2013 Rigid Ride

Sunday was our 7th annual Rigid Ride on the SF peninsula.  About 35-40 old machines and old men took part, with our typical variety of machines.  This year we had a number of Indians and Velocettes, but also some HD knuckleheads and bikes from BSA, Norton, Matchless, Triumph and even a rare Levis single.  The ride is co-hosted by the AMCA and the Velocette club and also the BSA club, which helps bring in a number of interesting machines.  There were a few guys on bikes with swingarms, which is fine with me.  I figure if they come on the ride and get excited by rigid bikes, maybe they’ll buy one and join us next year on an old machine….

Victor and his 1914 HD.

 

Kalle and the bikes in front of the Pigeon Point lighthouse.

 

The camera battery was dead, so these fuzzy photos are all from the phone camera.  sorry about that!

Chris and his 1927 JD.  It had a good bark!

 

 

 

Jeff’s wonderful Indian, still in primer and looking great.

 

Don D. brought his 600cc Levis twin port single.

 

Levis rider’s view

Dealer’s decal.

 

The good old fish fence at the San Gregorio General Store

 

Our route for this year took us on several of the best one lane roads, including Old La Honda Road and Alpine Road through the redwoods.  Stage Road is under construction, so we took Hwy 1 to the lighthouse as a detour.

 

It was Kent’s 60 birthday, and he chose to spend it riding with us.  So he won the 2nd edition of Modern Motorcycle Mechanics from 1945, and also a copy of Prairie Dust, Motorcycles and a Typewriter from Greg Williams.  Get yourself a copy if you like old motorbikes.

 

A couple of knuckleheads.

 

at the beach.

 

Another wonderful Indian.

 

Charlie makes to a lot of runs on his Matchless Model X.

 

First time out for this new restoration, Jim’s KTS Velocette had just a few hundred miles on it.

 

 

Red Fred’s upside down Indian 4.  It isn’t the typical IOE, but EOI.  That is, the inlet valves are sidevalves, and the exhaust are overhead valves.  Hence Exhaust Over Inlet, or EOI.  This one has been around the block and back.

 

You can’t tell, but this one is all new and rebuilt on the inside, but no effort was made to make the motor more shiny than the rest of the bike.

 

More and better info is here.

and more pics here and on Instagram #rigidride