COG NorthEast online

Lynchburg, VA

It may have been past the Vernal equinox and time to change the clocks but Mother Nature was still in charge, and she let us know that. The forecast for heavy rains on Friday and Saturday came true, as did the high winds that followed on Saturday night and Sunday.

Eight hardy souls snubbed the weather gods and rolled into Jim and Margarete Hammond's to enjoy the Hammond's gracious hospitality, fabulous food, and Jim's super garage. Well, three hardy souls arrived on two wheels, the rest in various cages.

Sharry and I stayed dry behind the big F-150 fairing. The rest of the group included Guy Young, Scott "Sick Boy" Ashbaugh, Jimmy Miller, Paul Gould, and Kevin Phillips. Dusty Schilling had to work out of town on Saturday but stopped by on Sunday to say Hi in his Eclipse, top down and the heater roaring.

On Saturday morning I rode with "COG's Oldest Teenager", Jim Hammond, to make the donuts at Walmart. It was raining pretty good and Jim drove his red Eagle Talon. This all wheel drive, turbo two liter breathed on butt-an-inch-from-the-ground car is a real cat with its tail on fire. And it sticks to a rainy road like asphalt. It is also proper that Jim's coffee is no wimpy see through stuff.

After the great java and pastries we headed for the garage. Guy rebuilt his clutch master and slave cylinders, pulled the clutch cover off, and inspected the starter chain and tensioner. Scott installed new front and rear brake lines; he also replaced some 'oxidized' fork brace bolts, ate penicillin, chicken noodle soup, and Fisherman's Friends. Jimmy Miller placed some black Murph screws on his Connie. His ride down to Lynchburg and back home was sort of a rolling tech session and shakedown cruise for his new homemade trailer and hitch. It worked very well, even in the high winds going home. He said it was stable even up to the ton, but I think that seems like a lot of weight to put in that little trailer. :^)

My tech work? Thought I'd get the Kindergarten Wrench award for replacing the headlamps in my F-150. The right one took all of 90 seconds. The left one took 90 minutes, even with Jim helping me. Man, they buried that sucker-----remove the fan guard, coolant reservoir, air box inlet-----a mix of metric and SAE fasteners. Surely not a job for under a rainy overpass. I'll take working on bikes any day, thank you! Paul Gould and Kevin Phillips were there to learn more about the Concours and the Concours Owners Group. I think they had a good time and hope they got some good information and ideas.

Lunchtime and Margarete pulled out a huge pot of wonderful chili with all the trimmings. More java and "Vacation" cookies followed the chili. For supper the Hammonds served up a super barbecue on buns with potato salad, slaw, brownies, soda, etc. After supper Jim had downloaded the new COG screensaver, a 19 meg file of around 150 pix, and we all played with that and enjoyed the nice views of motorcycling roads and Connies.

Gale force winds rolled in about 2 AM Sunday and remained for the day. More great coffee and croissants. If you haven't guessed it already, this tech session was a lot more about food plates than clutch plates. Favorite tools were the knife, fork, and spoon. Non-graduated hand- sized vessels, both metal and glass, were quite handy, too. And a big topic of discussion was the best way to dunk Vacation cookies in coffee. For you folks who couldn't be there, we took over the research for you. Result? There is no best way, just do it and keep enjoying them.

'Twas sad to leave all these great folks and head home. A huge Thank You goes to Jim and Margarete for taking such good care of us all. And thanks to all who came to share and enjoy the weekend. I hope to see you again on a COG ride soon.

Pat Sprague
Mid Atlantic AAD

VA Tech Session Weekend April 1-3, 2005

VA Tech Session Weekend
April 1-3, 2005