Atascadero 2010, Bud Ekins Memorial Tour, Day 1

[a few folks have asked recently, and yes you can use these photos as you like.  Just credit me]

This year’s Bud Ekins Memorial Tour was held on May 6-8 in Atascadero, CA., organized by the unstoppable Steven Wright.  We rode through beautiful countryside, over hill and dale, without any major issues.

Thursday’s ride was short, but included a great dinner at the Loading Chute in the bustling metropolis of Creston, CA.  Out here in cowboy country, they serve steaks for dinner, very large and very rare, thank you.

Bikes came in from all over California; mostly pre1916 but with a few friends on later machines.

Parking lot clutter.  14HD, 16X, 34Crocker, Bonneville Indian bobber, hot rod Ariel Sq4, etc

Richard and Mike telling stories while Richard’s Reading Standard and Henderson wait to get on the road.

1916 Reading Standard and 14 HD two speed

Mike’s Crocker.  It won best in show at the 1st Legends of the Motorcycle event a few years ago.  Mike rides this bike, and doesn’t complain about water crossings, dirt roads, etc.

Richard’s RS.  He has 3 or 4 of these bikes, and knows them well.  Check out the little guy thumbing his nose on the handlebars.  And old FU gesture that some of the car guys still sport on their front bumpers.

Rider’s view of the Reading Standard.  The Corbin speedo is nice.

Another shot of Mike G.’s 1914 HD two speed.  It has domed pistons and bumpy cams, and when it starts up it really roars out that open pipe.  The compression is a bit too strong to use the typical pedal-to-start technique, but he uses the pedals like you would use a kickstart and it fires right up, and scares away all the cats within a 200 yard radius.  Lots of guys swap the early rockers on these motors for the later ones that have about twice as much lift, but Mike has kept these stock.  He said it already has enough power…

A nicely used 1915 Indian Motocycle.  No ‘r’ in motocycle, as Indian spelled it.  I also like the old terms Autocycle and Petrolcycle.  There are lots of good names that didn’t stick with us over the last 100 years…

This 15 is the last year of the Hedstrom IOE motor, with rear suspension and a 3 speed gearbox.  A very rideable bike, and good looking too.

This bike has had a few parking lot fixes over the last 30 years that the owner has been riding it.  The fender ding and the bailing wire on the linkage and the inlet add a bit of toughness to the bike’s character.  The silicone goo on the inlet gland, ehh, not so much.

Wes A’s Thor twin, 2 speed.

From this angle, you can see that the primary drive is not on the center of the crankshaft.  It is geared down in the crankcase, so that the chain sprocket can be sized better.  Clutch is in there, gears are in the rear hub…

Wes’ Excelsior, 1913 or 1914, I can’t remember which.  The left pedal came apart during day one of the rally.  Those damn pedals seem to self-destruct with an annoying regularity…