Vintage Motorcycle Days 2016: In the books!

[NQ1965]

Well, I might as well get us started.

What a gangbuster weekend!
On the fun scale, it was over the top. For those of you on here that are readers and lurkers, but not vintage riders or racers, you would have found yourself looking for another bike if you would have attended the event. Weather was great, the racer turnout was great, and the spectator/visitor turnout was great.

It was an exhausting marathon weekend for Nancy and I as usual, making the trek there and back home each day, but was extremely worth it, and as usual our dominant regret is just not getting enough time to visit and hangout with all of the friends that we have made over the years.

Short on time at the moment, but I'll be posting more as the day goes on and try to get up some pic's tonight.

 

[Dano762]

Photos? I am in Seattle and hated missing this year. Glad you had fun.

 

[Vet261]

Whole bunch of pics here:
http://willisarts.zenfolio.com/p429621343

Always one of my favorite events of the season and always sorry to see it end. Can you believe we got through Thurs-Sunday without any monsoon rains? I think that has to be a first for several years now of no rain.

The place seemed more packed than it has the last couple years. People everywhere. Hare Scramble and MX entries seemed larger as well -- I know on Sunday several classes had to have heat races. The swap was packed too. The whole place was packed.

First gate drop of the day on Sunday Mike Wheeler high-sided and got knocked out. He was down for quite a while --- I heard end result was maybe a shoulder injury or broken collarbone and obviously a nice concussion. Heal up Mike!

The Non-Current classes and the 50+ classes continue to be the largest classes. Log Road crew and all the workers did a great job. They need to get more water into the track before racing though. The spritzing of water all through the program made for some slick conditions. The track was very fun though, they do a good job with the layout each year and did a good job with it all day.

I think it's safe to say Trent56 had a lot of fun and will be back. He is always smiling but it seemed like a wider smile than normal! He was ripping on a borrowed CR250.
(Trent pic from link at top)

Our buddy Todd Sinclair came out of Vintage retirement and was able to win the 30B/C class on Friday, nice job Todd! Then he baked his Uncles bike on Sunday....boo

I'll just leave this photo right here for CK1 to comment on....

I picked up this 1998 RM125 carcass for $80. Not really any use for me but it has the highly coveted 1998 forks obviously so I couldn't pass it up. I'll tear it apart and add it to the stock.

Mike Bickley got his "Saturday" bike in the form of this TM100

 

[cutty22]

Well it was very tough watching the races and not being able to ride! It was great to talk to everyone though! I strapped my crutches on back of my scooter and made my way around and still had fun!!

 

[evomx244]

Well it was very tough watching the races and not being able to ride! It was great to talk to everyone though! I strapped my crutches on back of my scooter and made my way around and still had fun!!

It's an awesome story though (POS KTM 495)

 

[cutty22]

Yes! That thing kicked me back harder than any bike ever has!

 

[Mike]

Had a great weekend, great weather, good friends, great track rode MX, got a new project bike TM100 thanks Mike Wheeler (relax and heal well), watched some cool and fast woods riders, and the side car road racers OMG they move. Huge swap meet, big thanks to Kevin for hosting PIT RACER'S,. One of the best weekends of the year for old mx guys. Nice job by Log Road guys to keep the dust down, lots of spot watering in between motos, and one not so good wet spot that gave me 50 yards of road rash. Bab's jr showed me how my bike should be ridded in the 125 A class, can't blame the bike anymore, maybe it really is the rider. But in 50+C went 4 /3 for 3rd overall in field of 24. Every gate had 25+, bunch of double gates. Really nothing to complain about, well maybe the damn loudspeaker that was 6" from our campsite but my hearing is returning. Pictures coming later.

 

[NQ1965]

Greg, there is only one way to say it...... You were ROBBED!
You must have done some evil deed to have pissed off the moto Gods to brake an ankle a week before Vintage Days.

Sometimes life just isn't fair.
And I had the same thought's with Wheeler crashing hard on the first turn of his very first race. JUST NOT FAIR!
That man came to Vintage Days to race and have fun. He even raced one of his 490's in the Hare Scramble on Friday, which really blew me away. He works his butt off to race, to have fun, and to get good results.

 

[NQ1965]

I also think we had a pretty good Pitracer member showing as well. I believe most all the regulars were there.

got a new project bike TM100, thanks Mike Wheeler

Saturday racing on the vintage machines was some of the most fun I think I've had racing. Once again got into another really good battle with VLK943 on his CZ400 that had us both pushing the limits of man and machine against a rugged track. Won't forget that one for a long time.

And I'm extremely pleased that all 3 of my bikes ran extremely well and without any issues. And I was able to avoid all of the hard crash's in all of my moto's, ( 8 in 2 days) without getting hung up in any. Had some close calls though.

 

[racer726]

2nd place in classic non-current was a 1998 CR 500. The class is 1990 and older with a like design stipulation. Does that let all the CR 500's in the classic class? I thought it was weird nobody protested.

 

[cutty22]

I must have pissed someone off NQ! Lol

 

[misstheflip]

All in all, a very fun weekend for me as well!!! No storms, great racing and it was fun catching up with everyone. But, a few things I would like to see improved next year:

-Tighter tech inspection for "Vintage Bikes": Modern Hare Scramble had bikes several years newer than "Modern Vintage" limt. I like seeing a large field, but let's keep the spirit of old bikes. 1998 for MX and 1996 for HS, right?

-More control of riding in swap meet, facility, and campground: Maybe I'm getting old, but I thought this was a genuine problem this year. Unattended kids, no helmet barrel racing on full size mx bikes, speeding, wheelies, etc. are a problem. Having a pit bike at VMD is an awesome privilege I don't want to lose. One jackass will ruin it for us all.

 

[racer726]

All in all, a very fun weekend for me as well!!! No storms, great racing and it was fun catching up with everyone. But, a few things I would like to see improved next year:

-Tighter tech inspection for "Vintage Bikes": Modern Hare Scramble had bikes several years newer than "Modern Vintage" limt. I like seeing a large field, but let's keep the spirit of old bikes. 1998 for MX and 1996 for HS, right?

-More control of riding in swap meet, facility, and campground: Maybe I'm getting old, but I thought this was a genuine problem this year. Unattended kids, no helmet barrel racing on full size mx bikes, speeding, wheelies, etc. are a problem. Having a pit bike at VMD is an awesome privilege I don't want to lose. One jackass will ruin it for us all.

There were people riding on the infield pit bike track all day long. Big bikes, pit bikes and road bikes. Some had helmets on, some didn't. Pretty wild. I heard the camping area pit/golfcart/fourwheeler races got shut down Friday night.

 

[evomx244]

2nd place in classic non-current was a 1998 CR 500. The class is 1990 and older with a like design stipulation. Does that let all the CR 500's in the classic class? I thought it was weird nobody protested.

There was a guy next to me on a 96 CR250, I was losing my mind to the AMA official. He keep saying Non-Current 1998 and older, I was screaming this is classic-Non current 1990 is the cut off! Then they said OK Non-current gate drops first, soooooo there I sit as everyone takes off except me. F-ing dumbest s**t I've ever seen, They need somebody like me to tell what's legal and what's not! I don't know much but I do know about old MX bikes.

 

[Vet261]

There was a person racing a 2001+ year model RM125 as well.....considering that is the first model year for that design it doesn't fall under any "like design" criteria unless that just means two wheels.

Maybe they should change the name of Classic Non Current to something else, because I too saw many AMA folk that had no idea what that meant and just quoted Non Current rules for it.

I hope we don't get banned for posting these comments! haha

 

[racer726]

They need to make a list of the eligible bikes for the non-current and classic non current classes. Only about 6 manufacturers to cover. It would not be difficult.

 

[NQ1965]

-More control of riding in swap meet, facility, and campground: Maybe I'm getting old, but I thought this was a genuine problem this year. Unattended kids, no helmet barrel racing on full size mx bikes, speeding, wheelies, etc. are a problem. Having a pit bike at VMD is an awesome privilege I don't want to lose. One jackass will ruin it for us all.

Speed was definitely an issue. In many areas.
Nancy and I walked over to the Pitbike track Friday afternoon to see my brother who was helping flag the races. We witnessed an eastbound pickup truck make a vehicle pass on the single lane street coming from the main track infield. He made the pass directly before the intersection where it becomes a divided street. A westbound bike rider coming from the paddock area had to slam brakes and slid sideways to avoid a head on with the truck who was left of center, and then a kid on a Suzuki DRZ following the bike rider slammed and had to lay it down on the pavement. And it all happened in front of a AMA or Mid-Ohio official who was directing traffic at the intersection. Everybody was going too fast, and being a bit reckless. They dispatched a squad for the kid on the Suzuki, but he just had some bleeding road rash. I saw the whole thing happen, which was sudden and very unexpected.

My only real inconvenience or complaint were the generators running ALL DAMN DAY just to keep some A/C going in folk's campers. This year it seemed like the PA system was much louder than before, but no match with a Pit area full of noisy generators. It got very annoying. And we kept having to walk out of the pit area to get race updates.

 

[Ironbutt]

All in all, a very fun weekend for me as well!!! No storms, great racing and it was fun catching up with everyone. But, a few things I would like to see improved next year:

-Tighter tech inspection for "Vintage Bikes": Modern Hare Scramble had bikes several years newer than "Modern Vintage" limt. I like seeing a large field, but let's keep the spirit of old bikes. 1998 for MX and 1996 for HS, right?

-More control of riding in swap meet, facility, and campground: Maybe I'm getting old, but I thought this was a genuine problem this year. Unattended kids, no helmet barrel racing on full size mx bikes, speeding, wheelies, etc. are a problem. Having a pit bike at VMD is an awesome privilege I don't want to lose. One jackass will ruin it for us all.

I just filled out the AMA survey and said the exact same things...I'm all about having fun but there needs to be some type of security to protect the ones who are not there to party all night. The 2:00am "Burn Out Board" was out of control and should have been stopped. The small unattended kids riding at night with no helmet is insane. It's definitely a matter of time before someone gets killed. I rode the trials event yesterday and some drunk with his buddy were racing thru the woods and when the leader saw me he hit the front brake and went down hard! He did have sunglasses on for protection but no shirt... I stopped and asked if he was ok? The woods is a free for all after the Hare Scramble and it's littered with garbage! It's madness... a curfew needs to be in place & security... Also there was no one manning the MX gate off Ross road after Friday!!! How fair is that to all of us who paid our way in for the weekend?

 

[racer726]

I just filled out the AMA survey and said the exact same things...I'm all about having fun but there needs to be some type of security to protect the ones who are not there to party all night. The 2:00am "Burn Out Board" was out of control and should have been stopped. The small unattended kids riding at night with no helmet is insane. It's definitely a matter of time before someone gets killed. I rode the trials event yesterday and some drunk with his buddy were racing thru the woods and when the leader saw me he hit the front brake and went down hard! He did have sunglasses on for protection but no shirt... I stopped and asked if he was ok? The woods is a free for all after the Hare Scramble and it's littered with garbage! It's madness... a curfew needs to be in place & security... Also there was no one manning the MX gate after Friday!!! How fair is that to all of us who paid our way in for the weekend?

I believe that everyone pays a gate fee regardless if you race MX or not? It's been like this every year that I've been there.

 

[Ironbutt]

I believe that everyone pays a gate fee regardless if you race MX or not? It's been like this every year that I've been there.

You missed the point... There was no one at the gate off Ross road taking tickets or money to get in.. You could just drive right in Saturday or Sunday!