The GPS lied and there are Indians all over

The days plan was to hit Davenport Ia. 40Th annual AMCA fall national which is a huge swapmeet and do all on back-roads. Jim was going all the way to the meet but would not head home with me but split off after and run up to Galena to meet his family. Tom was just out for a short ride and we pulled off at the site of Wild Bill's old home site.





Jim posing with Bill.
Tom making sure Bill's nose is clear. The man had a HUGE nose if this is close to scale.
Jim's never hit the Princeton covered bridge, so a stop was a must.
By this time the KLR was at 170 miles on the tank of gas so I checked the GPS. The next gas stop on my roughly planned route and it was 20 something miles away. Should be a fine distance and where reserve will just start to be needed. Besides a few towns were in between and might have gas stations not loaded in the GPS.
I couldn't remember if I topped off the tank the last fill up so 190 miles before reserve was in question while I enjoyed the open county roads. At around 185ish I had to flip the petcock and ride another 20 some miles to the GPS gas station. As we got closer to the shell station on the GPS is was clear there was nothing but a corn field. CRAP!!
Now I was panicking a little in my head and shot for the interstate but I couldn't imagine having another ten miles worth of gas left. It wasn't a BIG panic since Jim was with me and could shoot ahead and get a small can and run back.
Sure enough just before switching Interstates the bike quits. I hop off the bike and tell Jim I'm dry and I'm going to tilt the bike all the way over to the left and see if she fires up. Yep, she pops to life and I blast down the ramp to the ramp to I-80 and closer to more GPS gas stations but it's 8 miles away. Lucky for me a sign says a station is at the next exit just 4 miles away. As the bike hit the exit ramp she died again and I just pulled the clutch and rolled down to the intersection. Jim right behind me, I just said I'm tilting her over again and it worked.
I got to the gas station down the block and filled her up at 5.86 gallons and I just giggled. Never have I put that much in.
As we sat at the gas station drinking coffee and a gold wing club pulled up and they chatted with us.
The one big guy told us they were from the Peoria IL. area and we said the TT races were a favorite of ours. The big guy told us he was at the Indy mile race when Kenny Roberts took the TZ750 for it's big win. I would of killed to of seen it and this guy seemed like it was no big deal. Here's the link with a bit about it --- Roberts.

At the swap meet surrounded by HD's and a few odd bikes.



Old Indian at the meet that he still uses for vintage cannonball runs.
That little post-it note says 200K for this Flying Merkel.
Looking at this bike and trying to imagine my Grandfather hill climbing one of these, crazy..


This meet had some of the best old bikes I have ever seen. More Indians than I have ever seen in one place. The other odd thing was a lot of old Kawasaki bikes.




A little clip of a four cylinder Henderson, it didn't run longer than this clip.
This guy has it all, dog, girl and a bike..
when we came across these two Indian Chiefs I was in awe. They were perfectly clean and bright. I asked if they ever ride them and the man sitting down said yes.

I was stunned to see his young kids putting around on both of them. Must be great to learn the tank shifter and foot clutch deal. Also don't forget the throttles on the left hand and spark adjustment is on the right. I would really get wrong a few times, ok a lot! :)


If I remember it right this was a 1955 Ural. Looks just like the ones build up to the late 1990's.
Around a 1904 Indian humpback or later with all it's mighty 2HP. I always wonder if any of my past or present bikes will make it this long.



Jim tailing and about to peel off just after this bridge picture.

This bridge ( just north of Savanna IL) is steel grate like most of the two lane bridges over the Mississippi. Look straight down and you see the river at the same time the tires are giving you a shimmy.

Stopping at a John Deer dealer to put the warm sleeves on since the weather was getting cooler.
The last issue I had for the day was my horn has been on the fritz. Hit the button and it may or not work. So, cruising down the road and no one around I blast it for a few seconds and bam it's off and I'm still on the button. I look at the GPS and it's off. Crap again, it blew the fuse but I know where I'm at but the speedo is more accurate than the bike.
Nothing like being my own problem..
Even with it all going a little wrong it was a nice full day of back-roads and great weather..

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

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...

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...