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First off, a very large and sincere thank you to Rob Mills - Rockjok- and his ever present buddy Hoover, for hosting this event in the bad lands of Big Sky Country. The amount of thought, planning and organizing this event must have been huge. The scenic , twisty and very good routes with "lookout" stops were excellent. Once again, thanks Rob. You certainly surprised everyone with your "piece de resistance" of about a 90lb. roast pig on Saturday night. WOW!
It was also a pleasure to finally meet the "legendary" Tkat and Myra. Their ability to push on, squeezing every thing possible out of life evey day in face of major serious physical problems is an example for all of us. Push on smiling with only minor bitches about border bro's and other of life's mishaps was a good example as well.
Likely, much to Tkat's chagrin (this is a personal observation) riding 10 10ths all the time may be exhilarating and exciting but those that do, sooner or later are going to end up with a bent bike and a broken up body. A body that screams at the brain every time you move; "what have you done to me?" Sorry but I think I will chicken out with wide chicken strips on my tires and more miles on my odometer. As I said, this a personal observation which I do not always follow but should.
Beechfront! who traveled 1100 miles non stop to get to Bozeman. WOW! I guess you didn't get your front brakes fixed, couldn't stop and were forced to push on through. That is an iron butt qualifier if ever. 1100 plus miles on a special had to be one sore ass ride. Congratulations. It was good to finally meet the face behind the nom de plume of beechfront.
The choice of a KOA campsite worked out well in my opinion. Everything we needed was there. I enjoyed our own area and the washrooms, showers etc. were well cared for and kept clean. I have stayed in a lot of campsites over the years that could not hold a candle to the Bozeman KOA. Particularly in Europe where some on the sites I was in in Germany and Spain and you would shudder on entering their wash rooms.
I will likely forget some one, sorry names are not my fortia but it was good to meet for the first time, XS'ers, Jerry Fields who shared his campsite with me, Lanny the Lizzard who turned out to be not at all what I expected (this was a good thing), James Dille on a fancy FJR WOW!, Larry and Kelly Hotz, Sid Hansen, Wayne with his HD and matching HD pony tail, Indy Rick who looked right at home on Rob's Midnight Special Also to get reacquainted with Denny Z, Steve and Molly Linderman (definite XS' ers who own a small fleet of XS's), Don Hughes down from Edmonton, Ken and Sheila Talbot also from BC. If memory serves me right I saw license plates from, Nebraska, Texas, California, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Kansas, BC, Alberta and Montana. It was a good representative example of XS'ers from all over.
And now for Ratbyk, as we rolled into the driveway at 7.10 pm Monday night she ticked over with a very fresh 3810 more kilometers than she had left with the previous Wednesday. The only "service" type thing I did to her on the whole trip (besides pouring a never ending stream of gasoline into her) was to add one liter of Castrol GTX 20-50 into her for the trip home. Even that put it slightly over full. On checking it this morning the oil level is at the bottom of the window and it is time for an oil and filter change. Thanks to all of the very knowledgeable, frank and good advice from the XS site that I was able to apply to the Rat that enabled such fantastic reliability to a 26 year old work horse. This is a great site!
Oh, almost forgot, thanks again Rob for the "Official" Red-Green braces that now adore my leather M/C pants. Tee Hee, they look good.
I will try and get some pictures posted in the next few days when the "buzz" of a long M/C trip finally wears off.
Ken/Sooke
78E Ratbyk
82 FT500 "lilRat"
It was also a pleasure to finally meet the "legendary" Tkat and Myra. Their ability to push on, squeezing every thing possible out of life evey day in face of major serious physical problems is an example for all of us. Push on smiling with only minor bitches about border bro's and other of life's mishaps was a good example as well.
Likely, much to Tkat's chagrin (this is a personal observation) riding 10 10ths all the time may be exhilarating and exciting but those that do, sooner or later are going to end up with a bent bike and a broken up body. A body that screams at the brain every time you move; "what have you done to me?" Sorry but I think I will chicken out with wide chicken strips on my tires and more miles on my odometer. As I said, this a personal observation which I do not always follow but should.
Beechfront! who traveled 1100 miles non stop to get to Bozeman. WOW! I guess you didn't get your front brakes fixed, couldn't stop and were forced to push on through. That is an iron butt qualifier if ever. 1100 plus miles on a special had to be one sore ass ride. Congratulations. It was good to finally meet the face behind the nom de plume of beechfront.
The choice of a KOA campsite worked out well in my opinion. Everything we needed was there. I enjoyed our own area and the washrooms, showers etc. were well cared for and kept clean. I have stayed in a lot of campsites over the years that could not hold a candle to the Bozeman KOA. Particularly in Europe where some on the sites I was in in Germany and Spain and you would shudder on entering their wash rooms.
I will likely forget some one, sorry names are not my fortia but it was good to meet for the first time, XS'ers, Jerry Fields who shared his campsite with me, Lanny the Lizzard who turned out to be not at all what I expected (this was a good thing), James Dille on a fancy FJR WOW!, Larry and Kelly Hotz, Sid Hansen, Wayne with his HD and matching HD pony tail, Indy Rick who looked right at home on Rob's Midnight Special Also to get reacquainted with Denny Z, Steve and Molly Linderman (definite XS' ers who own a small fleet of XS's), Don Hughes down from Edmonton, Ken and Sheila Talbot also from BC. If memory serves me right I saw license plates from, Nebraska, Texas, California, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Kansas, BC, Alberta and Montana. It was a good representative example of XS'ers from all over.
And now for Ratbyk, as we rolled into the driveway at 7.10 pm Monday night she ticked over with a very fresh 3810 more kilometers than she had left with the previous Wednesday. The only "service" type thing I did to her on the whole trip (besides pouring a never ending stream of gasoline into her) was to add one liter of Castrol GTX 20-50 into her for the trip home. Even that put it slightly over full. On checking it this morning the oil level is at the bottom of the window and it is time for an oil and filter change. Thanks to all of the very knowledgeable, frank and good advice from the XS site that I was able to apply to the Rat that enabled such fantastic reliability to a 26 year old work horse. This is a great site!
Oh, almost forgot, thanks again Rob for the "Official" Red-Green braces that now adore my leather M/C pants. Tee Hee, they look good.
I will try and get some pictures posted in the next few days when the "buzz" of a long M/C trip finally wears off.
Ken/Sooke
78E Ratbyk
82 FT500 "lilRat"
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