August 18, On the Road Again...

John comes down to Olympia in his big rig and hooks up to the trailer. All four bikes are loaded from Saturday, when lots of people came over to lend hands- John, Rob, Uncle Phred...They hit the road in a cloud of dust at 4:30 am. Kevin piles to travel with John. John's wife had made loads of good food for snacks. They hook up with Dean and Rob in Rob's truck, and Uncle Phred at a pre-planned meeting place. Tod and AnneMarie are already at Bonneville, and called up for Kevin to bring some extra bike parts. Evening update from on the road was "looks like we'll be setting up in the dark... and John's hands are zip tied to the wheel, so he's been doing all the driving so far...". Brent and Sue are driving up to get there Monday Morning for check in. No more news for now.

August 12, Preparing for Bonneville...

You can tell you still have a husband when you hear banging from the shop at 11 pm. Or when the dogs bark wildly in the middle of the night because he is creeping in. And what is Kevin doing out there at all hours? "Trick Stuff that no one really needs to know about...", he informs me. And I don't, as mere 'wife', have "need to know" status.

Kevin does tells me the following- the crew leaves for Bonneville on Saturday, with the following: Spare trannies, spare rear drives to change ratios to compensate for altitude. A special back-up tweaked and tuned engine, with all that "trick stuff"...

Bonita Rapida is going to race, El Mirage dust and dirt cleaned off, and Bonneville gearing installed. I'm hoping this bike does exceptionally well this year, I think she looks great and is quite the snappy ride. Even though a mere 'wife', lacking 'need to know' status, I had the priveledge of winding her out over on the east side, and when I hit a little bump in the road, I damned near flew off her seat we were going so fast (and in a very short time- zippy acceleration, I'll tell you...)

The "Friedel Flyer" is set to go also. This is an R27/5, 250 cc BMW running in the Vintage Productions Pushrod 250cc class. Named after Rob's friend. Rob is working to find leathers, but there is an eager lineup of riders to step in if needed- Brent, Dean or Kevin would jump on happily....

Dean is taking his new, very beautiful loosely interpreted replica of a 1950's Rennsport racer. This will run in the "ASP" class, 650 cc. This lovely bike has a black and doverwhite color scheme, and is sure to make the pit-tootsies wild with bike envy. Dean better be ready with a magic marker, because he will have to be autographing heaven knows what- T-shirts at least, if they are being worn....We hope this bike does great things for Dean, who has done a beautiful job, and built the snappy faring himself.

The crew this year: Brent, Dean, John, Kevin, Rob, Uncle Phred (Wes can't make it): crew chief is Tod, backed up by AnneMarie. They will head out in several vehicles, including trailer for bikes, camper, and a run around honda for errands.