Vashon Island Vintage Motorcycle Run

[Hudson]

Panman, Achiu and I met up on Vashon with PNiehart to check out this year's vintage rides. The VME event is a really special day, so special in fact, that they don't even advertise or announce it. It's up to you to find out the date via word of mouth.

Luckily for me, Niehart has a big mouth.

Met up early a.m. at the Seattle ferry for the ride over. The dock wait provided a glimpse of the cool rides to come. No trailers here: you ride it over.

Achiu was ovrwhelmed with all the old stuff.

You meet the nicest people on a HondaMontessa:

One cool ride in particular was ridden by this chap from BC. Like Panman, he's in the aircraft industry, so his skills in customizing are quite accomplished. I returned to his Motoguzzi custom bike many times, and had a nice chat on the ferry ride over. It's a 2002 bike that has been stripped down, with customized fairing, bonnet, and guages. Notice the way he took the faceplate off of his V1 radar, and hard wired it into the instrument cluster. He also had a laser jammer installed.

 

[Hudson]

The ferry was chock full of riders, even early on a Sunday. The PNW riders are pretty hard core about their vintage bikes.

Just what is it about BMW riders that they have to have Kaiser Von Wilhelm mustaches?

Niehart met up with us for breakfast, and brought along his pal, who had about the nicest vintage BMW R57 I've ever seen. It had really cool custom vintage touches, like a chromometer and RPM gauge, plus a nifty leather box/rear bag.

 

[Hudson]

Downtown Vashon (all four blocks of it) was crawling with cool bikes of all kinds, and odd ducks of all kinds.

(Yes, that is Spuds McKenzie being pulled in a Burley).

I see these vintage bikes and I think how cool it would be to own and ride them...

...and then reality drips down on my fantasy.

I'll leave to Achiu and Panman the task of showing off the cool pix of the many vintage rides. For me, the real charm of VME is the rat bikes. Seattle has a chapter of this motorcycle club, the Cretins, who take pride in creating custom bikes with attitude. No trailer queens or chrome polished restorations here, these bikes are all about personal expression. Though some remind me of that scene in Toy Story I (where the abandoned and mauled toys crawl out of the closet)I absolutely love the vibe of these bikes.

I love the look of an unrestored vintage rat bike

These guys have their own design ethos, and it is slowly growing on me.

Flat tracker looks are definately back in.

After a few hours of drueling over cool bikes, we did a nice 30 mile ride around lower Vashon Island. As we rode the Island, we spotted Niehart's riding team, who had pulled over to help a vintage BMW rider who had broken down on the roadside.

There is nothing about a broken down bike that can't be helped by more people crowding round offering advice.

I had to split to catch the ferry home and headed to the slower south side of the Island to hop the ferry.

On the ferry ride back, I eyed a cool custom bobber. He took a run down version of this:

and made it look like this:

Notice the taillight, which he pulled off some vintage autos.

Waiting around for the ferry, I struck up a great conversation with the guy next to me. He was riding a pretty busted up Kawasaki 500R, which he admitted was a recent Craiglist find. He was pretty excited that he had paid only $200, and it was a 2002 model bike with only 4500 miles, but it wasn't clear to me, as I eyeballed the cracked fairing, bent handlebars and forks, and mauled clutch cover, who got the better end of that deal. But it did make me appreciate the fact that this hobby/sport can be enjoyed by anyone: the guy with the $60k custom chopper, or this guy with a few hundred dollars in his pocket and desire to ride. And it reminded me once again that its about the rider, not the ride.

And all bikes go to heaven.

The FJR was in excellent company as the ferry neared home.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Cool pics Hudson, can't wait to see the rest of them. Too bad I had to miss the ride today...but when work calls.

and odd ducks of all kinds

So did Pops ride the Duc today?

--G

 

[Hudson]

As sure as he's eatin' Pie.

I think he rode the Duc cause the FJR didn't get him a single comment. Parked next to me was a fairly rare Indian Scout, which must have had 100 people stop and point, paying no attention to the three immaculate FJR's (yes, a blue one and cherry one too).

Should'a rode the Husky. When I got home from your house, I switched bikes to get the oil flowing through the Husky on a short trip to the store. Had two people come up to me and tell me how cool it was. Never happens on a FJR...

 

[Auburn]

I see these vintage bikes and I think how cool it would be to own and ride them...

Hudson, I am pretty sure that is Rick McMaken's bike from TMC. Usually he rides his 1915 Harly with a side hack. He has many old, old, old bikes.

 

[ahchiu]

Here are some more pictures from Vashon Island TT.

https://picasaweb.google.com/marcus.ahchiu/...feat=directlink

P.S. I found Barb's sister on Vashon Island

 

[dcarver]

Damn.. Can't see but 2 pix -

Barb's and the nice cb500...

Tried FF and IE.....

you guz just teazn' again?

 

[Niehart]

What a great day. Just some awesome old metal. Some like new, some well used, some cretin stuff.

My buddy’s R57 BMW won and with all the work he has put into it over the years, it was a well deserved win.

 

[ahchiu]

What a great day. Just some awesome old metal. Some like new, some well used, some cretin stuff.
My buddy’s R57 BMW won and with all the work he has put into it over the years, it was a well deserved win.

Dave,

Funny, your buddy did not think it was good enough to enter in the Concourse show. good thing you talked him into it last minute.

 

[Hudson]

I see these vintage bikes and I think how cool it would be to own and ride them...

Hudson, I am pretty sure that is Rick McMaken's bike from TMC. Usually he rides his 1915 Harly with a side hack. He has many old, old, old bikes.

Yes, I can see the TMC logo on the helmet. I knew that bike looked familiar (Dino Daze). Ran into another TMC'er on the ferry ride back (older guy riding a KTM)

 

[Old Michael]

Geez, Hudson.

Some real friggin' relics in those photos.

Hard to believe this one still functions.

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[Niehart]

OM, you don't how near that is to the truth on some days.

 

[FJRBluesman]

Very cool! Excellent post, thanks.

I love vintage bikes and those were AWESOME! :yahoo:

 

[Barabus]

Dave,

Thanks for sharing. The thing I like about the FJR is that people don't care about it. That way I do not have to feel guilt about it being dirty, scratched, delayed maintenance, or whatever. "No show but all go." BTW, the Cretin story was cool. Saw one downtown two weeks ago and did not know the backstory.