2012 Quail Lodge Motorcycle Gathering Pics & Story

Hi guys,

My wife and I were over at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley California yesterday for the 2012 Motorcycle Gathering, sponsored by Cycle World magazine. It was a beautiful day (again!) and this is the 4th time we've been to the now annual event. It's become a fun 'date-day' for us, and she is SO supportive of my motorcycle habit. This is the 3rd year I've entered a motorcycle to display, and this year I chose the 1986 VF1000R Honda. I polished her up a bit on Friday evening, and rode it over Laureles Grade and to the Quail about 8:30 Sat. morning. She runs great, and only has 20K miles on the clock... not bad for a 26 year old bike! The event is getting bigger each year, and the bikes on display are really world-class restorations, and even a lot of daily riders. Some have been restored and never even run for aesthetic reasons, like a blued exhaust pipe for example.

I wasn't really signed up for 'judging' for the awards at the end, but when I strolled over to the bike about 1:30pm, there was a tag hanging from the bike. It said: "This bike has won an award. Please bring it over to the awards stage at 2:00 pm for the awards ceremony..."

Cool! I have never won anything at a motorcycle show, so it was exciting. The award is a nice engraved Tiffany silver plate reading "2nd Place SuperBike" with the Quail logo and event date, etc. I promise not to use it as a dinner plate. Also a nice bottle of Friexenet champagne. Anyway, most of the winners ahead of me pushed their bikes up the ramp to the stage, but knew I could never get 'Shamu' up there, so I fired up the VF and rode all 600 lbs of her up onto the stage for my' interview'. The announcer poked the microphone up in my face and said "Congratulations, beautiful bike, etc. etc...What can you tell us about the bike?"

Well, most of the guys that went ahead of me were giving painful stories of years-long restorations and countless hours of work. I knew my story on this bike would be a bit boring, so I just gave a quick rundown on the bike's history and specs like a 1000cc V4 engine, four gear-driven cams, 4 valves per cylinder, 11,000 redline and 122 hp. It was also able to run ~150 mph in stock trim in 1986. I also said I bought the bike from a guy in Redding CA, and really haven't done anything to except, except... a bit of Armor-All. That got a pretty good laugh from the crowd... maybe a 1000 folks snapping pics like paparazzi!

Anyway, I'm no public speaker, so I cut it short, thanked them for the award, and fired it up... revved it up to 7 or 8 grand and slowly rolled off the ramp. All in all, a very fun experience! Don't have any pics of me getting the award... my wife unfortunately had to leave early to be a chaperone for her school's prom. She didn't know I had gotten the award notice before she left after lunch, which BTW, is a nicely catered affair, and is included in the admission price.

Here's a link to some pics of the show. There's a couple of me with the purty VF1000R too. (Click on the 'Slideshow' button to see them play larger and automatically)

https://picasaweb.google.com/107171422769758768095/2012QuailMotorcycleGathering#

I'll have to figure out what bike to take next year... I'll need to work on that one!!

See ya, and have a great weekend!
BLIGHT

 

Congratulations arty2: :cheer2:

 

BLIGHT, your bike looked really regal. Congrats. Your photos are excellent.

I showed my '90 Ducati 851 at the Quail in 2010. It was fun, it was expensive, it was well worth the effort.
This location, in my opinion is better than Half Moon Bay, mostly because of the weather.

If anyone here has the time next year to go to the Quail, I highly recommend it. It's in Carmel Valley, CA

I believe they are trying to create a motorcycle copy of the Pebble Beach auto concours, and

they are doing a good job.

 

Thanks for sharing and Congratulation.......:thumb::bravo:

 

Thanks for the post and congrats on the award lad! Almost makes me want to get my '86 kR back .... almost.

 

VERY COOL, congrats on the award----- :thumb:

 

Hey.... thanks guys!!!
BLIGHT

 

I really loved that blue on blue Indian with a sidecar out front for $65k, but it wasn't even registerable for some reason...