Saturday, July 04, 2015

28 years ago today

John Flora with his 1981 R100RS at Grattan Speedway near Grand Rapids, Mich., the weekend of July 4, 1987. Flora made the long weekend ride to the Mackinac Straits bridge and back with Tim and Linda Balough and Doug Poucher.

Fourth of July, 1987 – I was 41 years old and on a three-day ride to Michigan with Tim and Linda Balough and Doug Poucher.

We spent the night of July 4 camped at Grattan Raceway near Grand Rapids where a WERA racing event was going on.

That’s the Frostline Kit tent I made with my wife’s sewing machine during my backpacking period in the 1970s. It rained bottle rockets much of the night, but happily none torched my tent.

The tent continued to serve me until the eve of the July 1990 BMW MOA Rally when a storm swept through the Rapid City, S.D. KOA and severely damaged it.

And that’s my 1981 BMW R100RS. I bought it in the autumn of 1985 and sold it six years later when I stepped up to a new 1991 K100RS. The R100RS was my first serious sport touring motorcycle and took me to California and Colorado as well as various destinations in the Midwest.

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