The Official 2011 Barber AHMRA Event Thread

[swooshdave]

Alrighty boys and girl, this is the official "Who's going to Barber topic?"

Unlike the INOA trip this one is a green light for me. Tickets purchased so it's a go.

I will be flying into Greensboro, NC and riding to Birmingham with my dad and brother, Mike (mjfriesen is his username here). Mike and I will be riding the Nortons, there is a restored Roadster (73-74, I can't recall which) and my old 73 Interstate. The Roadster just had it's crank fixed by Kenny C. so this will be it's first big ride after that surgery. The Interstate is still original, although the Dunstall mufflers are pretty tasty sounding. If they haven't completely rusted out, because it that happened they will be sounding nasty good. :mrgreen: Our dad will be taking the trials bikes in the truck and trailer.

Old picture of the Interstate.

Rough plan is to take two days to go down. Arrive in the Birmingham area on Friday night, participate in the trials Saturday morning, watch some road racing and visit the museum the rest of the weekend. Then come back through the mountains, perhaps hit Deals Gap just so we can say we did it on a couple old Norts. 8)

If Paul remembers I think he said he had a couple tickets for me to Barber.

Who else is going? Well…?

 

[Holmeslice]

Alrighty boys and girl, this is the official "Who's going to Barber topic?"


Who else is going? Well…?

Schwantz

 

[grandpaul]

If Paul remembers I think he said he had a couple tickets for me to Barber.

You need to FIRST check in at the AHRMA racer's window (turn left at the "T" and follow around to the gate, park and you'll see the window straight across)

They are two weekend passes to the race and paddock NOT the museum (the museum is never included in race passes)

 

[swooshdave]

If Paul remembers I think he said he had a couple tickets for me to Barber.

You need to FIRST check in at the AHRMA racer's window (turn left at the "T" and follow around to the gate, park and you'll see the window straight across)

They are two weekend passes to the race and paddock NOT the museum (the museum is never included in race passes)

You're the best!

 

[swooshdave]

Alrighty boys and girl, this is the official "Who's going to Barber topic?"


Who else is going? Well…?

Schwantz

Yes, I think he use to race or something…

What about yourself?

 

[Holmeslice]

Yes, I think he use to race or something…

What about yourself?

Well, while you might have the OFFICIAL thread on Barber, here's my very unofficial post, explaining my involvement :

barber-daytona-2011-t10152.html?hilit=barber

 

[britbikemike]

I am trying to get Simpson to go down there with me. Maybe if someone else from NC wants to car pool we would be open to it.

 

[swooshdave]

I am trying to get Simpson to go down there with me. Maybe if someone else from NC wants to car pool we would be open to it.

Car? What's wrong with your bike? :mrgreen:

 

[swooshdave]

Sounds like we should crash the Turn 6 party with a mini-AccessNorton.com gathering. Who's down for that?

 

[britbikemike]

Have you SEEN the pictures of my bike?? lol

 

[swooshdave]

Have you SEEN the pictures of my bike?? lol

You have three! One has to work. :mrgreen:

 

[swooshdave]

Alrighty, on a plane tonite. I'll be across the country by morning.

Looking forward to seeing some of you down there.

 

[swooshdave]

Got into NC around 9:30am, that's after leaving Portland at 10pm the previous nite.

We went over to my brother's to see how the bikes were coming along.

The clutch on the Interstate was a bit stiff so we decided to dive into the clutch basket to see if we could get it a little better.

By replacing the driven plates with all fiberplates and lubing the cable the clutch was finally usable. Not as light as my Combat but then again it slips.

Then a few rides to check things out and get familiar with the bikes.

The Roadster is a blast. The Corbin and rearsets make it a hoot to ride. The engine is fresh (Mr. Cummings saved the crank) and you better be serious when getting on the kickstart. Any wimpy attempts will be made a mockery of. The bike moves. I think it would give a Combat a good run for the money.

The Interstate is mostly stock and original save the massive Dunstall mufflers which sound absolutely nasty. They certainly don't sound like most Nortons. Very deep bellow. As the engine has not been touched it's getting quite soft. In fact riding the bike reminds me of what it must be like to ride an Eldorado. You sit way up on it, feet forward and just roll. Amazing how such similar Nortons can feel completely differently. Where the Roadster has serious go, the Interstate takes it time.

We finish loading in the morning and head towards Birmingham. We'll see how far we get. Maybe we go all the way, maybe we don't. Either way it will be fun. But we'll for sure be there on Saturday.

 

[swooshdave]

We left this morning from Greensboro around 9am. From there we headed west to Asheville.

At our first stop near Hickory we ran into a guy who said he has a Norton in his barn. He hasn't done anything with it in a long while. But he wasn't going to let it go either.

I was following my brother and saw something come off the bike. It was the centerstand spring. We stopped and just removed the centerstand. Solved that problem for now.

Lunch was at Little Pigs in Asheville for some serious bbq.

Rest area somewhere in the North Carolina mountains.

We finally stopped south of Chattanooga in Trenton, GA. Put on about 450 miles today. About 125 to go to Barber in the morning.

 

[nortriubuell]

Very kewl swooshdave 8) Those pics and yer great updates are next best thing to being there for the rest of us. Hope ya keep posting and have a good time there !!!

 

[DonOR]

Swoosh, this road trip looks like something indie films are made of, hehe!

premium for 3.59? I'm payin a dollar more... no wonder I can't afford a trip to Barber.
while you're at it, what is "serious BBQ?" (I have an idea, but since its been years, some smokey, juicy details would get me in the mood to fire up my grill this weekend)

I don't mean to be such a critic, just green with envy... or is it mildew? Have yourself a time!

Cheers,

Don

 

[swooshdave]

Swoosh, this road trip looks like something indie films are made of, hehe!

premium for 3.59? I'm payin a dollar more... no wonder I can't afford a trip to Barber.
while you're at it, what is "serious BBQ?" (I have an idea, but since its been years, some smokey, juicy details would get me in the mood to fire up my grill this weekend)

I don't mean to be such a critic, just green with envy... or is it mildew? Have yourself a time!

Cheers,

Don

Maybe if they didn't have to ship the fuel there it'd be less expensive. We're stopping every 100 miles to fill up the Roadster. The Interstate just keeps going. 6 gallons goes a long way. My butt and back only make it about 50 miles before they want a break.

Sadly the Interstate is so tired too. It can barely maintain speed going up hills. Poor thing needs redone.

 

[DonOR]

Maybe if they didn't have to ship the fuel there it'd be less expensive.

wrongo kongo. Fundamentally, shipping via ocean freight is one of the most efficient ways to go. Its one of those monopolies, or several of 'em that take 1/3 of my income. sigh... at least I'll be kicking back on the beach with some cold Pacificos all winter

 

[swooshdave]

Another wild day. Rode down to teh Birmingham area, we're actually staying near Talladega, or about 30 miles east of Barber. We drop the gear at the hotel and rode to the track. It was only Friday but it was pretty crazy already. We picked up the armbands (thanks Paul!) and rode around the ring road taking in the motorcycle madness. Bikes and people everywhere!

We parked right next to the INOA tent. They, of course, had some nice Nortons.

Very tidy Featherbed Harley.

No idead what this is but I had to take a picture of it. :mrgreen:

Being the first day we had to start with the swap meet. We never found an 850 center stand spring (only 750 ones) but we did get a couple parts. THe score was a BMW /5 centerstand for $25 in great condition. Perhaps the best deal out there.

There were a lot of Commandos for sale, from this mint one from $12,500 on down. The cheapest was about $5500 but it was in dire need of a full restoration.

The new Ossa trials bike, 2 stroke fuel injected. Very sweet.

There were these Indian (dot not feather) selling Norton cafe racer parts. A polished cafe style tank was $1250, which I thought was very high. The cafe style seats were about $650 and not very good looking. I was underwhelmed by their stuff. It looked like bad copies of traditional cafe parts.

Photo looking across a koi-filled pond at the swap meet area.

We then rode right into the pit area and parked right by the tower. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a Manx or something exotic. These were all in Kenny Cumming's area. We didn't have a chance to talk to him but we will tomorrow.

Pretty sure most people have seen this one. Pretty cool in person.

Ver, very clean all original looking MkIII.

More CBXs under one canopy than I think I've ever seen.

At 6pm the showed the Hogslayer movie. Unfortunately they used the monitors and sound system in the press room which did no service to the movie. I talked to Jim a bit outside as I could barely understand anything. Still people lined up to buy a copy afterwards. I'll meet with him again tomorrow. They have the triple-engined Hogslayer on display at the Ace Cafe tent, I believe.

We left and it was quite dark. It was a little harrowing riding on the interstate at night with 40 year old tailights the only thing between you and a thundering semi. To make it much worse that a large part of the road in under construction, so while the speed limit is only 55mph people still go 85.

Back in the morning to catch a little of the trials, some roadracing and try to take in some of the museum.

 

[bwolfie]

That burghandy Honda behemoth is a Rune, they only made them a few years. It's a goldwing flat six engine. I like the little honda racer bin the picture below it. Looks like you are having a great time. So when is the IS getting back to seattle?