Hey Folks,
I wanted to give a wrap up on the first ever Barf Rydther Rally (A memorial for Bill Lockwood). I have linked the other photo threads in this post of barfers having a damn good time! That is exactly what it was a damn good time. Big prop's to NoGall (Tom) for putting something together that will be remembered for a good long time by so many. Thanks to Jessi for the most of the pics in this thread.. and some of the others from the other threads that you can check out.
I have included a few links to pieces of info that made this happen in the end of this post.
Here is the thread where we announced the Rally would be named as the Rydther Rally in honor of our Friend Bill. It includes a short vid of the announcement at his memorial and Bill's sister who was pretty touched by Barf's thoughts of her brother.
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=246448&highlight=Barf+Rydther+Rally
So with a 3 Day ride thru the Sierra's finally here we found many of the riders joining at the meet spot in Livermore.. we were greeted by Silversvs on the Police Motor. I was quite happy with the diversity of the group. All kinds of bikes and all kinds of people. Darin and his Dad get the long distance award as they came from Utah to honor Bill. Not only did they come from Utah, but they came to Livermore (after dropping their trailer in Hawthorne) to join us for the ride back towards Utah.. Noice!
Friday we travelled up to Yosemite and thru the park.. at least most did. Pit ho had left early that day and placed some
signs up along the path. More than a few got a big smile because of those signs and Pit ho ended up at the top of Tioga pass holding one as we rode by.. sweet! Thanks for the effort Mark.. it did make for a great way to start the weekend besides the riding of course!
In total we had 3 Dad/Son's on the ride, which is very cool and I was not expecting such for sure. It is neat to stop at a gas station or scenic over look and see others riding by.. a quick nod and made for a smile. This became the norm over the weekend as groups passed each other often.. :cool
On day one we found that our scooter boy (Bergman 400) had some tire issues and those in our group that stopped at Tuolume Meadows Café did our best to suggest and support him and his problem. The first of friendship and support showed up quickly. Darin's Dad would provide a solution and that was so cool. No barfer left behind! More on that later.
As we cascaded down the back side of Tioga the views were incredible and I took something from watching a train of riders going down the road with the steep cliff's tumbling below. The weather was perfect and the day had been too.
Reaching 395 we headed up North to take the long straight road to Hawthorne. Various riders had different experiences on that long straight, but all arrived to a small town with a 40's feel. Seeing the old school casino along with a large group of Vietnam vets on Harley's at the hotel told me this was going to be an interesting place to stay!
Friday night folks wondered over to the Casino, drank 50cent beers and various other libations in a smoke filled environment that tantalized the senses in a way that many had never seen before (old skool). Jumping into the cash filled swirling machine, playing slots, black jack or video poker and drinking the place empty of Patron led to a good night. The Vamp crew headed to Joe's and others followed when the Patron dried up and for some I am sure it went on late into the night. I chose to get some sleep and get ready for another day of riding.. still had a little head ache in the AM though.
Groups wondered out to breakfast and a bunch were ready to roll around 9am with others just getting to breakfast with some blurry eyes..
The great thing about this was NoGall had laid out many things to do and folks joined with friends or new friends and would venture off on their days path.. none really the same and all good to share later in the day before the big dinner.
I took off with NoGall and Wheelmuse (Brian) and we head south thru Nevada.. the "Debris State" as I named it. We saw so many old homes, business, cars, trucks and just debris along the very straight road. The hills and valley were beautiful and Wheelmuse did his best to capture some of the vista's with his camera while riding along. I had rented a BMW from barf sponsors Dubbelju and found it quite to my knees liking as far as riding position and my bootie as far as comfort. I felt zero fatigue from the 270 miles or so on day one. Picking up the bike was a funny experience as I told them I was going on a barf ride and the young lady immediately said it would be 20% more for a barf ride.. :laughing She was joking of course. They asked how far I was going and when told them a 1000 miles they did a very thorough review/double check of the tires. They replaced the front to make sure this old knee dragger would be in good stead. It would have made it no problem, but it was cool to have fresh meat for the road. Thanks guys!
We reached Benton for gas about 10:30 AM and soon hooked up with several other barfers there. flying hun (Kurt) and others would join our little clan.. (sort of) and we headed west on 120 towards 395 and an appointment for lunch. NoGall told us 120 virgins we were in for a treat on a roller coaster ride like none other. Mike warned us of a big bicycle ride that awaited us ahead as he had just come from 395 passing the hundreds of participants along the way.
We rolled out with some space between us started down the two lane twisties.. soon enough the bicyclist started coming the opposite way and kept coming and coming for miles and miles.. damn this was a big ride! I smiled as I zipped by them the opposite direction at just 1 mph over the speed limit
Soon the roller coaster started.. OMG.. I have never seen anything like this road. The lead engineer on the road crew must have been out with major surgery and the road crew just said screw the back fill, just follow the natural terrain. I am talking up and downs every 50 to 100 yards that would vary in height from 10 feet to 100 feet with a curve thrown in once in a while..Noice! You could tell by the scraped pavement on some of the steep uphills that folks in cages had some issues with going too fast.
My stomach bounce from boots to brain and man what fun.. Sometimes you could see the next 20 to come and knew the road was straight and other times you did not know what laid beyond the next crest. It kept the senses tantalized and me wondering if I was going to catch any air on the big GS1200. I heard tail of a flyin hun on a Duc Hypermotard catching some, but there is no physical evidence to be shared.
The whole time streams of bicycles kept going by and once in a while they would cross the road to a rest/water stop on my side so you had to stay sharp. This was one hell of a long ride for them and it was getting warmer to with temps heading into the 90's. After who knows how long the road changed to straight up twisties again with the occasional jump.. I mean hill thrown in.. still bicycles past!
Darin was hanging on his ST and that was the only guy I saw for a while. I reached 395 alone and headed north to the lunch meet spot. A few others on their paths for the day were there and I decided to go catch a smoke at the sign on the hill where I could look down on the road, Mono lake and watch the rest of our group roll in. While sitting there I heard a siren blip and soon saw a bike turn left below me with the red lights of a CHP behind. I thought .."Hope that is not one of ours" It was.. I decided that if the rider happened to look up it could be an epic experience looking up to the Budman above staring down at his demise so I walked back to the restaurant to chat with others and wait for our group. A bunch of CHP's pulled in for lunch and our group did too and I bet there were 25 plus of the Rally participants all there at the same time grabbing some good grub and chatting up the experiences on the Day.
After lunch off to 395 So. And the June Lake loop. It was beautiful and the roads sweet until we started to find sand. Tom was leading and was pointing out sand, gravel and debris with his foot, but soon gave up as it became a two track ride between constant sand. Careful was the word and we sauntered thru the town. We ended up back on 395, but not with all of our group of 7 or so. We sent one back to look and found that Darin's dad had gone down when a truck crossed the DY caused him to have to change tracks in the middle of a turn. A slow lowside sent him to the ground, but with the right gear on he was uninjured, but he would be sore later for sure. Scrape's right across his face proved once again why a full face helmet is a good thing. He said he would limp when we got back to get some sympathy from the gals.. noice! Glade was a good guy.. I had given him a barf name back on Tioga.. Gladerunner.. and mentioned maybe we should change that to SandyGlade after his experience! He laughed and joined us for the run down to Mammoth.
Tom led and confused us when we went past one Mammoth exit and then the next.. WTF? Well Tom being the expert of the GPS the watch and veteran of this sort of stuff determined it would take too long to hit Mammoth so he took us to another part of 120 south of Mammoth.. I think it was 120.. and I did not care at all.. this was the shit and I was having a blast.!!!
We grabbed a left turn and soon passed an animal shelter on the left that had a few bicyclist in the parking lot. Damn.. this turned out to be the finish of what must have been a 100 mile ride! It was probably 95 degrees and we rode on to see a ton of bikes soldering into the finish... and then kept coming almost all the way back to Benton.. wow.
Another gas up and a popsicle gave the bikes and us what we needed and little cool down. It was soon time to make the straightish run back to Hawthorne. Times like this made me wish I was on a Hayabusa, but the Beemer did not miss a beat.. it just did not have the gusto to really enjoy a straight line.
We pulled into Hawthorne around 5pm as planned.. chatted a bit and went to shower up.. cool off..and get ready for the group dinner.
I cleaned up and decided to pull a chair into the parking lot, kick the feet up on a cooler, have a beer and greet others pulling in. Luckett was one and he had some awesome tails of dirt road adventures.. his story is below and he certainly took a more obscure path than most.. awesome fun I thought.. and after seeing the pic's.. NO DOUBT!
About 7pm we headed over the Casino and sat down for dinner/drinks.. there was most of the riders there and while service at the main table lagged the chat was fun. I had all those that showed or I found in the parking lot while kicking it, sign one of the signs for Tom as a thanks.. we gave it to him at dinner with much appreciation for his efforts.
After dinner, which took until 9 plus many joined me in the chair in the parking lot theory rather than back to the Casino/Bar and we shared teh days stories and watched flocks or neurotic doves flying until 11 or so. I gave up some of my best past moto stories including "Cop with Mustard on his shirt", "Buying my Harley" and the "Domino toe slider" ... I have many more for the next rally....Good times!
****End of Part 1******
:smoking
I wanted to give a wrap up on the first ever Barf Rydther Rally (A memorial for Bill Lockwood). I have linked the other photo threads in this post of barfers having a damn good time! That is exactly what it was a damn good time. Big prop's to NoGall (Tom) for putting something together that will be remembered for a good long time by so many. Thanks to Jessi for the most of the pics in this thread.. and some of the others from the other threads that you can check out.
I have included a few links to pieces of info that made this happen in the end of this post.
Here is the thread where we announced the Rally would be named as the Rydther Rally in honor of our Friend Bill. It includes a short vid of the announcement at his memorial and Bill's sister who was pretty touched by Barf's thoughts of her brother.
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=246448&highlight=Barf+Rydther+Rally
So with a 3 Day ride thru the Sierra's finally here we found many of the riders joining at the meet spot in Livermore.. we were greeted by Silversvs on the Police Motor. I was quite happy with the diversity of the group. All kinds of bikes and all kinds of people. Darin and his Dad get the long distance award as they came from Utah to honor Bill. Not only did they come from Utah, but they came to Livermore (after dropping their trailer in Hawthorne) to join us for the ride back towards Utah.. Noice!
Friday we travelled up to Yosemite and thru the park.. at least most did. Pit ho had left early that day and placed some
signs up along the path. More than a few got a big smile because of those signs and Pit ho ended up at the top of Tioga pass holding one as we rode by.. sweet! Thanks for the effort Mark.. it did make for a great way to start the weekend besides the riding of course!In total we had 3 Dad/Son's on the ride, which is very cool and I was not expecting such for sure. It is neat to stop at a gas station or scenic over look and see others riding by.. a quick nod and
made for a smile. This became the norm over the weekend as groups passed each other often.. :coolOn day one we found that our scooter boy (Bergman 400) had some tire issues and those in our group that stopped at Tuolume Meadows Café did our best to suggest and support him and his problem. The first of friendship and support showed up quickly. Darin's Dad would provide a solution and that was so cool. No barfer left behind! More on that later.
As we cascaded down the back side of Tioga the views were incredible and I took something from watching a train of riders going down the road with the steep cliff's tumbling below. The weather was perfect and the day had been too.
Reaching 395 we headed up North to take the long straight road to Hawthorne. Various riders had different experiences on that long straight, but all arrived to a small town with a 40's feel. Seeing the old school casino along with a large group of Vietnam vets on Harley's at the hotel told me this was going to be an interesting place to stay!
Friday night folks wondered over to the Casino, drank 50cent beers and various other libations in a smoke filled environment that tantalized the senses in a way that many had never seen before (old skool). Jumping into the cash filled swirling machine, playing slots, black jack or video poker and drinking the place empty of Patron led to a good night. The Vamp crew headed to Joe's and others followed when the Patron dried up and for some I am sure it went on late into the night. I chose to get some sleep and get ready for another day of riding.. still had a little head ache in the AM though.
Groups wondered out to breakfast and a bunch were ready to roll around 9am with others just getting to breakfast with some blurry eyes..
The great thing about this was NoGall had laid out many things to do and folks joined with friends or new friends and would venture off on their days path.. none really the same and all good to share later in the day before the big dinner.
I took off with NoGall and Wheelmuse (Brian) and we head south thru Nevada.. the "Debris State" as I named it. We saw so many old homes, business, cars, trucks and just debris along the very straight road. The hills and valley were beautiful and Wheelmuse did his best to capture some of the vista's with his camera while riding along. I had rented a BMW from barf sponsors Dubbelju and found it quite to my knees liking as far as riding position and my bootie as far as comfort. I felt zero fatigue from the 270 miles or so on day one. Picking up the bike was a funny experience as I told them I was going on a barf ride and the young lady immediately said it would be 20% more for a barf ride.. :laughing She was joking of course. They asked how far I was going and when told them a 1000 miles they did a very thorough review/double check of the tires. They replaced the front to make sure this old knee dragger would be in good stead. It would have made it no problem, but it was cool to have fresh meat for the road. Thanks guys!
We reached Benton for gas about 10:30 AM and soon hooked up with several other barfers there. flying hun (Kurt) and others would join our little clan.. (sort of) and we headed west on 120 towards 395 and an appointment for lunch. NoGall told us 120 virgins we were in for a treat on a roller coaster ride like none other. Mike warned us of a big bicycle ride that awaited us ahead as he had just come from 395 passing the hundreds of participants along the way.
We rolled out with some space between us started down the two lane twisties.. soon enough the bicyclist started coming the opposite way and kept coming and coming for miles and miles.. damn this was a big ride! I smiled as I zipped by them the opposite direction at just 1 mph over the speed limit
Soon the roller coaster started.. OMG.. I have never seen anything like this road. The lead engineer on the road crew must have been out with major surgery and the road crew just said screw the back fill, just follow the natural terrain. I am talking up and downs every 50 to 100 yards that would vary in height from 10 feet to 100 feet with a curve thrown in once in a while..Noice! You could tell by the scraped pavement on some of the steep uphills that folks in cages had some issues with going too fast.
My stomach bounce from boots to brain and man what fun.. Sometimes you could see the next 20 to come and knew the road was straight and other times you did not know what laid beyond the next crest. It kept the senses tantalized and me wondering if I was going to catch any air on the big GS1200. I heard tail of a flyin hun on a Duc Hypermotard catching some, but there is no physical evidence to be shared.
The whole time streams of bicycles kept going by and once in a while they would cross the road to a rest/water stop on my side so you had to stay sharp. This was one hell of a long ride for them and it was getting warmer to with temps heading into the 90's. After who knows how long the road changed to straight up twisties again with the occasional jump.. I mean hill thrown in.. still bicycles past!
Darin was hanging on his ST and that was the only guy I saw for a while. I reached 395 alone and headed north to the lunch meet spot. A few others on their paths for the day were there and I decided to go catch a smoke at the sign on the hill where I could look down on the road, Mono lake and watch the rest of our group roll in. While sitting there I heard a siren blip and soon saw a bike turn left below me with the red lights of a CHP behind. I thought .."Hope that is not one of ours" It was.. I decided that if the rider happened to look up it could be an epic experience looking up to the Budman above staring down at his demise so I walked back to the restaurant to chat with others and wait for our group. A bunch of CHP's pulled in for lunch and our group did too and I bet there were 25 plus of the Rally participants all there at the same time grabbing some good grub and chatting up the experiences on the Day.
After lunch off to 395 So. And the June Lake loop. It was beautiful and the roads sweet until we started to find sand. Tom was leading and was pointing out sand, gravel and debris with his foot, but soon gave up as it became a two track ride between constant sand. Careful was the word and we sauntered thru the town. We ended up back on 395, but not with all of our group of 7 or so. We sent one back to look and found that Darin's dad had gone down when a truck crossed the DY caused him to have to change tracks in the middle of a turn. A slow lowside sent him to the ground, but with the right gear on he was uninjured, but he would be sore later for sure. Scrape's right across his face proved once again why a full face helmet is a good thing. He said he would limp when we got back to get some sympathy from the gals.. noice! Glade was a good guy.. I had given him a barf name back on Tioga.. Gladerunner.. and mentioned maybe we should change that to SandyGlade after his experience! He laughed and joined us for the run down to Mammoth.
Tom led and confused us when we went past one Mammoth exit and then the next.. WTF? Well Tom being the expert of the GPS the watch and veteran of this sort of stuff determined it would take too long to hit Mammoth so he took us to another part of 120 south of Mammoth.. I think it was 120.. and I did not care at all.. this was the shit and I was having a blast.!!!
We grabbed a left turn and soon passed an animal shelter on the left that had a few bicyclist in the parking lot. Damn.. this turned out to be the finish of what must have been a 100 mile ride! It was probably 95 degrees and we rode on to see a ton of bikes soldering into the finish... and then kept coming almost all the way back to Benton.. wow.
Another gas up and a popsicle gave the bikes and us what we needed and little cool down. It was soon time to make the straightish run back to Hawthorne. Times like this made me wish I was on a Hayabusa, but the Beemer did not miss a beat.. it just did not have the gusto to really enjoy a straight line.
We pulled into Hawthorne around 5pm as planned.. chatted a bit and went to shower up.. cool off..and get ready for the group dinner.
I cleaned up and decided to pull a chair into the parking lot, kick the feet up on a cooler, have a beer and greet others pulling in. Luckett was one and he had some awesome tails of dirt road adventures.. his story is below and he certainly took a more obscure path than most.. awesome fun I thought.. and after seeing the pic's.. NO DOUBT!
About 7pm we headed over the Casino and sat down for dinner/drinks.. there was most of the riders there and while service at the main table lagged the chat was fun. I had all those that showed or I found in the parking lot while kicking it, sign one of the
signs for Tom as a thanks.. we gave it to him at dinner with much appreciation for his efforts.After dinner, which took until 9 plus many joined me in the chair in the parking lot theory rather than back to the Casino/Bar and we shared teh days stories and watched flocks or neurotic doves flying until 11 or so. I gave up some of my best past moto stories including "Cop with Mustard on his shirt", "Buying my Harley" and the "Domino toe slider" ... I have many more for the next rally....Good times!
****End of Part 1******
:smoking
Attachments
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Rydther Ralley (3).jpg
