Sunday, July 16, 2017

S.K.U.N.K. Rally - 2017

After a couple year hiatus, the SKUNK was held once again and I was there.  Already under pressure to plan, host and commit to a date for next year, Kevin's got not quite a year to figure out what he's going to do.


Kevin (of Scrambler Cycle) at and along with help from the great and gracious Barron County Historical Museum folks, put on a heck of a fine rally.  There were a few of us newbies that weren't quite sure what to expect, but there were old hands there as well, former attendees that knew the score.  The Ontario guys came down, Indiana and Iowa folks came up and there were a few of us from Minnesota and even Wisconsin.  I counted 25 people at Saturday evening's Lasagna Dinner.  Saturday Bert, Diana and Maynard, Bob and Donna, Mike and Colleen all arrived, some for the day, others for the weekend.  Tom was up from Iowa, a frequent rally-goer at both Guzzi and BMW rallies as are many if not most of these other folks.  It's the cross pollination of riders and various groups that makes it all extra fun for me.

Two weekends in a row on the Royal Enfield, it has now earned a rest and will pushed a bit deeper into the garage.  We sure have had a grand couple of rallies though.


Green Friday, Red Sunday.....Saturday only a breakfast run to Barron.


A nice ride up....


 Setup at the Barron County Historical Museum, Cameron, Wisconsin





The afternoon was young and I had a nice Route planned, so off we went.



 I was in the Blue Hills and wanted to revisit the place where we walked to the Felsenmeer a few years ago....I found it.  We did some other walking that day and I found that place as well.






Stone Lake, Wisconsin....



A County Park that I used to camp at with my parents, with my friends and later with Peg and our first born.....hadn't been back for a long time.





 I stopped for dinner, soup and sandwich in Rice Lake at the Norske Nook.  As you can see, they take their pies very seriously.


I like to think that I do as well.....




Saturday morning I just happened to be stopped for breakfast and some motor fuel when Mike and Colleen were rolling through town.


I spent most of Saturday looking through the exhibits and museum buildings.  The site, the displays, exhibits and collections are quite amazing and I was very impressed.  If you're in the Barron/Cameron neighborhood, please stop and visit all that the staff, volunteers and donating parties have contributed.









 From the Cameron box company....


Some serious machines....



















 Lined up for the weighing....not a prize fight, a weight distribution set-up.  We had flat, mostly level concrete as a base.


Al brought 4 transducers (we only needed 3) and his laptop program (w/Bluetooth?) gave printouts of total weight, weight on each wheel, that percentage and the CG.....it was interesting to learn and to compare.  This group knows their sidecars, an obvious fact when you see their rigs; all I could do was watch, listen and learn.

Al had Kevin lean both left and right, doing so subtracted and added sidecar wheel weight respectively.





 Bob's rig, Kevin piloting and Bob in the car to get some more real-world numbers.


My numbers.....the red dot my CG.  According to the accepted art, my numbers weren't all that bad.






 Sue's and Jack's, Terry's.....


 We ate well, some of us left with more Ural merchandise than we'd arrived with but we all laughed....I don't remember a single fight, certainly not before 2AM anyway.



  
Sunday morning pulling stakes....


Bert and I stopped at Elk Mound for a look see.....


Bert needed to go south....and stay in Wisconsin but he followed me as far as the Minnesota border, our vector mostly south.  Terry, headed for NW Indiana, had left earlier, his vector was straight west to start with.  St. Croix Falls, follow the St. Croix down to Prescott and then follow the River Road to spend the night up on the ridge at Wyalusing State Park.  Just as Bert and I were pulling in to Beth's Twin Bluffs for a bit of lunch and a spot of pie, we met Terry on the green Honda, a quite amazing coincidence.

Terry, thanks for seeing, pointing out my broken bolt and for strongly encouraging me to get it fixed.  Hope to see you down the road again soon!


Tom, your classic German machine was working against you all weekend, hopefully you persevered and made it home just fine....you'll get it sorted out.

Based on what everyone was saying about rallies past, after taking a break for a couple of years, Kevin once again managed to pull off a good one for some darn nice people to enjoy.  Even I'll be watching for next year's date and time.

Again, thanks to Kevin and to the kind and generous use of the facilities at the Barron County Historical Museum.

And a final note......

10 comments:

  1. Interesting! Well documented as always.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Eric, an interesting and different venue for a rally, one that was right up my alley as you know.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for this writeup....your rig is looking good.

    I liked the weigh-in sessions....good to know what one's rig weighs I think, fully loaded.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dom,
      Thanks, I'm certainly having fun with 3 wheels.

      The weighing turned out to be interesting for various reasons....loaded, empty, the difference between the two, etc. Also, the impact that leaning and loading left vs. right footpeg and the weight transfer from wheel to wheel.

      Delete
  3. So much good stuff in this post. And more pie - you're killing me softly with the pie pictures.

    Sometimes it is hard to believe what can be done with a cell phone/bluetooth/program. And to think it can help you tell weight distribution etc, just mind boggling. So much I don't know about technology.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pie....we could write a book, couldn't we?? :)

      Al had some very cool equipment along and it was great that he shared it with anyone that wanted to push their rig up on the scales.

      Delete
  4. I loved the black and white photo. Another fun rally for you, well done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VSL, that B&W photo was over and above my favorite as well and I'm willing to admit that it was an accident....the dial had been bumped. Seems I should be bumping that dial more often.

      Thank you, it was fun and I'm hoping to share a few more yet before the season ends.

      Enjoy that salty air!

      Delete
  5. Most county museums are pretty much the same.. but this is one of the better ones. If in the area well worth the time.
    Also... what does S.K.N.U.K. mean..?...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We were dually impressed 😊

      Side Kars Up Nort Klub

      Delete