I got to sleep in a little today as I didn’t need to be at the line-up for the Parade until around 9. For once the weather seemed just about perfect, neither too hot or too cold.

I rode down to Beach Road and there were lots of volunteers directing folks to the line-up. It was at this time that I had my only bad experience of the week. I was right behind a Harley with some very loud pipes (no surprise there) and we were directed into the parking area, where there were 3 queues of bikes lining up. The Harley pulls to the end of the middle queue, but hasn’t stopped yet. I spot an ST1300 at the end of the rightmost queue, so I swerve to the right to head that way. Harley guys decides he wants to go to the right queue as well, so with no checking he swerves right as well just as I’m next to him. No biggie, I swing wider right and apply some throttle to go around him. We get to the end of the queue and I pull off the helmet to go offer an apology. I figure it was 50/50 at fault – he should have checked, but I didn’t need to pass him.

Unfortunately it looks like I passed the meanest, badass-est looking biker I’ve seen all week. Maybe 40 years old, maybe 50. Tons of tattoos, vest full of scary-looking patches. His passenger (wife?) is even meaner looking that he was.

“Sorry about that, I thought you were stopping.”

“Asshole, sorry doesn’t cut it. Big hurry to go nowhere, aren’t you?”

“Like I said, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t give a shit about your sorry.”

At this point I’m not really sure what’s going to happen next. It was very surreal – I mean I’m lining up in a parade with yellow balloons on my bike, Bubbles the clown next to me, and this closest-thing-to-a-1%er-at-Americade looks like he wants to stomp me. As does his old lady.

I turn around and ignore it, and start taking off my jacket and gloves. I can hear his passenger yelling at me now. Fortunately for me some of his buddies show up at this point, and he starts talking to them. I walk away to the front of the line of bikes to get some distance.

I had almost an hour to kill before the parade started, so I walked around Canada Street for a while. Not like I wanted to hang around my bike with that guy around. I also didn’t like the idea of this guy staring at my back during the whole parade either – gonna have to fix that.

Saw lots of crazy bikes in the line, including a wild home-made trike with a huge wooden platform for the second row seat.

And you were worried about scraping your floorboards?

Cool

The Red Knights were leading the parade this year, so there were a couple dozen red Harley’s all together.

Lining up

Once we got underway I managed to do some judicious merging at the first turn to get in a different line than Mr. Happy. Good.

The parade itself, while pretty goofy, was also very neat to be in. Hundreds (thousands?) of spectators lined the streets to watch us go by. We rode to the North end of Canada Street, then did a U-turn (which the Victory next to me almost didn’t make) and doubled back on ourselves. This way you could see the parade as well as be in it.

Parade with Red Knights

Parade past spectators

Parade past cars

After the main route down 9, the procession started up the toll road to Prospect Mountain for the BMW BBQ party, living logo, and the end of Americade.

Prospect Mountain Parkway

One thing I definitely noticed during the parade – the Multistrada is not geared for 5mph stop-and-go. The slowest you can go with the engine happy is about 9-10mph. Lots of folks swap the 15-tooth front sprocket for a 14-tooth one, and I can see why.

At the top (well, a big parking lot near the top) of Prospect Mountain we’re all directed where to park the bikes to participate in the “living logo”. If you’ve ever seen an ad for Americade you’ve seen the Living Logo, where hundreds of bikes and rides spell out something, like RIDE, or Americade, or something. It took about 20 minutes for the staff to get everyone arranged for the photo, while the photographer atop the ladder truck radioed instructions. Did it, checked it off the list. Don’t need to do it again.

The remnants of the living logo

The Americade Video girls

BMW was sponsoring a big BBQ there, and there was live music as we ate. I was sticking around for the BMW ABS demos. They soap/water/straw up a large area in the parking lot, and then have a staffer take the outrigger bike with no ABS through it and grab the brakes. Fun, fun, fun. Good thing they have haybales at the end for him to crash into.

The outrigger bike

Then they do the same thing with a bunch of ABS-equipped bikes, with much less dramatic results. They even took a volunteer from the crowd (which turned out to be Bubbles the clown – don’t ask) and had her passenger on the back of a GS for the last ABS run. I’ve got to say, ABS is definitely worthwhile

a run on the outrigger (if the video pauses, move the slider just a bit to the right)

K1200LT ABS Demo

ABS-equipped GS with Bubbles the pillion

Rode back to the campsite after the demos and final door prize drawings, and packed a tankbag for a ride through the Adirondacks. Americade provided a free area map with 8 or 10 self-guided tours layed out, and I modified one to include a bit of Vermont.

Took 9N south to 4 around Great Sacandaga Lake, some other roads, then 30 north to Indian Lake. Route 28 East to Wevertown, then 8 north to Hague.

For the most part 30 and 28 were sweeper city, very pretty county to ride through with no real twisties to speak of. The road around Sacandaga lake was a lot tighter, but I was stuck behind a slow-moving Harley for most of it. Route 8 had a lot of tight turns and terrific pavement, but it went through a lot of small towns with reduced speeds. Probably did my most aggressive cornering on parts of 8. I noticed somewhere along the ride today that I was feeling much more confident on the corners. Not going much faster necessarily, but just feeling more relaxed. Felt good.

I wish I had more pictures from this ride, but I got too much into the groove of riding to want to stop to take photos. Bad habit.

Elephant rock - duh

A quick jaunt up 9N took me to Ticonderoga, where I caught the 8 minute ferry across Lake Champlain to Vermont. The ferry service here will be 250 years old next year.

The ferry

Riding onto the ferry

On the ferry

Got a picture of the state sign, and took 73 to 22A to 4 to 149 and then back to Lake George. The “Welcome to NY” sign was strategically placed to get you killed, so I missed out on that one. This section of western Vermont reminded me a lot of Lancaster County, PA. Rolling farmland, crappy pavement.

My camera took a beating today

A car driver came up to me in NY while waiting for the ferry and said “Some kind of bike thing going on?” I told him a bit about Americade, and suggested he come down to Lake George tonight if he really wanted to see a lot of bikes.

Ditched the tankbag in the tent, and back into town for the last night of the show.

The atmosphere was a lot different tonight than it had been previously. Easily triple the amount of people on the streets and on the sidewalks, and tons of sportbikes. The sidewalks were jammed to capacity, and lots of people obviously under the influence (not that I’m condemning, just pointing out). I got a parking spot much farther South than before, and got some Quizno’s (again) for dinner.

It’s amazing the difference between Saturday night here and the previous nights. Before, it was Americades and locals strolling down the street, having an ice cream and pausing at interesting bikes to check them out or chat up the owner. Traffic was no big deal, just more bikes than cars. Very casual, laid back, and respectful.

Tonight was insane. The street was filled with sportbikes doing burnouts (until the cops caught them), Harley guys with insanely loud pipes blasting up and down, and hopped-up pickups and import tuner cars. The crowds were cheering for every biker to rev it up, do burnouts, etc. The balconies of every bar/restaurant were overflowing, cops were everywhere (hadn’t seen hardly any prior), and the atmosphere was just…rougher.

Again, not condemning, just reporting. I’m sure it’s nothing like what you might find at Daytona or Sturgis, but it was just so different than what it was like the whole week before. I stayed till around 10, and then headed back to the tent to get some sleep before the big ride home tomorrow.