masochistic biker I fit right in. Since I had a late model bike them on the schedule was important and that combined with
I was not allowed into the main competition but road in the best performance on the trial sections determined the points
escort class in support of our team.
awarded determining the winner of each class.
There was a lot of “sidewalk” mechanics going on in the
parking lot and I was astounded to see these old bikes
which were going to have to go nearly 1,700 km in the next
six days. Some were being torn down with some significant
maintenance going on with the start of the event the next
morning. [Parking lot mechanics.jpg]Real old school bikers
here – none of the “take it to the shop” kind of thinking was
going on at this event.
I also met the Caribinieri, our police motorcycle escorts
with their cool motorcycle uniforms and matching bikes.
They would leave prior to the first riders were launched (a
few every couple minutes to spread them out and keep them
from riding in a pack. They would take control of critical road
junctions, expedite the safe passage of the bikes and bring
up the rear as a sweep in case anybody broke down.
The organizers were really on their game and also had a
fully equipped EMT Truck and a couple of EMT equipped
motorcycles to assist in the event of difficulties and there
was also a well-equipped van with experienced motorcycle
mechanics ready for roadside repairs and assistance in case
of a breakdown followed by a semi trailer for transporting any
bikes that could not be fixed road side. It was great for the
competitors to know somebody had their backs.
Feeling good and off to the route I had to stop at a
T-intersection when leaving San Marino. The road went
steeply up hill in front of me at the stem of the tee and I waited
a long time at a stop to get a clear shot at making the turn.
When I was finally certain nothing was coming from my left I
glanced to my right to make sure it was clear and started to
slip the clutch to begin rolling. It was then I caught a flash
of white from a small Italian car that was moving beyond
warp speed and coming directly at me from my left. He was
going way too fast to stop and since I was moving with 1,000
lbs of accelerating mass that even the fine disk brakes on
the BMW could not slow in time, I laid the bike down before
getting tagged broadside. Luck was with us and other than
some scratches on the bike there weren’t any injuries or
major damage. We got the bike upright and resumed the trip.
Thankfully, the rest of the day was uneventful and we made
our check points on schedule.
The Motogiro system of navigation was a very complex set
of written directions like go 5 km on Hwy 20, turn right onto
Hwy 30 and in 20 meters turn left, etc. and the directions were
akin to a small community telephone directory in size. A map
was provided but at such a scale as to be useless except for
general waypoints. To make navigation more user friendly,
they placed red arrows at random intervals along the route to
let you know you were still on track and then at intersections
and roundabouts more arrows were used to mark the exit
points followed by a confirming arrow a short distance after
you made the turn to confirm you chose the right path.
At one point, I missed a turn and by the time I got back
to the route there were two of the Caribanairi flashing the
blue lights and clearing traffic in front of me and another
two directly behind. I had the BMW flying the state flag of
Colorado so it must have looked like the escort for a high
It was a noble effort but due to some inconsistency in
official of some kind. So I enjoyed the escort until they all
marking
and some arrows disappearing at critical junctions it
passed me and drove on.
was not uncommon to pass other riders going up and down
the road trying to find the actual route we were intended to
take. The GPS made little difference since the route set was
not the fastest or shortest routes that are selected by the
GPS. It ended up being an aid of last resort if you became
helplessly lost and aborted the points just to get to the next
town on the route plan.
We saw some of the most spectacular scenery with
hundreds of small towns of ancient and more recent
architecture, dramatic vistas of fields with crops and cattle,
castles on hilltops, high alpine meadows and dark forested
The next morning we got our gear on, road to the starting
paddock and got our rally log sheet for the day. Before
starting the day circuit there was a timed trial section that
had to be run to start the points system going. Essentially,
every day there were timing stations along the route so hitting
14 Thunder Roads Magazine® Colorado
August 2015
www.thunderroadscolorado.com