Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Last weekend was the USCRA's Spring Giro, based at Jiminy Peak in Hancock, Ma.  Event Director, Doug Boughton, had asked a mutual friend of ours, Scott Kolb, to be the keynote speaker at the banquet Sat. night.  Scott has set a number of Bonneville speed records with an RS 125 powered streamliner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYJDoaGgEdE
Doug also offered Scott his CL77 to compete in the Giro.  As Scott had never done a Giro before, Doug paired him with me.  There was a big turn out with 120 entries.  I was #105 and Scott #106.  Being the grizzled veteran I am, I showed Scott the ropes, beginning with losing track of the time while bullshitting with some one and punching in a couple of minutes late Sat. morning.  Scott and I had a great time playing Redman and Provini at the Isle of Man all weekend.  The CL 77 was a lot faster than my '53 Moto Guzzi Airone Sport, so in the faster bits, Scott would get ahead of me so I could draft him.  We figure it was good for about 4 more MPH.  There was a fair amount of dirt roads, esp. on Sat., though Sun. had a particularly gnarly one.  Good fun.  The weather was superb and the roads were terrific.
A very nice Yetman CB77 above.
Moto Guzzi was represented by last Spring's overall winner, Devon Fraizer on a 110 Zigolo.  Devon finished 2nd in the 125 class this year.

Winner of the 125 Class was this Stornello

Ken Richardson rode his 235 Lodola.  Mike Peavey tried to ride his '54 Airone Sport Sat., but the needle came adrift in the carb.  He fixed this for Sun., but then the clutch failed.  He just acquired this bike and it needs a bit of sorting.  Both times, Mike reverted to his 235 Lodola, which was trouble free.
This is Peter Davidson on his C15 BSA

Mark Young's route sheet dashboard on his Ducati
A very nice 175 Gilera, though it had a Mikuni carb (gasp) and no airfilter which may not have been wise with the amount of dirt roads we had.

This is the overall winners bike, a CA77 Dream, with a very knobby front tire and an Ariel badge on the tank.  Who would have thought?

After we finished Sun. afternoon, I ask Scott if he'd like to take my Airone for a spin.  He was gone awhile and finally came back pushing the bike.  The oil supply pipe had broken covering his right foot and the motor in oil.  Luckily, this happened after the Giro had finished and not far away.


1 comment:

  1. Enjoyed this even more after reading what GIRO event is all about. Philosophy/scoring/points (bad) et al, Hard to beat classic bikes of limited displacement 'racing' on public roads
    w/time constraints...Competitive & challenging and good fun! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete