beer and for me the shredded BBQ beef on a French roll. YUM! :) Here's a little clip from ABC 7 Chicago, the Ace drive-in section starts at the 2 Min mark...

Monday, August 9, 2010

Motorcycle blogs set in my Bookmarks

Here's some of the motorcycle Blogs I visit almost daily.

Bolty Running around on the Northwest of America on a nice SV.

Hubert Kriegel is homeless Ural rider who has been out and about for the last 6 years. No he's not really homeless!!

Bobskoot scooter and V-strom man who I think owns stocks in Crocs! ;)

Jay riding to India from Chicago the long way on his DR650.

This last one is not a blog but a on-line radio show that goes live on Tuesday nights called side stand up. It's a pretty cool since you can chat live and ask guest questions and BS with the other people listening.

Enjoy,
Jon...