Ancient Iron Motorcycle Club's 22nd Annual Bike Blessing
(From a Hawkers perspective)
4-20-03: Easter Sunday
I had never heard of it, but ever year there is a bike blessing held on Easter Sun. at the Ancient Iron Motorcycle Club in San Jose (here's AIMC's page on the event) John Ruiz posted an invite to the list to join him on a exploratory ride of the South Bay, then over to get our bikes blessed. I had never attended a Harley dominant event, and I was anxious to get my SR500 back up into the twisties before parking it and switching back to my Hawk, so I told John I'd gladly join him. Anyone wanting to go was to be at John's house in San Jose at 10:00. I rolled in a little late just as John and Yong Joo started up their bikes. One minute later and I would have missed them. Note to self, be more punctual. Yong said he might make a ride soon, but I wasn't expecting him. As it turns out he's a Harley rally veteran. He's been to Sturgis twice! We gassed up and were on our way to explore the southern South Bay. After boogying down Hwy 17 for a few miles we exited into Los Gatos and made our way South somehow over to Hicks Rd., down past Guadalupe Reservoir, and down to the Alamitos Rd. junction.
Yong Joo (left), and John Ruiz chillin' by the bikes at our first stop.
At this point we thought we'd be adventurous and make a right into the unknown.
Well, SR's ARE know to be good in dirt.
Is the water cold, Yong? At least he's protected if he falls in.
The "unknown" dead ended in a dirt road and a large metal "Private Road" gate. After figuring out that the gate was unlocked and contemplating whether to continue out of sheer curiosity, we opted to turn around and continue on Alamitos Rd. in the opposite direction. This looped us back up to Almaden Rd. which took us to McKean Rd. This lead us South again past Calero Res. McKean became Uvas and finally looped us east to the outskirts of Morgan Hill.
My SR burns a significant amount of oil, so I never go on any ride that reaches beyond around town without taking a bottle of oil along. Well, today I had forgotten the oil, so I was a bit concerned. We unwittingly toured some neighborhoods and ran into quite a few "Not a Through Street" signs until we finally found a small convenience store. We probably road 5 miles and didn't find one gas station. I checked my oil and as it turned out it was overfilled. Oops. Checking the oil on that bike is tough. Since it's a dry sump (the oil is held in the frame), oil can get caught up and trick you when checking it. Our next step was to check my map and try and figure out where the heck we were. We found our location no problem and decided to back track to get back to San Jose for the blessing. Off we went.
I had mentioned to both Yong and John that they should not finish the day without having a go on the SR. At the first junction we stopped and John and I traded bikes. After going over the little tips and tricks with John in case he stalled (compression release valve, "don't open the throttle to fast or it will die", etc), we started out again on the lazy sweeping Uvas Rd. John's 1200 Bandit is the largest displacement bike I've ever ridden, and boy, it sure has gobs of hp. A slight twist of the throttle and I was around two cars and cruisin' at 80 without even knowing it. After 5 or 10 miles I pulled off so Yong could get a taste of "vintage" motorcycling. I went through the explanation again and off we went. By this time we were back in the city making our way to the blessing on Curtner Ave. near the San Jose Airport. At one red light I remembered something about the SR that could take its rider by surprise. SR's, even straight off the factory line, are notorious for stalling after cutting the throttle abruptly while having been at a good cruising speed for an extended period of time. Once you cut the throttle, let's say, coming to a red light, the tach will just keep on falling until, "Chuh!" it buries and the engine dies. I leaned over and mumbled this to Yong as the light turned green, so Yong, focus disturbed by my last minute info, tried to start out in haste and the bike stalled. There he was, on an expressway with a hundred cars behind him trying to kick this 1980 500cc single, in dire need of a major tune-up, back to life. Usually when the bike stalls like this it isn't easy on you and won't just start again. It won't give in until a few kicks. John and I pulled off on the other side of the intersection and waited as Yong rolled the SR off to the side of the road. After a minute he was back in line waiting at the light. The light turned green and he was with us again. I got off his CBR and he dismounted my SR with a smile. Good 'ol Yong; the most easy going guy I know. "So," I said, "now you know what it's like to ride 'vintage'." Again he laughed and with that we were back on our way to the bike blessing.
As we pulled up we could see a bunch of bikes lining Coleman Ave., but we saw a whole lot more after we parked and walked to the portion of Taylor St. which had been blocked off by police especially for this event.
Harleys, and the occasional vintage bike and a lost sport bike or two, as far as the eye
can see.
Chrome glistened, catching the sun's light everywhere we turned. The three of us meandered around ogling beautiful bikes and denim clad fannies framed by black leather assless chaps. There was the occasional vintage Triumph, BSA, and other non-Harley rides, but the overwhelming majority were big fat heavy shiny grumbling Hogs.
John chekin' out a nice ride.
Nice trikes! Interesting belt drive systems, too.
This was a nice custom v-rod with a dirty paint job theme (it's baaad). Don't strain
your eyes too
much, it was even hard to make out when up close and personal.
Some poor croc was transformed into one hell of an impressive Hog. I
just
loved the foot pegs and side stand. Great stuff!
As we made our way to the end of the street lined with bikes and walked onto the main parking lot just outside the club, we ran into a real eye sore that you just couldn't stop looking at.
Yong getting a closer look: "How in the...can this thing...sheesh!"
This chopper was NASTY! Check the barbed wire, ripped seat, mud splatter. The motor was a rusty mess of ancient grease and grime. Oh, man, this thing was bad. To top it all off it had a nice oil drip under it. Apparently the thing runs! Ah, yes, and it also feature the more than appropriate bumper sticker "Ugly As Sin".
There were also some really impressive vintage bikes there. Two of which were very nice Indians. One of these is an inline four that sounded like nothing we've ever heard. The owner happened to be there and started her up for a group of onlookers. I took a mini video clip in QuickTime format, but the sound's terrible and video is tiny. I really need to get a digital camcorder.
Apparently a company called "Wiking" is making these again?
And of course there was eye candy of the fleshy sort.
We made it just in time for the ending of Father Jack LaRocca's "sermon" which he gave up on stage to the noisy crowd below.
After this the bikes began lining up to ride through for the blessing. This was a great way to check out all the bikes there that day.
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Yong had to take off, but John and I decided to get on our bikes and get in line for the blessing. Before Yong left he asked me if he could kick start my SR one more time. I laughed and let him at it. After kicking it to life he said, "That's so cool!" I had decided to not get rid of the SR, and Yong's impressions of it reinforced my decision. It really is a cool bike. We bid Yong farewell and made our way into line. I contemplated asking around for tools so I could take my SuperTrap off my bike. That way I could've made my own noise as I road up to be blessed. He he, next year I'll come prepared. Hey! There were no 2-smokes there! Perhaps I'll rev up the RD next year. I road up, father LaRocca sprinkled some holy water on me, a dude handed me a card, and I road through.
With the
history my SR has it sure needed a blessing.
John and I were hungry, so we decided to hit up Jack in the Box on our way home. As we road away from the club we passed a large group of police and special forces officers, some of them holding M16s! Earlier, back at the blessing, John had pointed out the officers stationed on the roofs of surrounding buildings. Apparently the 2002 blessing ended when a rival gang arrived and police started searching people, finding guns and weapons. After a filling meal and nice chat we parted ways...until next time.
by Kenzo Baxter
-WCHR Scribe