Gophers and Cheese

This year's AMCA Vintage Motorcycle Show is this Friday and Saturday at the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul.  I am planning to attend and this will be my third year.  I already posted some pics from the 2009 show here and here .  Here are a few from the 2008 show... As usual, the parking lot was a great place to see cool bikes that aren't even part of the show. Inside were lots of vintage motorcycles and scooters from all sorts of brands. Here's a 1970 Sportster. On the left is a 1960 Triumph T120 and on the right is a 1967 Triumph T100R. This is a very shiny 1949 Triumph 3T. Also under the skylights was this Harley with vintage bling. Going way back was this 1919 McKenzie.  Check out the belt drive. Behind the building, there is a swap meet and an area where there are some bike games.  It's always cool to see the old bikes actually be ridden.  The guy with the blow-up doll on the scooter was funny - he'd have it in a different position on e...

I had to break in the Sporty's new tires so I took a ride yesterday afternoon.  I headed north on I-35 to US-8 with the intention of going towards Taylors Falls.  However, once on US-8, I ran into rain and the sky was very dark to the east so I dropped south on US-61. I stopped in Hugo to take some pictures by Senor Ricci's Cantina & Restaurante.  It's obviously been closed for a while.  The building has an "old west" theme. I continued south and caught I-94 in St Paul and headed west.  I hit some rain and some wet roads along the way and, with no front fender and a chopped rear, I got soaked.  I didn't mind though.  I stopped at Bob's for coffee and watched the skies, waiting for some of the showers to pass.  Before heading home, I went for a ride around Lake Calhoun, another part of the Grand Rounds . The weather was really spotty as there were patches of think clouds & rain and there were patches of beautiful blue sky.  The ...

After nearly 3 years and 14,000 miles on my last set, the Sporty was due for some new tires.  Not only was the tread on the rear tire almost gone, I discovered a piece of metal (a nail?) in it.  See, there is a functional benefit to a chopped rear fender - you can more easily inspect your tire!  Here you can see the old tire on the bike along next to the new one.  Note the much deeper tread. Here's a shot of the metal in the tire.  It never caused a loss in pressure. I ordered the new tires from Dennis Kirk .  I was so close to ordering Avon Speedmasters but decided to stick with the stock Dunlops as they perform well and last quite a while.  I pulled both wheels off myself.  I have previously had the front off before to install the fork boots but it was my first time removing the rear (I had a local dealer change my tires last time).  I had to loosen the rear exhaust pipe and move it out of the way to be able to get the axle out.  T...

This evening was really nice.  I took the Road King out for a ride and headed over to the east side of the Mississippi River near the Stone Arch Bridge in downtown Minneapolis. This is a view from the top of the Stone Arch Bridge facing west towards of downtown. Looking north (right) from this side of the bridge, I noticed a neat little wooden footbridge and a few guys fishing. I wondered how to get down there and just to the right of the entryway to the Stone Arch Bridge I found this wooden staircase. I walked down and got a great view of the bridge. Here's the view looking back up at the stairs. There was a path but it was not well marked and a little overgrown. I followed the path through the woods to the little footbridge I saw from the Stone Arch Bridge. Here's a better look at the Stone Arch Bridge from the footbridge. I headed back and here's a nice view of the Stone Arch Bridge framing the Guthrie Theater with downtown skyscrapers just visible off...

I met up with a friend in downtown Minneapolis yesterday to go riding with him for the first time.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  He is new to riding and wanted to learn some good places to go.  I probably should have taken it easy on him but instead, in just one day, I showed him some of the best the area has to offer along the St. Croix River.  He still has less than 1,000 miles on his brand new Super Glide but about 200 of them were just yesterday.  You can see a lot of these individual roads on my " Roads to Ride " page but here's how I strung them together... To avoid I-94, we took MN-36 west and headed south just before Stillwater.  We followed the St. Croix Trail on the Minnesota side all the way to Prescott, WI.  From there we headed south to Diamond Bluff, WI through my favorite stretch of road and stopped at the Nauti Hawg.  We left the Nauti Hawg, continued south to Red Wing, MN and west along US-61N.  We then dropped sout...

Today was absolutely beautiful and I retraced some of my steps from last weekend where I visited Minnehaha Falls as I explored more of the Grand Rounds .  Today I was out on the Road King and stopped along the Mississippi River for some pictures by the bridges. I stopped at Mill Ruins Park and took a bunch of pictures from the Stone Arch Bridge. While walking along the bridge I narrowly escaped this gang of terrors on two wheels. I stopped again at Minnehaha Falls and then continued along the Grand Rounds to Lake Nokomis.  The high was in the upper 80s today and, not surprisingly, the beaches were very busy. Along I-94, the electronic traffic signs had a helpful reminder that I certainly appreciated.  Of course, any driver who is paying enough attention to actually notice, read, and think about the sign is probably not the problem.  The best advice is to always ride like you're invisible.