August 08, 2011
Rockerbox 2011
Notes: My full set of photos is here on FLickr. My camera battery died about halfway through my walk around the show. Bummer/bad planning.
My old buddy Art (on my '08 WR250R) and I ('81 XJ750 Seca) departed Zion around 9:00, met up with Brady ('81 Kaw 750), Walter ('49 Indian Scout), and Nick ('7? Honda CB750) in Pleasant Prairie, then met Gabe ('91(?) Yamaha somethingorother) at Woodman's in Kenosha at 10:00. Yes, my WRR was the newest bike by about 17 years. Also, my Seca was the only shaftie. I notice odd things like this. It was quite the collection of bikes.
It was quite an honor to ride with a bike that's nearly as old as my dad (and has fewer aftermarket parts!).
After some brief BSing, we headed back east to the lake then north along Sheridan/The Circle Tour route/WI-32 and stopped for refreshment and photos at Wind Point Lighthouse.
From there, we rode through Grant Park in Cudahy and finally on to Rockerbox. I lead the ride with my Zumo GPS loaded with a portion of CanonShot's (advrider.com) Lake Michigan Circle Tour track.
I think the guys enjoyed the route itself, but I'm a lousy ride leader - I kept trying to ditch them at just about every traffic light. Luckily they never mutinied nor gave me a hard time and we always regrouped without incident. I intended to ride further up the lake and through the ravine by Lake Park, but decided to divert around the airshow traffic - I didn't know there was going to be an airshow!
It was cool to see part of the show from the bridge, though. We rolled in around 12:30 from the east end, and MAN was it mobbed! Given the ages of our rides, the fact that we made it up without any mechanical issues at all made the ride a success in my book.
The parade of odd and wonderful was a good as always. Art and I geeked out hard over a V-Max sidecar rig there.
His first motorcycle, the first I'd ever ridden, was a 1985 Yamaha V-Max. After nearly dropping it in the parking lot at my job, I was hooked and needed a bike of my own. A few weeks later, I bought my Seca from my next-door-neighbor. That was 1995, and that bike is 30 years old now.
Probably my favorite 'thing' there was something I dubbed "The Barnyard Kustom."
It had a steel tractor seat, oil filters for highway pegs, a crowbar suicide shifter, leaf springs, no hint of an air filter, a Miller High Life tray as a chain guard, and never mind the expired tag!
A close runner-up was this oddball: NOS, a bar stool, and a wheelie bar on a shorty kart frame - what could POSSIBLY go wrong?
This stupid bald man forgot his hat and wore a black shirt and, of course, jeans, so the heat chased us away perhaps a little sooner than we would have liked (2:45).
Before we left Milwaukee proper, though, we stopped in at A.J. Bombers for some tasty, if pricy, burgers. On the way out of town, the Thunderbirds were performing, and we tried not to crash due to the incredible distraction they provided. I paid the price for the day with a killer headache and perhaps some mild heat stroke by the time we clicked off 118 miles and pulled back into my driveway around 5:00 p.m. A half-gallon of Gatorade plus who knows how much water wasn't enough on a day like Saturday.
Oh, and since we were in Milwaukee, we each also had to have a brewski!
I only got to meet the 4 new-to-me guys I rode up with (a pleasure) and one MilVinMoto guy (2-Stroke Dan). I also ran into an 'internet friend' there, but otherwise, it was WAY too hot and crowded to worry about tracking people down. Not to complain about it getting 'too big,' but remember when you could see/do stuff like this (Rockerbox 2007)?
To the organizers, great show as always. Thanks for your hard work. I don't have any complaints/suggestions beyond what has already been addressed elsewhere. I'll be back next year if you'll have me. Despite the dehydration/heat issues, I'd happily do it all over again this weekend.
Posted by oblivion at August 8, 2011 02:31 PM
