A month off and nothing to do but ride - now with 100% more Baja!

[BikePilot]

So as most everyone knows by now, I had a month between the end of my summer gig and the start of my final year of school.

I was going to go back to Cambridge and write an article or something, but after working 10 60-80hr weeks over the summer, I thought better of it.

So what to do? Well, I'd never ridden baja before, I'd never seen my sisters new digs in SoCal, I'd never ridden a street bike significantly west of the continental divide, I had a CR250R calling my name in Denver, I wanted to show Pilette around CO and I wanted to see the EAA Airventure show in Oshkosh.

Well those seemed like enough items to keep me entertained for a bit - on to the logistics.

I didn't have much cash to spend, but did have some saved-up tuition money that wouldn't be needed till Sept. I didn't have a street bike really suitable for the trip (TL is in need of repairs that I didn't have the time or garage space to do and I'm getting a bit old and arthritic for several-thousand mile sport bike tours).

So a plan was hatched. I'd buy a bike somewhere within a day's ride of Oshkosh, fly out and ride to Osh. Then on to Denver, then west, then south and finally I'd sell the bike wherever I ended up when I ran out of time and if needed, fly back to DC or Cambridge.

After much angst and a few bikes that fell though, I ended up with a 2007 Bandit 1250S in Kansas City.

I'd also need camping gear and such. In keeping with the low-budget plan, a $30 tent was procured at Target and Nicki found an old sleeping bag from her days as a Brownie or Girlscout or something like that. Good enough. I lacked bags to carry the stuff in. Some scrounging yielded a dry bag and an old hanging bag. The hanging bag had d-rings and such on it and seemed well suited to strapping to a bike. The dry bag ($5 at the thrift store) should keep the sleeping bag dry.

I'd need more luggage though - somewhere to carry clothes, laptop, camera, shoes, hydration pack etc, so I ordered up a top case and tank bag and had them shipped directly to the seller.

On July 27th I flew to KC, forked over the cash, hit up the DMV (3hrs wait) and installed my luggage and bunge-corded my gear to the pillion seat. Finally I was on my way north-east toward Oshkosh by evening.

I looked something like this as I left the seller's place.


A teaser of what's in store (never mind the missing bit in CA - gps got wonky, I had to re-set it and seem to have lost a few tracks - just fill in the coastal bit and Ortega hwy in you head).

[BikePilot]

I didn't take many pictures on the way to osh, but here's what I've got...

I went across this bridge


The new Bell Star was working just dandy in the KC heat (which wasn't actually too terrible).


The city gave way to rolling hills and farmland


And I crossed a bridge and river again.



That night I stayed with a fellow from Advrider. He was a cool guy, very laid back, rode a KTM 990 Adventure, but also a successful surgeon. His place was pretty amazing - huge house and garage with just about everything - from an entire wall of tool boxes to swimming pools and hot tubs.

[BikePilot]

The following morning I rode on to Oshkosh!

There were all manner of aircraft.

Manufactures showing off their new tundra planes


A classic Pitts Bip


A float-plane



An arctic expedition plane (might need them to drop fuel for me when I go for my overland motorcycle Antarctic record).


There were planes that seemed too small to lift a single person


And aircraft large enough to stand in for a crane


There were old bombers


And the Ford P51 display for Jensen

[BikePilot]

There were futuristic Rutan designs, some new and made to escape this planet's atmosphere


Yep, it really flies


Some old


Not all of slick composites and built for speed, but this looks like pure fun to me


And a very nice mixture of slick composts and old-world horsepower (carbon-fiber airframe with a very old, 9 cylinder supercharged Russian radial motor).

[BikePilot]

And then there were RV's - the most popular kit-plane ever. Thousands flying and enough at Osh to take up over 5 acres of parking I was told.

If anything the 5 acres was probably an under-statement, this isn't even half of them...


This show-winning -8 is a classic in the RV world.


The Vans tent.


And a -6 in Vans AirForce Colors (like TLZ, but for these planes).


A Corvette-powered -10.


Another nice -8


A recently-completed -6 that's not yet painted.


This isn't stock


And an exquisitely painted -4 (the owner/builder did it himself as I understand it).

[BikePilot]

They asked me to fly this P-51 in the show for them (I wish!)


A gorgeous SNJ-5 (AKA T-6 Texan AKA T-6 Harvard) - the best part, it was for sale for a very-reasonable $175k.


Big radials are a thing of beauty

[BikePilot]

This thing made an appearance, it was definitely huge.

[BikePilot]

The Pitts Model 12 is one of my all-time favorite fun planes. It also uses the Russian M14 supercharged radial mentioned before.


And this is the world-record for the largest American flag ever flown by a sky-diver - who knew?

[BikePilot]

And this husband-wife team put on quite a show. A big radial biplane, a great story-line, a great aerobatic routine and to top it off (literally), a hot chick on the wing

[Puppet]

Awesome stuff Josh, definately one place I want to get to before too long. A buddy has a Murphy Rebel that I helped him with, maybe we can fly in.

Tim