At the pleading of some of my friends I rode down to the local bike hangout here in the South Bay(Los Angeles). They have bike night on Thursdays and Car night on Fridays. Here is the URL for the place:
http://www.rickyandronnies.com/Any way..I go down there, buy my friends some dinner(great food but I am still figuring out why I paid)) and minding my own business as I wander through the parking lot of 100+ motorcycles...the count may have been more seeing as it was 75 degrees but I wasn't really paying too much attention. 99.9999% of the bike were Harley Davidsons. Many were stock, some with paper license plates because they were new. There were also those really expensive choppers that you see on TV. Many beautiful bikes. And there were 6 other Triumphs..Bonnevilles,T100s and #194 of 200 2000 Triumph Daytona 1200(Cosworth engine). Mine was the only "America". My favorite bike was the rusty old school harley(maybe a 65-67?) that was leaking oil. It had seen better days but it had the most personality..at least to me.
Out of the blue a group of judges is standing next to my bike. I am across the lot when I am summoned over to answer some questions from the judges. They asked if I had ever won one of their trophies before and I said no. And they said you have now!!!.
Now let me say I am most humble when it comes to these type of things. I tend to shoot my mouth of about things I don't know(one would think I would have outgrown that at age 46)but I can be silenced when praised(which is very rare..I have 2 teenage boys and 1 wife). There were many other bikes there worthy of winning a best of show trophy, including people who go to this show every Thursday. This was only my third time and the first time I ever stayed long enough for the raffle and trophy awards.
Yes I was proud but very embarrased. I had people come up to me, many with HD jackets, asking hundreds of questions after I receive my trophy. I wished some of my fellow BA.Com riders were there.
I guess all the busted knuckles and tens of thousands of hour and dollars fixing up my $7999 MSRP America payed off in a way I didn't anticipate. I just built it to ride around and pretend I am a mix of Steve McQueen and Marlon Brando.
Later....Doug
