Tuesday - Americade - 20 miles

Up at 6:05, not on the road until 6:40. Fortunately RBR is just a 7 minute ride away. Walked over to the BMW tent, saw Jim from last night near the front of the line (6th, I think - he had gotten there at 6am). I was about where I was last year, about 30 people back. Since I didn't really care what bike I rode, no big deal. Signed up for an R1200RT as I wanted to give it a second chance. My demo ride last year left me feeling it was underpowered, but everyone seems to think that's not right. So, another ride.

Not too bad a line at 7am

Up the hill to Guzzi right after that to sign up for a Norge ride, then over to KTM. Passed Honda on the way to KTM, there must have been 100 people in line for Honda. KTM had 4 people. Even better, they let you sign up for 2 bikes at a time. Yes please! Down the hill to Kawasaki, where they also let you sign up for 2 at a time.

That wa the height of the crowd at KTM. People don't know what they're missing!

My breakfast consisted of some Animal Crackers, and a BMW chocolate muffin (well, provided by BMW, probably not made by BMW).

Toot-toot

Demo Rides

For my review of all the demo bikes, click here.

I was supposed to meet up with Dave (my coaster-riding buddy from last year's Americade) at the ropeline for the Great Lakes Drill Team, but he was busy getting new tires down at TourExpo. I did get stopped by a nice couple who had a lot of questions about my Phantom suit.

Met Jim for dinner at the Mountaineer on Canada Street, food was OK. We headed back to RBR, and the first presentation was Lee Parks' "The Psychology of Safe Riding". Excellent lecture, an hour very well spent. I've used some of the things he talked about, and it's made me a better rider. Really good stuff, I should sign up for one of his Total Control classes.

After that was Bill Stermer's "30 years of Motorcycle Testing", which neither Jim or I found very interesting. We ducked out the back door about 10 minutes into it. Sorry, Bill.

I was planning on riding with Dave tomorrow, but he wasn't sure what he wanted to do because the weather didn't look great. We figured we'd meet for a good breakfast and decide then. I invited Jim to come along on the breakfast and ride tomorrow.

Back to Canada Street for a bit, back to the campground by 10. Very, very sleepy tonight.