Mid Fall Wrap Up

I certainly have a bunch of things to report since the last newsletter the day before our Fall Open House.

Here goes:

Our recent Fall Festival was enjoyed by many, even if the freezing morning temperatures encouraged more people to arrive in their cars than usual. This year we placed a charitable emphasis on the open house, requesting attendees to bring canned and non perishable food items for the Seacoast Family Food Pantry. With your help we filled a huge, nearly bursting box with food. When we brought the items to the food pantry, they thanked us most sincerely, and told us how important each donation is to families and individuals who are struggling. A big thank you goes out to each of you who donated food for a good local cause.

As part of the Open House we had our first slow drag race event, and it proved to be quite fun. We set up two identical Piaggio Fly 50 c.c. scooters and a small course in the parking lot. The goal of the slow drag race was to be the last across the line. The winner achieves the longest time, and it really requires riding skill to go slow. Mike Flaherty, a guy who we think of as going fast, won the grand prize gift certificate, by going the slowest! Congratulations to Mike!

Finally, thank you to The Meathouse for providing our Fall Open House participants with a first class barbecue. The food from The Meathouse is always outstanding and it is a wonderful treat to have them come and share some of their outstanding fare. If you liked the barbecue don't forget you can always stop by The Meathouse and enjoy their fantastic food at home.

The morning after the Open House I was on a plane bound for Birmingham, Alabama and Triumph's annual dealer meeting, dubbed the Triumph Town Hall and Dealer Palooza. The event was timed to allow Triumph dealers to experience the Barber Vintage Festival, sponsored by Triumph and the Triumph dealers of North America at the Barber Motorsports Park and Museum.

The spectacular Barber Museum

Trackside with fellow dealer friends

As always, it is great to be around other dealer friends and we do our best to make the most of our time together. Watching races, reminiscing about and drooling over bikes in the museum, and simply getting a little time to get grounded with other people that do what we do is all part of what made this event so special. Besides the actual Town Hall meeting Triumph had some real highlights packed into the Dealer Palooza part of the event. Dealers were given the opportunity to choose how we wanted to spend our free time, you could sign up in advance for opportunities to do some things we love or would love to try.

Zach and Mark at the Triumph hospitality tent

I chose to spend as much time on motorcycles as possible. After an early morning meeting, I began the day with a spirited "country cruise" aboard, believe it or not, a bike from Triumph's display collection, a Steve McQueen Edition Bonneville T100, #33 on the number plate. I was shocked the bike got rolled out into the lineup, and since the new Triumph Trophy SE was already spoken for I grabbed the air cooled twin and enjoyed some Alabama backroads with some fellow dealers aboard one special motorcycle.

A very old Triumph single cylinder with leather belt drive

When we arrived back at the Barber Motorsports Park I had just enough time to rush over to the adventure riding class tent. The session began with some classroom instruction about what we would be doing. Basically, we were going to experience a small sliver of what these professional adventure riding instructors teach on their first day of a multi-day adventure school. After the class time they clipped 2 way radios to each of us and had us jump on our assigned motorcycles. I ended up assigned to the new Tiger Explorer 1200 and although I was nervous, the big cat and I became close friends. The instruction was excellent, and I learned a bunch about controlling an adventurer tourer in the slop. I will conclude with this, I did not get muddy because the bike and I stayed upright, and I was only wet from perspiration because the training was physically challenging.

Adventure riding instruction

One of the great things about this event is that it was designed to connect all of the participants to some the things we love about motorcycling. Next stop, the Barber track! I chugged two bottles of water and pulled on my Triumph leathers. My Arai helmet took a side trip to Philadelphia (I did get it back), so I continued using an old and very worn Bell from the Triumph demo bin. A borrowed helmet is one thing, but heading out onto the track in a tight fitting smelly helmet with a horribly scratched shield is quite another.

One sweet Ducati 888!

 New Triumph Street Triple

After receiving the basic rules for our track time we made our way to the paddock garage to grab bikes.  At first I was assigned to the new Speed Triple R, but then due to someone basically begging for the Triple, I was offered one of the Triumph Thruxton Cup race bikes. Well, I have always loved the Thruxtons, and have always wanted to ride one on a track. I can tell you I had a huge grin under that crappy old Bell helmet. I was able to enjoy this super road racing circuit aboard a bike (albeit not what you would call fast) that was built for just this sort of fun. It was a dream come true, and yes, I definitely still want a Triumph Thruxton.

That is a summary of some of the action the past few weeks. 

Up here we were all so lucky regarding Hurricane Sandy, because literally, we have friends who lost their homes, and our hearts go out to everyone who has suffered as a result of this storm.