What a great time! And quite a few of us actually made it there! Thanks to everyone for taking time and money out of their life to travel to MI for the
weekend.
RickSr and I started with a really sunny Thursday ride across the state to Muskegon. Took three hours to ride over and after a late start we arrived at 9 p.m. while there was still some light left and did a quick set up of the pavillion and tent. Laddie, Wolf, Tom836, Apoc and Melody, and Feederpig were already there. It wasn't until Friday morning that the crew really started rolling in. Madratt, Themotorcycleguy, Gurnee and Ratcollector all used the ferry to cross Lake Michigan and confirmed, although it can be a tad expensive, it is the way to go. I think I'll try it on the next visit west!
The campground that we visited in February turned out to be perfect! A gently rolling piece of land just outside of the main town but still "in-town" for convenience. It rested on a nice piece of land on the beach of an internal small lake and provided a nice wooded alcove for the meet. The owners Joan and Ranger Ron were SO hospitable, even after an evening of rowdy campfire sessions and an official "Get the fuck up I'm hungary" top of the lung announcement from Street at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning! lol We love ya Street. Shit, Ranger Ron hung out with us from time to time and was always quick to give a thumbs up everytime you rode by him on your bike. I like these people for sure. And they only charged us $8.50 per night for complete use of the campgrounds and bath house. A big thanks goes out to them for running electric to our site so we could power up Christmas lights, marguerita machine, coffee maker and a dozen phone chargers.
We went on our first group ride for breakfast and to check out the Bike Time Rally afterwards. A bit chilly, but I still rode with just a t-shirt. What the hell. Gotta sport the hondachopper gear for all to see, right? I think Themotorcycleguy learned NOT to ask me if I'm wearing a jacket or not after that ride! lol
The rally was already in full swing by the time we got there. They shut down a portion of the downtown which stretches more than a quarter mile for bikes only. Its very much like Sturgis with bikes kickstand to kickstand parked on both sides and double rowed down the middle for as far as the eye can see. It looks pretty wild no matter how many times you see this. Very cool. At the one end is the local Harley dealership and their GIANT two level parking lot over looking the water. There they have their own little "destination Daytona" kind of set up with a massive live music stage at one end and Dyno drag stage at the other. Between which are a multitude of typical biker vendors pedalling their 2-for10's and over-priced portions of cholesterol filled snacks to falsely make you think you have eaten a meal. There were lots of people and bikes decorated with every color a Harley can be painted and then some. We even spent time talking to an old HCMFer riding a Santee swingarm sohc riding around with a welders helmet. I hope he posts. Watch out for a guy named Cowpoke, I bet he shows up here soon!
Back out for another short ride and to meet more of our gang as they came in. Got back to the campsite and met the Missouri crew. Bac750 and the Mrs. brought Street with them (thanks for the hot dogs guys). Gee, I thought Street would be about 10 feet tall with spikes coming from his head and barbed wire dreadlocks for hair. But no cigar! Literally, Fishman had to give him one that night! lol Come to find out Street is this normal looking s.o.b. just looking to meet up with a few more HCMFers and have a good time. DAMN! Was I let down or relieved? lol But he is as loud as those short drag pipes on the dohc rat bike he was riding. WAP WAP WAP! The guys keep rolling in. Between Friday night and Saturday morning Roadkill and Fishman, Crazycats, Landman and Kari, Javahut, THC, Daddyschatz and Diana, Oldmanhonda, Mailman and the Mrs., SSminno, JYJ, and Coupe all cam rolling in. Whoo Hooo! Hondachopper baby! The weather was pretty good Friday and Saturday even though the sun never really came out in full force, we still didn't get rained on so to speak. But gee, the night was truly chilly by my standards for fricken JULY!!!!! Its much colder on the west side than the east in MI. On my return ride home when I crossed the "east-west divider" of MI (highway 127) it went up like 10-15 degrees in a matter of seconds while crossing!
Saturday we went for breakfast in a true gang of hondachoppers. It was really cool to pull into the ABATE camp area for breakfast in the downtown area with all those cb750's singing their song! Very cool and "everyone" stopped to see us come in. A decent breakfast of the typical and off to the campground to let the "all-nighters" go back to bed, the wrenchers to fix their rides and the rest of us to figure out a plan for the day. Later in the afternoon we went for a short beach ride. It sure was nice having Laddie, who lives 15 miles north of where we were, staying right in the campground with us. He was our "Julie" all weekend and made for the perfect cruise director. He took us on a ride through northern Muskegon and up to a spectacular beach I never knew existed in the area. See the photos. Next time we gotta spend a bit more time there.
Afterwards we went back to the rally to watch Streetracer and Laddie dual it out on the Dyno drags. Laddie on his sohc versus Street on his dohc. And this time the sohc comes out on top. Good job guys for carrying the hondachopper banner up onto the stage for us all. Laddie pulled low 51hp and Street managed 36hp as their best pulls. I left shortly after that to go shopping for last minute items with Crazycats. I thought we may have to get into a fist fight for about a minute with the tiny little store manager who only wanted to let us buy 8 ears of corn for our 32 people! Jerk off. He gave in, probably because he weighed about a quarter of what either me or Carzycats did, let alone both of us! lol
Feederpig played Sous Chef and we immediately got to cooking up some simple grub for the hungary. And hungary they were! They ate ALL of the food! I brought Berkshire pork loins that we grilled and a concentrated reduction of veal stock that I turned into a sauce. Add some corn on the cobb, salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette, baked beans and a cucumber-tomato-caper salad to the mix and things started to look good. Hey it wasn't very complex but everyone got one decent meal for the weekend and I was able to get it done with nearly no facilities. Glad yall enjoyed the food. We'll do it again for sure. Next time much better even. While I was cooking thewiringguy, errr I mean themotorcycleguy got my headlight working so I'd be ready for the night ride. Thanks Dave, you are a gentleman and a scholar. I look forward to a visit your way soon. Just so you guys know, this guy is really fricken knowledgeable! No shit! He just doesn't post that much on the subject. He's like the "Houndog" of wiring. lol
After dinner we went back to the rally to see Street back up on the Dyno drags with Wolf. Way to go Street! Taking no shit this time he pulled low 50's in the hp department. But Wolf was the victor. He started out a spitting and a sputtering on the first pull with Street and the both of them "fogged" the entire area! The guy running the dyno was quick to announce after the first foggy pull a big thank you to the guys and that the bugs were now taken care of !!! ahahaahahaahahaaha The crowd liked that one. But after that Wolf got things cleared out and showed why he was riding a 30 year old Kaw 1000. He managed 74hp on the last pull and matched or beat all those stock Harleys that got up there. You da man Wolf. I bet it would have gone higher with one or two more pulls.
It was getting chilly so we gathered up all the hondachops parked right where "they" all gathered to see us come in again (by the rice bowl food vendor) and headed out with the same attention. It is SO COOL to show up to these events and cruise through the parade in a group of hondas. We were certainly the talk and everywhere we went there were people watching us come in, park and leave. I bet our crew had more pics taken than any other. Quite amazing actually. And really good for the ego! ahahaahahahaahahaha
We spent the night around the campfire and traded stories and lies. Navy and Rakeandtrail were there in "spirit". I brought some of both from WHCM.
Gurnee's marguerita machine is awesome! I
had a "few" of those. Sunday morning did not come very early but was still sad to see. As we packed up shop and said our good byes we made sure we
would do it again. Most of us pulled out by noon to ride home in the rain as it had finally shown its ugly head. All in all, a great weekend. Its all a bit
fuzzy still. Now, who did I forget to mention?
See yall on the road. Let's do it again sometime.
jps
RickSr and I started with a really sunny Thursday ride across the state to Muskegon. Took three hours to ride over and after a late start we arrived at 9 p.m. while there was still some light left and did a quick set up of the pavillion and tent. Laddie, Wolf, Tom836, Apoc and Melody, and Feederpig were already there. It wasn't until Friday morning that the crew really started rolling in. Madratt, Themotorcycleguy, Gurnee and Ratcollector all used the ferry to cross Lake Michigan and confirmed, although it can be a tad expensive, it is the way to go. I think I'll try it on the next visit west!
The campground that we visited in February turned out to be perfect! A gently rolling piece of land just outside of the main town but still "in-town" for convenience. It rested on a nice piece of land on the beach of an internal small lake and provided a nice wooded alcove for the meet. The owners Joan and Ranger Ron were SO hospitable, even after an evening of rowdy campfire sessions and an official "Get the fuck up I'm hungary" top of the lung announcement from Street at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning! lol We love ya Street. Shit, Ranger Ron hung out with us from time to time and was always quick to give a thumbs up everytime you rode by him on your bike. I like these people for sure. And they only charged us $8.50 per night for complete use of the campgrounds and bath house. A big thanks goes out to them for running electric to our site so we could power up Christmas lights, marguerita machine, coffee maker and a dozen phone chargers.
We went on our first group ride for breakfast and to check out the Bike Time Rally afterwards. A bit chilly, but I still rode with just a t-shirt. What the hell. Gotta sport the hondachopper gear for all to see, right? I think Themotorcycleguy learned NOT to ask me if I'm wearing a jacket or not after that ride! lol
The rally was already in full swing by the time we got there. They shut down a portion of the downtown which stretches more than a quarter mile for bikes only. Its very much like Sturgis with bikes kickstand to kickstand parked on both sides and double rowed down the middle for as far as the eye can see. It looks pretty wild no matter how many times you see this. Very cool. At the one end is the local Harley dealership and their GIANT two level parking lot over looking the water. There they have their own little "destination Daytona" kind of set up with a massive live music stage at one end and Dyno drag stage at the other. Between which are a multitude of typical biker vendors pedalling their 2-for10's and over-priced portions of cholesterol filled snacks to falsely make you think you have eaten a meal. There were lots of people and bikes decorated with every color a Harley can be painted and then some. We even spent time talking to an old HCMFer riding a Santee swingarm sohc riding around with a welders helmet. I hope he posts. Watch out for a guy named Cowpoke, I bet he shows up here soon!
Back out for another short ride and to meet more of our gang as they came in. Got back to the campsite and met the Missouri crew. Bac750 and the Mrs. brought Street with them (thanks for the hot dogs guys). Gee, I thought Street would be about 10 feet tall with spikes coming from his head and barbed wire dreadlocks for hair. But no cigar! Literally, Fishman had to give him one that night! lol Come to find out Street is this normal looking s.o.b. just looking to meet up with a few more HCMFers and have a good time. DAMN! Was I let down or relieved? lol But he is as loud as those short drag pipes on the dohc rat bike he was riding. WAP WAP WAP! The guys keep rolling in. Between Friday night and Saturday morning Roadkill and Fishman, Crazycats, Landman and Kari, Javahut, THC, Daddyschatz and Diana, Oldmanhonda, Mailman and the Mrs., SSminno, JYJ, and Coupe all cam rolling in. Whoo Hooo! Hondachopper baby! The weather was pretty good Friday and Saturday even though the sun never really came out in full force, we still didn't get rained on so to speak. But gee, the night was truly chilly by my standards for fricken JULY!!!!! Its much colder on the west side than the east in MI. On my return ride home when I crossed the "east-west divider" of MI (highway 127) it went up like 10-15 degrees in a matter of seconds while crossing!
Saturday we went for breakfast in a true gang of hondachoppers. It was really cool to pull into the ABATE camp area for breakfast in the downtown area with all those cb750's singing their song! Very cool and "everyone" stopped to see us come in. A decent breakfast of the typical and off to the campground to let the "all-nighters" go back to bed, the wrenchers to fix their rides and the rest of us to figure out a plan for the day. Later in the afternoon we went for a short beach ride. It sure was nice having Laddie, who lives 15 miles north of where we were, staying right in the campground with us. He was our "Julie" all weekend and made for the perfect cruise director. He took us on a ride through northern Muskegon and up to a spectacular beach I never knew existed in the area. See the photos. Next time we gotta spend a bit more time there.
Afterwards we went back to the rally to watch Streetracer and Laddie dual it out on the Dyno drags. Laddie on his sohc versus Street on his dohc. And this time the sohc comes out on top. Good job guys for carrying the hondachopper banner up onto the stage for us all. Laddie pulled low 51hp and Street managed 36hp as their best pulls. I left shortly after that to go shopping for last minute items with Crazycats. I thought we may have to get into a fist fight for about a minute with the tiny little store manager who only wanted to let us buy 8 ears of corn for our 32 people! Jerk off. He gave in, probably because he weighed about a quarter of what either me or Carzycats did, let alone both of us! lol
Feederpig played Sous Chef and we immediately got to cooking up some simple grub for the hungary. And hungary they were! They ate ALL of the food! I brought Berkshire pork loins that we grilled and a concentrated reduction of veal stock that I turned into a sauce. Add some corn on the cobb, salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette, baked beans and a cucumber-tomato-caper salad to the mix and things started to look good. Hey it wasn't very complex but everyone got one decent meal for the weekend and I was able to get it done with nearly no facilities. Glad yall enjoyed the food. We'll do it again for sure. Next time much better even. While I was cooking thewiringguy, errr I mean themotorcycleguy got my headlight working so I'd be ready for the night ride. Thanks Dave, you are a gentleman and a scholar. I look forward to a visit your way soon. Just so you guys know, this guy is really fricken knowledgeable! No shit! He just doesn't post that much on the subject. He's like the "Houndog" of wiring. lol
After dinner we went back to the rally to see Street back up on the Dyno drags with Wolf. Way to go Street! Taking no shit this time he pulled low 50's in the hp department. But Wolf was the victor. He started out a spitting and a sputtering on the first pull with Street and the both of them "fogged" the entire area! The guy running the dyno was quick to announce after the first foggy pull a big thank you to the guys and that the bugs were now taken care of !!! ahahaahahaahahaaha The crowd liked that one. But after that Wolf got things cleared out and showed why he was riding a 30 year old Kaw 1000. He managed 74hp on the last pull and matched or beat all those stock Harleys that got up there. You da man Wolf. I bet it would have gone higher with one or two more pulls.
It was getting chilly so we gathered up all the hondachops parked right where "they" all gathered to see us come in again (by the rice bowl food vendor) and headed out with the same attention. It is SO COOL to show up to these events and cruise through the parade in a group of hondas. We were certainly the talk and everywhere we went there were people watching us come in, park and leave. I bet our crew had more pics taken than any other. Quite amazing actually. And really good for the ego! ahahaahahahaahahaha
We spent the night around the campfire and traded stories and lies. Navy and Rakeandtrail were there in "spirit". I brought some of both from WHCM.
See yall on the road. Let's do it again sometime.
jps

