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Mid-South ride, eat, and meet
- Thread starter barryg
- Start date
Another Capitol Cycle Story- Funny
Back in '89, my Buddy Leo was telling me that a buddy of his, Lentz Gatlin had invited him to do a ride to Washington DC USA to visit the Smithsonian to see the Air and Space Museum. As the time grew closer, I asked Leo, can I crash the ride? Leo talked to Lentz, about it. Lentz said the more the merrier. Yea.
Back in '89, my Buddy Leo was telling me that a buddy of his, Lentz Gatlin had invited him to do a ride to Washington DC USA to visit the Smithsonian to see the Air and Space Museum. As the time grew closer, I asked Leo, can I crash the ride? Leo talked to Lentz, about it. Lentz said the more the merrier. Yea.
I was at Leo's shop one after noon after work. Leo got lots of package's every day. Leo had so many bike and car projects going on; stuff was coming in from everywhere. After he shut down for the day, he opened all the package's. Cool bike and car stuff. Out of box came a Hein Gerickie jacket. Leo put it on, cool. Leo said it's a HG PD. It will probably be cold on the ride. Leo, order me one. 
As it got closer to the ride, I asked Leo to do a little tune up on the R90. This was back before my econo rebuild. I brought it over to the shop after work one afternoon.I put it up on the lift. Leo spent a couple hours on it. Tuning, adjusting, checking, at the end; he smiles and said; Barry you're good to go.
Lentz would be riding his '85 K100. This was no run of the mill standard issue 90HP K100. Years ago he told me the the early American supplied K100s most were the most powerful of the 2-valve K100s. He had Eddie Wilbanks fab up a custom equal length header system. Eddie also fabbed up a more performance oriented intake system. I think the electronic control was optimised and fine tuned for performance. Can't remember the brand of muffler. The bike had aan authoritative but not abusive sound.
When we took off on the trip, Lentz led , Leo followed and I was last. Lentz had a state of the radar detector. Seems we were running the Interstate 40 around 80 mph. I usually just ran the Interstate at posted speed. But running in third place, I felt pretty safe from tickets, Lentz had that radar detecter up front. We ran over to Ashville, NC; We exited off and got on the Blue Ridge and headed north.
Yikes!Yea, we were still going to fast for me. I knew Leo felt the same way. Lentz was a eurostyle sport rider, his bike had state of the art components, and he wanted to get his money's worth out of it. I was watching Leo ahead of me; Leo was an excellent competent rider. He was all over that seat, counter balancing and counter steering. Nothing like watching the back end of a 300 pounder riding mountain Twisties. It wasn't pretty. The Blue Ridge is not designed for that type of riding.
I do member that when we rolled into Mt. Airy and got to our motel, I was totally exhausted. I don't remember much of anything after that, till they woke me up the next day. I know the next mourning, I walked over and gave Lentz's K100 a closer look. Ohlins shocks, those look serious, Marvic wheels shod with radial tires, front fork brace, Humm. Lentz was on to something. Did some stretching to get the soreness out of my limbs.
After a little talk with Lentz about slowing down, we hit the Parkway heading north. Now we were running a more sane 55 mph, now only about 20 over the limit. Oh Well. We hit a few more overlooks, I stopped in at a welcome center and picked up a Parkway map, pretty informative.
The ride got better, a few more stops. We rode to the north end and exited off at Waynesboro and headed northeast to DC. Yep, I already had plans on a return trip to the Parkway; and do it at a reasonable pace. I was pleased that the old R90 had held up to that pace. I was starting to formulate future plans on reconstructing the bike. You've already seen the results of that endeavor. I was also thinking about the acquisition of a modern BMW more suitable to modern touring. Kind of a Back to the Future thought process.
I am somewhat surprised that you did not have numerous detours while on the the BRP. The on-line status map shows several parts closed. Riding on a closed section will result in a big fine, of course so will speeds significantly over the normal 45 mph (and it is a federal violation, not a state one). Link to BRP status -
https://www.nps.gov/maps/full.html?mapId=e212fcb5-4ff9-4787-bbe4-3d40cc0d0daa#8/36.339/-79.184
https://www.nps.gov/maps/full.html?mapId=e212fcb5-4ff9-4787-bbe4-3d40cc0d0daa#8/36.339/-79.184
I really don't promote lawbreaking, but. This was 30 years ago and I had a little rebellious streak in me. As the story continues to unfold the ride will take a change for the better. Back in this time frame I rode with 2 very distinct motorcycle groups. One was the bar hopping biker patch wearers and the other was the local BMW motorcycle clubs. But that's another story for a different time.
We got to DC; got our motel rooms. Leo did some research and picked out a local restaurant; The Brickskeller. Leo had a knack for picking the best places for a feast. We decided that we would be enjoying adult beverages. We left the bikes at the livery stable and took a taxi. Good food and drink, then a good night's sleep.
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
The aim of the trip was to visit the Air and Space Museum. Pretty nice Museum, good display on Orville and Wilber Wright, Kitty Hawk, First in aFlight True American greatest. Charles Limbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis. Fascinating stuff from the early days of flight. I remember the development of the Boeing 747 back in the 60's. I was working at Memphis International in the mid 70's when I saw my first one. It was off to the side parked awaiting some maintenence work. My car was tagged where I had pretty access to all area's on the airport. Drove over and under the nose of the plane; stopped and got out and checked out my car under the plane, Wow.
The aim of the trip was to visit the Air and Space Museum. Pretty nice Museum, good display on Orville and Wilber Wright, Kitty Hawk, First in aFlight True American greatest. Charles Limbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis. Fascinating stuff from the early days of flight. I remember the development of the Boeing 747 back in the 60's. I was working at Memphis International in the mid 70's when I saw my first one. It was off to the side parked awaiting some maintenence work. My car was tagged where I had pretty access to all area's on the airport. Drove over and under the nose of the plane; stopped and got out and checked out my car under the plane, Wow.
