Dave Roper Racing

Friday, October 21, 2011

Oct 1, 2011 The USCRA Fall Giro took place in

the Catskills based in Freehold, N.Y. and I rode my '53 Moto Guzzi Airone Sport which, once again, was probably the oldest bike in the event. Sat. was wet and cool. Sun. was pouring when we got up, but had stopped raining by the time of the riders meeting and by lunch stop the sun was out. Apparently, it rained all around us and started raining again just after the awards ceremony. We got lucky.

I rode most of the weekend with Rich Hosley on his Ossa Wildfire (I was #76, he was #77). Rich is an excellent rider and is an old enduro veteran, so he knows how to read a route sheet. But, it seemed we both overshot the odd turn at about the same frequency, which allowed the other to take over the lead. Sat. afternoon we got separated when he missed a turn and I waited for him at the side of the road. When he figured out his error and got back on route, he didn't notice me waiting and was charging to catch up to me. So then I was charging to catch him and never did (the Wildfire is fast). Later, I took a wrong turn and went way out of my way. When I retraced my steps, I found some people to ask directions of. While we were going over the fairly complicated directions, another lost Giroist showed up. He couldn't follow the directions and said he'd just follow me. I went glacially slow, but he couldn't keep up in the fog. I was eager to get back but thought I couldn't drop this guy as he'd die of exposure. So, I stopped at every intersection and waited for him to catch up. When we got close to base, I was momentarily disoriented approaching the town from a different direction. My charge caught up and pointed the direction. Now that I knew he knew where he was, I dropped him and sped to check in and made it 12 seconds before my key time.

Among the interesting bikes there was this 250 Villiers powered Royal Enfield