Check out Gotham Ducati, NYC's first and only official Desmo Owners Club

First Sunday in Ephrata feels like Fall

I woke up this morning with weather in the 30's, and realized I had no warm gear with me for the weekend in Pennsylvania. My brother in law wanted to hit the road early though, so I was on the road at half past seven, though my fingers were numb when I got to his house. 

With the frosty weather finally feeling like fall, we waited for a couple other people to join us, then over to Honeybrook for breakfast at Wimpy & Dee's. 
Every first Sunday of each month at the American Legion in Ephrata, PA, several hundred motorcycles convene for an impromptu bike rally, and that was our original destination.. 
Unfortunately, we arrived close to 11:30am, and it looked like most of the motorcycles had already departed, though there were a few vintage racing bikes like this Yamaha RZ250R.
 A few companies had sent showroom bikes, like EBR (whose bikes I detailed at August's First Sunday) and Eurosport, exhibiting Brammo.  There's a Zero SZF11.4 that charges outside my building, but I had never seen their main competitor's $15,000+ electric motorcycle, the Brammo Empulse R, that boasts a top speed of 110mph, and bizarrely a 6 speed transmission (but unfortunately less than a 100 mile range on a single tank).
 We bummed around for a bit, and were getting ready to roll when a rather large fellow came rolling in on a tiny Gixxer.  His gear matched this 50cc lawnmower powered GSXR, and though it looked absolutely ridiculous (see little girl for scale), I'm sure he had the actual bike at home.
 I'm not sure about this monstrosity either, though someone looked to have grafted an old Harley front end onto an old truck motor and frame.
 My riding buddies assured me that First Sunday used to be nearly ONLY European bikes, but like much of motorcycling culture, this event has been taken over by Harley Davidsons.
We rode around Amish country for a while, stopping off to pick up another rider, *(my bro-in-law admiring his brand new to him '-08 GT1000 detailed here) before chilling out with some Yuengling Oktoberfest, a suitable festbier for an awesome autumn day.


© 2014 Tigh Loughhead

0 comments :

Rides gone by...