Ephrata Ride-In August

The ride was great fun. The weather was fantastic and the scenery was beautiful. Unfortunately, Drew and guest didn't make it. I hope I wasn't too vague about the meeting point. Sorry if we missed you! But Chelsielou, Brian and I had a great time.

Chelsie and Brian had never been to the Ride-In before, and Brian is relatively new to the area, so it was fun to introduce them to the experience. For a first time being there, this weekend was an impressive one. I heard many people remark that they had never seen so many bikes there.

The hit of the day seemed to be this Harley with the controls moved to the sidecar. The owner is wheelchair-bound, but couldn't give up riding. It must look insane to see this coming down the street with nobody riding the motorcycle.

This gold Aero 125 seemed in mint condition. I knew I would have to post it because some loyal collectors drool over this example of 80's design, especially in this color.

They funniest thing was when we circled back to our scoots and found a circle of admirers aound them! Amongst all those big bikes! After a lot of questions, one woman squealed, "I want to get a scooter!" Perhaps it was Chelsielou's pink ensemble, down to the matching water bottle, that clinched it.

Ephrata First Sunday Ride-In

I know this is short notice, but tomorrow is the First Sunday ride in at the Ephrata American Legion Post. I was cleaning off my camera and realized that I forgot to post pictures from last month. As you can see, scooters are welcome.

Here's an Eagles fan showing his Suzuki Burgman to some sportbikers.

Some members of the Three Mile Island Scooter Cub made it up to Ephrata. Above, in the background, you can get a small feel for the scale of this event. It's like an impromptu bike show every month. By the way, did you know these images expand if you click on them?

This is a Honda Big Ruckus. It's 250cc, and they only made them for a short time. I don't think the world was ready for them.

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Here's how to get there. I haven't decided whether to ride my scooter or my motorcycle towmorrow. Both are kind of rare on the street, so either could draw attention.

It's Such A Small World

Remember this entry? Well, near the end, there is a mention of a yellow Kawasaki. There wasn't a picture of it because I thought it wouldn't be as interesting to others as it was to me. But it made an impression on me because I was re-evaluating what I wanted in a motorcycle at the time. And what I wanted was everything that bike represented: a sport tourer. Something that was comfortable for more than 50 miles. The kind of bike that you could ride to another state for the day just because. GPS and storage. I was already thinking about the Versys, because I remember talking to a Triumph Tiger owner about it that day. But that yellow bike...

Today I was looking for information about when those Ephrata First Sunday Rallys start back up (March 2!), and I stumbled upon a motorcycle blog. It was also on blogger, and the guy knew all about rallys in my area, even though he's from Delaware. He's a sport tourer, and I'm trying to get into sport touring, so I made a note to check out more of his entries. His site is called Tilted Horizons (great name!).

And then I saw the entry about his own bike:

Well, well, well. What do you know. Small world.

Scooters to Motards

This past Sunday was the last Ephrata First Sunday Motorcycle Rally of the year. But when they start up again in March, I urge you to go. It's held at the American Legion in Ephrata on the morning of the first Sunday of each month, March to November. They have coffee, muffins and danish for sale, but other than that, it just about people bringing their motorcycles to show off. I have never seen a ride-in that was so accepting of all types of motorcycles.

There were Harleys, of course, but also sport bikes, motards, antiques, trikes, tourers, choppers and a couple Piaggio, Honda and Suzuki maxi scooters. The riders wandered around taking pictures and striking up conversations about the wide variety of bikes. People of all ages were genuinely interested in all of the styles, not just sticking to their own segregated groups. Even my little cruiser got some looks. Its 650cc single made it unique enough to warrant some questions and a photo.

I think a lot of people were looking to decide what their next bike would be. I know I was. You can see more styles here than at any dealer. And see a variety of add-ons. I saw a yellow Kawasaki from Delaware with hard bags and a GPS unit. The Burgman 400s had radios built-in. A local man, Colin, with a green Triumph Tiger gave me a lot of good information.

If you truly like motocycles of any kind, this monthly rally is like a candy store.