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A Day at the Races
Jul. 25th, 2008 09:29 pmToday was a beautiful day to go to the Vintage Motorcycle Days at the Mid-Ohio Sports Race Track in Lexington. It's about 40 miles from my hotel to the track, so it took me the better part of an hour to get there, but the ride was both nice and fast. The track is huge, and the event is huge. Somewhat overwhelming, in fact. I spent most of my time at the Triumph exhibit and at the seminars with Clement Salvadori, a writer for Rider Magazine, and Ted Simon.
Clement mostly led an improvised seminar about why people were at a vintage motorcycle event and what the attraction of vintage motorcycles is. A major reason for me is that my bike is deliberately styled after vintage bikes of the 60's and 70's made by Triumph. In fact, Triumph calls one of their accessory lines as '68, a relatively heady time for Triumph what with the association of that company with the activities of Steve McQueen, in particular. (The bike McQueen - actually his stunt rider - jumped over the barbed wire fence in The Great Escape, was a Triumph made to look like a German motorcycle, because they didn't believe that a BMW could make the jump.) McQueen also rode a Triumph in the International Six Day Trials event around that time. So my little Bonnie Dubh is very similar in looks to the Triumph Bonnevilles of the 60's and 70's, but without the mechanical problems.
The second seminar was with Ted Simon, who basically showed a presentation he had made from photos he took during his two trips around the world. Today we got through the first portion which told of his trip from England through the Sudan. Lots of pictures that are not in his books, along with some extra details of his trips.
I brought his latest book to have autographed, and wound up buying another book and having that autographed too. Tomorrow I plan to carry Salvadori's book to get an autograph on that too. Just didn't want to be carrying too much with me all day. Fortunately, Triumph gave me a goody bag for signing up for a party tomorrow night, which included a small tote bag, which made things much easier.
Now if I can just figure out how to get to things at the track with out wearing my poor legs out with walking and such. I did a lot of walking today and am kinda wore out.
On the home front, found out that my brother is now back at home. Yea!!!!!
TTFN
Clement mostly led an improvised seminar about why people were at a vintage motorcycle event and what the attraction of vintage motorcycles is. A major reason for me is that my bike is deliberately styled after vintage bikes of the 60's and 70's made by Triumph. In fact, Triumph calls one of their accessory lines as '68, a relatively heady time for Triumph what with the association of that company with the activities of Steve McQueen, in particular. (The bike McQueen - actually his stunt rider - jumped over the barbed wire fence in The Great Escape, was a Triumph made to look like a German motorcycle, because they didn't believe that a BMW could make the jump.) McQueen also rode a Triumph in the International Six Day Trials event around that time. So my little Bonnie Dubh is very similar in looks to the Triumph Bonnevilles of the 60's and 70's, but without the mechanical problems.
The second seminar was with Ted Simon, who basically showed a presentation he had made from photos he took during his two trips around the world. Today we got through the first portion which told of his trip from England through the Sudan. Lots of pictures that are not in his books, along with some extra details of his trips.
I brought his latest book to have autographed, and wound up buying another book and having that autographed too. Tomorrow I plan to carry Salvadori's book to get an autograph on that too. Just didn't want to be carrying too much with me all day. Fortunately, Triumph gave me a goody bag for signing up for a party tomorrow night, which included a small tote bag, which made things much easier.
Now if I can just figure out how to get to things at the track with out wearing my poor legs out with walking and such. I did a lot of walking today and am kinda wore out.
On the home front, found out that my brother is now back at home. Yea!!!!!
TTFN
