Monday, May 19, 2014

Taking Brigitta to the 12th Annual Bob Ohman's Old Bike Ride

Preface:  The OBR or Old Bike Ride this year was yesterday, Sunday, the 18th of May.  However, Brigitta and I had attended an "training the instructor" Civilian Top Gun Rider course on Saturday the 17th.  More on that to follow as I get videos and verbiage straight.

Link to the training we did: Civilian Top Gun Rider Academy 1

Just wanted to mention that in the course of the training, in which I did better than I thought since I didn't drop Brigitta once, I discovered my battery wasn't charging and the instructors had to push start Brigitta before the start of each exercise!  On the plus side, she starts really easy when pushed, especially if I remember to turn the key on.  ;)  I thought Bob, the instructor, was going to whack me when he and I discovered after one long series of pushing (by him), that the key was off.  Doh!

The other thing that happened right before the final exercise was that the clutch cable broke!  Dang German engineering, Brigitta is only 27 years old!  ;)   Luckily, being the typical Airhead owner, I carried a spare clutch cable (much to the amazement of everyone there) and about 30 minutes later I was riding again.  (After another push start of course).

Got Brigitta home with no issues, troubleshot the problem with RichardM's help and during the course of it he mentioned that a dead cell in the battery could cause the symptoms I was having.  Took the battery from Stewie, Martha's scooter and hooked it up to Brigitta.  It proved the charging system was fine, no need for a new alternator as I'd originally suspected.  A run to the local auto parts store for a similar form battery and Brigitta was back in business!

OK.  So this is why I rode Brigitta to the OBR instead of taking Scarlett as originally planned.

It was a great weather day on Sunday and it would turn hot in the afternoon.  For the gathering of the motorcycles in Golden, Colorado though, the weather was perfect.  I ran into friends and acquaintances there and more and more classic motorcycles of all marques showed up.

Sadly, the battery on my Nikon AW110 was running down as I'd failed to charge it properly and my use of my old Panasonic Lumix revealed later scratches on the lens which marred a lot of my pictures.  Still, some turned out and my friend John S, aka Spat, let me borrow some of his.  I hope you like them.

 The ride organizer's Beemer, he's the bearded fellow sitting
on the stone fence in the background.

 A 1936 Vincent Comet Series A, very nice.

 A new acquaintance, Rocco, and his beautiful R90S

 A 1951 Vincent Comet Series C, spent last fifteen years 
in a shed till the owner finally agreed to sell it to the present owner.

 Another beautiful R90S, thought it did have cosmetic damage
to the fairing, she still looked very nice.

 I've seen this K Bike before with its sidecar at one of
the local Beemer rallies.

Here is new acquaintance Ted's Chiang-Jang, it does come with
a sidecar but he had removed it to have fun on two wheels.

 In complementing colors, a Norton and a Triumph

 A fellow Uralista, Marc L. was sporting the above T-Shirt

 A very nice looking Harley Davidson Knucklehead.

 Check out the exposed valves on this Henderson Sidecar Rig's engine.


The Henderson's pretty instrument cluster.

 photo courtesy of John aka Spat

 A nice shot of the Henderson Sidecar Rig
photo courtesy of John aka Spat

 Brigitta
photo courtesy of John aka Spat

Look at the face on the monkey....it was her first ride in a sidecar
photo courtesy of John aka Spat

Check out the below video for a "engine on" view of the exposed valves.



Brigitta, even though 27 years old now, still didn't qualify as "old enough" for the OBR and besides I didn't have the time as I had to rejoin the Civilian Top Gun Rider course to take pictures during the Sunday iteration of the training.  No pictures on Saturday you see, I was a student and busy enough just doing the exercises!

6 comments:

RichardM said...

Pretty nice photos. The Henderson kind of stands out due to its unique engine. Only 3 cylinders and I assume that the other 3 valves must be on the bottom under the plugs or it's a 2-cycle engine.

Glad you got the charging issue worked out.

redlegsrides said...

The other three valves are on the right side of the engine, thanks again for your help.

Learning to Golf said...

Love to see all the old bikes! The key being off is only funny when reading about it and not pushing. I guess that is why I'm laughing.

Unknown said...

The other three cylinders are on the right side. Yes it ia a V-6 :-)

RichardM said...

Marc,
Where are the other valves? I.e. 2 valves per cylinder...

Unknown said...

Dom:

I also saw an engine with outside valves but you had to oil them manually every so often.

I often thought that it would have been exciting to be growing up at the turn of the century in the age of the horseless carriage. We could have been hanging out in your garage inventing Harleys or Indians

congrats on scoring so high in your Top Gun Rider Academy. Can't believe you would leave the ignition OFF

bob
A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast