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pstelter
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« on: June 19, 2018, 06:32:39 AM » |
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Has anyone ridden in one of the Rolling Thunder demonstrations? I looked at the website for it (this year) and I couldn't find what looked to be a registration page - maybe I was too late. Anyways, for those that have ridden, did you pre-register or just show up? Thanks.
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vanavyman
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« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2018, 07:53:25 AM » |
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No sign up. Just show up at Pentagon parking lot. We’ve done it twice and loved it. They say they had over a million bikes this year. Can go back into city and park almost anywhere. Most on the grass. VERY patriotic weekend. Every American should go at least once.
Dan
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2015 Red GL1800 Level 4 w/2015 Tailwind Trailer
1999 Valkyrie Custom Interstate w/2006 Bushtec Roadstar Trailer
2000 Valkyrie Interstate Roadsmith Trike (Wife's)
Member Number 33081
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Jess from VA
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« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2018, 07:56:46 AM » |
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You just show up. The organized organizer groups (and cops) get out of the Pentagon parking lot first.
I've done it three times, and that was before it went over half a million bikes. I'm never doing it again.
You hit the Pentagon parking lot early and wait. It's always hot as hell with no shade. Take water and sunblock. The two dozen porta johns are overwhelmed, so you hold your pee all day. Then they leave the lot two by two, all half million bikes. It's hot and straight-pipe noisy and slow, and you get to walk your bike and/or ride the clutch all day. Think a half million bikes doing MSF, all day long.
It's a worthy cause and nice to say you've done it (once).
What I do on occasion (I live local), is get up early and ride all around the periphery but never into the Pentagon parking lot (sometimes they won't let you out, until the ride, and then you are stuck).
If you get on the Geo Washington Parkway (along the Potomac), northbound up out of Arlington Cemetery and DC, there are a couple nice shady overlooks you can pull off into, and watch all the bikes coming southbound down from Boston, NY, Baltimore, Philly, Jersey, New England; I wave at them. Then I go home.
The only upside is the girl watching, which is way better than average.
It's mostly Hogs, but it's also every kind of bike ever made, and many are good riders, but you are crammed in with thousands who never rode in formation in their lives. So there's some excitement too.
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Big Rig
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« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2018, 03:43:54 PM » |
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I have done it for over 10 years...last year we got dinged by DC's money grabbing cameras...so we opted out this year.
So if you go, be careful and keep you eyes open for the camera and speed limit changes and left turns and one ways and etc.....
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vanavyman
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« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2018, 04:11:40 PM » |
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Thanks for the heads up about the traffic cameras. I've never heard of that before in town. I have not been in several years but it was pretty wild when we rode through. Some guys going real fast.
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2015 Red GL1800 Level 4 w/2015 Tailwind Trailer
1999 Valkyrie Custom Interstate w/2006 Bushtec Roadstar Trailer
2000 Valkyrie Interstate Roadsmith Trike (Wife's)
Member Number 33081
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The emperor has no clothes
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« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2018, 06:20:38 PM » |
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I have done it for over 10 years...last year we got dinged by DC's money grabbing cameras...so we opted out this year.
So if you go, be careful and keep you eyes open for the camera and speed limit changes and left turns and one ways and etc.....
uhoh....I just did a few u-turns and rolling stops there.  |
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Jess from VA
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« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2018, 08:09:09 PM » |
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I forgot about the cameras... revenue enhancers. Check this out. http://app.ddot.dc.gov/https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/02/26/complicated-heroism-man-accused-smashing-dc-traffic-cameras/Just to give you an idea of the scope of DC camera revenue enhancement: The District took in a record $55.1 million from speed and red-light cameras during its 2011 fiscal year....[/i] For 2017.... The District issued almost a million speed-camera tickets last year, according to data released Wednesday, cementing the city’s regional reputation as a “speed trap” for residents and visiting motorists alike. The number of tickets — which led to $99.2 million in revenue for the city — was nearly double that issued the previous year. This is revenge for denying them statehood (and socialism at work). They must never be given statehood!!! |
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SPOFF
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« Reply #7 on: June 20, 2018, 04:22:38 AM » |
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I used to go every year when I lived there. But that was years ago. Usually I met up at a participating motorcycle dealer, like Battley's Harley in Rockville, MD and rode to the Pentagon in a police escorted group. The year I did this they shut down I-270 for the bikes, which was cool. Usually I-270 is a 12-lane parking lot moving at 80 mph. Then you get to the Pentagon parking lot and sit for 5 to 6 hours in 102 degree, 100% humidity. In those days it took 3 hours to empty the parking lot. Thank God for watercooled Valkyries.
Lived there 10 years. As for D.C. and its illegal traffic cameras, the city is the reason for the word "SHITHOLE." I'll never go back.
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