Motorcycle TourM

agazine

Motorcycles, Travel & Adventure

JULY 2013Volume 19 No. 7

The Road to Cooperstown

Pilgrimage to Oaxaca

Opinions on Group Riding

Monthly Columns • Ice Cream Run

BackroadsSpring Break

http://www.can-am.brp.com

http://www.progressive.com

W H A T ’ S I N S I D EMONTHLY COLUMNS

FREE WHEELIN’.................................................................................4

WHATCHATHINKIN’..........................................................................5

ON THE MARK ..................................................................................6

POSTCARDS FROM THE HEDGE .................................................7

THROTTLE BLIPS ..............................................................................8

BACKLASH .........................................................................................9

THOUGHTS FROM THE ROAD....................................................11

MYSTERIOUS AMERICA...............................................................13

BIG CITY GETAWAY........................................................................16

GREAT ALL AMERICAN DINER RUN.........................................19

WE’RE OUTTA HERE......................................................................21

UPCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR ..............................................45

INDUSTRY INFOBITES ..................................................................50

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE .......................................................53

FEATURESSHIRA’S ICE CREAM RUN............................................................23

BACKROADS SPRING BREAK 2013 ..........................................28

SPRING BREAK TRACKS DAY.....................................................35

PILGRIMAGE TO OAXACA ...........................................................38

PRODUCT REVIEWSSCHUBERTH C3 PRO....................................................................25

MOTORCYCLE MARKETPLACE...................................................46

J&M DIGITAL CONTROLLER FOR H-D .....................................49

STICKY FINGERS ............................................................................54

Brian Rathjen • Shira Kamil ~ PublishersContributors: Jeff Bahr, Mark Byers, Andy Goldfine,

Bill Heald, Tony Lisanti, Don Toothman, Dr. Seymour O’Life

BACKROADS • POB 317, Branchville NJ 07826Phone 973.948.4176 • Fax 973.948.0823 • email editor@backroadsusa.com • web www.backroadsusa.com

For Advertising Sales Information: 973-948-4176BACKROADS (ISSN 1087-2088) is published monthly by BACKROADS™, Inc. 2013. All rights reserved. BACKROADS™ may not be reproduced in any manner without specific writtenconsent from the publisher. BACKROADS™ welcomes and encourages submissions (text and photos) and suggestions. Include phone number with submissions. BACKROADS™ willonly return material with enclosed sufficient postage. The written articles and opinions printed in BACKROADS™ are not necessarily those of the publisher and should not be con-sidered an endorsement. The Rip & Rides® published are ridden on the sole responsibilty of the rider. BACKROADS™ is not responsible for the conditions of the public roadwaystraversed. Please respect the environment, read your owner’s manual and wear proper protective gear and helmet. Ride within your limits, not over them.

Motorcycles, Travel & Adventure

THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO SENT IN THEIR WORDS AND IMAGES FROM THE

SPRING BREAK: DAVE ERFER, ALAN KOVITZ, CARLOS LABOY, TONY LISANTI,TOM WATSON, BARRY WOLF, JIM WHOEVER

http://www.nolan-usa.com

STG – Smaller TacTical GroupS

a beTTer way To ride

The other Sunday morning I arose and was sit-ting outside with a cup of coffee. We were in pro-duction for the next issue so I knew riding for mereally wasn’t going to happen.

To the south I could hear the risingroar of a large – VERY LARGE –group of cruisers coming up the hill.Dozens of bikes came rolling by, in-credibly close to each other.

The thought of “space cushioning”nowhere nearby.

One woman looked over and I couldsee she had a look of “Ha, don’t youwish you were me.”

Although I loved that spring hadsprung and riders were out enjoying afine Sunday, no, I did not want to be you. I prefer my riding a bit more per-sonal, tiny and comfortable.

We have all heard that bigger is better. Well… maybe… with big blockChevy engines, Saturn V rockets and some bedrooms that might be the case.But, the more group rides I do the more I am aware that smaller is better,safer and more fun every time.

These days I do not get my jollies running with a police escorted ride(Sorry Blue Knights - we do love ya) or mass group jaunts with 20 plus rid-ers. Especially with riders you have never ridden with before. I have had afew bad situations happen when unknown and unskilled riders have roamedinto my world.

Over the many years I have been riding motorcycles it has become moreand more apparent that STG, or what I like to call “Smaller Tactical Groups”are just safer, operate their machines better and generally have more fun thanthe crowded circus that is so many big rides.

They also have added advantages such as easier everything! Fuel stops?Done. Table for six at 1 pm? Absolutely.

Not being noticed as much by local authorities riding down Main Street,USA? Far better chance with a light STG group of six or so, than that massof 20 plus loud riders being perceived as a hoard of Visigoths by the locals.

Years ago I did a piece about the Stealth Factor; the combination of thedire need to be seen; yet being unobtrusive at the same time. Itis a balancing act we need to play. We riders run a fine line be-tween wanting to be seen and also wanting to be not seen.

I want Grandpa to see me and my friends before he knocksme off my wagon while making that left turn in front of me, butI don’t want Police Chief Miller seeing me riding through histown - with his daughter on the back.

Yep, it’s a balancing act, I tell ya.That is why smaller riding groups are simply better all around.They draw less attention. They are easier to control. They do

less to infringe on the general public. Come on…have you ever wondered if that person in the car,

waiting for a few hundred riders to pass by on a police led run,REALLY has to pee or worse? It is hard to think that Mr. Kaopectate is nowa big fan of motorcycle riders.

So you say you have a larger group? Here is the deal.Even riding in STG you still will arrive, more or less, at the same time, or

there abouts. It’s easier, simpler and more fun to ride with a few than a lot.Over time certain riders will gravitate to each other. Some like to ride

slower; others a tad faster. With a Smaller Tactical Group you will find itmore a pleasure than a chore to figure this out.

I am certainly not telling you to walk away from your large riding club,but you might find scooting away with a smaller band of amigos makes yourride that much better, safer and more fun.

F R E E W H E E L I N ’

BRIAN RATHJEN

Page 6 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

Heading out for summer rides, whether on one’sown, with your honey or your riding buds, gets thejuices flowing. Just sitting down with some mapsand browsing the world wide web for places yetundiscovered (at least to you) starts the heart rac-ing with anticipation.

We’ve got a calendar full of rides, rallies and events to keep you busy for thenext few months. With Americade in the books, and July upon us there’s enter-tainment near and far. Close to home you’ll find the legendary running of theRamapo 500. The Ramapo MC has been hosting this for more years than I’vebeen riding and doing a damn fine job. Join them for a weekend of great roads(embrace the gravel, it will make you stronger), camping (or not) and camaraderiewith your new and old friends. www.ramapomc.org

If you’re looking for more of a road trip, head out to Salem, Oregon for the41st International BMW MOA Rally. This roaming rally has it all - great semi-nars, vendors that will make your head explode, terrific live music every nightand the gathering of some fine people. Yes, it’s a trip, but why did you buy thatmotorcycle if not to get it out and see this beautiful country of ours. Find outmore and make your plans www.bmwmoa.org

Okay, how about something in between in August - the Daniel Boone Rally inBoone, NC. As they say, visit three states with one rally. Yes, it’s camping but ata KOA, so facilities are top-notch. Ride the Blue Ridge and the other twistiliciouspieces of tarmac this part of the country has. www.carolinasbmwmoa.org

Not to be forgotten is the Killington Classic to the north of us (well, me at least)held during Labor Day weekend in Vermont. From the turnout last year, we’relooking forward to bigger and better things from the folks who handle Americade.A great time of year to be in Vermont. www.killingtonclassic.com

And, of course, don’t forget Backroads Fall Fiesta, this year to be held inWilliamsport, PA - Little League capital of the nation. The weekend of September19-22 will see us rolling into the foothills of the Alleghenies for some tremendousriding - on and off-road. And to follow up with the theme we seem to have createdthis year, below you will find your assignment, should you choose to accept…

W H ATC H AT H I N K I N ’

SHIRA KAMIL

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 7

ROLLIN’ FASTCycle Sports

104 Main Street, Lebanon, NJ908-236-9000 • www.rollinfast.com

Here to serve you Monday-Friday 9a-6p • Thursday 9a-7pSaturday 9a-5p • Gone Riding Sunday

SUNDAY JUNE 30TH • OPEN HOUSEVICTORY DEMO TRUCK WILL BE HEREFree Demo Rides • Great Specials • Fun for All

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So here we are done with the Spring Break in Cooperstown, New York,

home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

But, our Fall Fiesta will be held in Williamsport, home of the Little League,

where our future baseball heroes arise.

So with that in mind we have a quest for all of you.

Our Cooperstown rally was held at the headwaters of the Susquehanna

River, and that was all about riding and baseball. Williamsport, which lies

along the Susquehanna River much further south, will also be about base-

ball and riding.

With that in mind we want you all

to think about and create one

picture that combines rivers,

baseball and riding - the summa-

tion of a wonderful year of Back-

roads’ rallies.

Okay, if somebody gets a picture

of Andrew McCutchen reading

Backroads on a bike in front of

Three River Stadium… well they

win!

What we want is a great picture.

So go to it and we look forward

to your submissions when we

gather in Williamsport.

Of course, if you didn’t make it to Cooperstown or can’t make it to

Williamsport, you can send us your digital masterpiece – remember it has

to be HIGH RESOLUTION – and we’ll throw it into the ring.

Backroads’ Baseball, Riversand Riding Challenge

Group Therapy

Riding in a group is always an adventure,even with an experienced cadre of trustworthy riders. I don’t know aboutanyone else, but when I ride with others, I’m always aware that I may beunder scrutiny by my peers, especially if I’m leading the ride. By the sametoken, I am also consciously or unconsciously aware of those with whom Iam riding. I think it comes down to self-preservation: we want to make surethe people with whom we are riding aren’t going to take us out should thingsgo pear-shaped, nor do we want to be the first lemming off the cliff.

It occurs to me that we typically take training whosefocus is on individual skills, yet we frequently ride ingroups. I think the AMA has a video on group riding,but I’ve yet to see it and I’m in no hurry to do so. Why?I have a theory associated with going out to dinner thatsays if you go out to eat with more than six or eightpeople, the chances of dissatisfaction go up exponen-tially because someone will be unhappy with the selec-tion of restaurant, the tab, or the wait for such a largetable to be seated and served. I have a similar rule ofthumb when it comes to rides: more than six or eightpeople and the group gets unwieldy.

I’m sure you’ve all been there: a group of people meets at a well-knowngathering place for a ride and the next thing you know, you’re searching fora gap in traffic big enough to get the whole entourage out on the highway.Someone invariably puts life and limb at stake to block the highway, and offyou go in a ragged formation that eventually becomes a ragged staggeredformation. I’ve done lots of stress-inducing things in my life, including mass-start bicycle racing, and sometimes riding in a big gaggle of motorcyclingstrangers exceeds any stress levels I had doing that.

That’s why, in general, I avoid mass rides of any kind. I’ll never forgetmy first big charity ride, wherein my altruistic feelings were dampened by

the sight of a Gold Wing tumbling down the right lane after the inattentiverider inadvertently made contact with the bike in front of him. Watching therest of the line try to avoid the crash without causing further mayhem wasfascinating and it’s a miracle only one bike was involved. I clearly rememberone of the ride “marshals” exhorting those who stopped to help to keep mov-ing lest we have a pile-up of even greater proportions. Since then, I’ve con-fined my altruistic activities to buying raffle tickets or just plain donations.

As a rider, I cringe when I encounter a group of people out on a group“club” ride because they often are too large to pass and are moving at a pacethat is below that which is necessary and legal. It’s essentially a giant movingroadblock that can snarl traffic for miles behind. It’s a ride, not a parade.I’ve also been part of a group that made several wrong turns, en masse, andhad to find a way to get the whole train turned around. I’ve seen schools offish and flocks of birds make beautifully choreographed mass turns…and

that’s NOT what it resembled. Over the years, theseexperiences have reinforced my idea that a group ofsix or eight is about the most with whom I want to be.

If you have a larger group, the answer seems prettysimple: break it up into “flights” of six or eight riders,each with a designated leader who knows the route,and let them go out at intervals some minutes apart.If you have hot-shoes who like to go a little faster, let‘em go first. If you have folks who need a little moretime, let ‘em ride drag: they can attend to anyone theyfind along the way who has had a mechanical prob-

lem. Put a couple experienced people with them, especially if there are new-bies out there, and let them ride their own leisurely pace. If you have theopportunity, let the groups choose different routes, with the more experiencedfolks taking a longer or more challenging route that will place them at thedestination at approximately the same time as the slower folks, who take amore direct route.

As I write this, “Rolling Thunder” is about to take place in Washington,DC, and I have followed my personal tradition of placing as much distancebetween it and myself as practical. I have an ulterior motive: my own per-sonal family veteran turns 89 in a couple days. He’s a great excuse not tojoin the herd, and I’m just fine with that.

O N T H E M A R K

MARK BYERS

Page 8 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

The FuTure iS laTer

If you are involved with writing about newstuff (whether it’s motorcycles or mustard) youspend a lot of time telling people what’s changedon a product we’re already familiar with. Progress marches on, althoughsometimes it marches right into a sinkhole or off a cliff. Often what’s new isnot as good as what it was designed to replace, but it’sour job to tell people what’s out there when the newestupgrade arrives. What we don’t do near as often is askwhy something we were convinced would be the NextBig Thing never actually catches on, or in some casesnever makes it out of the concept stage to begin with.Motorcycles are great examples of machines that bothembrace new technology and at the same time keep thestatus quo in areas you might have thought would beripe for modernization. The question is, then, what de-termines what fresh engineering gets adopted and whatgets stuck at the starting line?

Perhaps I should examine one particular motorcycle component to addressthis query, for when we focus we often gain insight. Sometimes we just mud-dle things up, too, which I can apparently do with a task as mundane as or-dering a cheeseburger and asking them to “Hold the Evil.” Seems areasonable request, but…

A recent encounter with a now defunct motorcycle (the Yamaha GTS1000)made me recall when this bike went into production in the early 90’s withJames Parker’s RADD hub-center front steering system. Unlike conventionalfront forks, this was a truly radical (of course) way of both suspending andsteering the front wheel, and there were many advantages to this approach.By isolating the steering and suspension functions from each other, this front

end was in some ways superior to conventional forks. For example, enteringa corner under braking suspension compression on conventional forks couldalter the bike’s geometry. As it turns out there are advantages to this alterationunder many circumstances, but there are also advantages to geometry stayingthe same (which the new design maintained even under really hard braking).Overall the functionality of the RADD suspension was impressive and fullof potential had the system evolved over time through deployment on allkinds of motorcycles.

However, unlike things like radial tires, fuel injection or antilock brakesthis suspension didn’t gain wide adoption. In fact, the only alternative frontsuspension that has bloomed in popularity is BMW’s TeleLever front sus-

pension that the company has continuously refinedand expanded throughout their two-wheeled lineup.This is very different from the system found on theretired Yamaha, and in fact (and this has alwaysamused me about the design) it’s even difficult forthe uninitiated to spot the engineering uniquenessbecause the sliders used to locate the front wheellook near-as-dammit like conventional front forks.I’ll go even further by saying there’s actually own-ers out there who don’t even know there’s some-thing very different suspending their front end, as

one of the great strengths of the BMW design is how it feels so similar to thefront forks so many have grown up with.

But with the exception of BMW’s excellent innovation, the front forkshave persevered while so many things like carburetors, incandescent bulbsand analog instrumentation have been fading off into the sunset. Why is this?I think there’s an excellent lesson here in the complexity of mass-producingsomething as involved as a rolling machine. Motorcycles, especially of thesport and sport-touring variety, have to be incredible stable, predictable andreliable in the steering and suspension departments. When unexpected con-ditions are encountered the operator needs to be able to put the bike exactlywhere it needs to go, regardless of road conditions (within reason of course.

(Continued on Page 12)

P O S T C A R D SF R O M T H E H E D G E

BILL HEALD

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 9

Take ThaT, nicheS!

I took a count of my bikes recently and realized thatI’m living too large – at least for my current economicsituation. In all, my garage contains four motorcyclesand one scooter (plus six bicycles - but let’s keep that on the down-low).

This is at least two motorcycles too many. If I rode all of them there isn’ta force on good green earth that could make me part with even one of them.But the truth is two of these bikes are castoffs that I no longer ride and nevergot around to selling (a 2008 Kawasaki Versys 650 and a 2001Suzuki Volusia 800), and the other machine, a 2007 YamahaV-Star 1300 Tourer, has lost its luster since it’s not equippedwith certain features that have become important to me,most notably ABS. Plus, it’s too damned heavy!

With this in mind I now plan to shuffle-up the motor-cycle deck. If all goes well I’ll end up with my newestbike (a 2012 Suzuki V-Strom 650) and a mystery mid-dleweight cruiser yet to be purchased. I’ll also be keep-ing my stylish little Aprilia scooter because it’s cute as abutton and some things shouldn’t be negotiable, damn it!

Sounds simple, right? It’s not. The reason? As I said I’mlooking for a middleweight cruiser with ABS. Specifically, I’mlooking for a Japanese cruiser thusly equipped. I might as well be searchingfor the Holy Grail.

A cursory internet search of the top four Japanese marquees yielded thesefindings: If I were in the market for a heavyweight cruiser or a smallish 750there are a few that come so equipped. But in the 800-1000cc range there isnothing… Nada. Zilch. Zippo.

This begs the logical question: Are machines in this class less likely to top-ple over during a panic stop? Or, are the manufacturers simply playing toeach motorcycle niche by offering features that they believe will sell bestwithin that class, while ignoring those that don’t think will move as well?

I’m guessing it’s a strong case of the latter. Think about it. When youchoose a certain style of motorcycle you are essentially painting yourself intoa corner, options-wise, often without knowing it.

For instance, if you’re a cruiser guy or gal whose hands get cold easily,you’ll need to go to the aftermarket for heated grips. OEM manufacturersapparently believe that, since you like to play the tough individualist role onyour cruiser, you’ll simply laugh at the cold. Hence, you wouldn’t be willingto pay extra for something as sissified as heated grips.

Maybe you ride a 600cc sport bike and like to take jaunts to your UncleFred’s cabin way up in Winnipeg, Canada. If that’s the case, I sure hope yourthrottle hand isn’t prone to cramping on the freeways because the OEMsdon’t offer cruise control on this level of machinery. They never have, to the

best of my knowledge. Once again it’s likely a case of perception based on eco-nomics. The manufacturers believe that, in general, tour-

ing riders gravitate toward larger machines such asGold Wings, open-class sport-touring bikes and portlybaggers. So they offer a plethora of creature comfortsfor such machines – nifty doo-dads like cruise con-

trol, two-way radios, stereo receivers with BlueTooth and other accessories. But woeful be thepoor chump (me) who dislikes the feel of such big,heavy motorcycles. S.O.L is one way to put it.

Look, I fully understand the manufacturers’ re-luctance to raise the base price of a machine by in-cluding options that they don’t think will appeal to

their target audience. But can we outlaying riders (AKA malcontents) ordercertain options a la carte? This business model has long existed in the auto-mobile world and they seem to be doing okay.

In this day and age - with myriad studies pointing to the life-saving effec-tiveness of ABS braking - I’m floored that most middleweight cruisers don’tcome thusly equipped, or at the very least offer ABS as an option. If one ofthe Big Four offered an ABS-equipped cruiser in this size range, I’d be atthat dealer quicker than you can activate your anti-lock brakes!

As it is I’m stuck in cruiser limbo “Waiting for the world to change” assinger John Mayer artfully put it. Fingers crossed…

T H R O T T L E B L I P S

JEFF BAHR

Can-Am Metuchen911 Middlesex Ave, Metuchen, NJ (732) 491-2900

www.CanAmMetuchen.com

©2012 Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. (BRP). All rights reserved. ®, ™ and the BRP logo are trademarks of BRP or its affiliates. In the U.S.A., products are distributed by BRP US Inc. BRPreserves the right, at any time, to discontinue or change specifications, prices, designs, features, models or equipment without incurring obligation. Some models depicted may include optional equipment.BRP highly recommends that all ATV drivers take a training course. For safety and training information, see your dealer or call the ATV Safety Institute at 1-800-887-2887. ATVs can be hazardous tooperate. For your safety: always wear a helmet, eye protection, and other protective clothing. Never carry passengers on any ATV not specifically designed by the manufacturer for such use. All adultmodel Can Am ATVs are Category G ATVs (General Use Models) intended for recreational and/or utility use by an operator age 16 or older. For side-by-side vehicles (SxS): Read the BRP side-by-side Op-erator’s Guide and watch the Safety DVD before driving. For your safety: wear a helmet, eye protection and other protective gear. Fasten lateral net and seat belt at all times. Operator must be at least16 years old. Passenger must be at least 12 years old and able to hold handgrips and plant feet while seated against the backrest. ATVs and SxS are for off-road use only; never ride on paved surfacesor public roads. Always remember that riding and alcohol/drugs don’t mix. Never engage in stunt driving. Avoid excessive speed and be particularly careful on difficult terrain. Ride responsibly.

Come in today for yourSummer fun and cleanup vehicles.

Can-Am Metuchen911 Middlesex Ave, Metuchen, NJ (732) 491-2900

www.CanAmMetuchen.com

Page 10 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

NOT

Hi Brian, I’ve spent the day going through back articles cutting out pages and down-

loading my summer’s rides from Backroads. I have to admit time is limitedfor me and I don’t read the mag cover to cover sometimes.

Some small reply caught my eye for some reason and it mentioned aFebuary article and cancer. I just found that mag and read your ordeal. I hopeand pray you’re cancer free now. That was a hard thing to do, share your per-sonal experience. I’m not an emotional guy but I was choked up. I’ll see you at the Backraods 250 in June. Can’t wait to share some wind.

…cancer has changed, and so have I. Life goes on, even be-comes normal again. I refused to let cancer wreck my party.There are just too many cool things to do and plan and live for.

~ Kris Carr

If you’re going through hell, keep going. ~ Winston Churchill

Dear Brian, Great article on your Texas trip! I’ve never been there (other than airport

stopovers) and am now looking forward to including that State in a futureride. And as far as ride planning goes, during my recent perusal of the Back-roads educational catalogue I could not find the course offering for “SpousalNavigation and Route Planning” you frequently men-tion during your musings. Can you please train my wifeto have a great riding route loaded into my GPS eachmorning? Currently the directions she typically fur-nishes are not very precise, but short and sweet….

Jon Bressner

Brian, My wife and I just returned from our annual Texas

trip and thought you might enjoy an experience we had.We did, for the most part, the same places you and Shiradid on the Victory. First let me state that before we lefthome, Columbus, Ohio, I looked at my tires, MichelinPilot Road 3’s, and thought we had enough tire for thetrip. Okay some rough weather to get thru the first cou-ple days, but by the time we get to Texarkana the sun isout and the temps are in the 70’s. Remember it’s the firstweek in May. Our destination is Big Bend country andwe make our base at the little town of Alpine, Texas.That day I took a look at my tires. Surprise, not goingto make it home, on those tires, if we spend a coupledays riding the Hill Country. Another surprise, justdown the street from our hotel is Alamo BMW A quickcall to Alamo BMW and they said to come in and theywould work us in for tires. Thanks to the great peopleat Alamo BMW our beemer has a new set of RoadThree’s, so now we can spend as much time as we wantin the Hill Country. We wanted to spend a couple daysriding the Ozarks on the way home so we headed forHarrison, Arkansas, via some of our favorite roads inthat state.

One of those roads is Arkansas Rt. 16 which goes thrua little town called Nail, not a joke, look it up, been thruthere many times. This time, and for no apparent reason,my wife says on the intercom, “better check the tireswhen we get to our hotel tonight, in Harrison.” Well Idid check and guess what was in my brand new rear tire? A freakin NAIL. Okay so now what ? No big deal, Icarry a plug kit and plugged the tire myself. But thispresents another problem. BMW, in their infinite wis-dom, placed the rear tire valve in between two wheelspokes which is impossible to access with a gas stationair pump. Fortunately I found a tire store that gave meaccess to their air hose.

My advice to anyone touring on a motorcycle is tocarry a plug kit. Go to a tire shop, pick up an old throwaway tire and practice using said kit before putting in

your saddlebag. I just ordered a mini compressor from Aerostich. Whateveryou decide upon, try it out before leaving home.

Best Regards,Philip Eramo

Philip,

Sound like an excellent trip. We always have a tire repair kit AND a small

pump. Shira got a flat a few years back on the big road and, with semis zip-

ping by we plugged it and it held air for 3 months, until we changed the tire.

Stop N Go Kits are great and the Cycle Pump from BestRest is a lifesaver!

~ BR

Hey guys!Just dropping you a short note about a nice trip my 13 year old daughter

Samantha and I took last weekend. Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday we puton 675 most enjoyable miles riding around Lancaster, PA. We stayed at theDays Inn Wyomissing in Reading, PA, which was a pretty decent launchingpoint. Never been there on a bike before and had a blast. Sometimes one ortwo roads makes a trip memorable. This time Gold Mine Road in Jonestown,PA provided about 8 miles of twistilicious giggles, and 23 miles of solitudeon Clarks Valley Road, through Swatara State Park and past the DeHartReservoir, was pure bliss. Great road to ‘zone out’ on, and just enjoy the

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 11

BACKLASH Letters to the Editor

Long Island Kawasaki67 North Broadway • Route 107 • Hicksville, NY

www.LIKawasaki.com • 516-935-6969

Sport touring riders are among the most discerning of all motorcyclists, and the Concours® 14 supersport tourer's com-

bination of technology, comfort and continent conquering performance meets the toughest demands of this selective crowd.

It is powered by a muscular heart derived from the legendary Ninja® ZX™-14 sportbike. Comfortable ergonomics make

it well-suited to long days in the saddle, while offering proper body positioning for sport riding. Its overall performance will

entice riders to pull out the big maps and plan extraordinary sporting tours through the next county or country.

THE 2013

Inspiring Touring Performance,

Enviable Sporting Credentials

smells of the fresh air, and the sound of my cruiser. We also had lunch at TheJohn Wright Restaurant, on the banks of the Susquehannah River inWrightsville, PA. Delicious food, reasonably priced, and a nice scenic view.We covered many miles through Amish farm country, and as always, fol-lowed your advice, and avoided straight roads and local traffic at all costs.Not very technical riding up there, but very relaxing and scenicAs usual, themore fun I’m having, the less photos I take. But the memories will last inmy head. There’s plenty of room in there, for sure!

Anyway, we look forward to seeing you soon for the Backroads 250+.Be well,Larry Barasch“Wrong Island”, New York

Hey Backroads,Just finished your 2nd article on the Riverside Cafe. If you are interested

I can show you an alternate route thru Pa. along the Delaware River up up toand thru Calicoon NY. I plan to go this Sunday weather permitting.

Also your trip to Dorset VT. was particularly interesting since I have beengoing there all my life. If you should return stop at the state park on Lake St.Catherine and East Poultney square. Also in Poultney is the Green Mt. Col-lege. At that end of Main St. is a small cafe next to a gas station. The food islocal and very good.

I enjoy you magazine very much so keep up the good work.Jay Weiss

Thanks Jay,

Great thing about that area is that it is hard to go wrong road-wise!

Page 12 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

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ridinG iS a Social Good

parT 1: The miSSinG piece

Two pieces, actually…First, riding is a social good. Same as eating healthy,exercising and higher education. Everything we do that makes us stronger,clearer, smarter, and sharper means we can better help ourselves and ourspecies. We become better husbands, wives, parents, and workers…betterleaders and followers. Riding motorcycles does all of this…and it gets usfrom A to B with a smaller ‘footprint’,saves us time, and reduces congestionand increases available parking. Win, win, win.

So why isn’t everyone riding? Because it is harder. Sitting on a comfortablecouch eating junk food, watching TV, smoking cigarettes, drinking, and uh,…it’s all bad. As are cars, pizza and ice cream. But that stuff all feels soooogood…and I like every bit of it, too.

The people selling us our cars, pizza and ice cream are not going to tell usthose things are bad for us. And I’m keeping my car, pizza and ice cream.I’m already eating about as healthy, exercising as much, and riding as oftenas I can.

What’s missing? Incentives! I want to be rewarded for doing the rightthing. Because, (ahem…) this is America! Everyone here deserves this.

There are only two meaningful incentives. (I already can easily ride in al-most any weather to almost any destination—comfortably, efficiently andcost-effectively. Not enough.)

1. I also want to be able to save time filtering betweenall of the cars, just like riders in California (…and theentire rest of the world). It’s statistically well-proven tobe far safer for everyone, and it’s super-easy onceyou’ve done it a few times.

2. I’d also like some legal protection in case some-thing goes wrong. Like a ‘vulnerable road user’ law forall us walkers, bicyclists, skaters, skateboarders and mo-torcyclists. For everyone who uses roads not surroundedby glass, metal and airbags. We all need the same levelof legal protection highway workers in states likeMichigan enjoy. “Kill a worker: $10,000 fine + a yearin jail” roadside construction zone signs there read. Wewant that level of protection, too.

Those are the two missing pieces: Lane sharing(‘splitting’ or ‘filtering’) tolerance and Vulnerable RoadUser protection law.

It’s that simple…

parT 2: how do we GeT There?Begin with “all politics is local”. There’s no reason

any municipality cannot enact a law to allow lane shar-ing and separately another to better protect vulnerableroad users. Yes, such laws would be extremely tough topass (of course!), and anything like that is certain to becourt-challenged at state and federal levels. But this iswhere the pressures for reform and social change mustbegin. Riding is a social good.

Your city council and mayor can make it legal to filterthrough traffic on every road and surface street withintheir jurisdiction. And put up billboards and issueproclamations to educate the rest of the public. Yourtown can pass laws to better protect vulnerable roadusers, too. Laws that encourage bicycling, walking, mo-torcycling and the other healthier ways of getting your-self from A to B.

Your city can become the most motorcycle, pedes-trian and bicycle friendly place in the country, and canput up signage boasting this beside every road that en-ters your municipality. Messages welcoming and sup-porting all these better ways of living, and encouragingvisitors and citizens alike to partake of such healthiermobility options.

Auto makers and sellers (…and many other strongstakeholders) won’t be happy such activities are beingincentivized, though. It will take much courage, com-

mitment and perseverance to effect these changes.…but maybe someday sooner-than-you think your community will become

an even better place to live than it is now.Just sayin’…Riding is a social good.

parT 3: Follow-up and TacTical conSideraTionS.Bicycles have the moral high ground. Sweet pathways got built, lane

widths were striped off, and cities vie for acknowledgement as most bicy-cle-friendly. This isn’t a good fit with the world we’ve built. 100+ years ofinfrastructure investments and preferred lifestyle patterns. Pedaling cannotbe made practical for most. Too-long commute distances, hills and the chal-lenges of surrounding traffic are too much. America doesn’t want to be theNetherlands. Denver cannot be Copenhagen.

Riders need three cities of 500K population or more, each with a fewelected leaders willing to try. Mayors and councilors with motorcycles intheir garages. The AMA, the MIC and Ride to Work should combine forcesand target each with background strategic planning, campaign financing,quiet political lobbying, deal making, public education programs, and what-ever else it takes.

Two of the chosen ‘test’ city efforts will fail. But one should succeed, andmotorcycling will have established a working template for what is possible.A powerful model for all cities that shows everyone how to get others there.

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 13

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THOUGHTS FROM THE ROAD Andy Goldfine

Riding is a social good. Motorcycles and scooters offer the convenience, range and speed of cars, with a min-imal eco/energy footprint and a broad range of personal health benefits. They are more than toys for those withinterest and discretionary funds. If one big modern American city can incentivize riding, others will follow.

It could happen.

Andy Goldfine is the owner of Aerostich, makers of some of the finest riding suits in the world andthe greatest catalog that you can get by logging into www.aerostich.com.

Page 14 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

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poSTcardS From The hedGe (Continued from Page 7)

No suspension can help you when a sinkhole just slightly smaller than the Grand Canyon appears suddenly). Thehandlebars also need to communicate with the rider as much as possible to help make safe riding happen, and re-gardless of how good a new design is if it feels even slightly different it can be problematic. Then there’s all theother mess o’ complications new engineering can create, because many components (especially tires) are metic-ulously tuned to work with conventional forks and something different may well stress the tire in different waysrequiring a different type of construction.

As formidable as these obstacles are, perhaps the simplest barrier to a new design may be the most valid: thetelescopic fork continues to get better and better, and is a tried and true commodity. There’s a reason the fastest,best-handling machines on two wheels (the MotoGP race bikes) still use conventional forks to tame the tarmac.Granted, some of these fork sets alone cost as much as new street bikes, but they allow the best riders in the worldto exploit their talent (as well as insane amounts of horsepower) to the fullest. And unless a non-conventionalfork design works better they will continue to use what works best to win. As for street bikes, we shall see if anew system that is really wildly different finds its way out there in big numbers and becomes the new standard.Factors that has pushed things along like fuel injection and ABS brakes have been world-wide emission and safetyregulations; things that are unlikely to be a big factor in suspension development. And to be honest, I’m a big be-liever that with many things in life, radical change is not always the way to go, i.e. when it ain’t broke, don’t fixit. We’ll see. Change is a risky proposition, but the rewards can be substantial indeed.

GuSTave whiTehead - The man ThaT waS FirST in FliGhT

When last I was touring the south I spent some time along the Outer Banksand, always a follower of history, made it a point to stop by the famed KittyHawk, where the Brothers Wright made their legendary flight on the frigidmorning of December 17, 1903.

Along the way I couldn’t help butsee how the state of North Carolinahas taken great pride in this historicalmoment in time; with even eachNorth Carolina license plate saying‘First in Flight.’

But, what if that is not exactly true?There are many accounts that the

first powered flight happened sometwo years, four months and three daysbefore, on August 14, 1901. The al-most unknown flight of #21 “Condor” car-rying its pilot and creator GustaveWhitehead some half a mile through theskies near Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Whitehead, who Americanized his namefrom Weisskopf, when he immigrated fromBavaria, Germany, was a mechanic by tradewho lived and worked in Boston, New York,Buffalo, Tonawanda, Johnstown, Pittsburgh,and finally Bridgeport, Connecticut around the turn-of-the-century.

A trained machinist and sailor as well as an early aviation pioneer his flyingmachine looked more like a flying boat than what we commonly would con-sider a flying craft.

The #21 craft wings had nine bambooribs attached to bamboo leading andtrailing edges. Japanese-silk surfaceswere attached on the underside of thewing structure, an arrangement that al-lowed the silk to billow up firmly around the ribs.

The craft had two engines-a ground engine and a flying engine. The groundengine was used for traveling on the plane’s four wheels to test sites and dur-ing the takeoff roll. At liftoff, fuel to the ground engine was turned off, withall power then going to the main flight engine.

On August 18, 1901, Richard Howell, a reporter for the Bridgeport SundayHerald, published an account of the early morning flight of August 14, inwhich he claimed that Whitehead travelled half a mile through the air at amaximum altitude of fifty feet. Thanks to the rise of news wire services, thestory was picked up by a large number of American newspapers and a hand-

ful of overseas publications. In two letters published inthe April 1, 1902 issue of American Inventor, White-head himself claimed to have made two more flightson January 17, 1902, the best of which he said that heflew seven miles over Long Island Sound.

According to an article in the January 1935 editionof Popular Aviation written by Stella Randolf and Har-vey Phillips, Whitehead made his first flight in a steam-driven aircraft just outside Pittsburgh in the spring of1899. Two years later, in August 1901, he made an-other flight with a gas-powered plane #21 near the

town of Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1902 he made a flight with an aircraftnumbered 22 that flew over Long Island Sound. If all this is true, these flightswould have meant Whitehead proceeded the Wright Brothers into the air byat least one, or maybe even three years.

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 15

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Why haven’t I ever heard of this man and his flight Seymour, you ask?Well, let’s toss some conspiracy into this chapter of Mysterious America,

shall well.The SmiThSonian conSpiracy

The story goes that a deal was made between the Wright Estate and theSmithsonian and that the Smithsonian would only retain the right to displaythe famed aircraft “The Flyer” as long as they never feature any flights thatcould have possibly been made before Kitty Hawk.

Hmmm?

Some theories even go so far as to say that the Smithsonian has knowinglylost or destroyed the only known photograph of Whitehead in flight and thatGustave, being a German immigrant, would be overlooked in favor of thehome grown Wright Brothers.

Looking to validate the reports of Whitehead’s flight and the possibilitythat the #21 could actually leave the ground, Andy Kosch, a teacher at PlattTechnical High School, in Milford, and a small group of associates had theplans for #21 redone and spent a year rebuilding an exact replica of the craft.

It flew on the very first try for some 330 feet, proving that the originalclaims that Whitehead was first in flight could very well be true!

Page 16 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

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So did GustaveWhitehead really beatthe Wright Brothersinto the sky? This wasan issue that was neverlikely to be settled toeveryone’s satisfaction.

But that might havechanged on March 8,2013 when the re-spected “Jane’s All theWorld’s Aircraft” fi-

nally credited GustaveWhitehead with the firstmanned flight of a pow-ered, fixed-wing aircraft.

“That’s the bible of avi-ation,” said AndrewKing, executive directorof the Connecticut Airand Space Center in

Stratford, home to a life-sizereplica of No. 21.

Even now the Smithsonianis reconsidering the way thehistory of flight has been por-trayed in the history books.

These days you can take aflight of your own, by motor-cycle and visit the ConnecticutAir and Space Center and see

the full-size replica of#21 as well as manyother fine examples offlight and aviation inthe Nutmeg state.

So maybe North Car-olina might want toredo their licenseplates. Maybe Con-necticut should as well.

Let’s remember thatConnecticut alsobrought us the SikorskyHelicopter and the Fris-bee!

‘Nuff said…O’Life Out!

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 17

marTin GuiTar FacTory510 SYCAMORE ST., NAZARETH, PA 18064610-759-2837 • WWW.MARTINGUITAR.COM

What do Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, PaulMcCartney, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, JoanBaez, George Harrison, Clarence White, MerleHaggard, Stephen Stills, Arlo Guthrie and EricClapton and so many other great musicianshave in common – other than the talent thing?

They all play Martin guitars.And, Martin guitars are dreamed up, created

and given birth right in our own backyard inNazareth, Pennsylvania.

Christian Martin came to the United Statesfrom Markneukirchen, Germany in 1796. Hisfamily was long into instrument making andhis father, Johann Georg Martin, also built gui-tars. By the age of 15, C.F. Martin was appren-ticed to Johan Stauffer, a well-known guitarmaker in Vienna, Austria. Guitar politics in Eu-rope, gave him reason to sail to the New Worldand soon the young man found himself in NewYork City.

Back in the day European craftsmen oper-ated under the guild system. The guitar (in itsmodern form) was a relatively new instrument,

and most guitar makers were members of the CabinetMakers’ Guild. The Violin Makers’ Guild claimed ex-clusive rights to manufacture musical instruments.

Union troubles back then too.Since the year 1833 Martin guitars have been created,

first in New York and soon after in their present homeof Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

As the years went by C. F. Martin guitars evolved andinnovations were created. In the1850s one of C. F. Mar-tin’s major design innovations was the “X” bracing sys-tem for the guitar top. Still in use today on all steel-stringMartin guitars, the bracing system is largely responsiblefor the distinctive Martin tone, characterized by brillianttreble and powerful bass response.

C. F. Martin, Sr., died on February 16, 1873, leavingto his family and the musical world a fine tradition ofguitar making. Succeeding him at the helm of the youngcompany was his son, 48-year-old Christian Frederick,Jr., who was born in Germany. Since relocating fromNew York City to Nazareth, the Martin Guitar Companyhad evolved from a one-man operation into a thrivingentity employing over a dozen craftsmen. Originally lo-cated in the Martin family homestead, Martin guitar op-erations had expanded to the point where a factory wasneeded. In 1859, a plant was constructed on the cornerof Main and North Streets in Nazareth. Having under-gone numerous expansions, the North Street plant is still

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used today as a warehouse and shipping location forstrings and accessories, as well as the site of Guitar-maker’s Connection, a retail supply house for instru-ment making and repair.

Martin opened its “Custom Shop” division in1979. Martin built its 500,000th guitar in 1990, andin 2004 they built their millionth guitar. This guitaris entirely hand-crafted and features more than 40inlaid rubies and diamonds. It is worth an estimated$1,000,000. As of 2007, Martin employs 600 peo-ple. Thirteen workers are devoted to quality assur-ance. In October, 2009, Martin purchased at auctiona D-28 that was played by Elvis Presley in his lastconcert for $106,200.

When we visited Martin for our Mystery Ride IIin April we were treated to their free factory tour.Donning headsets, as the place can be fairly loud,we walked through the factory stopping along theway at the different stations where we could see theguitars being born. Starting from raw and sometimesexotic wood, to beautiful lathing, cutting and thatspecial X-bracing. Then on to fitting and pearl inlay,painting, polishing and finish and stringing – and all

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 19

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the while being inspected to insure that every Martin guitar was perfectin every way!

By the end of the hour-long tour we were all a bit more educated onthe Art of the Guitar and had a good idea why a Martin guitar is so spe-cial and why they command the prices they do.

As with most ‘factory tours’ Martin has a gift shop, where I found

myself buying all sorts of guitar ac-cessories. But, Martin offers thosewho play guitar something very,very special; the incredibly rare op-portunity to play some of their su-perb instruments.

Along one wall were some of thelower end guitars, but I found my-self drawn to the 1833 Room,where they keep the good stuff. Themore “expensive” machines.

Did I really need to play a $3,300dollar D-12-28 twelve string or a D-35 Johnny Cash six string that sellsfor the same? You know it wouldonly cause jealousy, angst and un-godly lust – but, I did.

You would wonder why they did-n’t have one of their authentic D-451942 Brazilian Rosewoods hangingup for any yokel like me to play.Oh, right - $60,000.00 – that’s why.

The 1833 Room is acousticallyperfect and even in my hands (I

have been told I play like I have boxing gloves on) theguitars sounded incredible. Magnificent. Phenomenal.Which way to Carnegie Hall?

Their museum is a guitar lovers dream, with guitarsfrom Martin’s storied past and some very, very famousinstruments as well.

Elvis is in the building!At Backroads Central we have a number of guitars,

but our only Martin is a tiny Backpacker, not a full-sizedguitar by any means. But, the Backpacker does have it’sown milestones as it is the only guitar to venture intoouter space aboard the shuttle Columbia and the onlyguitar to summit Mount Everest as well as making it toboth North and South Poles.

Such a well-traveled guitar works for us and I think Iwill go get some ultra-light Martin strings today andgive my Backpacker some new tone. You kinda get in-spired when you visit a place like the Martin Guitar Fac-tory.

Enjoy our ride down to Nazareth and enjoy the fac-tory – especially if you love guitars like we do.

Page 20 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

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bocuSe aT The culinary inSTiTuTe oF america1946 CAMPUS DRIVE, HYDE PARK, NY, 12538

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words/images: Brian Rathjen • images: Phil Mansfield & Al Nowak

I have never been moved by a salad. Ever.Until March 15, 2013.On a crisp late winter day we spun north to the

Culinary Institute of America, which lies along theeastern shore of the Hudson River Valley.

It was Shira’s birthday and I wanted to do some-thing I knew even I couldn’t screw up, thus thereservations for lunch at Bocuse, the newest French-style restaurant in Hyde Park, New York.

The dress code at Bocuse is rider-friendly so afterparking the bikes in the new enclosed parkinggarage and being a bit early, we strolled around thecampus watching student chefs busy doing theirpreparations for the day’s lunch and dinner meals atthe CIA’s various restaurants.

Come our reservation time we walked back to thenewly installed Bocuse and, after checking our jack-ets and helmets, were seated at a table with a superbview of the glass enclosed kitchen.

French cuisine is ever-evolving. The menu says,“The Bocuse Restaurant highlights traditional re-gional fare and iconic classics re-imagined throughthe lens of modern techniques. Your experience willbe modern and classic, exciting and comforting, for-eign and familiar.”

I would add to that “You arrive hungry and rideaway very satisfied.”

We have featured the Culinary Institute of Amer-

ica a few times in the pages of the Great All American Diner Run, and ourtitle for this column could never do any bit of justice for a place as grand asthis.

Still… a new restaurant? We were intrigued.So being this was somewhat of a surprise and I knew that I had done good

for Shira’s birthday I was just ready for an excellent meal.We are sure the menu changes from time to

time, but we’ll stick with Bocuse lunch menu asthis would work better for riders looking for a ex-quisite lunch at one of the most famous and re-spected schools in the United States.

Our ride to the CIA this day took us on aslightly circuitous way heading up towards theCatskills and then across the river – we wouldcross the Hudson again and overnight in the townof Rosendale later that evening.

But, I have been digressing. Let us get back tothe salad.

I started with a Lyonnaise Style Frisée Saladthat combined great greens with bacon, always a

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 21

GREAT ALL AMERICAN DINER RUN tasty places to take your bike

plus, and a single egg that had been done at pre-cisely 148 degrees for 20 minutes, then tossed in anice bath and carefully shelled and salted beforebeing placed on the salad bed.

It was like a softboiled egg without the shell andjust as tasty as can be, I tell ya. Shira’s appetizer offoie gras en torchon au cacao was easily its equal.

Other things to tempt you are marinated salmontartare, a scrumptious lobster bisque and orders ofescargot and frog legs.

Hey, it is the culinary institute…. so go elsewherefor your bloomin’ onion.

Moving onto the entrées you had seven wonderful plates from which tochoose. Roasted rack and Epigram of lamb, poached breast of chicken,sautéed skate Grenoble-Style, Potato-crusted lemon sole and lobster and ver-mouth ragoût stood out; but I went for the filet mignon of beef with marrowcustard and Shira chose the breast of duck with blood orange. Both excellentbeyond measure.

One small glass of Spanish tempranillo simply added to a wonderful diningexperience here at the Culinary Institute of America’s newest offering – Bo-cuse. Remember to save a bit of room for dessert, as there are some amazingofferings. One we spied was ice cream made at the table with dry ice. Verydramatic and looked amazingly tasty but too much for this day. Shira fed hersweet tooth with the Chocolate and Chocolate assorted truffles and home-made tidbits. I took a taste.

If you are planning a ride up along the Hudson River then you might wantto consider something special for you and yours.

A great group ride to Hyde Park and lunch at Bocuse or any of the finerestaurants here at the CIA will make a ride well worth remembering.

We’ll have some fun bringing you up, but get you there in somewhat shortorder. While there you might consider some of the other great offering theregion has - FDR’s Hyde Park and the Vanderbilt Mansion right up the shore.

Rip & Ride® • BOCUSE • CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA1946 CAMPUS DRIVE, HYDE PARK, NY, 12538

1-800-CULINARY • 845-452-9430 • WWW.CIACHEF.EDU

CROSS BEAR MOUNTAIN BRIDGE

LEFT AT RTE. 9DRIGHT AT RTE. 301 EASTBEAR LEFT TO CR 42BEAR LEFT TO CR 30 WHITE POND

LEFT AT RTE. 292LEFT AT RTE. 55TO POUGHKEEPSIE

RIGHT UP ROUTE 9 TO CIA ON LEFT

Page 22 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

Snowed inn104 MILLER BROOK ROAD, KILLINGTON, VT 05751

800-311-5406 • WWW.SNOWEDINN.COM

As motorcyclists we usually have a big aversionto anything remotely snowy. Well, except for thatBill Jones guy that publishes Snow East magazine.He seems to like both.

Us? Our idea of a white Christmas means ridingsome motorcycles along the glistening white sandsof the Gulf Shore of Florida in late December.

But even the town of Killington, Vermont, well known as the largest skiregion in the east, has a spring, summer and fall.

And, for we riders this is why we wanted to tell you about a great placewe found during last year’s Killington Classic Rally.

Heading up the mountain, on Killington Road, you will find Miller BrookRoad. Up along that you will find an exquisite place to hang your helmet -cheerfully called the “Snowed Inn.”

Get it? Snowed Inn… never mind.The Snowed Inn has been owned and run by

Innkeepers Manfred & Jeanne Karlhuber since the1980’s and the small four-room guest house theypurchased back then has continually grown andevolved to the wonderful place they have today. Thecouple didn’t have a clear vision as to what theirnew property would ultimately become, but as they

raised their two children, hosted hundreds of guests, invested countless hoursof hard work, and made a few sacrifices along the way, the Karlhubers trans-formed the Snowed Inn into one of the most popular bed and breakfast innsin Killington today.

As we said the Karlhubers family was raised here and the Snowed Inn isstill a “family affair.” And, that came across during our stay there.

The Inn itself is well appointed with that wonderful combination of woodand stone. Consistently expanding, upgrading and improving the structural

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 23

Bergen County Harley-Davidson Presents

WE’RE OUTTA HERE a weekend destination keeping you on the backroads

and aesthetic parts of the Inn (five roomswere redecorated just last year), the Karlhu-ber’s son, Tom, who is now an architect, cre-ated the design plans for the expansion andredesign of the front facade of the Inn in1996.

A family endeavor still to this day, to helpspread the word about the Inn, their daughterKerstin, a filmmaker, created the Inn’s videomontage as well as its Facebook page.

Renovations in recent years also have in-cluded upgrading and redecorating rooms,adding fireplaces and two-person Jacuzzi tubs,ceramic tiling, and other amenities.

Outside the hot tub is calling you at the endof the day and the deck they’ve created is a truemarvel. We want one just like it at BackroadsCentral.

The Snowed Inn offers three different stylesof rooms with three standards, four deluxe anda number of suites as well. We had a standard

room for three nights and it was clean, comfortable and roomy. It only getsbetter from these, so you will not go wrong no matter which room youchoose. Rates range from a Standard room/Summer/Weekday for $89 to 2-Bedroom Suite/Winter/Weekend for $400 (Summer rate for this room is$230).

While there we found the Snowed Inn to be a great base-of-operations forexploring the Green Mountain State and all it has to offer.

It was also an excellent place to enjoy the Killington Classic.Breakfast was a “create your own” business, with cereals, hardboiled eggs

and do-it-yourself waffles (loved that). Basically all you would need for alight morning meal before heading out on the road. We prefer this sometimesto the occasional heavy meals that some Bed & Breakfasts tend to serve.

This also allows us to be light on our feet and happily hungry for an earlyafternoon lunch.

The Snowed Inn’s prime location is just a short way from Killington Roadand it’s plethora of shops, bars and restaurants.

It was easy for us to double-up on one machine for a short ride to any ofthese great and diverse eateries or, if adult beverages called, we could take ashort stroll to the closer establishments.

We have always been big fans of Vermont and with Killington and theSnowed Inn right off Route 100 and 4 it is surely easy to get to. But, don’tstick to the bigger roads while enjoying your stay at the Snowed Inn as youwill find miles off adventure on the tiny backroads, but do expect a bit ofgravel here and there.

Enjoy Vermont and the Snowed Inn cause we’re outta here!

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Page 24 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

Rip & Ride® • SNOWED INN104 MILLER BROOK ROAD, KILLINGTON, VT 05751

800-311-5406 • WWW.SNOWEDINN.COM

TACONIC NORTH TO RTE. 23 EASTLEFT ON RTE. 22 NORTH

RIGHT ON RTE. 43 EASTLEFT ON RTE. 7 NORTH IN MASSACHUSETTS

RIGHT ON RTE. 2 MOHAWK TRAIL

LEFT ON 8A NORTH

FOLLOW SIGNS TO RTE. 100 NORTH (VERMONT)STAY ON RTE. 100 NORTH

IN KILLINGTON LEFT ON EAST MOUNTAIN RD.BECOMES KILLINGTON RD.LEFT AT MILLER BROOK RD TO INN ON RIGHT

kilwinS37 STeinwehr ave, GeTTySburG, pa

717-337-2252 • www.kilwinS.com/GeTTySburG

Adding to the ever-expanding list of ice cream ad-ventures I have and will continue to bring you on, thismonth’s gastronomical gallop will feature a place that hasbeen bringing ‘Sweet in every Sense since 1947’. Al-though Kilwins is a franchise organization, their products –ice cream, fudge and almost everything chocolate – are all cre-ated from the finest ingredients and their shops excel in providingcustomers with great service. Each shop strives in continuing the tra-dition established in Michigan, their home base, by Don Kilwins backin 1947 - uniquely combining high quality products with a warmfriendly customer experience that is supported through a successful com-munity of caring owner operators. In each shop, daily, the finest quality, tra-

ditional down-home confections and icecream are kitchen made fresh from orig-

inal recipes.Their values are simple; Treat others

as you want to be treated, do your best,and have fun! (well, we’re all good at this,yes?) These values translate directly to a cul-ture of people who are driven to provide an

exceptional confectionery experience. Coupledwith their high quality products, in-store crafts-

manship, and genuinely friendly staff they create an at-mosphere that their customers want to visit again and

again. From sight, to taste, touch, smell and sound a visit toKilwins provides an authentic sensory and taste experience like

none other. My visit to the shop in Gettysburg brought all these experiences and more.

Set in the town that saw the Civil War’s most famous battle in July of 1863,the Kilwins here was open in 1993 by the sister-act of Polly Parone and PaigeLevan. When I opened the door to the shop, the overwhelming waft of choco-late and sweetness hit me like a rhythm stick. This day I was only interestedin their creamery offerings, but come hungry and you could very possiblygo out on a diabetic coma. Homemade fudge, chocolate, toffee, caramels,brittles, corns and, of course, ice cream can all be found in their cases andshelves.

Since the day was on the cool side, I opted for a waffle cone LOADED,and I mean loaded, with Georgia Peach and Toasted Coconut as I figured Icould finish before it started to melt. (that’s why I usually get a cup – I’m aslow eater) When I tell you that I had the bloat after only eating half the icecream – not even making it to crunch the cone – I’m not exaggerating. I evenasked the young lady scooping to go light on the scoop, as I know how muchI can, and can’t eat. This ice cream was so good that I absolutely hated notfinishing, but there was just no way. Creamy, delicious and packed with fla-vor, Kilwins ice cream ranked right up there with the top homemades I’vehad in the past.

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Kilwins is almost always making something in their front window, or else-where in the shoppe. Whether it’s waffle cones and bowls for Kilwins Orig-inal Recipe Ice Cream, or a batch of hand-paddled Mackinac Island fudge,or dipping The Perfect Apple, or spreading out the local favorite, NutcrackerSweets toffee coated popcorn with nuts, on our marble slab, or... well youget the idea, you’re sure to catch them making something! You can alwaystalk them out of sample too! There were just too many flavors I wanted totry to walk away without sampling. No matter which you choose, you willnot be disappointed.

Sitting outside on the very convenient park bench, we watched the bikesride by, lusting after our cones. We were here for a BMW MOA rally and,after having a great day’s ride treated ourselves to dessert. While slurpingdown our treats, we met a couple, BMW riders but there in their car, whowere envious of our rides and eats; Backroads’ readers as well.

If Gettysburg is not within your ice cream ridingzone, here are a couple of other locations. I’m sure theirquality and selection will be just as spectacular andyou’ll ride away happy, sated and wanting more.

637 wyckoff ave, wyckoff, nJ

293 main St, huntington, ny

130 deer park, babylon, ny

other locations in maryland and rhode island

Enjoy and I’ll see you down the road.

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Page 26 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

Who would think a review of a helmet could be done so easily…I guess I can just say one name - Michael Schumacher, better known as

“The Stig.”What? I have to write more? Okay, I can do that.Globally known for creating some of the finest head protection available,

the German-based company Schuberth has been manufacturing helmets forall sorts of professions. From police and firefighters to racecar drives and,in our case, motorcyclists.

The newest cutting edge technology for us riders is the C3 Pro. An up-grade from the previous C3 this helmet features a number of innovations,in addition to having one for men and one for women. Very important thesedays.

There are numbers of things to touch on here but we’ll start with the Schu-berth C3 Pro being very light and incredibly quiet while riding at speed.

The outer shell of the C3 Pro is offered in two helmet sizes and combinesan aerodynamically optimal shape with excellent protection. It is manufac-tured using Schuberth’s compression molding process and thus permits greatstability and a low weight.

The inner shell, created with a unique EPS foam, is modular in design toensure optimal shock absorption. This complex segmentation guaranteesenhanced force absorption and distribution and maximum safety.

This multizone foaming allows optimal shock absorp-tion if the helmet is ever actually put to use.

But all the protection in the world matters not if thehelmet itself is not very comfortable to wear all ridelong. The C3 Pro certainly is.

The folks at Schuberth developed the inner liningwith, what they call, a Comfort Fit concept. This com-bination of carefully selected COOLMAX and Thermo-cool materials and the additional use of Interpowercoatings also make the inner lining a highly-effectivemoisture removal and cooling system. It is both allergenfree and antibacterial and is easily removed if it everneeds to be washed.

The C3’s strap adjusts on both sides for a more com-fortable fit and closes securely with a micro-lock ratch-eting system.

For added nighttime visibility the C3 Pro has addedsilver reflective material at the nape of the neck.

The easily removable and replaceable shield has apin-lock Visor for fog free use, as may helmets do today,and the integrated sun visor is very easy to operate atspeed.

The eye opening is very large and allows for a greatdeal of peripheral vision, a big plus with us.

The most notable change to the C3 Pro is the inte-grated spoiler, which offers enhanced downforce. Evenat higher speeds the C3 Pro develops practically no up-ward lift. At ludicrous speed, done on public roads atgreat personal and financial risk, the helmet was aero-dynamically perfect and there is little if any buffetingthat we have found with other helmets.

We mentioned the C3 Prop is very quiet. That is dueto many hours in the Schuberth acoustics wind tunnelwhen designed and tested.

We have no way of testing this ourselves but Schu-berth claims you get only 82dB(A) of noise at 100 kmper hour on a standard machine without a fairing. Thatis impressive. Our on-road testing, in a variety of speedsand conditions, proved the C3 Pro to be the quietestmodular helmet we have ever tested.

The C3 Pro is equipped with a further developmentof the proven C3 ventilation system. Thanks to the newdesign of the ventilation elements, the supply of freshair is increased by up to 30%. The combination of mul-tipath channels in the EPS foam shell and thehead/chin/mouth ventilation ensures that fresh air is dis-tributed effectively over the entire head area. The air

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 27

PRODUCT REVIEW

SCHUBERTH C3 PRO & PRO WOMEN

channels in the inner shell direct the air, which enters through the forehead ven-tilation, over the back of the head to the rear of the helmet. The low pressure pre-vailing at the rear of the helmet ensures that the internal air is constantly extractedthrough the air outlets and the special netting in the neck padding. This newlydesigned vent scoop increases airflow to over 2.5 gallons per second. That’s alot, especially on a warm riding day.

On the road we found the helmet to have plenty of fresh air moving about withthis excellent design. If it is a bit chilly aquick move closes the vents.

On the modern electronic front theC3 Pro is built specifically to ac-commodate the Schuberth SRC-System. This helmet is evenequipped with two integrated an-tennae to boost reception and aBluetooth connection – very cuttingedge and it works. Reception with theSRC was clear and strong. The C3 Pro isloaded with the latest firmwear, but youcan always upgrade as more improve-ments come along.

Installation of this unit, which replacesthe lower part of the liner, was easier than Ithought and in no time I had it up and running.

The connection between a mobile phone withBluetooth capability and SRCS is extremely simple to set up. Incoming calls canbe accepted with a voice command and using the keys of the SRC-System. Thisalso applies for navigation devices with Bluetooth capability. After the SRC-Sys-tem has been connected to the GPS device, the rider can receive the voice in-structions conveniently over the two earphones.

This is a pricey $399 extra, but if you want it and have to have it, it is worththe bucks.

The C3 Pro and C3 Pro Women list from $769 to $799 and is available at finerdealerships now. See www.schuberth.com to find a dealer near you

~ Brian Rathjen

Page 28 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

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BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 29

Words: Brian Rathjen • Images: Dave Erfer, Carlos Laboy, Tony Lisanti

I have been told the road to Cooperstown starts when you are very young,and takes years of practice and then, just a bit of luck.

Even with that, unless you are pretty consistent, let’s say 3.5 times out often, you still might not get that phone call telling you you’re headed to upstateNew York.

This year nobody really got that call - so how pleased were we that ourreaders could still get to the town that holds the National Baseball Hall ofFame, in the best way possible – by motorcycle on one of the best days forriding that I can remember.

Our Backroads group came from all directions. South from Canada, westfrom New Hampshire, north from North Carolina and three separate STGs(Strategic Tiny Groups) riding up from northern New Jersey.

Our route simply came together perfectly as we swung up across the

Delaware into Pennsylvania and then back into New YorkState and the lower Catskills.

Roads that just a few weeks before were barren and coldwere now alive with the colors of spring. Purple Lilac,white Dogwood and pink Cherry trees were all in bloom.

Red Wing Blackbirds darted in and around open fieldsas our groups made their way to Cooperstown and theLake Front Hotel, perfectly situated at the southern end ofLake Otsego, just a hundred yards or so from the headwa-ters of the Susquehanna River and just a short walk fromthe Hall of Fame.

But, more about this famed river and baseball later. Wehad come to ride!

The Lake Front offered a great view, comfortable roomsand well situated bar and restaurant.Perfect for us at the end of a greatday’s ride.

By evening time every room was

Page 30 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

Backroads Spring Break 2013The Road to Cooperstown

taken and the lot parked full of machines of everyvariety and nationality. Just as we like.

After a required warm shower and a coolingadult beverage we took a walk into town. Ourgroup had a wide choice of restaurants this nightand they made the best of it.

For us it was wonderful to celebrate a 35th an-niversary with our Canadian friends Bruce and Gailalong with world travelers Ron and Terry. In themean time everybody found dinner and libation atthe various haunts that call Cooperstown home.There was live music at the Lake Front, with theSinging Dentist entertaining our group with hisacoustic guitar talents. A good time was had by all,including NotSo and Pepe, who were very glad tobe back on the road.

Although a tad cooler the next day the sun wasstill beaming and after breakfast the Lake Frontgroups took off in all directions. This part of NewYork has so much to offer and we would all see alot of it.

There were a bunch of us with a hankering forbarbeque and just a hundred or so miles to the north

and west was the town of Syracuse, home of theoriginal Dinosaur Barbeque, so with routes plannedoff we went.

The ride there brought us west along the smallishtowns and hamlets that make up New York’sLeatherstocking region and by early afternoon wehad to fight just a bit of Syracuse traffic to finallyarrive at the famed Dinosaur.

As we had promised the meal was superb andwhile we were eating other riding groups from the

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 31

Spring Break Rally began to roll in.We did a longish and circuitous route back east

and then south along tiny backroads to finallypop out just a tad north of Cooperstown.

For the rest of the afternoongroups returned safely and withtales and stories to be told.

Earlier that week one of ourgroup, Jon, had inquired with alocal restaurant if they couldhandle a very large group fordinner. They assured us theycould and by Friday evening there were eighty-something hungry ridersstrolling over to Nicoletta’s Italian Cafe for a superb buffet dinner. We evenhad a new addition as a rider, Chris from outside Detroit, had ridden to Coop-erstown for a Detroit Tigers weekend at the Hall of Fame and ran into ourgroup. Like the Borg he was instantly assimilated – joining us for the buffet

and then again later the nextevening. Welcome Chris.

After dinner a few local pubswere explored, as well as the liveband at the Lake Front (a bit tooloud, but entertaining). Mostmade it an early night for therewas plenty of riding to be donecome morning, including onegroup doing a Tracks Day; visit-ing the New York Safety Trackand the famed Unadilla.

Unfortunately for me some odd things and circumstances suddenly ap-peared and I was kept busy for that evening and a good part of the next day.As we have all heard many times – Shit happens.

Shira had created a ride she was calling General Agnew’s Run, as ourfriend Scott had suggested some of the stops and roads along the way. This

Page 32 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

brought together somechoice roads in the area, apark with an incredible viewclear to Albany, a nice caféfor lunch and the always-ap-preciated ice cream stop.Even though Shira put it to-gether, she seemed to be ableto avoid any gravel.

A few folks made theirway to the Secret Caverns,the smaller, less visited sib-ling to Howe Caverns up theroad. We had done a piece onit a few months back and ap-parently whet their appetitefor a visit.

The Tracks Day runworked out well and manygot a view of the brand-newSafety Track and the famedUnadilla. Seems the SafetyTrack had been rented out

for the weekend by a group of Canadian riders and our group got a glimpseof the track in action, although not by them (sorry about the confusion). Theywere able to stop for a bite to eat and watch the laps.

By the time machines were rolling back in we had a pretty good idea thatall had a great day except for one incident with a chicken crossing the roadand a motorcycle. The bike won and the chicken well, didn’t, as I was told.

As with so many of our events a bunch of rear wheels came back just a bitdusty, dirty and quite worn, as just a few miles of gravel were traversed.

Many did half-day rides and spent the af-ternoon at the Baseball Hall of Fame, theFarmer’s Museum and Fennimore Art Mu-seum while exploring the great little NewYork state town called Cooper.

By evening, the deck at the Lake Front wasbustling with our peeps all having an easygoing end of the day with just a few tall talesand tire kicking going on. The sunset wasbeautiful and brought to end another wonder-ful day at the Spring Break.

That evening some groups walked backinto town for dinner while others stayedplanted at the Lake Front and their excellentrestaurant, where the evening was finished

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 33

with a great local classic rockband. Some had taken video ofthe riders at the NY Safety Track,as well as our group on the road,and a laptop was pulled out forthe viewing.

Things were very good at the 15th Annual Spring Break.But all good things have to come to an end and Sunday morning we found

that some weather had rolled in but nothing dire, just cooler and damper.Hugs were given, liners were put on, electrics were fired up and slowly I

sadly watched the two parking lots at the southern end of Ostego Lake empty.With a small cadre of buddies – what I like to call the inner circle - we

rolled out behind them and along some smaller roads mimicking the

southerly flow of Route 28, pausing for lunch in Phoeniciaand then a quick scoot back to the Jersey border and home.

Another Spring Break in the books!We would like to thank all who came and especially those

who helped out when unexpected circumstances called.Tony Lisanti for suggesting the Lake Front Hotel in the

first place, Jon Bressner for getting the big dinner togetherand Byrd and everyone else who assisted Shira when I wascalled away to Never Never Land, or was it the island fromLOST? And, let us not forget the Scarecrow, Tin Man andLion for helping Shira when she really needed it.

The Fall Fiesta will be here before you know it. Get readyfor our Great Backroads Baseball, Rivers and Bikes Pho-tography Contest. See page 5 for details.

We hope to see you there!

Page 34 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

Spring Break 2012Brian & Shira,First off let me say it was an absolute pleasure meet-

ing and hanging out with both of you at the rally inCooperstown over the weekend. You two and the restof the group truly made the 1100 mile round trip mem-orable and worth while. I made it home safely Sundayand hope everyone else in the group did as well al-though the last 3 hours of my ride were very warm astemps reached 90. It really did bum me out to knowyou and everyone else I had fun with were riding hun-dreds of miles in the opposite direction but I know we’llget together another time.

I’ll have you know too that I’ve been reading the 2magazines you gave me and have enjoyed them verymuch. In fact today at work here at Ford I took yourMay issue into our weekly team meeting and shared thestory of Brian introducing me to Jeff Kurtzman and himgushing about the new Boss 302 Mustang he recentlypurchased. I showed them the picture of Jeff at thattrack day on page 55. Relaying how much Jeff gushedabout his yellow Mustang put a smile on the Mustangteams face. In fact we’d like to send Jeff a token of ourappreciation for spreading the good word on his Mus-tang. I didn’t get Jeff’s contact information so if youknew how I can reach out to him I would appreciate it.

Hope you two are well and look forward to hearingfrom you soon.

Your Friend, Chris Gielda - Michigan

Hey Backroads,Another fantastic Spring Break! Cooperstown and

the Lake Front Hotel was just perfect with fantasticroads and scenery. Lisa and I have enjoyed each SpringBreak for the last 10 years and they just get better andbetter. I’m not sure there is another event that attractssuch friendly people. Another job well done!

Mike & Lisa Hoffman

Stymied in our attempts to locate the New YorkSafety Track, we were rescued by a passing pickuptruck driver who said “follow me”. We followed himback to his garage where in short order he emerged rid-ing a pristine 1978 R75/5, and we continued followinghim on a spirited jaunt through the local backroads,eventually arriving at the track. A short fun stay at thetrack was followed by a chicken sacrifice and an en-joyable lunch with the thankfully appeased Chief Sch-enevus. ~ Jon Bressner

Set out to ride with no route with the intent to getlost. Found two interesting points off of RT-80 A largehome with a road side sign Augi A. Busch. BudweiserBusch? Number two was the World War 1 memorialin Cooperstown. Thanks to the better half Elaine whowas focused on the surroundings while the operator wasfocused on the road. ~ T.Deming

Arriving at the Lake Front late Thursday afternoon,second order of business, after washing away a touchof road grime, was meeting the ladies at the Hotel wa-tering hole. As they were quaffing the locally recom-mended delight, Ommegang Witte, I figured to jointhem in tasting the beverage. Well played, as the re-freshment hit more than one spot - might have hit threeor four. So, myself and the ladies decided to make a

visit to the Brewery andsample more of the offer-ings. What a brilliant lo-cation, edifice, tastingroom and cafe. Duvel ofBelgium has investedwisely in this USA craftbrewery. Even Tonyshowed up, just to pur-chase Ommegang’s Gameof Thrones brew! If onlywe had our tow vehicle...

~ Alan Kovitz

The old bat lathe just captured the essence of the townto me. The nostalgic ball game was a blast to watch. Itliterally felt like we stepped back 90 years in time. The

horse was in the Fenimore Museum of Art. The lake isthe view from the hotel. ~ Jim Whoever

Ok…..there is never aride where it’s not aboutthe food…where youeat or what you eat.But I will say that thefew days after a BRRally, you really needto burn off some goodcalories consumed.

Another subject. Be-fore a road trip thereare certain safetythings that youshould consider be-fore you put thatstand up. Don’t justcheck the pressure,if it has more than5,000 on it, check itout all the wayaround.

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 35

…And now a word - and pictures - from our peeps

Twisties and core showing don’t mix!!Let it be known that it is not important

to mention who these belong to, but feel-ing that we are all family, we want tomake sure that we will have MANYyears to share these stories and tails sowe want to think healthy once in a whileand we need to check our equipmentwhen needed. ~ Barry Wolf

This weekend had it all, good weather,nice hotel, entertainment, bike talk, ridetalk, reconnecting with friends and mak-ing a few new ones. Whether it was get-ting help with a GPS route, or breaking

each others chops over a drink it was a funtime! The riding was great too. The peopleat the hotel and restaurant could not have

been nicer. Having Brian back on his feet and meeting Chris from Detroitwho just happened to be in town on his own journey were two high pointsfor sure. I only wish the weekend didn’t end I would the chance to spendtime more time with everyone. Brian and Shira- you have created much morethan a magazine or a rally. ~ Tony Lisanti

The home FronT caFé192 main St, altamont, ny • 518-861-6452 • thehomefrontcafe.webs.com

When you step into The Home FrontCafé in Altamont, New York you’ll feellike you’ve traveled back 60 or 70 years.I first noticed the old style counter andstools which reminded me of an oldfashioned ice cream parlor. If I wasn’t sofull from a delicious lunch I would havehad a big malted or banana split orsomething.

Then as I walked around I noticed allthe war (military) memorabilia dating allthe way back to the 40’s. Jack andCindy Pollard, the owners, have col-lected an amazing collection of posters,uniforms, sheet music, pictures, andthere’s even a periscope from an Iowaclass battleship. They have a very uniqueand cool collection of a time gone by butnot forgotten.

When you go, and you should, enjoy a great meal and a trip back in time.~ Dave Erfer

Page 36 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

Tony Lisanti

Saturday of the 2013 Spring Break greeted the Backroads faithful with abreeze and mostly sunny skies. The air was cool and would make for a com-fortable days ride. After much needed coffee and breakfast, the maps andGPS devices were out and various routes for the day were discussed.Arrangements had been made to visit two tracks. One new, one old but withdifferent missions.

The first would be theNew York Safety Track lo-cated in Davenport, NY tothe southeast of Cooper-stown. The New YorkSafety track is a brand newroad facility constructedon private property for thesole purpose of offeringproper skill training to alllevels of riders.

The second track wouldbe the famed Unadilla Val-ley Sports Center in New

Berlin. Unadilla has been around for a while as they are celebrating their43rd year. You may recall past articles covering the AMA Pro Motocross Na-tional held there each August. The sole purpose of this track is to test theskill of man and machine.

A number of groups set off on their journeys to each facility. Our groupset out from Cooperstown and soon settled into a “spirited” pace on the wayto Davenport. After about an hour’s ride through some great country roadswe arrived at NYST.

When we arrived at the track we found the staff very friendly and accom-modating. The track was hosting Track Fever for a riding group from Canada.

Because of the commitment to the group renting the facility, taking a sitinglap or two would not be possible. We parked our motorcycles and walked ashort distance to a viewing point just above the last turn on the course. Therewe watched several riders of various levels putting in some laps. Some wereaccompanied by instructors keeping a careful eye on them.

The 2.1 mile course boasts450 feet of elevation changeand is laid out in a relatively se-cluded area. The track isfreshly paved and has a numberof amenities including campingareas, showers, bathrooms,storage for bikes, cars andRV’s. The facility even hasroom to land a small plane or

helicopter. Breakfast lunch and dinner are available as well and we took ad-vantage of the hotdogs and chicken kabobs being served.

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 37

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Work was still being done on the spacious main building. There were twomain parking areas, one adjacent to the front straight away and the main onein a lot below. There were numerous campers and tents set up with a numberof machines in various states of track prep. We could hear riders at full tilton the front straight just behind. At one point I thought we would have to re-strain Chuck Potzer. I thought I saw knee pucks under those jeans.

The NYST is available for reservation to individuals and groups of twoand four wheeled variety. You can even rent the home on the property whichaccommodates eight adults. The facilities stated purpose is to increase skilllevel and raise safety awareness to help keep motorcycling alive. By the looksof things they are well on their way to achieving that goal.

Back in the saddle and or our way back to the east, we found more greatroads winding through farms and around small rural villages. We managedto not hurt any dogs that happened to run in front ofus. At least I got to practice panic braking keeping meon my toes.

In no time at all we found our way the to NY Route8 and pulled up in front of the great white barn mark-ing the entrance to the Unadilla Valley Sports Center.In stark contrast to the brand new road facility atNYST, Unadilla is most definitely “off road” It is thehome of Professional Motocross in NY. It is actuallytwo tracks - one Pro Track and a newer amateur trackin the back of the property; U-1 and U-2.

I had never been to the track when it was “closed”but there was a fair amount of activity. The facilityhad just completed the season opener with an amateurracing series on U-2. Preparations were under way forsome major track changes to U-1 for the upcoming Pro National in August.Concession buildings were being made, hillsides were being scraped to ac-commodate spectator viewing and the track layout itself was being changed.

Motocross has been raced at Unadilla for over 40 years, beginning in 1969,long before the sport gained the popularity it enjoys today. The track gainednational attention by hosting rounds of the Trans-AMA series in the Fall, andthe inaugural AMA Pro Motocross Championship in the early 1970’s.

Unadilla then became home to the only United States round of the FIM250cc Grand Prix of Motocross. From 1977 to 1992, this annual battle be-tween Europe’s and America’s best riders made for some epic races and re-sulted in the crowning of four world champions at the conclusion of theevent. It also has the honor of being the first motocross facility in Americato host the prestigious Motocross des Nations in 1987. I had been to all theseraces over the years! In 1989, Unadilla became a regular stop on the LucasOil Pro Motocross Championship schedule.

The track was created by Ward Robinson. After attending an event similarto trials, he and his wife Peg became inspired to build a racetrack. He foundwhat he thought would be the ideal location and purchased a large piece offarmland. He named it Unadilla Valley Sports Center, though today it is morewidely known as simply Unadilla.

The racing began in 1969 and continued whenWard contacted the AMA in order to start promoting larger races in 1970.His goal was to attract champions from overseas and test them on his pieceof U.S. soil against our American heroes. The rest is motocross history. Alltime greats like Bob “Hurricane” Hannah, Roger DeCoster, David Bailey,Ricky Johnson, Jeff Ward, Jeff Stanton, Jeff Emig, and Ricky Carmichael allraced and won here.

As the track grew, so did the Robinson family with Ward’s daughter Jill

Page 38 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

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and son Greg. “It was my job to learn all of my dad’sduties, from working on the track to maintaining thegrounds and things like that,” Greg explains. “It wasJill’s job to be my mom’s right hand, taking care of ad-ministrative duties, organizational details, front-gate op-erations, etc.”

The two were expected to work every summer, butsince the family valued education, they were expectedto balance racetrack duties with school activities. OnceJill and Greg graduated from college, they set off ontheir own careers, which they continue today. However,they remain instrumental in the management of thetrack and are very passionate about the sport that theygrew up with.

Jill and Greg were on hand on this day and greetedus after we made some tracks of our own to the back ofthe property. We managed to get one adventure bike,four RT’s and one full dresser Harley all the way backto the rear spectator area without incident. The Hoff-mans, Hilleys, Donoghues and Mr. Pete Miller now

have very famous dirt to clean off of their bikes! Fromthere we enjoyed watching some amateur riders on U-2. We could also look back towards the front of the trackto see the layout around this rolling piece of farmland.

We made our way back to the entrance and we chattedwith Jill and Greg, saying our goodbyes. Unadilla willbe hosting a vintage motocross known as MX-Rewindin June and the Amateur Nationals leading up the theAMA Pro-Motocross in August.

The ride back from Unadilla was only about 30 milesor so but we made it back with the same “enthusiastic”pace in no time and rejoined the rest of the Spring Breakcrowd. Both tracks are great facilities-one with long his-tory and one beginning to build their own.

www.nysafetytrack.com • www.unadillamx.com

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 39

words and images: Don Toothman

All over Mexico, pilgrims are on the move. Traveling by foot, bicycle, oreven tractor trailer, they’re headed to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupein Mexico City. The newspapers say over 5 million pilgrims will congregateat the church on December 12 to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron“saint” of Mexico. What’s all the fuss about? We’ll get to that, but first I havea pilgrimage of my own to make. Traveling south from Mexico City, theplan is to take a week to visit pre-Columbian ruins and negotiate the twistieson old Mexico 190 to the beautiful state of Oaxaca, ending up back at thebasilica in Mexico City on the 12th. That’s a journey worth three weeks, notone, so we best get started.

rUiNS aND riDiNgOscar Calderon, the owner of Mexico Motorcycle Adventures (www.mx-

motoadv.com), picked me up at the airport in Mexico City, F650GS in tow.Leaving the gridlock (the work of the pilgrims, perhaps?) of Mexico Citybehind, we headed northeast, to the ruins of Teotihuacán. It’s a massive site,in the Valley of Mexico, 25 miles from Mexico City. No one knows for sure

who the inhabitantswere, but we know forsure that they loved tobuild pyramids. ThePyramid of the Sun isthe second biggest pyra-mid in the Americas. Atits zenith, between 150and 450 A.D., the cityhad a population of upto 250,000, making itone of the largest citiesin the world at the time.

The next morning,

I’m thankful I’d remembered my heated vest, as the mercury barely breaks40 degrees. But I’m even more thankful I’d brought a GPS loaded with thelatest map set from Bicimapas (www.bicimapas.com.mx), as the road signage

is pretty much nonex-istent, and I’m avoid-ing the big roads.The roads enteringthe village usuallyend in the mainsquare, leaving you tochoose among sev-eral options to exit.Pick the wrong oneand you may end upin Tijuana.

Though the pyramidsat Teotihuacán are verybig, the Great Pyramidat Cholula, near the cityof Puebla, is even big-ger. In fact it is so big,it is the world’s largestmonument, at least byvolume. The Spanishconquerors often usedthe pyramids they foundas a source of stone forthe governmental buildings and churches they erected. But this one was sobig they didn’t know what to do with it, so they gave up and built a Catholicchurch on top instead. It doesn’t seem so big close up, as it’s still unexca-

Page 40 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

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ROAD TRIP

Pilgrimage to oaxaca

The author on top of the Pyramid of the Sun. Pyramid ofthe Moon in the background.

2nd biggest pyramid in theworld, Cholula, is still coveredwith dirt, trees and a church.

Sunset at Teotihuacan

vated, and covered with dirt, brush, and trees, be-sides the church.

Having finished with the ruins for a while, it wastime to do some riding. Old Mexico 160/190 be-tween Cuernavaca and Oaxaca is a destination inand of itself. 200+ miles of twisty, clean tarmac,meandering through a region that looks a lot like thedrier portions of Colorado, dotted with little pueb-los, and with elevations of 4000 to 8500 feet.Heated vest on for the mornings, and stripped downto just leather in the afternoon, the mercury wentfrom the low 40’s to the mid 80’s.

Perfect blue skies. A full day was devoted to just this road (in fact, it

was so much fun I ended up riding it again in theopposite direction at week’s end). Reaching Oaxacathe following afternoon, I paused only for a quicklunch, before continuing the curve fest on Mexico175, a little snake of a road that winds over themountains, up to 9500 feet, before plunging relent-lessly downhill to reach the Pacific at Puerto Angel.This is pretty remote country, with few services. Inearly ran out of gas, a victim of having not firmlyclosed the gas cap on the GS, but while on reserve

I was lucky to find a little gasolinería, where Ibought 10 liters, enough to make the coast.

StraNDeD iN SaN gaBrielThe roads and ruins alone were reward enough,

but the highlight of the trip turned out to be thework of a rock and a taxi driver. 35 miles inlandfrom Puerto Escondido, on a heavily potholedmountain road, that rock threw itself at my radiator,radiator fluid spewing everywhere, evoking plentyof #$%@!& on my part. I had just passed througha small town, San Gabriel de Mixtepec, so backdown the mountain I coasted with the engine over-heating.

When you are looking for a certain service or spe-cific address in a foreign country, the best person toask is a taxi driver. In this town, that would be theconductor of one of the 3-wheeled, golf cart sized,1 HP buggies that were constantly buzzing back andforth through town. In the best Spanish I couldmuster, I was soon on my way following the driverof taxi #18, who I came to know as “Chevy,” to thelocal “mecánico de radiadores.” That turned out tobe the luckiest turn of events all day: not finding themechanic, but running into Chevy.

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 41

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Could be Arizona, but it’snorthern Oaxaca state.

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Friendly locals in San Gabriel.

Oscar and his unclebrought the replacement

motorcycle

The road twists and turns for a couple hundred miles.

I couldn’t understand all of the explanation, but“grande” and “problema” together in the same sen-tence doesn’t mean good news. The hole was toobig to be fixed. A few phone calls later, made fromthe local “phone cafe”, and Oscar was on the roadfor the 12-hour trip to San Gabriel to bring me anew bike. Now that’s service! Meantime, I hun-kered down for the night.

Whenever they hand you a roll of toilet paperwhen checking in, you know you are in for an in-teresting experience. After depositing my bags andthe precious toilet paper in my hotel room, I wentback out to explore the town and see what else ofinterest I could find.

Bumping into Chevy, he offered to buy me a beer.A few beers later, Chevy and his friend, Abraham,who had joined us, took me for a tour of town. Firststop: the juke joint on top of the hill overlookingtown to listen to their favorite musician, AlvaroMonterrubio, who hails from San Gabriel. Verycool. Next stop: a taco dinner at the little takeoutrestaurant his wife runs 365 days a year from theirfront yard. Very delicious. Here I was snapping pic-

tures with a pretty expensive camera, and they re-fused my efforts to pay. Very generous. San Gabrielis a small town with a big heart.

I was actually a little disappointed when the bikearrived the next morning, though the mountains andpilgrims awaited on the road to Oaxaca.

oaxaca, Not chihuahuaNext up was “wah-HAW-kah,” the city and state

in southern Mexico, the land of moles (the spicysauces made of chilies and chocolate, not the small,furry mammal) and chapulines (grasshopperstoasted with garlic). The valley of Oaxaca, the his-toric home of the Zapotec and Mixtec peoples, isone of the most fertile in Mexico. A list of the plantsdomesticated here constitutes a who’s-who of Mex-ican foods: corn, beans, chocolate, tomatoes,chilies, squash, and pumpkin. Throw in somecervezas and you’d have a fiesta. If you love Mex-ican food, Oaxaca itself is worthy of a pilgrimage.

With 500,000 people, a wonderful year-round cli-mate, and a busy airport, Oaxaca is increasingly at-tracting international visitors. Despite theso phis ticated shopping and trendy restaurants, 20

Page 42 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

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Abraham (left) and Cristino ‘Chevy’(right) showed me the town.

San Jose del Pacifico makes for a cool overnightstop on the way to the Oaxacan coast.

Monte Alban occupies a gorgeous site ontop of a hill overlooking the city of Oaxaca.

And you thought theSwiss like chocolate.

The Cathedral inOaxaca at dawn.

minutes out of town you are still in old Mexico.One night of “luxury,” though, was enough forme. After an early breakfast of hot chocolateand egg bread, I was finally off in search ofmore pilgrims.

got guaDalupe?The saying goes that “95% of all Mexicans

are Catholic, but 100% are Guadalupanas.” In1531, nine years after the Spanish had con-quered the Aztecs, the Virgin Mary reportedlyrevealed herself to a local who was walking inthe hills outside Mexico City, asking that achurch be built in her honor. The “Virgin deGuadalupe,” as she is called, is considered tobe the mother of all modern Mexicans, who arealmost all of mixed ancestry. Being a dark-skinned manifestation of the Virgin, surroundedby the spines of the maguey plant (yes, the one

used to make mescal), she is a mixture ofthe Old and New Worlds. During the Mex-ican War of Independence, the rebel armiesmarched underneath Guadalupanan flags.To many, she is The symbol of Mexico.

Obviously, then, the week leading upDecember 12 is a special one in Mex-ico. Thousands (okay, actually mil-lions) of pilgrims are on the road, manyheaded to Mexico City, others to local

festival sites. Most everytown celebrates in someway. Big cities, like Oax-aca, had full-blown multi-day festivities, withparades, seemingly con-stant fireworks, carnival-type rides, and plenty ofstreet vendors. Lots ofmerriment, but a bit likethe Virgin of Guadalupemeets Walt Disney.

My favorite was the small town of Malinalco, about 70 miles southwestof Mexico City. The city is most famous for its Aztec ruins, which I hadplanned on visiting the morning of the 12th, before heading back to MexicoCity. The ruins were the cake. The icing was the festival the city was havingfor the Virgin.

This town has seen its share of gringos before, but the festival was not fortourists: I was the only gringo I saw in town that day. This is a festival that

(Continued on Page 52)

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‘Get that camera outof my face, gringo!’

Even the celebrationof the Virgin

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Adorned church andcelebration in Malinalco

Central plaza domi-nated by a Catholicchurch is the norm.

The Virgin of Guadalupe, Cuernavaca

Page 44 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

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Last Saturday • Ride to Eat. Meet at Morton’s BMW Motorcycles, Fredericksburg, VAat 4pm. Scenic ride followed by dinner. www.mortonsbmw.com • 540-891-9844

JUNE 201324 • Bob’s BMW Track Day at Summit Point • Learn how to be the better rider you al-ways wanted to be in a safe environment. Jeremy Cook, Bob’s BMW S1000RR racer andchampion, will be there to provide advice. Lunch, snacks, beverages, on-site techs avail-able for mechanical convenience and more included. To sign up or for more informationplease contact: hanna.creekmore@bobsbmw.com • 301-497-8949

29 • Closing the Loop fundraising ride for fallen Marine CPL Ian Muller. On 3/11/11 Ma-rine CPL Ian Muller was killed during combat operations in Helmand, Afghanistan. Duringthe past 2 years, the Muller family has helped marines from their son’s unit make thetrip to Vermont to visit the grave. Proceeds will help continue their efforts. Sign in/End-site: Marty’s First Stop, 421 US Rte. 2, Danville, VT • 9-10am • KSU 10:15am •$25/bike.

29-30 • Championship Cup Series at Summit Point Racetrack. Bob’s BMW will have ahospitality tent. Hang out with Jeremy Cook, riding Bob’s sponsored S1000RR. Compli-mentary snacks and beverages.

30 • Nassau Cty FireRiders X-Mas in June to benefit the children of St. Christophers-Ot-tilie. Sign in: 9am-12pm Applebee’s, 938 S. Broadway, Hicksville, NY. $10 and unwrappedtoy incl. breakfast and bbq to follow ride. • www.fireridersnc.com

30 • Rollin’ Fast Cycle Sports Opne House and Victory Demo Truck Event. Free demorides, great specials and fun for all. 104 Main St, Lebanon, NJ • www.rollinfast.com

JULY 20139 • Women’s Track Day - New Jersey Motorsports Park, Millville, NJ • Sponsored byTony’s Track Days. For more information please visit www.TonysTrackDays.com

12-13 • Motorcycle Mall presents Jason Britton and Team No Limit Stunt Show • 655Washington Ave, Belleville NJ • 973-751-4545 • www.MotorcycleMall.com

13 • Christmas in July to benefit David’s Touch (www.davidstouch.org). Sign in IndianMotorcycle, 2365 W/B Route 22, Union, NJ 9-11:30am • Noon Run Time. $10 with toy;$20 without.

13-14 • 37th running of the Ramapo 500 - 500 mile weekend motorcycle tour. LIMITEDTO FIRST 400 REGISTRANTS. Sign in: Veterans Memorial Assoc., 65 Lake Rd East, Con-gers, NY 7-9am, July 13 • Pre-registration NOW for $35/Day of event if available $48CASH ONLY. Includes: 500 miles of gorgeous scenery and backroads, camping with riverswimming, fantastic Saturday night dinner and entertainment, awards and prizes, Sundaybreakfast, starter pin/finisher's patch. Garmin GPS route upload service will be availableat sign-in for an additional fee. Campground located in Chaplin, CT - lodging availablenearby • www.ramapomc.org • 845-300-1247

18-21 • 41st BMW MOA Inernational Rally. Salem, Oregon - BMW Motorcycle Ownersof America. Held at the Oregon State Fairgrounds. Great riding, seminars, workshops,vendors, live music and friends - the list is endless. www.BMWMOA.org for full detailsand updates • 636-394-7277

19-20 • Crossroads Motorcycle Rally 2013, Farre’s Field, Waterbury, VT • www.cross-roadsmotorcyclerally.com

20 • Woodstock Harley-Davidson Rock & Rumble. 2 Live Bands, biker games, door prizes,food, vendors and much more. • 949 Rte. 28, Kingston, NY • 845-338-2800 •www.WoodstockHarley.com

21 • 23rd Annual Charity Poker Run/BBQ to benefit Big Brothers/Big Sisters Org. of Or-ange County sponsored by OCNYHOG. Sign in Moroney’s HD, 833 Rte. 300, New Wind-sor, NY 9am. $20/rider;$15/pass. incl. scenic ride, BBQ, door prizes, ride-in bikeshow/games, trophies, vendors, music and more. Pre-register via PayPal at www.ocny-hog.com. Questions? email director@ocnyhog-offers.net

27 • Harley-Davidson Long Branch Vintage Bike Show & Swap Meet. 9am-4pm. 671Broadway, Long Branch, NJ • 732-229-8518 • www.HDLongBranch.com

28 • 2nd Generation Motorcycle Assn. 10th Annual AMA Dice Run for Charity to benefitUnited Hospice of Rockland. Sign in: JR Motorsports, 39 Rt. 9W, Haverstraw, NY • 9:30-11am. Riders/walk-ins: $20/pp • passengers: $10. BBQ on deck on Hudson River atHaverstraw Elks Lodge, 877 Elks Dr, Haverstarw, NY. Live music, sunshine and fun.

AUGUST 20139-11 • 36th Annual Daniel Boone Rally presented by the Carolinas BMW MOA #220.Three states - one rally! Join us at the KOA Campground in Boone NC for the best ridinganywhere. Rain or shine, ride NC’s Blue Ridge Parkway and High Country, southwesternVirginia and northeastern Tennessee. Enter your classic/vintage motorcycle in the judgingcontest. Plenty of room for everyone and all brands. GPS: N36 15.54,W81 39.87. $45before 7-31/$50 at site incl. camping for two nights, rally pin to first 300, 5 door prizetix, motorcycle judging, catered BBQ dinner Sat. donuts & coffee Sat/Sun. endless coffee,tea, hot chocolate • www.carolinasbmwmoa.org • 704-914-7120

23-25 • Kingdom Thunder Rally, Burke, VT • www.kingdomthunder.org

24-25 • Championship Cup Series at Summit Point Racetrack. Bob’s BMW will have ahospitality tent. Hang out with Jeremy Cook, riding Bob’s sponsored S1000RR. Compli-mentary snacks and beverages.

25 • 1st Annual Poker Run to benefit the Harmony Lodge Foundation • Sign in: HarmonyLodge #8, 519 Rte. 206, Andover, NJ 9am-12Noon • Endsite: Franklin Fireman’s Pavilion,137 Buckwheat Rd, Franklin, NJ. $20/pp incl. food and drink, top 3 poker hand prizes,50/50, raffles, vendors, live music by Morning Door and more • For more info visitwww.harmony8nj.com

29-Sept. 1 • Killington Classic Motorcycle Rally, Killington, VT • Rides, demos, vendors,contests, parade, music, dinners, fireworks and SO MUCH MORE! Registration opensMay 15 - DON’T BE SHUT OUT OF YOUR FIRST CHOICES. 518-798-7888 • www.killing-tonclassic.com

SEPTEMBER 20138 • 7th Annual Rice-O-Rama Vintage & Custom Japanese Motorcycle Show and SwapMeet • Singletary Rod and Gun Club, 300 Sutton Ave, Oxford, MA • 10am-5pm rain orshine. Bikes that you just don’t see anywhere else, from 2-strokes to turbos, singles tosixes, scramblers and scooters. Trophies in over 20 vintage and custom classes. HugeSwap Meet with tons of hard to find parts • 508-344-4202 • www.rice-o-rama.com

18-21 • New York Motomarathon • Hosted by the Celtic Motorcycle Club • Bronx-LakeGeorge-Ongunquit, ME. For more information and specific hotel and date information,visit www.motomarathon.com or call Caty Metzger at 303-621-5356

19-22 • BACKROADS 15th Annual Fall Fiesta. Host hotel: Genetti Hotel, Williamsport,PA. To book your room, please call 800-321-1388 and ask for the BACKROADS GroupBooking. Rooms start at $115.95/night incl. breakfast and secure parking.

21 • Bob’s BMW Oktoberfest and Fall Open House • 9a-4p • Seasons change but there’salways fun at Bob’s BMW Oktoberfest and Open House. Food, vendors, product reps,door prizes and great one-day only specials • 10720 Guilford Rd, Jessup, MD • 301-497-8949 • www.bobsbmw.com

DECEMBER 201321 • Bob's BMW annual customer appreciated day! Get into the holiday spirit at Bob'swhile we say THANKS to our amazing customers for what we know is going to be anothergreat year. Food, great company, door prizes and special holiday savings • 10720 GuilfordRd, Jessup, MD • 301-497-8949 • www.bobsbmw.com

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 47

UPCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR What’s Happening

When the Road Calls the Journey Begins

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Page 48 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

M O T O R C Y C L E M A R K E T P L A C E ALL THAT GOOD STUFF

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and taste chef George’sGreek American cooking.Best bar menu, lunch or dinner.

Fresh poppers, perogies, calamari, clamsand crispy wings with 8 different sauces.

John, Christina, chef George and Eoanna welcome you and your friends.

The Riverton Hotel and RestaurantAt Belvidere-Riverton Free Bridge, Riverton, PA

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First Annual Poker Runto benefit the

Harmony LodgeFoundation

SUNDAY, AUGUST 25 (rain or shine)Motorcycles and Classic Cars • Doors Open at 12PM

Presented by Harmony Lodge #8 F. & A.M to benefit local charities

Join us in a spectacular ride through the tri-state area

Entry Fee for run & non-runparticipants • $20/per person

Door Price Includes:Food & Drinks, Top 3 Poker Hand,50/50, Vendors, Chinese Auctionand Live Music by Morning Door

Sign up between 9am & 12pm atHarmony Lodge #8 F. & A.M.519 Route 206, Andover, NJ

Endsite:The Franklin Fireman’s Pavilion137 Buckwheat Rd, Franklin, NJ

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This is way cool. Stream music videos down off of YouTube with your favorite Smart-phone, and direct by Bluetooth the audio signal into the factory Harley radio, thru J&M’snew Bluetooth digital music controller. You can also stream stereo music down off of Pan-dora and/or your SmartPhones’s own internal music files, and direct them by Bluetooth intothe Harley audio system, thru J&M’s Bluetooth enabled digital music controller. These ex-citing music streaming features will work with an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, SamsungNOTE or almost any Smartphone available in the marketplace today that incorporates Blue-tooth as part of its design. J&M’s new digital music controller will also connect to a standardiPod by wire and direct the stereo music into the Harley audio system aux input, using theiPod’s own onscreen controls, while at the same time keeping the iPod fully charged. J&M’stechnicians have configured the input signal levels from the new controller, to the Harleyradio, so that the system volume levels available on the highway and overall sound qualitythru the entire system, is significantly better than what is available when using Harley’s own

iPod adapter, XM satellite radio mod-ule OR built-in FM stereo. TheHarley radio control menu selectionsof bass, treble, front/rear fader, autovolume control, driver/passenger in-tercom, bike-to-bike CB radio and handlebar volume control, (if activated) all remain unchanged whenusing J&M’s Bluetooth digital music controller. In fact, when mounted on a Harley Ultra with the optionalJ&M microphone signal integration component, and linked by Bluetooth to a cell phone, the driver canactually talk on the phone thru his or her J&M or Harley brand helmet headset, without affecting thedriver/passenger intercom or CB functions of the audio system (phone calls are accepted or initiated on-screen). A Garmin Zumo can also be linked by Bluetooth to the J&M music controller, while an iPod issimultaneously connected by wire, and when a navigation command or cell phone call is received thru theZumo, it will automatically interrupt the iPod music signal into the system. All of this from little blackbox about ½ the size of a pack of cigarettes, and priced under $230.00 for the complete kit. Actual instal-

lation is pretty simple once you remove the fairing, everything is plug-n-play, but placement of the music controller is somewhat critical so that you don’t blockor interfere with the internally mounted 2.4 ghz Bluetooth antenna. This digital music controller Bluetooth/Smartphone/iPod kit includes all direct plug-n-playharnesses for the Harley Bagger audio system, wired extension cable for iPod, “Lightning” plug adapter for new iPhoneV, 3.5mm aux extension cable, metalmounting bracket, pre-gummed Velcro mounting strips and a complete installation, operation & easy to use Bluetooth linking instruction manual.

Log onto jmcorp.com for more information or to order yours.

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 51

CIRCLECYCLE

570 Broad AvenueRidgefield NJ

web: www.circlecycle.net

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For over 30 yearsCircle Cycle has helped

riders get and stay on the road

Our variety of powersports products is second to none.Whether you’re riding of-froad, backroads, or onthe track, we’re here to getyou where you need to go.

In northern New Jersey there isn’t a friendlier or moreknowledgeable staff than ours. We’re happy tohelp you find the parts you’ve been looking for.

Online Shopping AvailableCheck our catalog pages - if you don’t see what you want,

give us a call or stop in - we’re always ready to help!

Circle CycleFor the discriminating rider.

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

J&M DIGITAL STEREO MUSIC/IPOD/BLUETOOTH CONTROLLER FOR HARLEY DRESSERS

THE GT GIANT AND STREET MASTERS

AT THE BMW MOA RALLY

BMW Motorcycle Owners of Amer-ica (BMWMOA) is hosting the ChrisPeris Riding School and StreetmastersJuly 16th at Oregon Raceway Park inGrass Valley, Oregon. The day is de-signed to provide the ultimate experi-ence for BMWMOA members inmeeting, talking, and riding with twolegendary racers who raced in the same series, on the same tracks, separatedonly by a couple of decades.

Peris Riding School is dedicated to helping our students reach their fullpotential by teaching proper riding techniques used by today’s top pro riders.Whether you are a racer, do trackdays or would like to become a more skillfuland experienced street rider, we will provide you with all the skills you needto succeed. You will learn about throttle control, trail braking, shifting, howto choose a line in a corner, body position and how to use your eyes more ef-ficiently. Through a series of classroom sessions, on-track drills and lappingwith instructors, Peris Riding School will provide you all of the instructionand feedback you need to become a better, faster and safer rider.

www.perisrs.com/Streetmasters is committed to improving rider technique, situational aware-

ness and confidence in the real-world with their Advanced Cornering Work-shop. They may be a small regional training company, but they are dedicatedto their core mission of bringing rider improvement and safety to motorcy-clists of all types and abilities. Streetmasters has actively pursued this goalsince 2004. Walt Fulton, who some of you may remember from the mid-1990s BMW “Battle of the Legends,” is the chief instructor and co-owner ofStreetmasters. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to studentsof all levels - and he’s eager to share that knowledge with you.

www.streetmasters.info/index.html

Oregon Raceway Park located 29 miles south of the Columbia river is a16-turn, 2.3 mile road course with over 100 feet of elevation changes.

oregonraceway.com

MSF’S “RIDER CHOICES” NOW AVAILABLE ON ITUNES

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation has launched its third iBook on Apple’siTunes as part of an ongoing effort to promote motorcyclist safety on theroadways to a broader riding and non-riding audience.

Released exclusively for iPads, “Rider Choiceshttps://itunes.apple.com/us/book/rider-choices/id626951750?mt=11 ” specif-ically addresses the questions and concerns of prospective motorcyclists,their families and friends. The interactive 32-page “Rider Choices” iBook ispriced at just 99 cents.

ZERO BIKES TAKES HONORS

Zero Motorcycles, the globalleader in the electric motorcycle in-

dustry, announced that forthe third consecutive year,the 2013 Zero S has beennamed as “European e-Mo-torbike of the Year 2013” atEurope’s Clean Week 2020

elections, followed in secondplace by the 2013 Zero DS. Hosted at the Zolder circuit in Belgium, CleanWeek 2020 is aimed at providing an annual review of future-fuelled, envi-ronmentally friendly vehicles, bringing together a diverse mix from the mo-toring and motorcycle industry to provide an independent analysis ofalternative powered transportation technologies available today.

“We’re honored the Zero S has defended its title again for the third year.With up to 137 miles range in the city, a top speed of 95 mph and aCHAdeMO accessory that allows recharging in around an hour, the 2013

Page 52 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

INDUSTRY INFOBITES News from the Inside

SUSSEXMOTORSPORTS446 Route 23 • Sussex, NJ • Located across from the A&P Shopping Plaza

973-875-3640 • www.sussexmotorsportsnj.com• Family Owned and Operated in Northwest NJ• Near the border of Pennsylvania and New York

• Wide selection of on/off road apparel, jackets, helmets, gloves and boots• Qualified Service Technicians with over 30 years combined experience

to perform all your Yamaha authorized service

model line is truly exceptional,” said Edwin Belonje, Managing Director forZero Motorcycles Europe. “This award names the Zero S as best in class, anopinion shared by the panel of 12 specialist European journalists who exten-sively tested all the vehicles presented at Clean Week 2020.”

41ST INTERNATIONAL BMW MOA INTERNATIONAL RALLY

SALEM, OREGON JULY 18 – 21, 2013The 41st BMW MOA International Rally will be held on July 18-21, 2013,

at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem. The grounds cover 140 acres withair-conditioned buildings for registration, Country Store, commercial ven-dors, seminars and vintage display. The camping options are flat areas withor without trees. Evening entertainment is in the open air amphitheater withafternoon music on a small stage by the food vendors. The multimedia clos-ing ceremony is in the pavilion.

The theme of this year’s rally is Beemers,Bigfoot and Blue Skies. Use your imagination- come prepared for the unthinkable - and don’tignore the Bigfoot caution signs.

The vendor building will be in a high trafficarea so you can see and touch the latest acces-sories and apparel and look for the item(s) thatyou can’t readily find in your home area. Ship-ping will be available for the items you can’tlive without and don’t have room to pack.

The National Rally is volunteer driven in theplanning stages, in the rally set-up and in providing all the components thatmake it a fun time for the rally goers. We need lots of volunteers for the event.Think about volunteering ahead of time - details will be in the BMW OwnersNews and on the MOA website - or stop by the volunteer booth when youarrive at the rally. During the event, which opens at 8 a.m. on Thursday morn-ing, we hope you can volunteer to work a shift and make new friends. Diverseopportunities are available and we need your help. Helping out makes youfeel a part of the rally. Early arrival volunteer registration will open aroundnoon on Wednesday the 17th.

The 41st Rally will be the fourth time MOA has selected Oregon for theNational. The state has a lot to offer and the Oregon State Fairgrounds is anideal rally location. Salem is a cool place to visit. The downtown area (avail-able by bus from the rally grounds) has numerous eateries, a large mall, ariverfront park with a carousel and a charter boat. Working with TravelSalem,we are in the process of obtaining discounts and attractions in the area suchas the Oregon Gardens, 15 minutes from the rally grounds. A tram is availableto take visitors through the beautifully landscaped grounds.

The Pacific Ocean is 90 minutes from Salem and there are 362 miles of

public coastline from Coos Bay to Newport. An afternoon visit to one ormore of the 50 wineries within an hour’s drive could be an option. The ruggedmountain terrain in the area has fabulous roads for on- and off-road riders.Portland is only an hour away up the I-5.

Questions? Contact rallychair2013@bmwmoa.org or visit bmwmoa.throt-tlenet.com/TheRally.aspx

CYCLE NEWS ARCHIVES OPENED

NEARLY 50 YEARS WORTH OF BACK ISSUES RELEASED

Do you want to relive the great history of motorcycling, learn more aboutthe amazing bikes and personalities that helped build the sport or simply findyour name in the results section from races long ago? For nearly 50 years,Cycle News has covered the sport of motorcycling with a weekly magazine.Now, for the price of a regular magazine, you can get online access to all2,300+ back issues of Cycle News.

“It’s amazing tohave almost 50 yearsof Cycle News at yourfingertips,” says PaulCarruthers, longtimeeditor of the weekly

publication. “The staff has always had thearchives available in bound volumes to turnto since day one. Now we’re giving thatsame opportunity to the rest of the world.”

The issues are organized by decades, start-ing with the 1960s and spanning nearly sixdecades to the current 2013 issues. Whilethese weekly snapshots of motorcycling his-tory may be priceless, access to the digitalarchives is much more affordable: A subscription is just $1.99 for threemonths of access, or $4.99 for a full year of access to each decade. Betteryet, the Cycle News Archives can be read on any device equipped with aweb browser (MAC, PC, tablets like the iPad or your smart phone).

You can also use up to three devices with the same subscription.

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 53

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(Continued from Page 41)

is put on by the locals for themselves, which made it allthe more special. Seemingly the whole town partici-pated, from the littlest of niños to the city elders. And,there was none of the commercialism I had witnessedin Oaxaca. It was moving, witnessing this celebrationthat unites not just families or even individual commu-nities, but also the whole country.

BaSilica or BuStRiding back into Mexico City that afternoon, passing

by Ajusco Volcano (the road takes you up to 11,800feet), I found myself wishing that we had a similar cel-ebration in the USA. I looked forward to punctuatingthe end of the trip by making it to the Basilica ofGuadalupe that evening. I guess I had already forgottenabout that horrendous Mexico City traffic.

A couple of hours later, with the sun already startingto set, I was lucky enough just to have made it to mydowntown hotel. Here, they politely informed me thatthere was “no way to get to the basilica” other than bywalking the 5 miles with the other 5 million pilgrims,as even the gridlock was experiencing gridlock. That’sa pilgrimage that I decided would have to wait for thenext visit. So, instead, my last evening in Mexico wasspent watching ice-skaters pirouette around the centralplaza in an outdoor rink built just for the festival. Astrange but not too unbefitting ending to a magicalweek, I suppose.

On second thought, maybe I should have found an-other taxi driver.

Page 54 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

Hot chocolate andegg bread - break-fast of champions.

Where are you?

Many riders have said that when they ride they can get away from the day-to-day problems of the world; that they are reveling in the ride and can justenjoy themselves on the road.

But, the next sentence usually following this statement is that they can“sort out” all the thoughts that crowd their mind and some motorcyclistsenjoy working out tough problems while enjoying a nice easy ride.

This can be good for some riders and bad for others.Seems like sometimes the solace of finally being by oneself can bring on

all sorts of other demons.I remember listening to riding instructor ex-

traordinaire, Reg Pridmore, speaking to ourCLASS at the track at Watkins Glen one sunnyafternoon a few years back and asking us“where our minds were at and what were wethinking?” as we lapped around the big track inNew York’s Finger Lakes.

“Were we thinking about that upcomingdownhill left sweeper or were our minds think-ing that maybe we’d try the good looking steakat Seneca Lodge that night?”

His point was that our minds sometimes wan-der and sometimes they wander when real concentration is called for.

Certainly the track calls for undivided attention, but on the roads of Amer-ica it is best to keep in the “now” as well; rather than dwell on the issues,problems and conundrums of your life.

Truth is though we all tend to think a lot while riding.But, there are certain times in every ride when you have to put away your

thoughts and bring your mind to bear on the many tasks that are required topilot your ride safely. There are other things that take away your attention

from the ride at hand as well. Some of these issues are just insane, like theguy I spotted the other day with his cell phone tucked into his half-helmetbusy chatting away at a busy highway intersection.

Oblivious teenage girls texting their BFFs, semi-truckers making their de-liveries, “old men with hats” going wherever they go and this guy toolingalong talking on his phone while riding his motorcycle.

How much attention do you think he was really using to see what wasgoing on around him? Where was his mind at this moment?

Another instructor once related attention much like a dollar bill.When you are in the right riding zone you are using something like .90

cents of that dollar, or riding concentration on your ride. Sometimes thatdrops down a bit. If you’re thinking about thatproject at work, well, you might only be using.40 cents of that riding concentration. If you arethe guy with the cell phone tucked into his hel-met you, maybe, are using .05 cents here; andthat makes no sense at all.

Another distraction that occurs more andmore these days are GPS and iPods, mp3splayer and the like. I am guilty here as well.

But, I have learned on more challengingroutes to turn the distractions way down or offcompletely. When music is coming through my

headsets it is almost always so low as to be background if anything.It is hard to keep your mind where it needs to be when The Who is loudly

telling you about their generation.Riding a motorcycle well requires hundreds of tiny tasks. Seeing, reacting,

anticipating all requires that the rider be in the present, the here and now, andnot thinking about the past or future, not daydreaming or fantasizing.

Not chatting or texting but trying to use as much of that dollar of ridingconcentration as possible.

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 55

Are you a new motorcyclist? Or a for-mer rider who’s been away from motor-cycling and now looking to return?Either way, this book can help you geton the road safely and more confidently.

“Help! They’re All Out to Get Me!” iswritten to help make any motorcyclist abetter, safer rider. Within its pages you’llfind tips and tricks that will make mo-torcycling less stressful.

Get your copy today atAmazon.com • BarnesandNoble.com

or RLAngeloJr.com

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Tri-State Metro Area’s Oldest Yamaha Dealer. Last of the Mom and Pop Shops. We are not a boutique.

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Welcome to the Jungle - The Art of Learning to Ride SkillfullyA column dedicated to your riding survival

KEEPYOUR EYEON THEPRIZE

STICKY FINGERSBack in 1971 The Rolling Stones released Sticky Fingers – Brown Sugar,

Wild Horses - it was and is considered a Stones classic.But this is not the sticky fingers I am talking about. What I am talking here

is the inability to use your smart phone or device while wearing your ridinggloves.

It is a bit of pain to have to remove your gloves every time you need to an-swer a call or send a quick text to tell your buddies that you are already atthe restaurant and where did they get lost?

But, if there is a need somebody will come up with a solution.Thus our title “sticky fingers.”

CHEMICALS TO THE RESCUE.Any Glove is a liquid product that you apply to the finger tips of your glove

which enables you to operate your smart phone orany touch screen device.

The instructions tell you toapply the rather vis-cous chemical to the

tips and then drywith a hair dryer. Asecond coat is rec-

ommended and totalapplication took us all of

ten minutes. Any Glove will discolorlighter riding gloves, so take that intoconsideration, but we have alwaysgone for functionality over looks. In

testing we did use an older pair ofHeld gloves that were already dark

and the stain from the Any Glove actu-ally looked like it belonged there.

Before application wetried to operate an iPhoneto no avail. Once AnyGlove was applied thephone’s operation was abreeze. Once the secondcoat was dry we wereamazed at how well thisproduct worked. iPhoneoperation was spot on. Ap-plying the liquid to otherparts of the glove we wereable to pinch and zoomeasily.

The Any Glove applica-tion lasts for a number ofweeks, depending on howyou use your glove and theweather you travel through. We would recommend giving your glove another

application one a month or so. Each Any Glove bot-tle holds 550 drops and should easily last thenortheast riding season.

A bottle of Any Glove is just $19.95. Log ontotheir website at anyglove.com to order yours.

GLOVES FORYOUR GLOVES?The problem with leather gloves is there is no con-

ductivity. We have found three (well maybe two) prod-ucts that can solve this problem.The first two are nearly identical - Thumb Dogs and

Farkle Fingers.Farkle Fingers are being sold by Adaptiv, the same guys that

have created many motorcycle-specific products. Closer inspec-

Page 56 JULY 2013 • BACKROADS

WHERE CAN YOU GETALL THIS AND SO MUCH MORE

IN ONE PLACE?MOTORCYCLEM A D N E S Swww.MadMotorcycle.com

MOTORCYCLE MADNESS is New Jersey’s LARGESTPre-Owned Bike Seller, has a ridiculously HUGE selection of

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P R O D U C T R E V I E W

tion showed the elastic on the Farkle Fingers to be twice as good. On the road the ThumbDogs disappeared from constant front brake use in the mountains. The Farkle Fingers hungaround, especially when I added a touch of glue that kept them there on a more permanentbasis.

So I think we’ll stay with Adaptiv on this, even though they cost a bit more than theThumb Dogs.

Farkle Fingers are, basically, tiny finger gloves that snug over the finger tips of your rid-ing gloves. Farkle Fingers will make any pair of gloves touch-screen friendly. Just pull theFarkle Fingers over the tips of your gloves and you’ll be able to use any touch-screen de-vice. Make calls with a smartphone, navigate a GPS, or change your mp3 player settings,all without having to take your gloves off. Farkle Fingers are stretchable and fit easily, butwe recommend a touch of adhesive to keep them in place.

Farkle Fingers are simple and they work as advertised.$21.98 for four from www.adaptivtechnologies.com.

BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 57

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BACKROADS • JULY 2013 Page 58

FEEL THE FREEDOM!

Ride New Zealand

February 2014

13 Nights • 2000 miles

of Fantastic Riding

Auckland to Christchurch

(North & South Islands)

Large selection of

motorcycles to choose from

Guided Tour with support van

There’s Plenty of Time to get your ducks in a row

and join us for a trip of a lifetime.

For more details and bookings please contact:

Fred Rau • 951-672-0239 • Fred@FredRau.com

Visit Te Waipounamu Website for information

www.motorcycle-hire.co.nz

Choose from these bikes…

Backroads is happy to announce the location of

our 15th Fall Fiesta ~

WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA

September 19-22, 2013We will be staying at the historic Genetti Hotel in downtown Williamsport, home ofLittle League Baseball and gateway to the Allegheny mountains. There are miles and

miles of great roads, paved and dirt, to explore during our visit and Williamsport offersa variety of activities for after the bikes are parked. Conveniently, the Genetti is acrossthe street from the Bullfrog Brewery, as well as next door to the Community Arts Center.

To book your room (which you should do RIGHT NOW), please call 800-321-1388and ask for the BACKROADS GROUP BOOKING. Rooms start at $11595/night(plus tax) which includes a great breakfast every day and secured off-street parking.

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