Author Topic: Around The MSTA - 3306  (Read 1419 times)

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VersysRider

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Around The MSTA - 3306
« on: September 06, 2014, 04:10:01 PM »
North Central Region
Illinois Indiana Iowa Kentucky Manitoba Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nebraska North Dakota Ohio Ontario Saskatchewan South Dakota Wisconsin

Michigan
In Memory Of Gary James Gulick, January 16, 1950 – May 30, 2014


Gary James Gulick

Gary joined the MSTA in May of 2011. He immediately became a regular at our breakfast meetings and joined in on several of our planned rides that year. Though he was member for only part of the year, Gary amassed enough miles on his various bikes to finish in 10th place on the Squadron high mileage chart with 14,178 miles. In 2012 we witnessed the birth of “RoboRider”. Gary topped the mileage chart with 32,801 miles reported. He amassed enough SMOTY points to finish the year out as out “ROTY” (Rookie of The Year). Gary was just getting started. In 2013 he once again topped the mileage chart with 38,699 reported miles. He was upping his game, and he came within a stone’s through of being our Squadron Member of the Year. He was racking up the miles again in 2014 before he was taken away from us suddenly on a trip to Alaska. The world and our Squadron in particular is going to be a lot less interesting without Gary’s smile and quick wit. May he rest in peace.

Ohio
Doug McPeek tells us about his first flat tire (ever) on a bike. With 25 years of riding and over 250,000 miles, I would say that’s pretty good luck. He was riding in West Virginia along with Bill “Woovis” Swartz when it looked like he had ran over a rock with his BMW 1200GS and the rear tire started getting soft. They pulled off at the nearest gas station and discovered he had picked up a very large “J” bolt. They were prepared for such a mishap however and plugged the tire with some tire plugs he had from BMW. That seemed to take care of it and they continued riding, checking every half hour to see that the tire was holding pressure. Once they made their destination the plug was pretty ragged and Doug was concerned he wouldn’t make it home with this setup. It was decided to try and replace the tire. They were able to find a Shinko Stealth Radial tire at a shop down the road and had to get there before closing. Thanks to “Iguana Joe” Thomas and his girl Anita they were able to get the tire, and thanks to Galen Diehl for having the tools to replace it.


The Shinko Stealth Radial on Doug’s BMW R1200GS

The tire was a bit odd, as it was designed for “production racing, drag racing or serious sport riding”. It looked a bit out of place on the GS and Doug was the butt of some good natured ribbing. They continued on their journey, the tire performing well on the dirt roads around Mt. Rodgers National Recreation area. He decided to leave it on for his next ride, the Black Hills Adventure Ride during STAR 2014. Through mud, soft roads and gravel the tire performed well. On pavement, in wet and dry, Doug had no complaints. It has over 4000 miles on it and is getting a little bald so time to replace it. He wouldn’t recommend the tire for a GS, but for a sport bike it receives Doug’s endorsement!


Doug McPeak’s fellow riders (B.D. and Ray) on Bear Mountain fire road

Indiana
“Moose” Parish wants to step down as the state director for Indiana. Moose has had a very successful MSTA career and served in many national positions and led the Hoosier Squadron for many years. He has earned the “promotion” to member.

South East Region
Alabama Florida Georgia Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Virginia

Florida
Jim Park had an article about learning to ride in the 60’s in the Florida newsletter. Because of Honda’s ad campaign (you meet the nicest people on a Honda) it was becoming cool to ride. Convincing his parents to allow him to purchase a bike was tough but he was ultimately successful. Learning to ride was a bigger challenge as there were not MSF courses back then and little safety gear. Brakes were very basic, tires were skinny and didn’t lend themselves to much lean angle. Jim recounted his first lesson came from his Boy Scout leader on a Honda 175 Scrambler. He was shown how to operate the clutch, rear brake, throttle but warned to never use the front brake as that was a sure way to crash. You only wore gloves when it was cold, for fear of getting them caught in the throttle cables. After a 15 minute training session in the driveway he was ready to hit the road!

Jim rode a two stroke Bridgestone 350 (available through the Sears and Roebuck catalog!) on the back roads of Indiana. One Saturday he had to give his sister a ride and forgot that his dad had pulled the barb wire gate across the driveway of their country home. You guessed it, Jim and sis hit it doing about 30mph. No gloves meant some lifelong scars on his hand but his sister came out unscathed. Jim was more worried about the scratch on the fender and the torn rubber boot over the shock. (Been there, done that).

One weekend he had some trouble with the bike running properly. The Bridgestone had oil injection but had a tendency to clog the oil ports, leaving the cylinders without lubrication. He left the bike at a friend’s house and came back the next day with an extra bottle of 2 stroke oil. He picked back roads for the way home and kept looking back to make sure he had blue smoke coming out of the tailpipes, indicating everything was working. It was one of those times when he was looking back that he got the front tire wedged between the rail and the pavement at a railroad crossing. The handlebars hit him in the stomach and he flew off the bike, hitting the pavement. Wearing the riding gear of the day (short sleeve shirt and pants) unfortunately left him with some road rash, but he got back on the bike and is still riding to this day.


Jim Park on his Bridgestone 350

Jim reflected on how we survived riding in those days, but we also survived not having child restraints or seatbelts, riding in the back of pickups, riding bikes without helmets, lead paint in our cribs, the A-bomb and the worst of all------ RED M&M’s CANDIES! As Jim says, “Good Times.”

Paul Van Steelant talked about the lunch ride to Main Street America in Lake Placid, FL in June. Fourteen riders made the ride, including some new members, veteran members and some prospective members. Most of the riders did over 100 miles to get there. Great service and great food were comments 350 echoed by all the riders