Fall Giro

This year's USCRA Fall Giro was based in Brattleboro, Vt.  There were about 80 entrants and among them, three Moto Guzzi Airone Sports, including mine.

The Vermont Airone Sports

Laurence Deguilme and I had planned to go together and share a room but, at the last moment, something came up and he couldn't make it.  I called Tim Courts and offered him Laurence's entry.  Tim thought that sounded like a good idea and thought he could get his old 250 Ducati race bike shaken down for the Giro.  I thought Tim was a grizzled veteran of these events, but it turned out that he had never entered a Giro before.

Tim's ex-racebike 250 Ducati.  He was conserned about the seat, which is little more than a plank, but he got a gel pad from my brother and had a sheepskin and he was fine. 

Saturday started pretty cool and somewhat foggy as we headed north from Brattleboro to Dummerston, then west to Newfane and South Wardsboro.  I took a little detour and went to some land that my siblings and I own in West Wardsboro.  After a quick snoop around a tiny corner of the land, I returned to the Giro route on Rt. 100 south thru W. Dover and Wilmington. and into Ma.  We had lunch at Sayre Anthony's Nova Motorcycles in Turners Falls, after a 100 mile morning.  Sayre was working on a number of interesting bikes including a Gold Star an a Pre War DKW100.

A late '30s DKW 100 at Nova Cycles.  Rob Sigond photo

  Robert Fuller was having a hard time starting his Airone Sport as he wasn't quite reading what the motor wanted.  I got it started for him on the 2nd kick.  They're stone axe simple motors, but they can be particular.  The afternoon took us south through Deerfield, then northwest through Conway and Ashfield, east on Rt 2 through Shelburne Falls, than north through Colrain and Leyden back into Vt.   I caught up to Tim as we approached Brattleboro and his bike started running poorly as we got into town.  But, we made it back to the motel and Tim discovered that the problem was that he was running out of fuel.  He filled up the tank and it was better than new.  A total of 193 miles Saturday.
Jesse Morris' NSU Max had blown a head gasket (which he couldn't understand as he had replaced it, heat cycled it and retorqued the head) and Peg Preble had blown up her 175 Honda side car and I offered them each the use of my TC200 Suzuki for Sunday, but they both declined and decided to run a second sweep vehicle in addition to sister-in-law and Amy with Gayle Ellis.

The NSU Max of Jesse Morris and, yes, I'm a terrible photographer

The dealer sticker on Jesse's NSU, King Motorcycle, Brooklyn, N.Y.

A 65cc Yamaha

Sunday was like Sat., cool and sunny.  We headed across the Connecticut River into N.H., then north following the river more or less to Walpole, then east through Alstead Center.  Somewhere around here, I came upon a gaggle of Giroist and I passed a bunch of them down a steep hill just as I see the cop parked by the side of the road, but I guess he didn't see me, luckily.  Shortly after this, Bill Condon pulled up along side me pointing at my bike.  I pulled over and he pointed out that my kickstarter was hanging straight down.  I pulled it up and took off again, but the kickstarted fell down again and I realized that the return spring had broken.  Not a big deal as I had a bungee with me to hold it up and the bike is very easy to bump start.   After a bit, I stopped to see why Rich Hosley and Rick Bell, my nominal teammates in Team Paleo, were stopped.  Rich was securing his speedometer on his Ossa Wildfire after a small crash had knocked it ajar.  They followed me but almost immediately I went on reserve and I wondered if I'd make it to the next fuel stop.  But, I did and while there, Henry Syphers gave me what was left of some oil that he couldn't used, which eased my mind a big as the Airone was spewing it profusely.  We skirted south skirting around the east side of Keene and south some more through Swanzey and Richmond into Royalston,   Ma.  Lunch was at the Boiler Bar and Grill in Orange, a converted mill, 81 miles from our start.

The Boiler Bar & Grill, Sunday's lunch stop.  Rob Sigond photo

 The afternoon took us back up north into N.H.  about 20 miles from the finish, Tommy Cotter's 175 Bridgestone died and his brother Danny towed it back to Brattleboro and they still made their time check.
the scoring of the Giros is almost entirely based on the agility test when one is given a specific time to get through a slalom of cones where points are accumulated for time over or under or for knocking down a cone, dabbing or going out of bounds; low points wins.  I am consistently a high scorer, but this Giro I actually did fair.  I had a total of 7.7 points and beat my Team Paleo teammate Rick Bell's (250 H-D Sprint) 10.284, but we both dragged down Team Leader Rich Hosley's 4.842, good enough for 2nd 250 and 10th overall.

I love these Zundapp Super Sabres

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They do require pre-mixing

The owner found an NOS exhaust pipe for cheap

Jake Herzog's Grossa, an Ossa motor in a Greeves chassis

A YDS2 Yamaha

Fall Moto Giro

The USCRA's Fall Moto Giro was held in Asheville, N.C. this year on the weekend before the Barber Vintage Festival.  Will Paley, who participated in many Giros while he lived in Ct., moved to the Asheville area a couple of years ago and organized and laid out the route this Giro.  When I arrived on Fri., people were getting set up and doing last minute prep on there bikes.  I was quite taken with Tom Cotter's Progress scooter.

This is a late '50's German machine powered by a 191cc Sachs two stroke.  German machines of this era have such beautiful aluminum castings.  Tom let me take it for short ride and I was quite impressed.

It started to rain and blow in the afternoon and we knew that this was the beginnings of Hurricane Joaquin.  The predictions were dire, but we went to bed hoping for the best, knowing that the media often hypes these things way out of proportion.
The headquarters motel was chosen because of it's proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was our exit out of town.  Unfortunately, we found Sat. morning that the BRP had been closed.  Apparently, trees were down, and there was no easy way to revise the route on short notice, so Saturday's route was abandoned and we just did a agility test in the parking lot.
The majority of the Giroist decided to go to the Wheels Through Time museum in Maggie Valley, not far away.  But, a few of us wanted to ride.  Yeah, it was raining and blowing, but so what?
Rob Hall grew up in the area, though he now lives in Charlotte, and he volunteered to lead us on a ride.    Six of us took off, heading first to Rob's brother Jake's shop, Hall's Custom Vintage, so Rob could pick up some two stroke oil.  We got to see Jake, who was recovering from a badly broken leg he received when T-boned while road testing a customer's beautiful BSA Goldstar.  HCV is a great shop and between Jake, Rob, and their dad Stuart, they can tackle anything for restoration or performance.  After checking out a few of their current projects and a good smooze, we got on the road again.

Leaving Halls Custom Vintage during Hurricane Joaquin.  Stuart Hall photo

Rob was riding the 125 Sachs Boondocker that he and his brother had beat the shit out of when they were kids.  Rob dragged it out of the barn where it had sat idle for years a few days before and threw some new tires on it.  I was riding my '68 TC 200 Suzuki, Mike Baker and Steve Fowler we each on 250 H-D Sprints, Tom Cotter was on his Progress and his nephew Kevin was on a YDS-3 Yamaha.  After a couple of miles of residential streets, we got to Elk Mountain Rd., and the fun began.  The road climbs steeply with switchback after switchback.  I couldn't believe the pace Rob was setting.  I knew Rob was a great roadracer, having raced against him at Roebling Rd., Barber, and Talladega.  But, now he was on a 125 dirt bike with trials universal tires.  In the pouring rain, he was  sending it in to the wet leave covered roads.  Admittedly, he knew the road well, but still I was dumbfounded, and there was no way I could hang with him.  When we stopped for a break, I asked him about those trials universal tires.  The front was a Shinko and the rear was a Golden Boy!  China's best.
We worked our way to Banardville, and then headed back, dropping Rob off at HCV.  Yeah, it was wet and there were a few branches down, but I think people had over reacted again.  Back at the HQ motel, my old friend, Bob Curtis, met us for lunch.  I probably met Bob 35 years ago when he live in the East End of Long Island, near the Bridgehampton race circuit.  About 10 years ago, he moved down to Burnsville, a little north of Asheville.  A couple of years after that, he fell in an AHRMA cross country and broke his back and is paralyzed from the waist down.  He now lives in a rehab facility in Asheville and his wife brought him over to the motel to see the bikes and some old friends, including Bob Coy, President of the USCRA, who he hadn't seen for about 30 years.  This motorcycle sport is serious fun.
At dinner that night, it was announced that Will had come up with a plan to run Sunday's route despite the fact that the Blue Ridge Parkway was still going to be closed.  Five or so locals would lead groups of 12 or so Giroist on a complicated route some 12 miles out of town to where we'd pick up the original route, for which we already had route sheets.  And, while the day started drizzly, it got nicer and nicer and, by mid-day, the sun was out and the roads were dry.  And, what roads they were.
Early on, I got hooked up with Rich Hosley riding his Ossa Wildfire.  But then he missed a turn and I rode for myself through some fabulous roads.  Grapevine Rd., Revere Rd., Lonely Mountain Rd.  Switchback after switchback with superb views and almost no traffic.  After I had gone quite a ways and was beginning to wonder if I had missed a turn, I stop to take a piss.  Being the modest, retiring fellow I am, I walk a ways off the road after parking my bike right on the side of the road.  I heard a two stroke coming and I got back to my bike just in time to see Rich passing and riding off in the distance.  There are no friends in a Moto Giro; it's cut throat.  So now I jammed hard trying to catch Rich, but ended up being the first one at the lunch stop in Marshall.  Rich had gotten lost again.
After lunch and the agility tests, I left with Rick Bell on his Sprint.  After we went a ways, we got hung up by some Giroist who were taking the average speed a bit too literally for my taste and I made a bit of a rude pass and lost Rick.  Some ways later, I saw a rider up ahead, and it took me for ever to catch up to him.  I followed for a good while and couldn't find a was to safely pass at this pace.  Finally, when he looked down at his route sheet in his tank bag figuring out the next turn, I swooped by, having my route sheet holder up on the cross bar of the handlebars and not having to take my eyes off the road much to read it.  This fellow, on a CB160 Honda, latched right onto me and we rode hard all the way back to the finish.  Trent Webster from Knoxville, Tn., introduced himself and I told him that I was impressed by his riding after he told me the motor was stock and still 161cc.

Trent Webster's CB160 Honda

I was impressed that Trent's taillight actually worked

Swiss Neiderberger gets the long distance award.  He brought this 250 Motobi from British Columbia

Eli Kirtz' on his C110 Honda, the sole 50cc entry

After a rough start, it turned out to be a great Giro.

Ron Cowan's Sears Allstate/Puch SR250 Twingle

Rich Snyder's '67 LS-2 Yamaha

Eli's faithful mascot

The legendary Cotter brothers, Danny standing and Tommy on his Progress, after Tommy survived going over a cliff, hauling his scooter 40' up to the road with the help of half a dozen or more and carrying on to the finish.  What's the big deal?

retrieving Tommy's Progress

I stayed on a few days with Will and his wife Elaine, in Weaverville, and got to ride much of his fleet.  Mon., my brother Doug and his wife Amy came over.  Doug's Benelli had died the previous day, his first DNF, and he found the loose connector in about 5 minutes in Will's shop, and we went for a ride, me on Will's Moto Guzzi Falcone, Will on his R-50 BMW, Rick Bell on his Sprint.  I rode my TC200 down to Bob Curtis' rehab facility and had dinner with him and his wife, who had brought Chinese takeout.  Over the next couple of days, I got to ride Will's NX 250 Honda and 2011 Moto Guzzi V-7.   I thought Will, having three BMWs, should know Ivan Messina and  Motorrad Unlimited, and we took a ride over to West Asheville and checked out his shop while he was preparing a bunch of bikes for Barber.  We visited Jake Hall again at HCV when I needed to weld a broken cable adjuster I found on my ERTT when preparing it for Barber.  Will took a shine to a 1950 Douglas Mk IV 350 they had in the shop and he recently told me that he bought it.  And we rode down to the Wedge Brewing Co. on a fine evening and met up with some of Will and Elaine's friends.  All in all, a great prelude to the Barber Vintage extravaganza.

2014 Fall Moto Giro

My art director, Bill Burke, arranged this portrait.  Bill Burke photo

This past weekend I went to the USCRA's Fall Giro, based in Tannersville, Pa. in the Poconos.  I ran my '53 Moto Guzzi Airone Sport which, once again, seemed to be the oldest bike in the event.  My friend Laurence Deguillme came with me an rode a Honda CA77 Dream.
We had a spot of bother getting there when my van died 11 miles short of the Delaware Water Gap in N.J.  It seemed like the same symptoms as 5 days and 235 miles before when the van fuel pump failed on the way back from NJMP.  We had the van towed to a service station in Bartonville, Pa., the town next to Tannersville and my brother and sister-in-law came and picked us up.
Sat. morning after the rider's meeting, I rode to the service station to meet the proprietor and explained the history of the van and get them started.  I got back to HQ a little after my start time and started incurring penalty points.  It was a beautiful day and combined quite brilliant fall colors with warm temperatures and a clear sky.  What's not to like?  We had a very good ride to the first check point where I called the service station and found that the fuel pump hadn't died this time, but a hose was kinked which presumable cause the pressure to rise and blow off another hose in the tank.  They were replacing the kinked hose and putting the other hose back on and should have it done before they closed at 1p.
Lunch stop was back at the base hotel and, after checking in and running the agility test, I rode the 6.5 miles down to the service station, loaded the bike in the van and headed back to the hotel to start the afternoon section.  However, I only got a couple of miles when the van died again.  I called the service station back and luckily they hadn't left yet.  The sent a flat bed and towed it back to the shop where the pulled the gas tank out again and found the hose had blown off again.  This time they clamped the press fit hose on, but said they couldn't guarantee it.
All this meant the I didn't ride the afternoon section.  Laurence had bike trouble almost immediately in the morning section and returned to the hotel  He got it fixed enough that he was able to do the afternoon section so, between the two of us, we got the whole day's ride in.

Triumph Cub

Sunday proved to be even warmer (in the 80's), but it seemed like it took longer to warm up.  We had a very good route in the morning, although we took a wrong turn and added 14 miles to the 83 mile morning section.  This mistake was on a really nice road, at least.  I found the afternoon section a bit tedious as in was mostly on State Highways with a lot of traffic and little opportunity for passing.  But, apparently this was because the route had to be changed at the last minute because of police activity in the manhunt for the accuse cop killer.  The Airone didn't miss a beat over the event, though it did spew quite a lot of oil.  Laurence's Ca77 however died again and he came in on the 'sag wagon'.  We loaded  up and headed home with our fingers crossed, but the hose clamp fix seemed to work and we made it back no problem.

Sunday morning pit stop with Bill Burke's NSU Max Special and my Moto Guzzi Airone Sport and Scott Rikert on the right.

Another view of the pit stop with Gino's Cl175 Sloper and Scott's 250 Jawa California

A Yetman CB77, a pretty rare item

A Puch Twingle

John Cooper's trick 250 Motobi with Ceriani road race forks and a 210mm Fontana 4LS front brake

This was the overall winners mount.  Each year he comes with a different tank badge.  It's been Matchless and Ariel, and this year it was Puch.

A 250 Benelli Barracuda 

A mid '60s Moto Morini 150

A beautiful 98cc Gilera

My post yesterday about the '08 Moto Giro generated a photo and a comment, so I thought I would elaborate.  Dick Hollingsworth sent me this photo:

I believe that's Chris Sidlah in the middle and it's Rob Diepenbroek on the right.  I don't know who took the photo, but I suspect it was Tod Rafferty, the maker of the video.

Tod refers to this incident in the video.  Unbeknownst to me, the oil return pipe from the exhaust rocker box to the crankcase fractured, spewing oil out while I rode along oblivious on fast, straight roads on the last day returning to Monterey, inland.  I came over a rise and found everyone stopped.  A rancher was moving cattle from one field to another and the road was blocked.  It was then that I noticed the oil everywhere.  We were able to preform a decent roadside repair making a splint with a split piece of hose safety wired over the broken pipe, then covered with a quick set epoxy.  David Edwards, then editor of Cycle World magazine, gave me a qt. of oil that he had extra, and I was back in business.  If the rancher hadn't blocked the road, I might well have seized the motor as, not long after this, we ran into heavy headwinds and I did a lot of running full throttle in 3rd gear.
BTW, Rob Diepenbroek is the builder and rider of the 900 bevel drive Ducati featured at the beginning of the video.  He's a fabulous metal worker and made all the body work on his Duke.
Tod points out in his comment that it's 'Barry Porter' not 'Barry Gordon' who I'm joking with at the agility test in Paso Robles (5:48-6:02).  Barry had a number one or two below me, so we did lots of riding together.  He had a very nice Bultaco Metralla and is an excellent rider.  But, he would generally let me go by in the twisties then, when we got out on the open, fast roads, I would tuck in behind him and suck the draft.  We had great fun tag teaming our way through central Ca.
In the video, Tod refers to Steve Flack's bike as a Honda 160, but I believe it's actually a CL 175 sloper.  A few of the purist seemed miffed that lowly 'Jap crap' scored the overall win, but it was mostly popular as Steve is such a great guy and impressive Giro competitor.
Tod has a couple of references and shots of Harley Welch's scooter.  It's worth pointing out that it's a Heinkel 150 with the perfect wicker basket on the back and I was very impressed with it's performance.

My friend Stu Carter just sent me a link to a video of the 2008 Moto Giro America which took place in Central California, starting and ending in Monterey and based three days in Paso Robles.  Seeing the video brought back lots of good memories, as it was a fabulous event.  There was a great bunch of riders on some superb bikes and excellent roads, route sheets, accommodations and food.  The USCRA Moto Giro crew did the timing and scoring.  I initially roomed with Frank Scurria, a legendary racer from the '60s.  He had a very serious accident on the second day and was airlifted out, but has since recovered completlely.  Unfortunately, the event was a money loser and so never happened again.
http://vimeo.com/66865312

The weekend of 14-15 Sept. I went up to my brother's to shake down a couple of bikes for the Fall Giro the following weekend in Newry, Maine.  I had talked my friend, Phyllis, into entering the Giro on my brother's 175 Bridgestone Hurricane Scrambler.  That hadn't run this year and maybe not since I rode it in the MotoGeezer Kick Start Classic late July, 2012.  It took a million kicks and a few pushes to get started, but then it ran fine.  My Moto Guzzi Airone Sport hadn't run in over two months, but that started on the first kick.  I also took my sister-in-laws new acquisition, a R-65 BMW, for a ride.  I went about 20 miles on each of them and they were all good.  The next day, we went to the Italian Motorcycle Owners Club meeting in Sturbridge, Ma.  I rode the Airone the 68 miles on back roads;  Doug and Amy drove in the cage while Doug recovers for his latest total hip replacement.  It was a beautiful day and there were a bunch of interesting bikes there including Buzz Kanter's '47 Guzzi Astorino and a Bimota V-Due (which seemed to run fine).  I forgot my camera and so have no photos.
But, Josh Martin risked his life by taking this photo from the middle of the road on our return.

Paige Mazurek, yours truly, and Bill Burke with our Horizontals on the way back from the IMOC rally

The next Fri., I picked up the Airone and Bridgestone in my van and drove up to Newry, while Doug and Amy took the Subaru with trailer to run 'sweep'.
Sat. morning was foggy, but fairly warm.  Rich Hosley was #80, I was 81 and Phyllis 82, with the highest number  being 89, I think.

Before the start Sat. morn.  Ken Richardson photo

Rich's Ossa Wildfire didn't want to start until he put a new plug in it.  Then, after the agility test, he shut it off and it didn't want to start again. I pushed him with the Airone about a half mile down hill before it started again.  I realized a didn't have my earplugs in and Phyllis misinterpreted my hand signal to 'stop, wait for me' as 'go'.  So, she took off while I searched for my earplugs, convincing myself I'd left them back in the hotel room, only to find I had them on me all the time when I got back to the room.  So, we were all separated early and I rode by myself to the first checkpoint.  I was surprised to find that Phyllis wasn't there, but she showed up shortly after, having missed a turn and gone a distance the wrong way.

Rich Hosley's Ossa Wildfire with my brother 175 Bridgstone H.S behind it at the first checkpoint.

The morning fog that made navigating so hard had burned off and we rode together though Errol, N.H., to the lunch stop in Rangeley, Me.  At lunch, Phyllis and I admired the C110 Honda of Eli Kirtz.

A Honda C110, one of the few 50cc bikes in the Giro.  Eli is wearing a Swedish Army jumpsuit.

Eli's mascot

After lunch, Phyllis and I took off together and, after some miles, we are going down a fairly steep hill with a fairly sharp left turn just before a stop sign at a crossroad.  I crossed and started up the hill on the other side when I notice Phyllis isn't behind me.  I stopped and waited a minute, then turned around and went back.  There's a pickup stopped and someone waving frantically at me.  Phyllis has crashed and is off the side of the road.  A bunch of Giroist stop as she's getting up.  Her face is bloody despite having a full coverage Arai Corsair helmet on because evidently she scooped up a bunch of rocks in it as she crashed.  She was a bit dingy and confused.  We dragged the bike up the bank and called Amy in the Sweep Car.  Amy was taking a dead bike back to the hotel and would be a half hour before she got there and another hour before she could get to us.  The fellow with the pickup truck, a Harley rider, volunteered to take Phyllis and the bike back to the hotel.  So we humped the bike up into the bed and cinched it down.  By this time I was assured that she was beat up, but basically alright, so I carried on with the route.  Serious fun.

I made it to the afternoon checkpoint with a minute or two to spare.  In the final leg back to the hotel, my bike was backfiring on the overrun.  When I got back, (after  checking on Phyllis who had taken a shower and was feeling much better and was much more lucid),I discovered that one of the nuts that hold the exhaust head pipe into the head had come off.  It was 7 X 1.00M  and, incredibly, no one had a spare.  After checking with several people to no avail, I finally realize that the seat spring bolts were 7 X 1.0 and I stole the nut to use on the exhaust and replace the bolt with a 6mm one.  It started raining as I was finishing up and the forecast indicated Sun. was going to be a washout.
As promised, it was still raining Sun. morning and a lot of lightweights packed up and went home.  But, as the last bikes were leaving the morning agility test, it stop raining.  The day just got nicer and nicer.  The route was better Sunday, also, with more turns, tighter roads, and more dirt roads.   Mark Young on his 250 Ducati Scrambler, followed me much of the morning.  Late in the morning, I missed a turn, but Mark didn't.  I went about a mile before I realized what I had done and did a U-turn.  Now, I was following Mark.  The route went on a long dirt road.  My bike started backfiring again on the overrun.  I figured that nut had loosened and I'd deal with it at lunch as that was not far away at the Worlds Fair, N. Waterford, Me.
When I got there, I discovered that the hanger bracket had broken on the muffler, undoubtedly from being stressed the day before when the exhaust was flopping around, and the muffler had dragged along the dirt road, ripping the fishtail off.  If I hadn't missed that turn, Mark would have seen this and been able to stop me.  Alas.  I wired the hell out of it and tightened up the header nuts and it was quiet, if ugly for the afternoon.  After we got back to the hotel and punched in and before the awards presentation, I got my bi-annual haircut on the solstice  (4:44p).  Long time volunteer Barb Wood's son, Mike, was doing the Giro for the first time.  He's a professional barber and he volunteered to do the cut.  So, I had my first professional haircut since 15 April, 1970, the day I got out of the Army, in front of the assembled crew.  Ken Richardson documented this, and has a bunch of other great photos from the weekend at his blog: http://www.kenrichardsonphoto.com/d445ea8b9c7424ded97e
Geoff Boughton put together a nice, short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5NJGYM950s
Some other nice bikes from the event:

A Zundapp Super Sabre

A Second Ossa Wildfire

Mitch Fraizer's 175 CZ, like my brother's, but earlier

A nice Bultaco Metralla

I think the only bike there that would have be eligible for the original Giro d'Italia, a '56(?) 175 Gilera

Last weekend (Sept 22-23) was the USCRA's Fall Giro, this year based in Cavendish, Vt.  With my Airone still apart, brother Doug(and Amy, for that matter) graciously let me ride the '65 175 CZ.  Doug rode his '65  250 Benelli and brought his 200 Bridgestone for backup.

Before we arrived Fri. afternoon, that backup was called upon.  Henry Syphers realized just before he arrived that he had forgotten the key to the 175 Bridgestone he had bought from Doug and wondered if we could swing by his house in Manchester, Ct. and pick it up.  We were long past Manchester, but Doug suggested Henry could take the ignition switch out of the 200 and put it in his 175.
There were a number of interesting bikes lined up by the time we got there, including a few for sale, like this Ariel Leader.

Sat. started cool and cloudy and, after we rode a ways, got very foggy.  Rich Hosley, on his Ossa Wildfire, came by in the fog and we rode together to the first checkpoint at Bunnell's Parts and Accessories, 488 Main St, Claremont, N.H., a non franchised motorcycle, snowmobile and ATV dealer.

Doug Roper's '85 175 CZ and Rich Hosley's 250 Ossa Wildfire @ Bunnell's.  Bill Burke photo

Brian Bunnell was super supportive of the Giro, helping Giroist all weekend including meeting Rich Hosley on the road with a selection of clutch cables to replace the one that was just about to break.  Bunnell's also had some great vintage racing photos on the wall of Roger Chase on a pre-unit Triumph in a scrambles and at Laconia and on a Parilla.

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The Autumnal equinox was approaching at 10:49am, which meant it was time to cut my hair.  I made a rough calculation on how many miles it would take to get to 10:49, then looked for an appropriate spot to stop at that mileage and started mowing.  I'd never done this in the field before, so had bought a battery powered mower.  I traditionally cut the scalp and beard to a 1/2" length, so I snapped on a rake that looked about 1/2" and started mowing, not realizing the mower had an adjuster for height that was on minimum not maximum.  The result was that my hair has not been this short since 15 April, 1970, when I got out of the Army.

Bill Burke, Peter Booth, and Ken Richardson look on as I do the semi annual shearing.  Tom Halchuk photo

1. 

   Bill Burke photo.  He says I should have stopped now.

   The chores done, it was on to lunch.  At lunch, I checked the fuel and there was plenty, so I didn't add any.  The CZ had seemed more rattle-ly than the last time I rode it, and at first I just chalked that up to the piston getting sloppier in the bore.  Then I wondered 'could this be detonation?  Naw, can't be.'  After the afternoon time check, the bike started getting more sluggish and finally started to die.  I put it on reserve and carried on a bit further, but then it cut out completely.  But, it seemed like I had plenty of gas in it.  Sparkplug?  Brother Doug stopped, then Rich Hosley, and we ruled out the sparkplug theory.  Then, the sweep truck showed up and Doug and Rich rode on.  We mixed up a gallon of gas and put it in, thinking reserve might be plugged, but still nothing.  We pulled off the fuel line and nothing came out in any position.  So, then we laid the bike on it side and took the fuel tap out and apart and sprayed contact cleaner through every orifice in every direction.  I tried starting the bike without my earplugs in or helmet on and it started, but I could hear right off that something was leaking.  We found all the cylinder head nuts loose.  Tightening them down made it better but it was still leaking as the head gasket was blown, and we put the bike on the trailer.  Back at the hotel, I found someone had some gasket material, like you'd use on an intake manifold, and Doug & I fashioned a head gasket.  Once I remembered to put the sparkplug lead back on, it started first kick and sounded fine. 
2. It rained hard over night, but stopped by the morning.  I started the CZ early and let it idle for 10 or 15 minutes to get it good and hot, then retorqued the head nuts.  I suited up, but when I went to leave the bike wouldn't start.  I put a fresh plug in it, it started and I left late.  After a couple of miles, it started cutting out then died.  I figured all that idling had loaded it up and fouled the plug again.  I took it out and cleaned it, and it ran a bit then died again.  Amy and Gayle arrived with the sweep car and they took me back to the hotel.  I first tried to steal Mike Peavey's backup Moto Guzzi Lodola, then Bill Burke NSU Special Max, but I couldn't get either of them started.  Mitch Fraizer was there, his 305 Honda having holed a piston the previous day from an air leak. We went back to the CZ.  He was convinced it was a fuel flow problem, not spark, and we took the fuel tap apart again.  Now it started and idled, but wouldn't take any throttle.  So, we took the carb apart and cleaned every orifice.  Finally, it ran well.  I took off on the short cut to lunch with Mitch and Jean following in their truck ready to scoop me up if the CZ died.  It ran fine for maybe 10 miles, then didn't want to take full throttle.  I'd roll off and it would start running again.  I could maintain about 40mph n the flat, so I just carried on to lunch in Quechee, Vt.  I had enough time to wolf down a quick lunch and then took off for the afternoon session.
3. Immediately the motor started cutting out and probably within two miles it died completely.  While I was getting ready to attack it, Scott Rikert, Mike Peavey and Bill Burke stopped to help.  It was a fuel feed problem again.  While Scot held his finger over the opening in the fuel tank, I took out and took apart the fuel tap again.  Now, it seemed like the cork inside had smushed over the main orifice and I hogged it out with the awl in my Swiss Army Knife. 

4. 

   Scott Rikert has his finger on the fuel tap bung while I auger out the cork  and Mike Peavey looks on.  Bill Burke photo
   

   
   

   1.  That did the trick and the CZ was now running fine.  The four of us rode together into Coolidge State Park where Amy was motioning everyone to slow down as someone had been busted for exceeding the ridiculous 15mph speed limit.  Scott popped a wheelie (on a 250 Jawa!!) for her.

   After a check point on the top to the mountain, the road turned to dirt but became smooth, wide and loose.  Scott led and pulled away, with Mike next and me following.  It looked like Mike got surprised by a downhill right corner and grabbed a bit too much front brake and slapped it down hard.  I avoided him and, by the time I got my bike stopped, turned around and found a place to get it on it's stand Devon Frazier had shown up and called Amy and Gayle.  Mike had hit his head really hard to the point his forehead was lightly abraded through the helmet .  He was dazed and his shoulder and neck really hurt.  Even though his Jawa was rideable, Mike made the right decision to load it on the trailer and ride back in the car.
5. When we got back to the hotel, Mike was still a little dingy and in a lot of pain.  He's had back/neck issues before and figured a session with his chiropractor the next morning would straighten him out.  He asked Ken Richardson to drive him back home to Boston.  On the way he got nauseous and almost passed out.  They consulted a doctor friend of his and the decision was to take him straight to the emergency room when they did some imaging and found he had two broken vertebrae and a displaced disc which, had it displaced a little more, would have been catastrophic.  They put him in traction for a while, then operated on him, fusing two of the vertebrae with a metal plate and he was out of the hospital in 72 hours.  Amazing.  He should be fine.  A reminder that this motorcycle business is serious fun.
6. a Zundapp Super Sabre

a Yetman CB77

George Ellis' 50cc Wards Riverside (Benelli) with Rich Snider's C102 Honda

The long distance award goes to the couple who came from Hawaii, she riding this trick 160 Ducati

Carlton Palmer's 200 Benelli