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Daytona Bike Week 2008...

Tommer45

Active Member
Carried over from old forum...

Had a nice trip down to Daytona this year with my brother. Rode down and back from New Jersey (fortunately missing most of the crazy amounts of rain all over the East Coast on our ride back). Usually we have about 5 or 6 guys but this year it was just the two of us.. and probably the best year yet. We got to put on some pretty good mileage without having some of our buddies who think 50 miles a day is "hard ridin" to slow us down. Just thought I'd share some pics with those that might be interested...



Ahhhh the Florida sunshine. Fortunately for me it was a chillier bike week than usual. I enjoyed the cooler weather. Here I am in my Langlitz and my Wesco Jobmasters.

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My brother in St. Augustine, Fla. He's sporting a Schott Easyrider in ballistic nylon (w/ armor).

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Now where did I park my bike? I know it was around here somewhere.....

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Havin' some Fat Boy fun on the Canopy Ride...

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Trying to use the sheer coolness of my Langlitz to get the skimpily clad bartenders. Believe it or not that same night some lady commented on how much she liked my jacket... go figure!

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A bike we appropriately dubbed, "The Moose Bike". And yes, it actually ran... how, I don't know.

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Think there were enough bikes? And this was just one section of a Harley Dealership parking lot.

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The trip home...here I am at a gas station at 3am in North Carolina. We had planned to stop overnight once or twice, but the impending thunderstorms meant we had to ride straight through to Jersey. I have a newfound respect for Touring bikes... I sure could have used one!! Perhaps a windshield will be my next purchase.

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Overall it was a great trip. Really saw no cool leather jackets though.. seems like everyone had a $79 special. I even saw one vender with men's biker jackets for $11.99!! I couldn't help but think about all the old ads I've seen from the 40's and 50's where the big name bike jackets were around $11.99.

Any of you guys on here make it down?

Tommer
 

Tommer45

Active Member
The moto section doesn't seem to get too much traffic anymore. Figured I'd put it here b/c of the motorcycles and moto jackets in the pics.
 

Peter Graham

Well-Known Member
Nice photos Tommer. I was set to race at Daytona in 1994 but I broke my elbow testing the bike the week before. There used to be a bunch of Irish guys travelled over every year. I never got the chance again. Here's the bike I was going to race.

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Peter Graham

Well-Known Member
Tommer45 said:
That's too bad about the broken elbow. How'd you wreck? Still race?

Cool stuff.

Tommer
Well, I always used a road type gearshift. Kick up to go up a gear but racers reverse this. Up for down because it's quicker. I was practising this and had got my head round it until I was coming out of this fast right hander and lost concentration and instead of going up two gears I kicked it down and bang ! It locked up and fired me over the top ! I've used a road type shift ever since. I gave up racing years ago when I ran out of money and my buddies were getting killed at an alarming rate. We race on closed public roads here in Ireland. A big thrill but mega dangerous.
 
Speaking of racing, I'm looking forward to my second season of Speedway starting May 3rd. I just bought a helmet cam and I'm going to video every race this year. I'll post some videos after my first test when I get some practice runs in next month.

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Falcon_52

Active Member
Tommer:

I was planning to ride down this year but with the huge amount of ice and snow on the roads here, it was impossible to. I'm glad you and your brother had a blast! I like your ride and jacket too.

Noel
 

Tommer45

Active Member
Thanks Noel... there's always next year!

Peter... sounded like a good reason to give up racing. Must've been fun while it lasted though. Cool story... thanks for sharing.
 

Peter Graham

Well-Known Member
sealbeachbum said:
Speaking of racing, I'm looking forward to my second season of Speedway starting May 3rd. I just bought a helmet cam and I'm going to video every race this year. I'll post some videos after my first test when I get some practice runs in next month.
Bill, I hope it's one of those gyroscopic helmet cams that works when it's on it's side and upside-down ! :lol:
 

Peter Graham

Well-Known Member
Tommer45 said:
Peter... sounded like a good reason to give up racing. Must've been fun while it lasted though. Cool story... thanks for sharing.
I still miss it. It's hard standing on the sidelines watching. I just don't get the same kick out of road riding.
 
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