- 5,076
- Panama City, FL
Twice a year (Spring and Fall) they have a bike rally here at the beach, called (oddly enough) Thunder Beach. It's 99.99957% Harleys, and 99.99957% of those are posers, who trailer the bikes to wherever they go, ride up and down the street, then trailer the bikes home and put them away.
But sprinkled in amongst the "Ride to Pretend, Pretend to Ride" crowd will be a few really nice bikes. My job is to find them, and here's what I came up with this year, wandering through the venue parking spaces. Pics are clickable to get a larger version.
Has seen better days, but it's still being ridden!
T-Rex style trike built from a Gold Wing:
Victory Vision demonstrating its tipover protection. The grass here is usually good enough for sidestands, but apparently there's a weight limit. Good thing the next bike had clearance. . . .
The only reason I took this was to remind me to tell this story:
Two guys were waiting in the grass to pull out onto the paved exit road, a left turn. BOTH failed to make the turn and rode into the grass on the other side of the road!!!!!! The second may have just followed the other, but still . . . . WTF??!?!?!
Triumph 675. I really hope that tail doesn't catch in the wheel while under way!
(As an aside, I worked turn one at Barber for the AMA races last week, and I picked up a bike like this out of our gravel. Twice. Had a bit of chat time with Alistair Douglas as a result. I think he was looking for the right brake point, which apparently would be earlier.)
Honda liter twin, RC-51:
?????:
Only Moto Guzzi I saw all day, and I usually see 8 or 10.
Nice Bandit parked next to it:
Honda makes RED bikes!!
See????
Yamaha makes yellow bikes:
Buell makes . . . . . whatever the hell they wanna make, for whatever reason. Buell Blast. You can tell because it's missing half of its cylinders.
Kawasaki makes green bikes. (Nice ZX-12R)
Honda's new red:
More Yammy Yellow:
Not red, but I bet it's LOUD!!!!!
Ooooooh . . . . . Nice red Balckbird!!!
Stator cover says HONDA. So there!
OK, Honda makes blue bikes . . .
and black ones . . . .
and many-colored stripedy ones:
Holy cow!!! Somebody musta actually bought one!!!!
But sprinkled in amongst the "Ride to Pretend, Pretend to Ride" crowd will be a few really nice bikes. My job is to find them, and here's what I came up with this year, wandering through the venue parking spaces. Pics are clickable to get a larger version.
Has seen better days, but it's still being ridden!
T-Rex style trike built from a Gold Wing:
Victory Vision demonstrating its tipover protection. The grass here is usually good enough for sidestands, but apparently there's a weight limit. Good thing the next bike had clearance. . . .
The only reason I took this was to remind me to tell this story:
Two guys were waiting in the grass to pull out onto the paved exit road, a left turn. BOTH failed to make the turn and rode into the grass on the other side of the road!!!!!! The second may have just followed the other, but still . . . . WTF??!?!?!
Triumph 675. I really hope that tail doesn't catch in the wheel while under way!
(As an aside, I worked turn one at Barber for the AMA races last week, and I picked up a bike like this out of our gravel. Twice. Had a bit of chat time with Alistair Douglas as a result. I think he was looking for the right brake point, which apparently would be earlier.)
Honda liter twin, RC-51:
?????:
Only Moto Guzzi I saw all day, and I usually see 8 or 10.
Nice Bandit parked next to it:
Honda makes RED bikes!!
See????
Yamaha makes yellow bikes:
Buell makes . . . . . whatever the hell they wanna make, for whatever reason. Buell Blast. You can tell because it's missing half of its cylinders.
Kawasaki makes green bikes. (Nice ZX-12R)
Honda's new red:
More Yammy Yellow:
Not red, but I bet it's LOUD!!!!!
Ooooooh . . . . . Nice red Balckbird!!!
Stator cover says HONDA. So there!
OK, Honda makes blue bikes . . .
and black ones . . . .
and many-colored stripedy ones:
Holy cow!!! Somebody musta actually bought one!!!!
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