Tigerboy's Domain MZ Trip to Ohio Valley BSA Club / Vintage Trials Aug 11 - 12, 2012

Time for another Ohio Valley BSA Club Vintage / Trials event. This time I'll cover the August event instead of the June event which features two days of trials. The August event features one day of trials on Saturday, then on Sunday they have motorcycle games, follwed by the vintage bike show - focus is British such as BSA and Triumph.

As usual, I get an early start Saturday morning, leaving around 7:30am, MZ Baghira all packed up and ready to go. I've got my tent, sleeping bag and cot on the pillion. Amazing how much I can get on this skinny bike.

I take my usual shortcut to US 250 thru Fairmont State University, and a short while I stop here.

Why you ask? My odometer just turned 44444.4. That's km, not miles as my bike is German and never got an odometer in miles, I guess.

I decide to take WV 69 north at Hundred, which turns into PA 18. A shortcut using the road to Aleppo gets me on the road that leads into Cameron WV. But before I get that far, I turn north on Dry Ridge Rd, a very twisty stretch of road I've done precisely once before. There are many blind curves that could eat your bike if you're not careful.

I notice horses to the side. The mare is grey, the colt has a dark brown head.

As they run away, the zoom on my camera captures them. I don't like the looks of thst sky - the forecast doesn't call for rain, so I hope that 20% chance doesn't turn into a 100% chance.

On secondary roads without GPS, it's very easy to get lost. Eventually I find myself at this substation.

And natural gas processing plant, no doubt constructed due to all the fracking going on in this general area. Gotta love all that piping at these kinds of chemical facilities. I find it all very fascinating.

Shortly after this, I cross back into PA which I know is not right because I want to stay in the Northern Panhandle. I see a directional sign for Dallas (WV, not Texas!) and get on that road. When I reach Dallas, I realize I should have taken the Number 2 Ridge Rd that I saw just before I reached that substation / natural gas plant (but then I wouldn't have gotten those cool photos).

Shortly after Dallas, I find myself in traffic behind a highway maintenance truck laying down pilons. Not content with the snail's pace, and the twisty road making it impossible to get a clean pass around several vehicles, a port-a-potty materializes right in front of me, so I decide that would be an excellent time to make a pit stop.

After I get back on the road, it was clear, in fact I passed that truck going in the opposite direction.

When I get to US 40, I take WV 88 north, a twisty road that takes you through Oglebay Park and then to WV 67 which snakes down to WV 2. Now it is north, past Follansbee and that awful smelling steel plant, then crossing the metal frame bridge into Ohio.

Just north of Steubenville, at the Toronto exit off Ohio Route 7, I find myself at the rally. On schedule, around 11:00am.

The first thing I always do, is get with Bud, the guy who manages the Trials, and find what course he wants me to check.
Then I get breakfast at the 'Foot Long Hot Dog' trailer, and pitch my tent.

I am checking Trials Section #7 in the woods. I encounter a more bizarre group of riders than usual, and give out more 'fives' than usual too as the section is quite long, rocky and tricky. Two guys were making up their own course as they went along, so I had to give them 'fives' for not staying on course, another guy was hotdogging it thru, treating it more like a race (it isn't).

Probably the most eclectic rider is this guy on a Royal Enfiend who rode with his dog (some kind of terrier) on the tank.

A pad on the tank allows him to keep a firm grip.

He paddled through my section, earning a '3' which is better than a '5'. I find it remarkable that he was able to 'clean' some sections.

On one of the loops (each rider does four of them), my camera caught him whizzing thru

When things get too unstable, the dog knows to jump off, then follow his master.

It's great to see kids give this a go. This little guy had some help from his dad to get the bike ready at the start.

He was on a bike a bit too big to handle (needs to grow into it) so his dad helped him pick it up when he dropped it on the course.

John Ritter, an experienced rider who does the '1' line (which is the most difficult of four lines) managed to get his bike caught in the trees.

After completing all loops and even after a few practice runs, John said that my section was the only one he could not clean.

Getting back to the campsite to watch the awards being handed out, I meet up with some of the riders.

Here's that guy with the Royal Enfield and terrier.

Here's this lanky guy who was riding through the section as fast as he could.

And someone brought their pet piglet.

Here is Eric resting his knee. He managed to get stuck between his bike and a tree on my section, bumming his knee in the process.

No sooner than getting back from checking the trials, the trophies handed out, it was time to get ready to go on the dinner ride.

We went to a German / Italian restaurant in Steubenville. Froehlich's Classic Corner. Great food, but a scatterbrain waitress. I think she wasn't used to serving a crowd of our size, that's all. I got to sit across from John Ritter and his boy.

Here's the compulsory shot of my Tiger shirt, my motorcycle and I.

It had rained briefly while we were in having dinner.

We did a fuel stop, mainly to get ready for the ice cream run, which was next and we were late in getting back to the campsite for that.

John and his son fueling up the nice Triumph TR6.

Ready to move forward

John Schultz, president of the OVBSA Club, was on our dinner ride, and now he's going to lead us to get ice-cream. This ice-cream run is famously called the Lucas Ride because by the time we get ice cream, we are riding back to the campsite in the dark, and those with old British bikes with original Lucas electrics might find it challenging without being directly behind someone with good electrics.

Andy Lindsay is joining us on his well-ridden 1971 Triumph Tiger.

And here I am, ready to rock and roll on my MZ.

Our ice cream run was abbreviated, taking us to Wintersville where we got Ohio route 152 east, leading us into Toronto where we got our treats at Yummy's. Appropriately named. I got a small shake, figuring that was enough of a sugar overload.

The evening featured the popular Grinnin' and Pickin' for those who brought their musical instrument. It always brings out a bevvy of guitar players. A couple years ago, there was a very good fiddle player, not this time though. That's Andy on end and Eric on the far right.

I got a nice night's sleep under my tent, only to wake up to the noise of the honey wagon. Slu-u-urp!

Hey they gotta do what they gotta do and I'd rather use a clean port-a-potty than a well-used one and they are using a very nice, clean truck.

Of course morning means our breakfast ride, which is the 3rd ride I get to do on my trusty MZ.

Getting ready to head out soon. Justin from Niagara Falls NY has this neat Triumph Chopper-style bike.

We ride to Kings for Breakfast, a truck stop just down the road from that Walmart distribution center.

Sun is not in the right direction to get a good shot of the bikes. Here's Andy with his '71 Tiger once again.

Getting back to the campsite, it's time to start Tomcat's famous motorcycle games.

Tomcat is from New Lexington OH, is a roofer by trade (works 6:00am to about noon in the summer because it gets too hot to work otherwise) and always wears that leather jacket with loads of pins. Next to Tomcat on stage are the two large trophies they hand out for Slow Joe's Slow Race (more about that later).

The games always start with a plank ride where the idea is to ride as long as possible on the plank without putting one's foot down. I've done this, but not very well because I have a tall top-heavy bike making this kind of ride difficult.

Tomcat giving the rules to Metalflake (a rider who came up from Florida to be at this, he tows his classic metallic blue Triumph behind his blue Goldwing).

Mike of Steubenville is a regular at this event. In fact he's been coming since a kid.

Next, comes the toilet-paper jousting. This a favorite one with the kids who get to sit on the bike and attempt to get the rolls of toilet-paper on the broomstick.

Oops, can't put your foot down - that disqualifies you.

Mike with his significant other on the back, unsuccessful in getting this roll.

Next comes the tennis balls. The idea is for the passenger to pick up the tennis balls then place them back on the pilons on the return trip. If more than one duo does this successfully, the tie-braker is to have them do the same thing in an S-pattern. Again, this is a hit with the kids.

You can just see the eagerness in this little boy's eyes while Daddy tries to keep his balance.

Now comes the big event where they hand out those giant trophies on-stage. Tomcat's famous Slow Joe's Slow Race. They have two classes, heavy and light with 250cc being the dividing line. Old and new bikes both compete. Slow Joe was a founding member of the Ohio Valley BSA Club and passed on many years ago, so they have a slow race (and a ride in June) in his honor.

Light bikes here.

In the heavy bike class, Justin on his Triumph Chopper is losing against Metalflake on his blue metallic Triumph.

Both classic and modern Triumphs here, with Metaflake also beating out Mike on the modern Daytona.

The champs. Metalflake took the heavy class and gets first pick of the trophies. He'll get to haul that home on the backseat of his Goldwing.

Here's Metalflake's Blue Goldwing. Note the trailer on which he hauls his metallic classic Triumph.

Now comes the vintage/classic bike show. Admittedly I did not take as many photos year as I've done in years past.

Nice row of BSA's, the featured marque of this whole event.

Putting an interesting touch to a custom trike.

A Triumph Hurricane (X-75), bodywork designed by Craig Vetter is always a head-turner at any show.
It's based around the Triumph Trident / BSA Rocket 3 engine.

This vintage Excelsior I'm sure has competed at AMCA events. It was also ridden in the motorcycle games. As you can see the van used to transport it is worth considerably less than the bike.

Before I wind things up, I should comment on the swap meet. In general I've not paid much attention to what's for sale because admittedly I haven't done anything to my vintage bikes in a long time. I have a '37 Panther and a '63 Cub and these shows remind me that someday I'll get those two British bikes running. I'm not sure what I need for parts until I look closer at my two bikes.

I was tempted to buy this risqué tiger shirt, but I have enough Tiger shirts, including the ones I wear as my trademark to these shows.

I didn't have to resist too much urge to buy this motorcycle

Okay it's around 3pm and it's time to head back home. I like to get home before dark on these weekend trips. After I pack up my tent and camping gear, I'm ready to hit the road (well, not literally I hope)

Thanks to Justin for taking most of these pics of my MZ and I.

My route home is similar. I take WV 27 from WV 2, which takes me to WV 88. At the corner of WV 88 and US 40 I stop at the Tim Horton's for a nice bite to eat. They have amazing coffee. Then I follow WV Route 88 all the way to US 250. On US 250 between Cameron and Littleton I feel a snap and my bike stalls out. I coast to a stop.

Shoot, my chain snapped.

This does not look good. Fortunately the only damage was to my chain-guard and I'm lucky it bunched itself around the primary gear, not that on the rear wheel potentially locking it up, causing me to crash.

I was able to free the chain out easily enough.

As luck would have it, I am out of cell phone range, so I have to flag a car down to take me to the nearest land line.

It ends up being Rosie's Roadhouse, a bar at the top of the hill from where I broke down. I call AMA Roadside assistance from the bar phone around 6pm. They aren't able to get me a tow truck until late, meanwhile I take in several episodes of Ice Road Truckers and American Pickeres from the Bar TV. Wow, those picker guys really know how to walk into the Lion's Den, what can I say. Brady's Exxon Tiger towing, down the street from where I live finally shows up at 1:30am.

So much for getting home before dark. The truck has to drive slow on US 250 which is very twisty. I think this is the first time I've been on this stretch of road in a vehicle other than my motorcycle. It's 3:00am when they finally pull into my driveway.

Boy, do I need to get to bed!


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Page created Aug 19, 2012