So I did just that, ride. Yesterday I rode up to Marquette Ks, home of the Kansas motorcycle museum where the Thunder in the Smokies (Kansas smokey river valley) rally was being held. This rally is one of those 99 per-center rallies. 99 percent of the bikes were Harley's and the other one percent were Vtwins. All else were the .001%ers. There was the most amazing display of new leathers I had ever seen. I guess this was probably the first out of town ride of the year for 99% of the riders so it seemed like everyone had nice new shiny embossed HD branded leathers. They finally got to wear those Xmas gifts on a ride I guess. This thread is not about bashing Harley's, I apologize to those Harley's riders here who actually do ride a few miles but way too many wannabe's on Hogs were at the Rally.
I was out of place in my Textile riding gear and was even made fun of because I was geared up for MY ride. Some wannabe asked me in a smug way If I was "cold" and did I have enough layers on? He had on a summer leather jacket (with the emblems), wind burnt cheeks and a blood red nose but by god he made it the 60 miles from Wichita without what I would call gear or a helmet. It was 49 degrees when I arrived at Marquette so he was indeed a tough guy (just ask him).
They rally was not much more then 3 city blocks of vendors, a dyno machine and a clothing show. I met a new Valk owner from Hutchinson on a nice looking, new to him Valkyrie. He put his Valk up on the dyno and you could tell 99% of the riders were impressed but dare not smile when his bike with 6x6 pipes made 94 horsepower and 100 ftlbs of torque. Those 6x6's sure did sound sweet on the dyno too!
Sorry about the half a bike picture but the other picture was too blurry to use. Hello to you if you're on board here now.
There were 2 new Indians at the rally. Nice looking new old bikes but I'll pass thank you very much. I doubt they will hurt any other motorcycle company's business much with these old style bikes.
There were a few bikes of interest at the park where the bike show was being held. The sidecar was cool but that third wheel was as big as the picture makes it out to be. I doubt that Sportster would move it down the road much more then 60 mph.
I left after a couple hours of the show and went over to a nearby gun range and tried out my new Taurus 9mm. I like it. Enough said about that.
I headed south for nowhere down a county road and came across this sign which merited a picture.
Last picture is from today, I rode a couple hundred miles around the country going nowhere at all. I saw some deer and some hen turkeys with chicks. I did ride RHonda's bike and it was nice to ride the little thing HAHA!
Did anyone else get some miles?
Raymond
