[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ_WG3d3GL8[/youtube]
I don’t quite know how I am going to do this but I am going to try and sum up my unbelievable weekend in San Francisco.
I left San Diego airport early Friday morning heading for a three-day weekend in the city of peace, love and hippiness. After an hour and a bit in the air I landed at SFO and was picked up by my good friends Wade Boyd and his wife, Christine Blunck. The sidecar stars of the last two Island Classics at Phillip Island, Wade and Christine are SF residents and had kindly offered to not only put me up at their house but also to be my tour guides and show me the sights of their lovely city.
And lovely city it is. The streets, the houses, the bay and just about everything about it seems designed to please.
Wade had promised me that I wouldn’t have trouble spotting him in the car park and he was right. “Wee Bub” is a 1939 Pontiac, decorated in the distinctive Subculture Racing style. With an uprated 1954 straight 8 engine and gearbox, it looks like it should be slow, but it sure isn’t.
Back to SCR headquarters, some brunch on the back verandah, then it was off to TCB. Wade had some business to transact so Christine took over tour guide duties. Unfortunately, our choice of vehicle fell to a 1971 Triumph Spitfire that Wade is trying to sell for a friend. It was, without doubt, the most diabolically awful car I have ever endured. Nothing on the car works quite as it should, it was a miracle that we were able to get the job done…I mean, SERIOUSLY???
Returning from a jaunt downtown to do some stuff and buy some spark plugs for the Pontiac and see some sights, we stopped in at the garage to pick up Christine’s van which had been in dock for a starter motor replacement. Since Christine couldn’t drive both cars home at once, I ended up driving her van home. It actually wasn’t that difficult.
Then it was more sightseeing and home to freshen up before we headed out again for a BBQ “just down the road” to which I had been invited last week. All the usual suspects were going to be there to farewell Dave and Lorraine Crussell on their trip to the Isle of Man (they were to leave on Saturday morning). The “just down the road” turned out to be nearly two hours south of the city across the Oakland Bridge! Crazy San Franciscans!
What a great party! Nearly all the guys and gals who I have befriended at successive Island Classic meetings were there but the venue was totally unexpected. I knew that Dave had a nice collection of bikes but I never thought I would get to see it because I had this crazy idea he lived in New Jersey!! He doesn’t so I not only got the chance to meet my old friends but also to see America’s most exclusive collection of Kawasaki two stroke racing bikes from the 70’s. Not just “any” Kawasakis, but factory prototypes, unique bikes of which only one or two examples exist and bikes that had been ridden by the greatest names of the two stroke era, Gary Nixon, Art Baumann, Yvon du Hamel, etx, etc.
Talk about sensory overload. The walls of Dave’s house are lined with posters and mementos. Shelves are crammed with beautifully arranged trophies, engine cases, bits and pieces. Leathers hang from the walls and every corner of the place just reeks of racing history. The garage? Oh, well, there are bikes there too. Several racing bikes, one very special one still under construction and just another Kawasaki. Did I say, “just another”? A current model H2R, the supercharged one!! Late in the night and I mean LATE, Dave started it up, warmed it up then gassed it up. I have NEVER heard a bike that actually HURTS your ears when it is revved hard. My ears are still tingling some days after.
Also invited to the party were my MotoPodcast colleagues, Jim Race and Jules Cisek. A 15 minute impromptu interview between the three of us will be aired in an upcoming edition of MotoPod.
As the evening began to wind down, someone let slip the secret that every person in the house knew except me. The party was NOT a farewell party for Dave and Lorraine but had been arranged solely in MY honour so that all my friends could get together and “thank” me for all that I had done to help them. Seriously, you could have knocked me down with a feather. I am still shaking my head to get it around this all.
We got back to SF VERY late and I hit the sack..sheesh, what a day.
Tomorrow I’ll try and do the rest of the weekend.
dunc says
really think we are only getting tid bits here on this journey so far
but am glad to see that all the years are paying off with meeting all these people over there
a nice collection of bikes to have sitting around in your house
Phil Hall says
Sheesh!! But, yes, you are only getting tid bits!! It is truly amazing.