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I hadn't heard about Gumby's headlight, but I was hanging out watching him figure out his tail light. He had the whole LED thing apart when I noticed a hanging wire. Was a simple matter of an Earth wire which had rattled loose. Bodger connections tend to do that.

Two bad grounds and broken coil mount. Fixed the first two and zipptied the last. The trusty 64 Lightning Rocket ridden to and from the event without complaint 6 hours each way.

Didn't take enough pictures this year. Gotta get permission to go downstairs so i can connect the few pics i have to bb.com. STBY.

Headed out Wednesday. Because Mike wanted to ride some dirt on Friday.

Dual Sport 1964 BSA Lightning Rocket - Loaded for Bear.

My faulty Memory Part 2:

So all that Stuff Piled on the back of a BSA 650 twin turned into Casa Gumby (Thank you Gordon). Rain was in the forecast so I brought the Kelty 20 to provide some space. It makes a pretty good sunshade a well.

Thursday Windy lead us north through Damascus and to the Whitetop Mountain overlook. Fantastic day of riding. Bill Edwards, Dick Page, Rich Stone (was Gordon on this one?) and Marlin I think were on this ride. (Who else)

Mike showed with his cool truck and pop up and two bikes. They highlight of Thursday evening was looking over his nice work on a T100 and marvelling at his "Golden Boy" (Korea) Dual Sport tires. Well they look the business so we gave him a pass on the funky brand.

Friday morning looked best for Dual sporting due to impending rain. And much to my suprise Bob and Noname Bill on their street Norton and OIF Firebird joined us! So 4 bikes marched up the north end of US421 out of Shady and met a closed gate. A friendly government official pointed us in the right direction so back to Shady and left towards Damascus to McQueen Gap Road (Thank you Mike) and that got us into the woods.

These were forest service roads that run down the ridge north of Shady Valley to Damscus VA. McQueen Gap Road take us across this ridge to top of which is the Appalachian Trail. We stopped and met some younguns at the crossing. Mysteriously appropriately named McQueen Gap turns into Harr Road down the north side of the ridge to a place on the map called "Offset". There is nothing there but intersections. We made the right on FS32 or Government Road which would take us all the way to Damascus and dump us out at Pizza Plus Plaza and one of the TSMR most frequented Gas stops.

pics are a bit off this year due to mechanical problems. oh well.

witness protection is really hard on some people.
have I ever taken a good picture of Mike?

whose toe was this?

almost done

bonus points to the first Englander that can Id the Honda rider

My Faulty Memory Part 3:

Saturday Ride - I employed my phycic abilities to determine when we were leaving by asking Windy. He said 10am. My goal was to be ready by 9:30 because when this group leaves it goes now. When now "is" is an imaginary number and as such is beyond the grasp or normal humans requiring either good post graduate education OR psychic abilities.

I got distracted and missed my goal time. And My Psychic abilities let me down again. Somehow I still made the ride as the sweep.

Somebody else will have to fill us in on the route but at the time we executed the wrong turn and the Nortons started Breaking Down, we were three or four valleys south and west of Shady having finished the Goat path.

The first Norton was Rich Stone's RH exhaust nut had gone on walkabout down the exhaust pipe. It obviously did not have the proper piece of Oak tapped into the space between the nut and the cylinder head (thank you Bob - white oak if i remember correctly.) Anyway Rich said he would wait for the truck because they would have a "hammer". I think that is what he said. I wasn't sure if it ment he was going to beat the ever living [***] out of his Norton or Not so I didn't make him an offer on the spot for his poor defenseless bike and went on my way up the hill not wanting to be witness to violence performed on a motorcycle. One right turn and Three corners later I find Mike and Marlin staring at the front brake of Mike's Norton. I was informed that a clevis pin had winked out of the Known Universe with its nut, and despite the Norton having Two brakes it was now brakeless. Mike did not look like he wanted to beat the everliving [***] out of HIs Norton so I offered to run ahead to find Windy and tell them what was going on. Which i did. I engaged my inner hooligan and let the mighty BSA have its head.

I found the group stopped at the next "T" on this road at the bottom of a really nice twisty valley. There I was advised that the group had followed Windy on the Wrong Turn. ruhhhrooowww. This wrong turn had been executed some miles back. This would complicate matters because it meant that the rescue truck was in no way going to find now idle Nortons on the side of the road. So a snap decision was made. Windy would lead what was left of the group back to Shady and I would go back to get the Nortons on the road and bring them back to camp some how.

This allowed me once again to engage my inner hooligan back up the previously mentioned twisty valley road where upon I discovered two Nortons standing side by side! Of course Nortons can find Nortons in the wilderness without benefit of modern GPs OR CELLPHONE technology. How silly of me to not see this as a possibility.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Ev likes to pretend she's the evil queen from some old disney flick. And she can play the part well, but really she's way too nice for this group. this year was a real improvment over previous years having her watch over us. in some ways it reminded me of the old days getting yelled at by Mellisa.

I used a spark plug wrench for a hammer to tighten the exhuast then went to find Mike. The rear brake on a Norton is only to fire the brake lite, it does nothing to slow you down. So I proceeded to dismantle my bike to find a bolt to fix his front brake.

.

The one pic from the ride I have is the first gas stop.

at the 76 station on 58 From left to right

Alex Seltz Mighty Red Guzzi
Mike Gordon (Back to camera) Norton still with clevis pin
Bob (Back to camera) Red Norton
Tom Sanders Silver Norton
Gordon Gray Red BSA that runs only on One Cylinder!
Windy H-H-H-on... cant say it
Jack Adams T140 TRiumph I think.
Marlin T100R Blue
Rich Stone Silver Norton Interstate with no hammer marks that I can see
Dick Page T150 Triumph Triple or was he on the Matchless?
Bill Edwards BSA A65F Firebird
David Paterson chase Truck
Greg Muench Chase truck

The duct taped toe would be Greg. A most valued member of the group. Not only the firebug, but the chase truck driver. Second from left in the group photo.

My faulty memory part 5:

Two amazing things happened when I got back to the Nortons.

1) Rich found Mike. I took a right turn which Rich did not see. And still he found him.. In truth I think both Rich and I had been that way on some previous year and maybe Windy because he made the same turn and went that way as well.

2) while staring at Mikes bike Rich starts disassembling his license plate. Its a quarter inch screw just like the clevis pin (well not actually the shear strength of a quarter 20 bolt is probably no way near the spec of a genuine Norton Front Brake clevis pin.) And as Allen Millyard says "fit perfect." (Youtube not to be believed check it out)

So while Rich states rather matter-of-factly it was something of a miracle that got us on the road again and now I'm leading Mike and Rich down the previously mentioned valley road,

At the T in the road I pushed the home button because i had no clue which way Windy went and my Psychic abilitys were back in camp looking for a beer.. And MAPS.ME took us up, three quarters the way up the hill it turned to gravel and we were Dual Sporting again. I actually stopped and asked it it was OK with the two of them. But I bet it was more than they bargained for. Good sports these two.

Over the mountain we were on Locust Gap road two valleys away from Shady. Mike wanted to get back to camp with near full fuel so were turned right and headed up Roan Creek Road which brought us back to Mountain City.

At the gas stop in mountain city shell station is where I discovered the headlamp laying on the fender(see picture above). After two days of Dual sporting headlamp finally gave up and tried to get away.

There's something in the middle of this I'm forgetting but oh well. At some point it rained rather substantially after which Bill Edwards stuffed a rainsuit in a trash can. Oh and Evelynn is fully adopted by the group. Shoulda retired sooner.

Sunday Packed and went; didn't know i had covid yet. On US441 south just north of Goats On The Roof (Georgia tourist trap with absolutely fabulous ice cream) a family van pulls up next to me and starts honking. Three things crossed my mind but before the lizard brain could pick one I recognized a friend Steve Fowler with his Family. I know Steve from Mike Baker and AHRMA racing. He said he saw the A65 in front of him near Clayton Georgia and thought "No there can only be One..."

In life there are risks. But if we never leave the house we can never be with friends in unexpected places having adventures galor. Carpe Diem.

Oh my I look rough. I need a haircut and a beard trim..........Second Street Hill Barber Shop is my go to place. I didn't "go to" because it's also the BEST place to pick up covid........so I was avoiding it until after the event.

So.......how did that work out for me?

Thanks for all the photos, tales and friendship.

G

PS.......that hat I'm wearing came from back in the "good ole days" at our gatherings at Mid-Ohio. Ron Thompson bought that for me back in 2005/06???? It's been in my tank bag ever since so if a bike goes with me.......so does that hat. I'm going to wear it until it completely falls apart.......just like me.

There's something wrong with your lens.....

I think that's a great pic of Mike.

G

As a side note...while I was waiting on the never to show chase truck a young fellow stopped and asked if he could help. I explained my problem and he offered to bring me back a bolt as he was headed to a store anyway. I gave him a $5 bill and off he went. Shortly after Rich and Gumby showed up, we fixed the problem and off we went. We met the guy about a half mile down the road and I thanked him for his troubles, he gave me a bolt and my $5 back. Nice to know there are still good people everywhere.

Well damn it now the boss lady has tested positive. The one I haven’t heard from is dick. Not sure what is up on his end.

I hate to hear that Windy.

I felt pretty good yesterday..........good enough I did a little push mowing. Felt a bit rough this morning. Took another test and I'm still positive.

So that makes.....6 attendees and 2 collateral. ( if you count Sharry)

G

This was our second attempt and we still didn't get Alec and Sarah (sp?) in this one.

Great group of folks.......a pleasure to be around.

I'm SO much like the bikes I ride............we both look better at 50'.

NEXT YEAR..........................................maybe by then this mess will be past us all.

G

Shame about alec and bride not making the pic. Also thanks for the banner you gave me several years back and i was smart enough to keep it just for these occasions.what does this make 23 years?? This makes my 18th year.

Kinda depends of whether you count the first meeting (for lunch) with Alan, Lannis and me. I already had plans by then for a "British - Tri State Mountain Ramble" but we hadn't actually had a ride. Alan renamed it "The Three State Mountain Ride" as we started making plans for the first actual ride. He didn't know I already had pins made up........the year before.





I hosted 15 TSMRs.......and was at the lunch so that's 16 years. I think 2014 was my last ride as host. That's 8 for you as host......which puts it at 24 years total. Our 10th anniversary.....wasn't really our 10th.....but only a few folks caught that mistake.

NEXT year should be the 25th year..........quarter of a century.

G

So your mistake on the 10th anniversary date was your first senior moment