Barber Vintage Days 2014

Is anyone planning on going to Barber for Vintage Days, October 10, 11, 12? I have purchased my ticket for all three days. I don't know if I will haul the Norton or ride the Viffer but i will be there. I got a track parade lap pass for Saturday evening. i am not going all that way with a bike and not getting on the track. I am looking so forward to this.

 

I'll be there. Not sure if I am bringing a bike since I'll be with the family.
I'ts a great time.

 

I have been twice before once in '08 and again in '09. Both times I was with friends and we were traveling by motor coach. I swore I would go, someday, with a motorcycle and be one with the crowd. It is a great time. I am not a rally person. I don't do crowds usually but Barber is an exception. It is a class act from one end to the other. If I ride there I'll take the VFR of course. If I haul a bike I'll take the Norton.

 

For the folks in the PNW that are not riding to Alabama. May I suggest an ongoing vintage gig of nearly 30 years and counting called The Isle of Vashon TT", held each year either the weekend before or after Labor Day. Google it for more info,pix ect.

 

Sound like fun. It looks a lot like our local North Texas Norton Owners Association's Lake of the Pines Rally. No racing but a pretty big gathering of vintage lovers in the woods of East Texas. It falls on the same weekend as Barber or I would go to that.

 

No racing at the IOV TT either. There is some spirited riding. The event is a 37.5 mile poker run patterned after the Isle of Man TT. The Isle of Man is not a race either, but a time trials. There are those who would ban the IOM as being too dangerous and buried somewhere are complaints that the entire Island should be renamed.. The Isle of Person maybe..

The IOV is only accessible by ferry or by private boat or aircraft. Lots of freeloaders who find and whine at the last checkpoint that the concours and judging, the food and the crappers, the poker payout field events and the show of sometimes up to hundreds of bikes is pay up or flip a U and bye-bye. The variations of whining, I know so and so, I didn't know yada-yada... could fill book.. My doing.. Don't snitch me out..

The local Norton guys are well represented here too. Even a Manx or two show up and go the course. Relaxed rules..

 

Now that sounds fantastic. I'll bet the scenery is nice too. Is the date really kept a secret to keep the numbers low and the Harleys out?

 

The date has always been the weekend before or after Labor Day. The actual date is published in the club newsletter. Not much of a secret after that. Not that many Harleys or harleydoods show. A few classic and even antique HDs yes. I have found that harleydoods old and new kind of like running with each other. An event like this would historically outnumber and probably intimidate the average noob or even the hardcore harleydoods save but a few who are in on the jokes and banter. As to the overall numbers, not everyone chooses to pay to go on the poker run. The HMFIC of the event would probably have an orgasm if his dream of having nothing but old bikes show up. The deal is, more bike makes for more paying entrants so the logic here is misplaced. The dude is a bureaucrat so this is expected and repeated ad infinitum..

The event is the clubs main fund raiser. It take all sorts of folks to put it on. It is 100% non commercial. The food booth at the last checkpoint is run by the parents of high school wrestling team.. The club has the usual Tshirts and pins.. (real cloisonné) Entry fee is I think ten pesos. The poker payout is set at a fixed percentage of the entry fees.

The Island is not that big. Two ferries run from West Seattle and Tacoma.. The West Seattle run goes also to Kingston.. Where my buddy Rich has his seat works ( LOL ) The checkpoints are scenic, well marked and staffed. There are also riding marshalls all with First Aid training and some are SFD EMTs. One of the members is a doc who is a regular.

The concours is divided into several categories including rat bike. All entries must run. No trailer queens or show bikes with no innards.

Lots of stuff going on in the background. We also donate to the local foodbank out of the proceeds.

A few lowsides by dudes going into corners too hot and not knowing the road but never a bad one or a fatality. Flaggers at the tight corners ect.

We also have an event at a different date called " The Tiddler Tour" bikes 350cc and below including a couple of hot Whizzers and some ratty scooters that show up almost every year. This is more an al fresco event and we all pack a lunch..

Some may ask, why a "Poker" run. Any other lottery device requires a gaming license in most places. Poker is considered a game of skill rather than a game of chance. In our version and there are others to be sure, a dart is thrown at a cork board with a deck of cards pasted on it. No wild cards.. This satisfies the "skill" part. The rest are drawn from bags containing pill bottles containing one card. This is drawn by the rider and his or her poker card is punched. The punches are different shapes and are never the same each year and are only handed out to the checkpoint main guy just prior to the first bike out. There are other method using numbered poker chips that work too. In this one instead of punches, permanent markers are used on the poker cards. I wrote a white paper on this for Soundrider a few ago.. VME also used the system on a poker run that was a fundraiser for one of the local guys who crashed badly.

 

That really does sound fantastic. I have official put it on my bucket list. Classic bikes, twisty roads, good people, games of skill, a ferry ride, an island, large bodies of water, more classic bikes, scenic checkpoints, MAN! who could ask for more! It's too bad all this happens for far away from me. It seems like the good events are always a couple of day's ride from anywhere I am.

 

Look at it this way Jim, if you rode a Harley you probably wouldn't make it that far anyway.

 

If I rode a Harley I would be dreaming of chrome and Sturgis and wouldn't care about some far off island where the "off-brands" gathered. :smile-new:

 

I think it only fair to respond to your question about keeping the Harley crowd to a minimum in greater detail. We send out flyers and Emails to all the Harley dealers aboot the ferry that sank in 92 with 462 Harleys aboard. We also circulate that several member of HOG were never found after straying off the main roads on Vashon Island where stories of cannibalism still exist.

Do harleydoods still ride their bikes to Sturgis? Sitting on the bike in the back of a pickup the last few miles out doesn't count IMO..

 

This puts me in mind of a humorous story concerning cannibalism. The punch line reads, "Have you ever tried to clean one?"

 

I think I've heard that one..Go ahead anyway.. Now if we are talking aboot harleydoods and cleanliness some of them are so clean they squeak. I have heard it's the leather..

 

Well I am back! It was a really nice trip. I didn’t expect it to be so but it was. I determined to do a couple of things different this time around. First, I shunned McDonalds. My usual habit is to eat pretty much all my meals at Mickey Ds because it is easy and I know the menu. I ate at a lot of local places. I had some great ribs in Jackson Mississippi and some not so great barbeque in Birmingham. Barbeque in the deep south is all pork and the sauce is like a tomato sauce. They seem to think it’s wonderful but I‘m from Texas were REAL barbeque is beef and the sauce is rich and spicy. I ate burgers, of course, but not from chain restaurants. I also carried a bag of snack crackers, cookies and Pop-Tarts. I did make one or two meals out of that bag while on the road.

I also was determined to both talk to people (which I did) and to hand out business cards (which I also did.) I met some wonderful people like to couple from Vermont (I have an open invitation to visit and use of their cabin down by the river. In the summer of course.) I met a couple that came up from Montgomery Alabama with their kids for Barber. They both looked like they were in their 30s but she had done 11 years in the Army and he was retired at 21 years. They were really nice people with great stories. I hung out on Saturday night with Buzz Walneck who, after selling his magazine to Cycle Trader and finding out they are not going to print a magazine anymore, decided to start another publication called The Buzzzzz Rag. It’s basically the same as the old Walneck’s magazine with a slight change of format. I didn't talk to George Barber but I saw him at the museum. It's funny but he can wander around in there and the crowd has no idea who he is.

The event was great. There was too much to see and my feet and leg muscles gave up before my will to see it all did. I did take in the vendor area, the swap meet, the Ace Café corner (kind of a rip off), the Japanese’s section and the museum. I didn’t even make it down to the pits but watched the racing from the second floor of the museum. The side car racing was cool! The had a race for bikes over 100 years old. It was not a cut and thrust type of event but it was good to see the old gents out there on the track. Barber is a fantastic place. It's clean, well staffed and it gets bigger every year.

The trip was really nice with great weather until the very end. I had ridden back all day Sunday and I got to Shreveport LA around 2:45. I had planned to stop but I thought, “I feel pretty good. I’ll just keep going.” That was a mistake. Right at the Texas border the sky changed to a wall of dark blue. I pulled off into a closed truck weigh station and a guy on a VStrom pulled in right behind me. We both geared up in rain suits, wished each other “good luck” and hit the road. It started to rain not long after that and it got harder and harder until it was dark and visibility sucked. I pulled off in Marshall TX and got a room. It was raining this morning when I left but the storms had moved out and but the time I got to Tyler it was pretty much dry. I actually enjoyed the ride very much. The temperature was perfect. I stopped a lot to stretch my legs. I didn’t try for any speed records but I did run posted limits and then some. I just ran what felt comfortable. Since you won't believe it happened without pictures, her ya go:



I included a picture of the Barber warehouse. I had never seen this before. On the bottom floor, they had a roll-up door open that showed the back room. There were lots of bikes that were not on display but that were on display stands and that could be rotated in and there were lots of bikes not even ready for display. To the right, was a row of maybe 12, TZ Yamaha race bikes all in a row. It is an amazing place.