Wednesday

I knew I had to get to Roaring Brook early to sign up for BMW demos, so I set my cellphone alarm for 6:05am. Got a bad night’s sleep (typical for first night camping), and I was up at 5:45am.

Once I get properly awake and organized, I rode out to RBR and parked at 6:40 or so. It was pretty darn cold, maybe in the 50’s, very overcast with no sun. It looked like rain for most of the day, but that never materialized. Thinking it was going to be warm (June, after all), I only brought my perforated jacket and gloves (and leather pants). I used my rain jacket to ward off the cold for the next couple of days.

I got in line at BMW at 6:50 (they open at 7, an hour earlier than everyone else). Started a conversation with a guy named Guy from Staten Island for a while. He started out on a Concours and traded up to a K1200RS a few years ago. We talked about having to ride an hour or more to get to decent roads, and generally passed the time.

Before I got to the front of the line at 7:30, they announced that all K12GT's and F800's were taken for the day. I scheduled a K1200R Sport for 2:30. Went right over to Honda and booked VFR (diff line for Wings) for 9:30, then over to Triumph for Sprint at 12:30.

For a complete write-up on the demo rides, check here.

One parking area at RBR

Roaring Brook was great, I’d like to maybe stay there next year instead of camping. Walked around for a while, checking out lots of bikes. I found one other Multistrada, a black 1000DS.

I was impressed by the organization present at RBR. They had volunteers everywhere directing traffic, which was especially useful for getting demo rides out the door. As soon as one was ready to pull out they’d radio “OK, Victory going out” and we’d get the path cleared all the way out to 9N, where there was an officer directing traffic. He’d stop the traffic on 9N so the whole demo group could get out or in. Very nice.

A tour of RBR

My how you've grown over the years

Lots of folks were checking out the new Victory Vision, which I have to say looks better in real life than in pictures.

Props to this guy for riding a very tall demo bike

This woman had no problem backing her sidecar rig with trailer up the sidewalk while the crowd watched

Spiders leaving on their demo

I was also impressed by the amount of pollen flying around! Fortunately I’m not terribly allergic to it, but it made the bikes filthy in an hour.

Pollen

I met a nice 900ss rider, walked around with him for a while. He was local to the area, and was practically begging the Triumph rep to open a dealership in the Capital region. He wanted to check out my Multi, so after grabbing some $3 hot dogs we headed to the parking lot.

My new friend's 900SS

On the BMW demo there were 3 sisters, Holly, Molly and Polly (or something like that). Cute.

Around 4:30 I rode back to camp for long ride to showers with towel/clothes in my lap. Took about 5 minutes of button-pushing to get some hot water out of the showerhead. Feeling nice and refreshed, I headed back into Lake George for the boat ride I booked in advance.

Passing TourExpo

Riding up Beach Road to the boats

While the 2-hour boat ride was nice, I would probably not do it again next year unless I was coming with a bunch of friends who wanted to do it. The food was forgettable at best, and the ride would have been better at 1 hour rather than 2. I struck up some conversations with groups of folks (3 guys riding an ACE, a T100 and one son on a Rebel, and 2 guys from someplace near me at home), which is impressive for me. I’m quite the shy, non-talkative guy, but I was stuck there by myself and determined to not just sit and stare out the window.

On the boat

Pretty windy on the lake

The Dunlop boat came from behind to kick our butt

The boat ride was sponsored by BMW, so there were a few BMW reps onboard. Best line I heard all day was from a BMW owner from Northern NJ talking to the rep.

“I live right near the NJ/NY border in a beautiful part of the state. You know where my nearest dealer is?”

“Yes, BMW of Manhattan”.

“Yup. You might as well have put it on the moon”.

After the cruise I walked up and down Canada Street for a couple hours. Amazing scene, tons and tons of bikes, lots of folks checking the bikes out and hanging out, a real nice vibe. Nobody doing anything stupid on the street (that would come much later), and everyone just being real cool. Got some ice cream, took tons of pictures.

Typical scene on Canada Street during the week

Lots of pretty lights

Whenever I came back to my Multi on Canada Street there was always space around it...

For all the "cool bike" photos, and scenes of Canada Street, check here.

Back to the campsite around 10:30 to download pics.