Along The Road: Muddy Weekend

Mud season usually doesn’t come so early, but an unseasonably warm winter – one in which, so far, it hasn’t been necessary to put bikes into storage – has resulted in many of us riding throughout February. Many motorcyclists were out over the muddy weekend in the Northeast.

RIDE-CT & RIDE-NewEngland took advantage of the relative warmth on Sunday and ran into many hardy souls, including members of the Northeast Dualsport Riders, who took the back roads from New Milford, CT to Falls Village, CT and beyond. They had breakfast at Toymakers Cafe.

The club, which has been covered in a previous article, sent along photos of some the roads they covered and the obstacles in their way.

The club currently has more than 100 members who enjoy getting off the pavement and seeing sights that many other riders miss.

Back at Toymakers, a 1978 BMW R100 with EML sidecar owned by Ray “Chuck” Becker of Monterey, MA was slowly sinking in the muddy parking lot.

Becker has owned the BMW for upwards of a dozen years. It’s a year-round rider that he’s put 100,000 miles on.

Parked near it was a 2002 BMW K 1200 RS owned by Jon Sumner of Wallingford, CT, who rode in with Karen Delossantos of Danbury, CT.

He bought the bike new. When parked at Toymakers Cafe, it had 66,044 miles on the odometer. What made it catch the eye was the vanity license plate that refers to the BMW’s 130 horsepower.

Sumner recalled the ease in which he got the plate. He was out with his then wife and they were talking about plate possibilities. A DMV employee happened to be nearby and overheard their conversation. “She said, ‘Write down what you want.'” He did and got it within two weeks.

– By Bud Wilkinson

Dirt road photos courtesy of NDR