Last Sunday was the fifth annual Steve Rossi Memorial Day Weekend Tiddler Tour.  I worked part of Fri. and all of Sat. trying to get my Moto Guzzi Airone back together to ride it Sun. in the TT but, alas, came up several hours short.  It was exactly one year ago that I took the motor apart when I realized the drive side main bearing was shot.  The clue was sparks coming off the outside flywheel because it was hitting the footrest. The conrod had been running off to one side of the crankshaft and both were badly worn.  It took a while to find and get a freshly rebuilt crank assy. from Italy and my friend Ken Rosevear went through the crankcases re-sleeving bearing to get everything 'square' and in line.
Not finishing it was not a big problem as Mike Peavey let me ride his 1975 250 Jawa Californian which  Scott Rikert brought down along with his own 250 Jawa.

Mike Peavey's '75 250 Jawa

This was the bike that spit Mike off at a Giro and broke his neck.  The dinged headlight rim is about the only evidence 

My brother's wife, Amy, rode the family '65 175 CZ.  So, there were 3 bikes from the Jawa/CZ family, two Hondas (a CB175 vert and an XL175), two Yamaha DT-1, an F7 175 Kawasaki, an R27 BMW,  Peter Davidson's C-15 BSA, Phil Turkington's beautiful Bultaco Metralla (Phil on his first ride since breaking his femur and foot a year ago), host Steve Rossi on his newly acquired 250 Parilla Trailmaster, Mike Peavey on his newly rebuilt Moto Guzzi Airone, my brother Doug on his 260 Benelli, and John Harris on his 125 MZ.  We had some non-tiddlers ride along with us: a couple of BMW boxer twins, a 900 Cagiva and a Honda FT 500 Ascot.

Phil Turkington Bultaco Metralla 

Phil names all his bikes

Host Steve Rossi's 250 Parilla Trailmaster

Steve says 'finally a bike off Ebay that's as advertised'

Brother Doug had just installed a Bridgestone TLS backing plate in his Benelli hub

Steve laid out what I consider his best route yet: great road with a bit of dirt and light traffic.  The 250 Jawa was great with great handling, decent power and brakes, a very comfortable seat and a good riding position.  These bikes have a automatic clutch release actuated by the shift lever, so one doesn't have to use the handlebar clutch lever, just bang the shift lever.  A great feature.

at the lunch stop with John Harris' MZ 125 in the foreground, he with the hat

We had lunch in Lebanon at an Italian restaurant, after which Mike and I switched off, he riding his Jawa, me riding his Airone.  Mike knew the Airone was low on fuel and I ended up running out before we found fuel.  Mike went off in search of fuel and Scott whipped off his belt to tow me part way.  Mike found someone mowing their lawn and got some gas from them and directions to the nearest gas station.  Having lost a lot of time, we jammed hard back to Steve's house.  The Airone was great other than the brakes, the front being weak and the rear sticking on.  Once he sorts the brakes, he'll have a fine ride.  The motor was smooth and absolutely bone dry after a hard flogging.

Mike Peavey's newly rebuilt Moto Guzzi Airone

Despite being slightly cool and having a few very brief showers, it was a great ride.