Tag: Three Flags Rally

The Three Flags Classic: Day 4

Day 4 was a grand day on our 2005 Three Flags Classic adventure!  Before you get into it, and if you haven’t read the first three days, you might want to catch up by reading our prior blog posts here:

The 2005 Three Flags Classic Rally:  the Intro!

The Three Flags Classic:  Day 1

The Three Flags Classic:  Day 2

The Three Flags Classic:  Day 3

On to Day 4!

Day 4 of the 2005 Three Flags Classic. We started in Driggs, Idaho, and we stopped to spend that night in Whitefish, Montana.

I did a dumb thing on the 2005 Three Flags Classic.   Well, actually, I did it about a week before.  In those days, I was using my Triumph Daytona as a daily commuter, and on the way into work one day, I had picked up a nail in my rear tire.   The tire didn’t go flat right away.  Nope, we had to make a trip to China Lake later that morning, I rode my Daytona there from the San Bernardino area, and the tire decided to go flat in China Lake.  It was a lucky break for me.  There’s a lot of nothing on Highway 395 in the Mojave Desert, and the Daytona had the good manners to go flat once we were in town.

Fortunately, there was an independent motorcycle repair shop in China Lake, and he plugged the tire for me.  The Daytona ran tubeless tires, and pulling the nail and plugging the tire was no big deal.   That’s where I screwed up.  I should have replaced the tire, but I didn’t, and it was just one week later that we were off on the Three Flags Classic.

Well, that morning in Driggs, Idaho when I mounted the Triumph and pushed it back, it wouldn’t budge.   That’s when the coffee kicked in and I realized the bike wasn’t leaning as much as it should on the sidestand.  Uh oh, I thought.  I got off the bike, and sure enough, the rear tire was flatter than day-old beer.  It was cold that morning, and I was looking forward to getting on the road and feeling the glow from my Gerbing electric vest.   What was I thinking, I thought.  It was at that moment that I realized that leaving home with a plugged tire had been a dumb move.

Marty had one of those little electrical compressors you attach to your motorcycle battery, so we hooked everything up.   Damn, those things take a  long time.  I’ll bet we sat there for a good 20 minutes, before the sun came up, with Marty’s BMW idling and that very noisy little electric pump banging away.  It took that long to get the tire inflated, and I pumped it up to 45 psi reckoning that I would need to either find a new tire or pump it up again most rickety scosh.

I guess I had done okay (or rather, the Triumph’s rear tire had) until I started taking some of the sweepers at high speed the day before in Idaho. A couple of Three Flags riders on FJRs passed me, and we played cat and mouse with those guys for a while.  We took the turns at high speed, which probably flexed the tires more than the usual amount, and that most likely loosened the plug that had been installed in China Lake.

We were on our way after pumping up my flat in Driggs, and when we stopped at a gas station somewhere later that morning I found that the pressure had dropped to about 20 psi. So, I plugged the thing again.   The new plug would hold all the way to Calgary, and that was a good thing, because I didn’t see another motorcycle shop until we reached that destination.   I wised up and bought a new tire in Calgary, but that’s a story for the next blog in this series.

This is the gas station in Idaho where I re-plugged my rear tire. And it worked. While we were there, a kid pulled up in a yellow dune buggy. We had an interesting conversation and then we were back on the road.
Breakfast in Ennis.

The next day took us into Wyoming.  Wyoming had magnificent scenery.  We stopped at a bunch of great locations to take it all in.  The best parts, for me, were the riding, the photography, and the interesting folks we met along the way who were also riding the 2005 Three Flags Classic.  The oldest rider in this event was 89 years old. He received a standing ovation at the banquet a couple of nights later in Calgary. The youngest was 17 years old.

I took this picture somewhere in Wyoming. This is John and Joyce, married 45 years. They rode in from Virginia to participate, each on their own motorcycle. They won the award for the longest distance traveled to participate in the Three Flags Classic.

We stopped for lunch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.    It was touristy as hell.  It had some great photo ops, but the prices were crazy and the traffic matched the prices.   I’d never been there before, so I was glad to make the stop for bragging rights.   But (trust me on this) Jackson Hole is not the real Wyoming.

This is Jackson Hole, a tourist town, but with good eats. We had a great Mexican dinner there. The arch is made out of real antlers, and there are four arches like this at the corners of the town square.
A door handle on one of the many art galleries in Jackson Hole.

Later that day and we rode into Montana.  Montana is another beautiful state. In fact, the scenery on the entire trip was unbelievable. We also saw a lot of game. I saw an entire herd of deer in Montana.

It was getting very cold. I was glad I was riding the Triumph, and I was glad I had that Gerbing electric vest. The Triumph threw off a lot of engine heat, which is not a good thing in the summertime, but it was wonderful in the cold weather. And, that electric vest was heavenly.

Later that day, we hit the checkpoint in Missoula, Montana.  It was good to stop for a while and chat with the other riders.   Here are several photos from that checkpoint…

Good buddy Bob’s RT-P BMW at the checkpoint in Missoula, Montana.   These are amazing machines. Bob can ride any motorcycle he chooses (he owns a BMW dealership, Brown BMW in Pomona, California), and this is his weapon of choice.
Bob’s route card. When I wrote The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles a few years ago, I learned a lot about these police Beemers. They are impressive machines. Two batteries, a stronger alternator, an oil cooler, and ABS braking. Plus the normal BMW niceties, like heated handgrips.
This Gold Wing is actually one of the oldest bikes in the event. We spoke with the rider for a bit, and he told us that this bike is on its fourth engine.
Check out the mileage on this Canadian Gold Wing! 900,000 kilometers! That’s well over a half million miles!
Carl and his beautiful K1200LT BMW at the checkpoint in Missoula.
This rider and his wife flew in from the Netherlands to participate in the Three Flags Classic. He had never been to Mexico, Canada, or the United States. A friend let him borrow this yellow DL1000 Suzuki. Like all of us, he and his wife were having a grand time.
An older airhead BMW boxer twin.
One of the FJR riders. The FJR is a very impressive machine.

That night, we stayed in Whitefish, Montana, just south of the Canadian border. We walked into town from our hotel and found a microbrewery, and  we had a fabulous dinner.   Whitefish is a cool town.   We walked around a bit and then called it night.  The next morning we would ride in Canada on Day 5 of the 2005 Three Flags Classic!

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The 2005 Three Flags Classic: The Intro!

Feel like going for a motorcycle ride? How about the Southern California Motorcycle Club’s Three Flags Classic?

Headed for Canada…nope, we were not draft dodgers. We were riding in the 2005 Three Flags Rally! That’s Marty on the left and Joe on the right.

This is one of the best motorcycle runs in the world, spanning (as the name implies) three countries: Mexico, Canada, and the United States. My friend Marty and I, along with 457 other motorcyclists, rode the Three Flags in 2005. It was the 30th Anniversary of this grand event, and it was a hoot.

The Route

What a run this was! We rode our motorcycles from our homes to Tijuana (Mexico), Gallup (New Mexico), Grand Junction (Colorado), Driggs (Idaho), Whitefish (Montana), Calgary (Canada), Penticton (Canada), Portland (Oregon), Roseburg (Oregon), Davis (California), and back home…a 12-day round-trip sprint spanning just under 5,000 miles.

The map. GPS? We don’t need no stinkin’ GPS!

It was a grand ride. Speeds ranged from slogs through traffic to a few times when we cruised at speeds north of 130 mph. Temperatures ranged from ungodly hot to subfreezing. We had sunny days and we had rain. It was grand. I’ll do my best to tell the story with pictures and words, and you’ll have to imagine the rest. Did I mention that it was a great ride?

The Bikes

Marty rode his K1200RS Beemer (with close to 100,000 miles on it when we left) and I rode my ’95 Triumph Daytona 1200 (the only Triumph motorcycle in the entire event). At the banquet in Calgary, Charlie Coyner (the event director) announced that there were 218 Hondas (most of these were Gold Wings), 90 Harleys, 90 BMWs, 34 Yamahas (mostly FJRs), about a dozen Suzukis (mostly DL1000s), about a dozen Kawasakis, and one Triumph.

Yep, one Triumph, and that was me!

The Equipment

I used my Nikon N70 film camera with just two lenses (the 24-120 Nikon, and the 17-35 Sigma). Yep, in 2005 I was still shooting film. The photos were okay…not as good as I would be able to do in later years with my Nikon digital cameras, but not terrible, either. Hey, you go to war with the Army you have, and in 2005, that was my trusty old N70.

Other gear included included Joe Rocket pants, jacket, and gloves, a Firstgear rain jacket, a Gerbing electric jacket (it was worth its weight in gold as we continued north), an HJC helmet, Haix boots (from Australia; they are wonderful!), a Nelson Rigg tank bag, and Oxford saddlebags.

The Guys

That would be Marty and me, and four other guys we rode with who were part of the Brown BMW First Church of Bob. Everybody but me was on a Beemer.

Did I mention I was the only guy in the entire Three Flags Rally on a Triumph?

Most of the time it was just Marty and me. The other three guys were off riding their separate ways, but Marty and I rode together for the entire trip. Marty is a retired Superior Court judge. At the time, I was heading up Layne-Christensen’s western US water treatment business sector. Marty told me about the event and I wanted to go. You had to pay for tickets and hope  your name was drawn, and ours were not. I thought that would end it, but nope, Marty told me that happens. You just wait and some of the guys who had been drawn would be selling their tickets, that’s what occurred, and Marty and scooped up a couple.  Then I had to ask my boss at Layne for two weeks off, and I thought that would kill it. But nope, he was a good guy, too, and he told me I should go for it. (A side note: Layne was in the drilling business, too, and when those Chilean miners were trapped underground a couple of years later, this same guy ran the drilling project that reached and retrieved the miners…how’s that for “genuine good guy” credibility?)

So, we were off. But I don’t want to force feed you through a fire hose and try to cram the entire 5,000-mile Three Flags Rally into a single blog.  We’ll present this story in six or seven separate blogs. This is just the first one…the introduction…something to whet your appetite, as they say.

Stay tuned!

A note from Peter…

We had a nice note from our good buddy Peter today, an ardent ADV rider, Norton fan, and fellow Mesa Verde enthusiast…

Joe, I enjoyed your post about Mesa Verde today. A few years ago Sara and I spent the night there and toured the ruins. We agree, photos don’t give the appropriate scale. Our guide made the whole place seem alive! With that said, there are at least two notable things about Dolores. First, they have a pretty decent motel right on the main drag. It’s owned by a Swede (cannot remember his name) and about 4 blocks away they have a good brew pub. Second, just outside of town you’ll find Colorado Norton Works.   Matt Rambo (another Swede) is the owner. He has a very small shop that, as I recall, lacks any kind of sign. Inside you will find a motorcycle shop that closely resembles an operating theater, it’s that spotless. Matt will take your Norton and totally rebuild it from the frame up. The end product is absolutely beautiful and improved in so many ways I cannot remember them all. Matt and John Snead (owns a CNC machine shop in Jacksonville, FL) have also designed an improved electric start system for Nortons. I mention all this because you owe it to yourself to visit the shop, meet Matt, and drool over his rolling jewelry. You’ll love it!

Matt and John are both friends of mine. I have visited Matt’s shop three times and even stayed at his house on one trip.

Peter

Thanks for taking the time to write and convey your thoughts, Peter.  I had heard of Colorado Norton Works from Gerry Edwards, another good friend.  He spoke of them in reverential terms.

For those of you who don’t know, Dolores is a nice little Colorado town just up the road from Mesa Verde.   When my good buddy Marty and I rode the Three Flags Rally in 2005 and visited Mesa Verde (my first time there), we rode along the Dolores River into the town of Dolores.  It was pouring rain that day, but we had decent weather during our earlier stop at Mesa Verde.

Somewhere in New Mexico, with good buddy Marty on the 2005 Three Flags Rally. One of these days I’ll post more photos from that trip here on the ExhaustNotes blog. It was one hell of a ride!

Ride safe, Peter, and again, thanks for your note!