thanks again go to mike for hosting our motley crew (your garage is awe-inspiring), bryce for working with mike on teaching me a bit about suspension, mike again for bleeding my brakes, the ice cream truck man for visiting us with cold treats on a hot day, rick for buying … wait, i get ahead of myself …
yesterday was the first (of hopefully many) SBONYC BBQ and wrenching day. i was planning on meeting jimmy, rick, bryce and carol around 11am for a run up 301 to mike’s, and was looking forward to 2 hours of loop action beforehand. but abe got in touch with me on saturday and needed some assistance carrying tyres for his pristine 87 vfr, up to the bbq. so i met abe at dan’s (sans dan) and we strapped two new carcasses to the vfr. once they were on i never noticed them again until we got to mike’s – man i love my bike.
abe and i slabbed it to the danbury area, and stopped at the windmill for some grub. it was still pretty early, and we didn’t want to impose too much. after a good stop we continued on, arriving at the moto mecca around 10 — to find joey and mk already hard at work, under mike’s expert eye.
after ghetto-izing a jack system for his crb900, we all ribbed joey on the unclean state of his rims, successfully goaded in into doing a good job cleaning them — insert joke here. i gave mr. honda my old phoenix jacket as well (my new reactor is soooo awesome, i love it — even got cold on the ride home last night!).
we had to wait for the equipment to become available, so abe and i decided to go exploring. we were gone about an hour … i turned the gps off and took whatever turn struck my fancy. abe and i tried to find me a decent pickup, without luck — but we did find a hatchback that almost killed abe, backing out in front of him (expert swerving saved the day), and a minivan that wanted to back up over me in a parking lot. 
we stopped in a frosty-chilled supermarket for some burgers and trimmings, and zipped back to the bbq — to find that jimmy, rick r, bryce and the lovely carol, bobby and the lovely vicki, rick schott (!) were already there and hard at work. saw some new faces as well, from other lists: glen, chris and an alan. allan s soon rolled up on his v-strom, and nick joined us later on his cherry 96 yzf.
as the work began in earnest, and glen skillfully manned the bbq, i was skulking around all of the lustful moto hardware, working up my nerve to ask for some test rides. i decided to shoot for the moon on the first try — fortune favors the bold! — and asked rick to ride his mille. he said “sure”, and informed me of his stringent “you break it, you bought it” policy. i geared up and said a prayer to preserve my bank account, and headed out. i didn’t stall it (unlike another sboncy member who may pipe in anytime), and rolled out for a 10-minute ride. lovely beast, that. i admit i was nervous about dropping a bike which was about the size of the down on my house, so i babied it. but i did explore the rev range (truly impressive torque down low, a good bit of oomph in the higher rpms), reallly taut suspension, smooth everywhere … what an amazing tool. thanks, rick! i owe you a ride on the vfr, when you’ve got more time.
the cherry was broken. rick and bryce took out an st1100 and the mille, respectively. we all got a ride on bryce’s sv650. i rode mike’s st, allan’s v-strom, abe’s classic vfr, and mike’s vfr. what a day — this was better than americade! i didn’t ride the yzf ‘cos i’m afraid i might like it, then i won’t be able to make fun of all those yammi fans anymore. 
thanks to those gents who let me ride their steeds. and i’m glad some folks got to try my 5th-gen … highlight of my day was when bryce came back in, saying how much he loved the motor … and let’s see, what was it? oh yeah: “i never knew those gear given cams could be so
loud and bright”. heh.
another highlight was going out for a short loop with mike, he on my 5ht-gen and me on his 40th gen. i love the feel of the carbeurated fuel delivery, as well as his redone front end … that’s going on my shortlist now! it felt so tight, and ready for anything, whereas my front end is quick to bottom out and wallow.
so back to the bbq. the burgers and dogs were great … soda and water were plentiful, and rick, thanks again for buying the ice cream. refreshing. joey and mk were first to leave (work, ugh), then we all started trickling out as the afternoon shadows grew long. the rain had stayed away all day, and after abe finished up his tyre changes and mike finished bleeding my brakes =), it was time for abe and me to leave as well. nick and allan s would follow us part of the way.
it was an uneventful trip for the first part, but not the most part. i’ll let someone else supply the details if they want. i’ll just say that it took 3 hours to get home, with some traffic on the hutch due to an accident, but for the most part it was smooth, unrestricted sailing. allan and nick did great (although allan, you need to pack on some miles … a 100 mile ride will soon be easy as pie!). hey nick, how’d the bike feel on the ride home, post-dogbone adjustment? abe and i saw a few caged a-holes once we got into brooklyn, but nothing unexpected.
soon, i was home, with a cool shower, cold beer and a hot meal. man, what a great day! mike, you rock.
