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March of Dimes Ride in W Michigan

99007

El Dookey loves to ride.
Wow, what a great day. 72 degrees with a slight wind and lots of sun. Nippy this morning, about 49 degrees, when I left the house for the start of the March of Dimes Mystery Ride fundraiser.
We convened at a local circle track a few miles west of Grand Rapids - Berline Raceway in Marne, MI.
My nephew, riding his Honda Shadow, and I got there in plenty of time to register sample some free Krispy Kreme donuts and watch all the bikes as they pulled in.
BMW's were hard to find amongst the tons of H-D's. There were about 5 that I saw. There was one Guzzi (a beauty), and a fairly decent amount of Jap bikes and a smattering of others. Didn't see (or hear) a single Ducati. There were some pretty cool custom choppers and lots n lots n lots of Harleys. Saw one of those in-line 6 cylinder Hondas from the 80's that was in mint condition (got one of my votes in the little bike show at the end of the ride). I think about 400 bikes total turned out for the event.
Korey and I rode with a pretty diverse group. 5-6 H-D's, brand spanking Wing, Vulcan, 2 Yamahoppers, and one of the Hyabusa deals. There was also a 65k custom chopper with a 250 mm wide rear tire. Louder than all bejabbers, but fun to look at. We wound our way through the West Michigan countryside on a perfect fall day. Took two low speed laps around the circle track before we hit the road. That was a grin.
We had four stops at which we picked up business cards to get raffle tx at the end for prizes.
Big treat for me came at stop #4 - one of the local Honda dealers brought out a Rune for us to drool on. Man, even though it isn't exactly my style, the folks at Honda did a neat job of putting together one great looking biiiiig-ass bike.
The ride was a perfect length - about 75 miles or so. (Our group missed a turn near the end and added about 3-4 extra miles to the deal but who cares on a day like this??) Any longer and I would have tired of the pace, any shorter and I would have felt cheated.
Ended up in Fallasburg Park - a great location - for burgers, brats, and non-alcoholic beverages. There was a pretty decent rock-n-roll band, good places to sit and a small bike show with 6 different classes that we all got to vote on.
Great day - great fun - good cause. Hats off to Jacki Apel and her fellow March of Dimes workers for making this event a really good one. Look for a March of Dimes ride in your neighborhood next year.
PS- I want to see more Beemers at the event next year. Blaine and the guys from Grand Rapids sponsored one of the stops and gave a nice jacket to the silent auction, but it would have been nice to seem some more roundels on the trip.
 
And did I mention...

Grand Rapids BMW was the "sponsor" of one of our stops. There were four stops - and the Beemer folks were the only one to have tea or lemonade to drink and some Chex Mix to munch on. None of the other dealers (Guzzi, Harley, and Honda) were thoughtful enough to offer refreshments.
Bravo to Blaine and the gang at BMW of Grand Rapids.
 
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