About 50 show bikes rolled out from their secure storage room at 8am Sunday for the Legends Ride; a 43-mile spin from the Ritz up to Skyline Ridge, Alice's Restaurant, and back again. I was a bit worried as my '28 Sunbeam isn't quite legal yet, but I wasn't the only one as Johnathan White had his GP Ducati on full megaphone and no plates at all! Same went for Aude Ragez in the Mk VII Velo KTT, and apparently there were a few other bikes not quite ready for prime time, or at least not registered. Having had a bike towed two years ago for registration 'issues', I was ready to give the ride a pass, but if Johnathan my judging partner was up for it, I wouldn't leave him to ride alone.Then I saw two CHP motorcycles pull up, and a CHP car, and figured that was it - no ride for me. I told this to Jared Zaugg, and he explained that the CHP was there to protect all the bikes which weren't legal! Now that's a switch. It turned out I knew officer Gary Loo (his daughter went to grammar school with Zoe), and bade him a good morning, while we talked about our girls. I was going to ask him about my bike, but thought, let sleeping dogs lie... He did see my '28 plate at one point, and simply turned his head away.
Top pic, Kinya Shimura on his Knucklehead custom, which uses a recycled Cadillac exhaust manifold. It's so bitchin cool; he's the only custom builder whose work I admire.
Second pic, priceless 1 of 72 HRD Series A Rapide. Sounded great.
Third pic; Munch Mammut from Michigan, which was surprisingly quiet, if large.
Pic 4; HRD Meteor ('38) and Indian Chief (first in class on Saturday, Red Fred's bike).
Pic 5; AJS crazy home-made V-4 ohc. The factory never made one of these for sale to the public, but they did make a few racing machines to this spec. The owner made the engine himself, using photographs of the originals. Wow.
Pic 6; Jared Zaugg and our escorts. The only bummer was the adherence to speed limits, and some very slow moments at times for no apparent reason (although they had radios to each other, so were probably trying to bunch up our strung-out group).
Pic 7; on the road.
Pic 8; Jared and Alain de Cadanet at Alice's, with Alain's son
Pic 9; Close-up of the amazing Art Deco sculpting of this Indian Larry Shovelhead chopper. Every major item on the engine used this motif, very much as seen in the Empire State building elevators and decorative panels. Impressive work - this bike was to be delivered to Brad Pitt.
Pic 10; Vintagents! Pete Young and I behind Pete's 1913 Premier, which won a first. He averages around 40mph on this thing, and climbed the hills fairly well, amazingly enough. In the day, this would have been considered a serious road trial!
Pic 11 & 12; action shots of Shinya's Knuck! Cool!
Pic 12 & 13; After the ride, strolling through the secure enclosure, a Million Dollar Motorcycle sits alone and unguarded, so I got some nice detail shots, and ... I touched it!
