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rocketman
07-20-2004, 11:17 AM
Went to Mid-Ohio and it was a blast, especially for a vintage bike enthusiast like myself, haven't seen that many vintage bike in one place ever.
The Ride up Thursday was nice Jeanne and I did around 480 miles in a little over 8 hours saddle time and got to cross over the Alleghany plateau into eastern Ohio.
Friday headed for the track and saw lots of the old Honda trail bikes with the step-through frame (I had totally forgotten about those)
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010012.jpg
zipping around and more Honda CB's and 305 Dreams than I've seen in one place 'cept overseas in Asia back in the 60's. Got to ride my bike around the track twice in the Run for History with bunch of other old bikes
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010035.jpg
where we followed a couple of the ECO-Mobiles from BMW,
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010015.jpg
watching them from the rear as they went around the track they looked for all the world like a pair of fish out of water, kept expecting them to start wagging their rear section like a swimming fish.

Went into total overload in the swap meet area, you'd need a month to get through all the vender's. There was more old bits' and pieces, rusty bikes and partial frames, and tons of just plain junk (junk, unless that odd piece was the very thing you needed for some odd-ball project bike you'd had sitting around for years) than I ever imagined exsisted.
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010049.jpg

Saw Jean-Pierre Goy do his stuff on a 650
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010029.jpg
I wouldn't want to be the guy on the ground! And then a few wheelies on a K1200 LT
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010032.jpg
and they say shaft drive bikes ain't no good at wheelies!

of course there were tons of old BMW's
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010033.jpg
and
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010034.jpg
along with lots of other makes
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010050.jpg and
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010051.jpg
Saw a guy ride this 1927 Indian Scout
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010018.jpg
around the inside of a big barrel, that he found which was made back in 1941 for dare-devil motorcycle stunts.

Watched some vintage racing Sat till it started to rain then headed back to the hotel.
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010039.jpg
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010040.jpg
Sunday we rode home going south to Columbus then east on Rt 50 all the way throught lower Ohio, WV, MD, back into WV then VA. around 520 miles of back roads with real nice twistys over the plateau and managed to beat the rain they kept calling for that day thought the area we rode.
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010054.jpg

Of everything we did and saw the high-light for me and Jeanne was sat. evening when we went across the street from our hotel to KC steak house, which I highly recommend, and as we were sitting eating dinner we heard someone with a french accent talking, looked up and it was Jean-Pierre Goy! We wound up having a nice little chat for some 5 minutes with him. He had his daughter and wife with him as well. Much nicer and more relaxed than simply getting his autograph in the fan line at the show (which I'm not into anyway), he's a pretty nice guy. As we left I complimented him again on his riding and showmanship (he did several wheelies on a full dresser K1200 LT where he actually scraped the upper back edge of the hard bags!) and I got to shake his hand, very cool!

All in all had a blast and I prob. had more fun there than if I'd gone to the MOA, but then I'm more into the old iron, ('cept for the new Bonnie TT and the Royal Enfield Bullet 500,
http://roadrunes.com/Mid-Ohio-2004/images/P1010022.jpg
which I now want more than ever when I saw the beautiful deep green one and they now have a 5 speed for 2004, plus the military model above), there isn't much of anything out there new that interests me.

Hopefully next year I'll be able to hit both MOA and Mid-Ohio and spend more time around the great lakes region.

RM

Cliffy777
07-20-2004, 03:03 PM
Thanks for all the great pics. I want an ECO-mobile!!

dzimbric
07-20-2004, 08:11 PM
That should not be too difficult since the rally is going to be in mid Ohio.

Bmwgs94
07-20-2004, 09:15 PM
I to was at Mid-Ohio also. Went to Ashland to watch the dirt track racing on Friday night and it was a great joy to see the old Harley's , Triumph's , Honda's and Yamaha's. I had a couple of friends from my home town there riding their old Yamaha and Triumph and then they brought out the good stuff. They had a special event where they and speedway race bikes come out and race and you talk about fast ?? They are very fast. My friends did ok but no first places . :cry .. Went to the race track at Mid-Ohio and watch they old bikes race on the road course and the old motorcross bikes battle it out in the mud on Saturday. It rained on and off on Saturday but it still was fun to be out there. Sunday was a beautiful day at the track and a lot of people out there for the races and the swap meet. Lots of parts and bikes for sale and to bad I didn't have some extra money on hand. But something kind of wild happen to me when I was getting ready to leave. Two guys came up to me on a golf cart and one ask me what year my bike was and I told him it was a late 1994 early 1995 R 100 GS . Then the guy said to me congratulations and stuck his hand out. So I in turned stuck my hand out and as he was shaking my hand the other guy gave me this plaque and told me that I had the best looking GS at the rally. The plaque says " Best GS / 1987 - 1996 and it is by the Vintage BMW MOTORCYCLE OWNERS, LTD. Wow :eek

rocketman
07-21-2004, 11:31 AM
Originally posted by phatman
So I in turned stuck my hand out and as he was shaking my hand the other guy gave me this plaque and told me that I had the best looking GS at the rally. The plaque says " Best GS / 1987 - 1996 and it is by the Vintage BMW MOTORCYCLE OWNERS, LTD. Wow :eek


Very kool, dude! Was one of them a guy by the name of Larry Marling perhaps?

About the only award my bikes would ever win would be for something in the "most road dirt and still running" catgory! :p

RM

Bmwgs94
07-21-2004, 08:40 PM
Thanks dude :thumb Not to sure what the guy's name was for sure. Did they decide the exact date of the Lima rally ? Mid-Ohio is usually the third weekend in July and last years rally down in Charleston was the week before. This year the rally and Mid-Ohio was the same weekend . Hopefully they will be a week apart so we can attend both . Keep on riding. :bliss

BeerTeam
04-04-2010, 11:40 AM
rocketman, nice report
Mid Ohio is a blast