creg-ny-baa
Well-known member
Greetings, all! Been a long time, and a couple since I’ve gotten there. Between COVID and getting COVID-ed to a new job, it’s iffy at best, but I’ll keep an eye on the thread.
SFO 2020 - The Tradition Continues
- Thread starter FJRBandit
- Start date
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FJRBandit
Well-known member
Hey everyone - just giving you all a quick update. 10 days out now, things are shaping up well. Not wanting to jinx things, but looks like we might FINALLY get the typical awesome late Alabama October weather with highs in the mid 60's and lows in the mid 40's. Crossing my fingers, but if we get that it'll be a perfect campfire, marshmallow roasting kind of weekend! I've updated the list of attendees and posted it in the first post of this thread.
MrsBandit and I will be getting things together this coming weekend to welcome everyone in next week. We'll have a much smaller turnout this year for obvious reasons, but we'll have a blast regardless. If you decide at the last minute to come, then come on! Just let me know as much in advance as possible so that I can make sure I have enough grub to go around. We'll have the shrimp and corn boil on Friday night and BBQ on Saturday night. MrsBandit hasn't told me what she plans to do for the early arrivals on Thursday, but if you've ever been on Thursday night you know she'll have something very tasty for us.
As for the Rally Rally - I'm putting together the finishing touches on the Rally points of interest / boni this week. Those that think they'd like to participate in the Rally just let me know and I'll send the POI / boni list to you towards the end of this week so you can start your planning. The Rally will be held on Saturday, Oct. 31st. 8:30 start to 4:30 finish. I haven't yet decided on the winner's bounty, but braggin' rights alone to this prestigious event should be enough to suffice.
If you've ever even considered doing a Rally, you should participate. You'll have fun just planning your route and then executing your plan, while taking you around the Great State of Alabama seeing some of the interesting sights. Any questions on this, shoot me a PM.
Anyone have any questions about next week in general, post up here. Looking forward to seeing you all next week!
MrsBandit and I will be getting things together this coming weekend to welcome everyone in next week. We'll have a much smaller turnout this year for obvious reasons, but we'll have a blast regardless. If you decide at the last minute to come, then come on! Just let me know as much in advance as possible so that I can make sure I have enough grub to go around. We'll have the shrimp and corn boil on Friday night and BBQ on Saturday night. MrsBandit hasn't told me what she plans to do for the early arrivals on Thursday, but if you've ever been on Thursday night you know she'll have something very tasty for us.
As for the Rally Rally - I'm putting together the finishing touches on the Rally points of interest / boni this week. Those that think they'd like to participate in the Rally just let me know and I'll send the POI / boni list to you towards the end of this week so you can start your planning. The Rally will be held on Saturday, Oct. 31st. 8:30 start to 4:30 finish. I haven't yet decided on the winner's bounty, but braggin' rights alone to this prestigious event should be enough to suffice.
If you've ever even considered doing a Rally, you should participate. You'll have fun just planning your route and then executing your plan, while taking you around the Great State of Alabama seeing some of the interesting sights. Any questions on this, shoot me a PM. Anyone have any questions about next week in general, post up here. Looking forward to seeing you all next week!
graler
Well-known member
Sadly I am out this year. Maybe next year I can be the first one attending from Nevada! We are in the throws of a relocation.
Joe
We are in the throws of a relocation. Joe
FJRBandit
Well-known member
We'll miss ya this year, Joe! You, in fact, would be our first from Nevada. By my count, I believe we've had representation from 33 states and two foreign countries (yes, Canukistan counts), looking forward to making it 34.
Good luck with the relocation and remember to clear out a spot in the garage for me.
Good luck with the relocation and remember to clear out a spot in the garage for me.
Poolboytoo
Well-known member
Still planning sfo but I’m in need of a left, upper and lower fork tubes. Will share details later. If anyone has a used assembly call poolboy 402-490-0769
2009 A left side fork
yup I’m desperate stealing the thread lol
2009 A left side fork
yup I’m desperate stealing the thread lol
FJRBandit
Well-known member
You must have really, really, jacked something up PB! 
No worries, Bandit to the rescue. Get your ass on here, I got ya covered.
No worries, Bandit to the rescue. Get your ass on here, I got ya covered.
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FJRBandit
Well-known member
Alright all of you Rally Ralliers - I have finalized this year's Boni list. Shoot me an email or PM with your email address and I'll send you the list. My email address is [email protected]I have already emailed it to most everyone that I even thought had an interest. So if you didn't get it make sure to send me your email address.
GPRIDER
Well-known member
Sorry I'm not going to make it this year Turk. Glad you are still doing this though. Hope the event is fun and Covid free!
GP
GP
FJRBandit
Well-known member
Maybe next year GP!
dcarver
Well-known member
Last Nookie gig... you had better do this one more year JSNS...
FJRBandit
Well-known member
dcarver
Well-known member
Will I have to talk phunnny and walk bow-legged? 'Cause I can do that donchaknow... Let me get past this nookie outage, take a deep breath and go..
FJRBandit
Well-known member
You don't have to talk funny and bow-legged to come here, but I can't guarantee that you won't when you leave. 
GPRIDER
Well-known member
Wellllllllll........ How was it? Did everything go all right? How many showed up? Inquiring minds want to know.
GP
GP
FJRBandit
Well-known member
First, let me say, thanks to all of you that attended this year! We had a very challenging situation, but with this group, no hill is too high to climb. We ended up having great riding weather all weekend, but it certainly didn't start out that way. As you all know, Hurricane Zeta took aim at the gulf coast last week and who would have dreamed that 400 miles inland the storm would have still been near hurricane strength? Well, trust me, it was!
Poolboy arrived a couple of days early on Tuesday and pitched his tent. He made a couple of runs to local wineries on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Wednesday evening I headed down to SFO HQ to start making final preparations. Zeta had made landfall along the Louisiana coast that afternoon and we sat and watched as it made a 35 mph beeline to Jemison with 70+ mph winds. By 12:30 am the wind began to pick up and PB began to snore. :lol: I continued to watch the local wall to wall weathercast until the power eventually went off at 1:30 am. It was an eery feeling to be in that large building with the lights out and the winds whirling, as I began to hear horrible popping and cracking sounds. I just knew the roof was about to be torn from the building, or a tree would be smashing through the walls at any moment. Fortunately, neither of those ever happened, but as I learned when the sun finally came up a few hours later, the landscape of the entire property had been changed forever. I don't know what the count is across the 20-acre property, but there have to be in excess of 100 trees that were downed. We had several that took out the power line that feeds the building. It's now five days later and no telling when power will be restored. There is sheer devastation to the power grid throughout Central Alabama.
As PB and I walked the property assessing the damage we discussed whether or not SFO could even go forward. I knew that Craig had left Iowa earlier and Bob had already made it to South Carolina the previous day. So they were the first ones I called. The first thing out of both of their mouths was, "What can I do to help"? I told them I really didn't think there was much either could do and I certainly didn't want them taking their vacation time to come to Alabama to run chainsaws. But they were insistent that it didn't matter, we could make this work. So I cleared it with MrsBandit and she said let's do it, so we did it. We decided we'd push forward with SFO and just make it happen.
PB and I began by what else, cleaning out the hot tub! Then he started down the infamous hill climb road with a rake and began clearing debris. Once that was done we took a ride down to the Inn of Clanton, the official hotel of SFO, and confirmed that they were out of power as well and didn't expect power to be restored until at least the following day. So back on the phone with everyone to inform them of the predicament we were in with the lack of lodging, but we worked that out as well. We put Joey and his wife, along with Kornbread up at our house in Hoover, made reservations for Winewhisperer at the Hampton Inn in Calera and Bob took a bunk bed in the apartment in the building with us. PB pitched his tent, again, and Nate took his usual spot on the concrete floor inside the building. We had a bunk reserved for Craig, but he eventually stopped a few hours out and decided to ride the rest of the way on Friday.
Nate and PB did their best with the two 5K watt generators I had on hand, but since they hadn't been treated properly over the past 10+ years it was an impossible task trying to get those started. We spent Thursday evening in the dark, but we made the best of it and had burgers and dogs by flashlight.
Friday came and things began to look up. My buddy Bubs showed up with chainsaws and a pole saw. We attacked the tree that was precariously hanging on a support cable across the infamous hill climb. I wasn't thrilled with everyone passing under that thing each time they came in or left out. So we jumped on it and cleared the way. Then we put Bob in charge of wiring up the 10K watt generator that Bubs also brought with him. After a bit, and with help from PB and Joey, the boys had the camp lit up again! And that's the way it stayed the rest of the weekend, with a few temporary interuptions to check and fill the oil and gas her up.
From there, it was, almost, business as usual. Those that have been to SFO in Jemison know the drill well, shrimp and corn boil on Friday evening and then Stan the Man BBQ on Saturday night. What you aren't used to is the 60's and sunny skies for your riding both days, which is what we had, and it was awesome!
Saturday we held the Rally Rally. After much trash talk, the four participants were off and running. Nate ended up running away with it and won the coveted braggin' rights for 2020. Congrats Nate on an impressive run. The others gave a valiant effort and I appreciate them participating.
All in all, despite the much lower turn out due to the Covid challenges, and the unbelievable storm that passed through on SFO eve, we ended up having the best SFO yet! As you can imagine, I was running most of the time so I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few of the ones I was able to take.
Thursday - 1:20 AM
Aftermath - Thursday - 8:00 AM
Thursday afternoon - Nate and PB trying their best to resurrect the two neglected generators
Saturday AM 8:29 - Rally Rally Green flag T-Minus 1 minute
Saturday Night - BBQ Time
Saturday Night - Rockin' Rodney, accompanied by the pole dancers
The next day, kinky dancers -
So again, thanks to everyone who was able to make it this year and if you didn't, you'll get another chance next year. Yes, this is an official announcement - SFO 2021, Thursday Oct 28 - Sunday 31st - hope to see y'all then!
P.S. Friday, Nov. 6th
- SFO HQ update - Almost 8 days after the lights went dark, the power was finally restored yesterday! I was told as of yesterday morning they still had 600 customers without power but expected to have everyone restored by the end of the day. I sure hope they were able to accomplish that. They did, however, get the power restored to the county road earlier this week on Monday but understandably, couldn't spend the time necessary to repair the extensive damage to restore power to us - yet. They worked their asses off to get power back on throughout the area, but this just shows the extent of the widespread damage the entire region suffered. I'm headed down there sometime today to turn the main breaker back on and make sure everything is ok.
Again, Jana and I both want to say thank you to everyone that attended this year and we appreciate your patience, understanding, and most of all, your assistance and efforts to make things as normal as possible during what could have been a complete shit show. Somehow, as a team, we pulled it off. THANK YOU ALL!
Poolboy arrived a couple of days early on Tuesday and pitched his tent. He made a couple of runs to local wineries on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Wednesday evening I headed down to SFO HQ to start making final preparations. Zeta had made landfall along the Louisiana coast that afternoon and we sat and watched as it made a 35 mph beeline to Jemison with 70+ mph winds. By 12:30 am the wind began to pick up and PB began to snore. :lol: I continued to watch the local wall to wall weathercast until the power eventually went off at 1:30 am. It was an eery feeling to be in that large building with the lights out and the winds whirling, as I began to hear horrible popping and cracking sounds. I just knew the roof was about to be torn from the building, or a tree would be smashing through the walls at any moment. Fortunately, neither of those ever happened, but as I learned when the sun finally came up a few hours later, the landscape of the entire property had been changed forever. I don't know what the count is across the 20-acre property, but there have to be in excess of 100 trees that were downed. We had several that took out the power line that feeds the building. It's now five days later and no telling when power will be restored. There is sheer devastation to the power grid throughout Central Alabama.
As PB and I walked the property assessing the damage we discussed whether or not SFO could even go forward. I knew that Craig had left Iowa earlier and Bob had already made it to South Carolina the previous day. So they were the first ones I called. The first thing out of both of their mouths was, "What can I do to help"? I told them I really didn't think there was much either could do and I certainly didn't want them taking their vacation time to come to Alabama to run chainsaws. But they were insistent that it didn't matter, we could make this work. So I cleared it with MrsBandit and she said let's do it, so we did it. We decided we'd push forward with SFO and just make it happen.
PB and I began by what else, cleaning out the hot tub! Then he started down the infamous hill climb road with a rake and began clearing debris. Once that was done we took a ride down to the Inn of Clanton, the official hotel of SFO, and confirmed that they were out of power as well and didn't expect power to be restored until at least the following day. So back on the phone with everyone to inform them of the predicament we were in with the lack of lodging, but we worked that out as well. We put Joey and his wife, along with Kornbread up at our house in Hoover, made reservations for Winewhisperer at the Hampton Inn in Calera and Bob took a bunk bed in the apartment in the building with us. PB pitched his tent, again, and Nate took his usual spot on the concrete floor inside the building. We had a bunk reserved for Craig, but he eventually stopped a few hours out and decided to ride the rest of the way on Friday.
Nate and PB did their best with the two 5K watt generators I had on hand, but since they hadn't been treated properly over the past 10+ years it was an impossible task trying to get those started. We spent Thursday evening in the dark, but we made the best of it and had burgers and dogs by flashlight.
Friday came and things began to look up. My buddy Bubs showed up with chainsaws and a pole saw. We attacked the tree that was precariously hanging on a support cable across the infamous hill climb. I wasn't thrilled with everyone passing under that thing each time they came in or left out. So we jumped on it and cleared the way. Then we put Bob in charge of wiring up the 10K watt generator that Bubs also brought with him. After a bit, and with help from PB and Joey, the boys had the camp lit up again! And that's the way it stayed the rest of the weekend, with a few temporary interuptions to check and fill the oil and gas her up.
From there, it was, almost, business as usual. Those that have been to SFO in Jemison know the drill well, shrimp and corn boil on Friday evening and then Stan the Man BBQ on Saturday night. What you aren't used to is the 60's and sunny skies for your riding both days, which is what we had, and it was awesome!
Saturday we held the Rally Rally. After much trash talk, the four participants were off and running. Nate ended up running away with it and won the coveted braggin' rights for 2020. Congrats Nate on an impressive run. The others gave a valiant effort and I appreciate them participating.
All in all, despite the much lower turn out due to the Covid challenges, and the unbelievable storm that passed through on SFO eve, we ended up having the best SFO yet! As you can imagine, I was running most of the time so I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few of the ones I was able to take.
Thursday - 1:20 AM
Aftermath - Thursday - 8:00 AM
Thursday afternoon - Nate and PB trying their best to resurrect the two neglected generators
Saturday AM 8:29 - Rally Rally Green flag T-Minus 1 minute
Saturday Night - BBQ Time
Saturday Night - Rockin' Rodney, accompanied by the pole dancers
The next day, kinky dancers -
So again, thanks to everyone who was able to make it this year and if you didn't, you'll get another chance next year. Yes, this is an official announcement - SFO 2021, Thursday Oct 28 - Sunday 31st - hope to see y'all then!
P.S. Friday, Nov. 6th
- SFO HQ update - Almost 8 days after the lights went dark, the power was finally restored yesterday! I was told as of yesterday morning they still had 600 customers without power but expected to have everyone restored by the end of the day. I sure hope they were able to accomplish that. They did, however, get the power restored to the county road earlier this week on Monday but understandably, couldn't spend the time necessary to repair the extensive damage to restore power to us - yet. They worked their asses off to get power back on throughout the area, but this just shows the extent of the widespread damage the entire region suffered. I'm headed down there sometime today to turn the main breaker back on and make sure everything is ok.
Again, Jana and I both want to say thank you to everyone that attended this year and we appreciate your patience, understanding, and most of all, your assistance and efforts to make things as normal as possible during what could have been a complete shit show. Somehow, as a team, we pulled it off. THANK YOU ALL!
Bugnatr
Well-known member
Thanks for the report and pictures.
Generator and chainsaws can be your best friends when momma nature comes a courting.
Generator and chainsaws can be your best friends when momma nature comes a courting.
GPRIDER
Well-known member
So what was the count on attendies? 15 or so? That weather looked bad. With my luck I would have been caught in the middle of it. Ha! Glad it all worked out.
SFO 2021!!
GP
SFO 2021!!
GP
FJRBandit
Well-known member
Actually GP, after the storm cleared out Thursday morning we had the best weather we've ever had for SFO. Twelve bikes, with a couple of those two up, plus Mrs. Bandit and a few local folks counted up to 22 for dinner Friday night and about the same Saturday night. Hopefully you'll be able to make it next year!
