Motorcycle Poker Run

The motorcycle poker run has become very popular in our area. There is one most every weekend somewhere. It is a simple event, usually involving a starting tavern, several others separated by 20-40 miles each, and an ending tavern. You get a stamp on your entry paper at each tavern, then draw a poker hand at the last stop for the prize, which has never happened to me. This is at one of the stops at a recent poker run........

....we had about 85 bikes. That pretty much over whelms a rural tavern so they put on an extra bartender or two for the hour we are there. Then, off to the next stop.......

......you get a T-shirt, the spaced-out guy in the center of this picture is modelling this year's Phipps Run T-shirt.....

.......you drink a lot, and take a lot of pictures........never a good combination.........

....this run was a little more elaborate than some. They had a "bikedrop" They rent a crane and drop an old Japanese bike (considered poor form to drop a Harley, sorta sacrilegious, I guess)........

.......poor old Yamaha. We missed the picture of the drop, thanks to the new and improved digital camera we use (don't get me started on that). They dropped it again, since the first 60 foot drop only managed to break a blinker light. What did they expect, it is Japanese! To get a good "splash" with parts flying all over, they would need to drop a Harley...........

.......We had a brief but cruel rainstorm, which only I seemed to get caught in (I had to run to Hayward briefly and do a quick procedure as I was on call). One of the girls thought it would be fun to style my hair and take a picture.......

....the highlight was what they call a burnout............

....you lock up your front brake and slowly let out the clutch, causing the rear wheel to spin and smoke in protest.......

....you then "walk" the rear end sideways in a pivot around the locked-up front wheel making a black circle of rubber on the pavement, along with a huge noise and billowing smoke........

....if you look close, you can see the black circle. This is good for a brief standing ovation, then everyone goes back to drinking.............

....after the applause dies down, there is only one guy left clapping........the local tire dealer!

Uncle Hans