my parade float is famous
Jul. 24th, 2012 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elizillaLast weekend I went to AMA Vintage Days. This is a huge vintage motorcycle racing event held every summer at a race track called Mid-Ohio, that is near Mansfield OH. It draws tens of thousands of people. There are about a hundred classes for different types of vintage motorcycles. The racers aren't professionals - they are hardcore amateur enthusiasts who return year after year to race in these classes. The spectators and the race teams mingle and you would never know who is who; anyone who wants can go right down in the pits and get underfoot. The main track is a road course with a variety of turns and elevation changes, not a NASCAR oval. It's on a large piece of land, and spectators can roam all around it and sit on the grass under the trees on the hillsides overlooking the turns. There are a few grandstands but they are generally sparsely populated. Farther from the track there are large fields where they set up additional courses for motocross and hare scrambles. There are large onsite camping areas, a huge swap meet, manufacturer demo rides, a vendor area, various clubs have tents and exhibits, seminars to attend, carnival food wagons, a wall of death show, etc. It goes on all weekend.
I expected to see at least a few other Ural riders there, but the only others I saw were in the swap meet, where a Ural dealer named Heindl had a booth. The Heindl guys were nice and gave me a free t-shirt.
One of the jokes on the Ural forum, is "UDF". This stands for "Ural Delay Factor". The delay is because people constantly come up to you to ask about it. At Vintage Days, though, that type of interaction comes with any motorcycle you bring. I've taken a number of different machines there, over the years, and nattering with people who have the same machines, are interested in those machines, or have the machines you are interested in, is one of the fun things about Vintage Days. My other favorite thing is the vintage sidecar racing. The people who ride in the sidecars are called "monkeys". Sidecar monkey is a very athletic role - the racing sidecars don't have seats, just handles, and the monkeys fling their bodies from one side to the other to keep their weight in the right spot to keep all three wheels on the ground as the bikes go around the curves at high speeds. They are active ballast - very active. Yet another favorite thing is the pit bikes - people are riding around on every imaginable contraption and some that you would never imagine. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of them.
I had just come back from dinner on Saturday night, and was dropping off the friend who had ridden with me, when some guys pulled up in a golf cart and asked if they could take pictures of my bike. Sure, I said. So the two of them pulled out several large cameras, and took about 100 pictures as I talked to the two vintage BMW enthusiasts from the next campsite, and let kids sit in the car. But the sun was going down, and these camera guys didn't have enough light. Turns out they were working for the AMA, they were official event photographers. They asked if I was going to be around tomorrow in daytime so they could take some more pictures? I said yes, I'd be around. They asked where I was staying and I said I was camping onsite. They asked where my campsite was and I gave a vague description.
I didn't think anything more of it, but the next morning I was standing outside my tent braiding my hair when they found me, and they took some more pictures. They wanted to know where I would be later in the day, so they could get pictures against different backdrops. I said we could just go wherever they wanted to photograph the bike right now, I didn't have anywhere I had to be. So we did. They attached two GoPros to the bike, one on the nose of the car and one on the front fender, and I carried one of them in the sidecar with his camera, and he took my picture while I drove the bike, and the other guy followed us in the golf cart and took still MORE pictures. They found a spot with a nice backdrop of trees and good light, and had me park the bike at just the right angle. Then they interviewed me and videotaped me. (With my puffy morning eyes and yesterday's jeans, eek. At least I had just rebraided my feral hair.) Then I drove the photographer to his next scheduled photo shoot, which was down in the pits. Later I saw them again and I let one of them drive the rig while I rode in the sidecar, and they attached the GoPros again and took even more pictures.
So maybe I will be famous. I hope I didn't giggle too much or say anything too stupid in the interview.
After I dropped off the photographer, down in the pits, a guy in full racing leathers came over to talk about the bike. He was very interested so I offered to let him ride in it. He said he already rides in a sidecar - that one. He pointed. I looked and it was one of the ones that race. He was one of the monkeys I watch in the races. NEAT! A sidecar racing monkey talked to me first, I didn't have to stalk him! Awesome!
The other funny encounter was a slightly tipsy guy who wanted a ride in the bike, so I drove him a couple hundred yards. We were only going about 10mph, because that's what you do there. So he had plenty of time when we passed his friends, to wave madly with both hands while yelling, "I'm a monkey! Look at meeee! I'm a monkeeeeey!"
I met a guy with a Cozy sidecar attached to a scooter who had a really cool steering damper. He said it was a salvaged VW part. It attached the front wheel to the side of the car. He said it was a complete cure for death wobble, the best mod he ever made, and it only cost him $60. I will have to look into that.
I expected to see at least a few other Ural riders there, but the only others I saw were in the swap meet, where a Ural dealer named Heindl had a booth. The Heindl guys were nice and gave me a free t-shirt.
One of the jokes on the Ural forum, is "UDF". This stands for "Ural Delay Factor". The delay is because people constantly come up to you to ask about it. At Vintage Days, though, that type of interaction comes with any motorcycle you bring. I've taken a number of different machines there, over the years, and nattering with people who have the same machines, are interested in those machines, or have the machines you are interested in, is one of the fun things about Vintage Days. My other favorite thing is the vintage sidecar racing. The people who ride in the sidecars are called "monkeys". Sidecar monkey is a very athletic role - the racing sidecars don't have seats, just handles, and the monkeys fling their bodies from one side to the other to keep their weight in the right spot to keep all three wheels on the ground as the bikes go around the curves at high speeds. They are active ballast - very active. Yet another favorite thing is the pit bikes - people are riding around on every imaginable contraption and some that you would never imagine. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of them.
I had just come back from dinner on Saturday night, and was dropping off the friend who had ridden with me, when some guys pulled up in a golf cart and asked if they could take pictures of my bike. Sure, I said. So the two of them pulled out several large cameras, and took about 100 pictures as I talked to the two vintage BMW enthusiasts from the next campsite, and let kids sit in the car. But the sun was going down, and these camera guys didn't have enough light. Turns out they were working for the AMA, they were official event photographers. They asked if I was going to be around tomorrow in daytime so they could take some more pictures? I said yes, I'd be around. They asked where I was staying and I said I was camping onsite. They asked where my campsite was and I gave a vague description.
I didn't think anything more of it, but the next morning I was standing outside my tent braiding my hair when they found me, and they took some more pictures. They wanted to know where I would be later in the day, so they could get pictures against different backdrops. I said we could just go wherever they wanted to photograph the bike right now, I didn't have anywhere I had to be. So we did. They attached two GoPros to the bike, one on the nose of the car and one on the front fender, and I carried one of them in the sidecar with his camera, and he took my picture while I drove the bike, and the other guy followed us in the golf cart and took still MORE pictures. They found a spot with a nice backdrop of trees and good light, and had me park the bike at just the right angle. Then they interviewed me and videotaped me. (With my puffy morning eyes and yesterday's jeans, eek. At least I had just rebraided my feral hair.) Then I drove the photographer to his next scheduled photo shoot, which was down in the pits. Later I saw them again and I let one of them drive the rig while I rode in the sidecar, and they attached the GoPros again and took even more pictures.
So maybe I will be famous. I hope I didn't giggle too much or say anything too stupid in the interview.
After I dropped off the photographer, down in the pits, a guy in full racing leathers came over to talk about the bike. He was very interested so I offered to let him ride in it. He said he already rides in a sidecar - that one. He pointed. I looked and it was one of the ones that race. He was one of the monkeys I watch in the races. NEAT! A sidecar racing monkey talked to me first, I didn't have to stalk him! Awesome!
The other funny encounter was a slightly tipsy guy who wanted a ride in the bike, so I drove him a couple hundred yards. We were only going about 10mph, because that's what you do there. So he had plenty of time when we passed his friends, to wave madly with both hands while yelling, "I'm a monkey! Look at meeee! I'm a monkeeeeey!"
I met a guy with a Cozy sidecar attached to a scooter who had a really cool steering damper. He said it was a salvaged VW part. It attached the front wheel to the side of the car. He said it was a complete cure for death wobble, the best mod he ever made, and it only cost him $60. I will have to look into that.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 04:38 pm (UTC)That should totally work. Because of the way the front shock is mounted, you can easily mount the damper off the axis of rotation of the steering, so it could apply leverage. Much better than the tension knob.
And then you could ride it down south, and Pat Coffee could connect the other end of the damper to a foot pedal in the side car, and your monkey would have a rudder control. (The rudder on an airplane is worked with foot pedals, IIRC.)
And be sure to take pictures of the damper and mail them to the Ural factory. It seems like something Ivan would do.