0
I love to write, so posts like this tend to get wordy on me. You've been warned.
I took two days off this past week (W + F) to attend Laconia Bike Week. I planned on going with my dad, who rides a VTX1300 Retro and some of his buddies from work.
On Wednesday of Bike Week they have a hillclimb at Gunstock Ski Area, so we got up at about 5, packed up some rain gear and extra clothes and met up with the boys in Gilmanton by 7. I was the only sportbike there, a theme that continued throughout the week.
The hillclimbs were pretty cool, but you can only watch a bike ride up a hill so many times. We stayed for about three hours and I was itching to ride so we left.
From there we went down to Weirs Beach. Being my first time, I had never seen so many bikes in the same place before. It was nuts. 98% cruisers, but I can appreciate the work that goes into some of them.
We walked around the tents and saw some of the show bikes and choppers. Cool stuff. Again, not much in the way of sportbike shit.
Anyone know this guy? His bike probably got more looks than some of the choppers, and it was just parked in one of the parking spots. Check out the zipties...it also had grip tape on the tank and a wheelie plate on the back.
Here I am in the sea of chrome.
It started to drizzle at this point, so we went home. I worked Thursday, then geared up again early Friday, this time with the wife.
We met in Gilmanton again at the house of some guy my dad works with. Friday promised more riding, less doing shit, so I snapped some pics of our crew:
This trike was SICK...had a stick shift in the middle and handled on rails...
We headed out to ride, but the Harley guys got all horny when we neared Meredith Harley-Davidson so we stopped and checked out some of the choppers and shit...
We finally left there and went on a nice 100-miler through some back roads around the Lake. The weather started to improve as well. What started out as drizzle and clouds gave way to clearing and even SUN!
Here's the wife, all geared up...and some more of my bike in Wolfboro...
God she looks cute in her jacket... :drool...um, sorry...
Sorry, the gear...it just...damn...
My dad and my wife...
My wife in full tuck, on her tippy toes...
We then headed back towards the Weirs, stopping off to park the bikes at my Uncle's Condo. We decided to walk the half mile into the tent/beach area to avoid the "traffic". As we put on sneakers and normal clothes, the skies got darker...but it had been like that all week so we ignored it. Whoops. We started walking towards the beach...
...and it started to rain. What was a mist and drizzle the entire week became real live RAIN. So we ducked from tent to tent, passing the time by comparing chaps and German non-DOT helmets and some of the most rediculous t-shirts ever screen-printed. After about 20 minutes of ducking around, we made a decision. Either we can walk around in this shit, or we can ride home in it. Guess which one we chose...
We made it back to the condo completely soaked. We swapped out wet clothes for dry ones we left there, put on every piece of rain gear we had, and took off. We were not alone. On the ride home on 106S, at one point we were in the middle of at least 30 bikes...quite a few people had enough of this shit weather. Having never ridden in the rain, I was surprisingly calm - I guess 400 miles in a couple days surrounded by thousands of other bikes with nary a close call will give you a little confidence boost. We arrived home cold and wet in about two hours.
So that was my first Bike Week experience...fun shit. I think the cool/wet weather kept a lot of people away so the roads were clear and the rides fast. We already have plans for 06...
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by 5TOEZ
