Despite rain clouds rolling in over Illinois Street, bikes of all types rode into Indy for the 5th Annual Rocker’s Reunion. There were Beemers, Brit bikes, Italian motorcycles n’scoots, the Big Four and more. They were stock, chopped, cafe’d, mint, ratted, raked, old and new (see the pics and video below!).
For years, you’ve seen those cool emblems on vintage gas tanks consisting of just two or three consonants. Or maybe you’ve read about brands in recent magazines that look like a funky foreign word-mash.
In the early 1900s, pioneering motorcycle racers must’ve raised their eyebrows with a sly grin when looking upon the smoothly graded horse tracks at the local fairgrounds.
“The crowd expects to see a 300-pound tattooed lady with chains hanging down her back. They don’t expect me.” Debbie Lawler was five feet, two inches tall and just over a hundred pounds astride her 2-stroke Suzuki TM250.
Huh. Illinois, Iowa and New Hampshire have absolutely no helmet laws for motorcyclists. Alaskan passengers must always wear a helmet on a motorcycle, no matter how old they are. We were curious about which States required everyone to helmet-up and which didn’t. We then realized our country is a mixed bag of “you-musts,” “only-ifs” and “don’t-have-to-if-you-don’t-want-tos” when it comes to motorcyclists’ head protection. So, after cross-referencing and fact-checking till it started to become un-fun, we decided to put together this handy li’l infographic to aid in our understanding of who must wear a helmet and who doesn’t hafta.
Ever been to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for a weekend of AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days? If not, man, you should go. If you’ve been, you’re probably hooked. You’ll find extinct, endangered, and classic brands of bikes being sold, ridden, or raced (hard). Various vintage racing is happening all around you while new-model demo rides are available at all hours. Of course, what would VMD be without the massive motorcycle swap meet? It’s breathtaking, in an extremely miscellaneous and random kinda way. We’ll be featuring Mid-O in many articles to come, but for today, we wanna paint a picture of what we feel is the highlight of the event: People watching. So, grab a lemon shake-up, find a shade tree and enjoy watching this sampling of Midwest motorcycle culture pass by. (We took these pics in 2010.)
