Cape May, October 31
40's to start, 60's midday, back to 40's
Eight years ago I read a story in my American Motorcyclist Association magazine about a club that rode together only in winter. New to motorcycling, I deemed to give it a try. I liked it. I did that first ride alone, but then let a few friends in on it. They brought more friends. And I am amazed at how it evolved. (You can read the story of my first ride on my web site blog: http://www.influentialcom.com/polar_bear_story.htm.)
I brought the Polar Bear club to Connecticut. Introduced it here. Brought all these guys along. And last Sunday those same bastards left me behind at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway because I couldn't get my gloves on fast enough. Ingrates all!
Still, I would not change these pals for the world. And every season we pick up a few new maniacs. You are welcome to join us.
This year 10 of us rode to Cape May from Connecticut on the season opener, 450 miles round trip from Stratford. We started and finished in the dark. We rode, laughed, waited in line, lunched and teased each other.
We have little in common except motorcycles. Some of us are liberals. Others are conservatives. Others (Captain) are chicken little. One even has dual citizenship and talks funny.
We see more of each other in winter than summer.
Winter riding inspires ridiculous behavior.
Grumpy is going to double up on night shift, 24 straight weeks, so he can make more Polar Bear rides. Captain showed up Sunday with four sets of blood donation points plus a corn boil. Pogy made tee shirts for everyone, on his own dime, doling out the largess at our first rest stop. Big Matt rode up to Connecticut from New Jersey, turning right around to then join us on the ride back south. (It's not the first time Matt has done this.) Jim missed our departure time e-mail and so rode down to Cape May on his own, meeting us there for the ride back home.
Russ is on a new bike this season, his third in as many years. His Harley Wide Glide was good for quite a few years. The dresser he didn't like so much but fortunately an inattentive driver took it off his hands. She almost took his hand too, but Russ kept it, with the help of a few metal rods. Now he's on a Heritage Softail, similar to my bike, but without the spiffy springer front end.
Russ saw my bike in the service bay at Brothers Harley-Davidson. Being a superbly nosy guy, he asked Service Manager Marcel what I was having done. Marcel answered “rocker berings” at which point Russ called (I presume) every HOG and Polar Bear club member that may have even remote knowledge of me and my bike and told them I was finally in for an engine rebuild. I have 130,000 miles on the original mill.
I arrived in Cape May to a barrage of questions and genuine (I think) concern for my bike. Rocker bearings? Engine job? What?
At first I figured Russ was just being Russ, starting rumors, telling stories, embellishing. Then it occurred to me. No guys, the bearings replaced on my bike last week were in the rocker arms of my springer front end.
By the way, the mechanics at Brothers tell me my former dealership should have caught them a lot sooner. One was just flopping around in its race. I have to admit the bike rides a lot tighter now. I took the ol' gal on a 7,500 mile ride in August. You can see my photos on Flicker here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24638972@N03/sets/72157624752838373/.
Pogy joined us officially this year. He caught up with the group mid-season last year and liked it. I had talked to him for years about riding with us. Hey Pogy, try it, you'll like it! Now he is registered as a Flight B bear. A few more rides and he will earn the coveted Polar Bear patch.
By the way, Grumpy, remember Pogy can't get the CT patch until he first earns his rides and New Jersey patch. I forgot to mention that as he was asking about obtaining a Connecticut patch last Sunday. You can give out all the cool tee shirts you want, Pog, but you still gotta do the rides!
Jim showed up too, riding down on his own as described previously. He also signed up for the first time this year. So we've added two new Connecticut bears to the official roster.
Jim also received a typical Connecticut Polar Bear hazing. We ran him out of gas on the ride home. “Oh the first rest stop is just a few miles,” Grumpy said. Fortunately Jim was able to bounce the last ounce out of his tank to make the few hundred yards to the station, sputtering all the way.
We saw official Grand Tour photographer Walter Kern outside the VFW and I proudly showed him my new polar bear rider pinup girl on my rear fender. At which point my guys started yelling about the tattoo. Wearing all long sleeves, I had to strip off my shirts to show it. Walter took a picture for the club site.
We lost a couple riders on this trip due to health. Carl showed up at our Stratford start but dropped out a few exits later because he wasn't feeling up to the ride. Token rode with Bart down to their pickup point at the Hutch and 287, but turned around back to home before we arrived. It says something about both fellows' desire to ride that they tried. After next week's ride to Lewes, Del., the distances are shorter. Hopefully they both feel better in a week or two.
And so we embark with eager anticipation of a good season of winter riding. Hopefully we can avoid any snow or ice storms requiring a long ride in Captain's hairmobile.
Thank you to the New Jersey organizers for allowing us to join their club. It truly is more a New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware endeavor. Yet they welcome us with open arms.
No comments:
Post a Comment