Another Moto Hang
For those who don’t know, the Moto Hang is a gathering of riders of all sorts of two and three-wheeled vehicles. It occurs on the first and third Wednesday’s of the month in warm weather and moves to a different location each time.
I’ve been lax in my posting of things related to the Moto Hang events this year. As it transitioned away from the Boalsburg Moto Hang to one hosted at a continuing array of locations the charm of the old barn where it used to happen — in my head at least. Or that’s my excuse. So I’ll try and catch up now.
It continues to be a gathering of riders. Like-minded men and women with an ongoing fascination for motorcycles, scooters and riding.
This past week I rode the next of the last regular Moto Hang gathering on my Vespa scooter. My friend Paul borrowed the K75. Just a short, eight mile ride to the home of Jason and Lori Lettiere — hosts for this occurence of the Moto Hang.
Flys to Honey
There’s always some new machine that attracts attention. This time it was John’s new KTM 1250 Adventure. Talking to him about it he said it was, “insanely fast.” At 500 pounds wet and over 160 horsepower it makes both my K75 and Vespa seem anemic.
White Hair Not Required
It doesn’t take long to realize there are no teenagers around. Or people in their 20s or probably 30s. There may be a few in their 40s but I bet they’re pushing the envelop. A lot of old guys and just a few women. Sort of matches the motorcycling demographic I read about — the aging out of riders.
It’s no wonder considering the costs. A kid working for minimum wage all summer for 40 hours a week may earn $4800. Take out taxes and some money for fun and it doesn’t leave much for the purchase of a motorcycle, gas, insurance, gear and other expenses. Besides, why even think of a motorcycle when you can play Unreal Tournament or some other video game.
When autonomous vehicles become pervasive (which they will) and motorcycles and scooters present issues for them (which they may), it’s not hard to imagine the government saying, “Hey old white-haired guys, we’re not going to let you ride on the road anymore.”
Maybe just a dark fear on my part but the world does seem a little crazy at the moment.
Food
I won’t say the food is the main attraction of the Moto Hang. But watching people chow down I will say they don’t mind. And I venture they’ll vote for food before beer. The salad and spagehtti that Jason and Lori provided was outstanding. All I heard from my vantage point was chewing and slurping of noodles.
The End of the Year Moto Hang Party
Angela Taylor provided details of the end of the year Moto Hang party coming up soon at the Rusty Rail Brewing Company in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania. A nice ride through a pretty part of the state.
Hey! That’s My BMW K75
The reason Paul was riding my K75 was because all he had at home was his ’64 Vespa and he has been having some trouble with it starting. He didn’t want to get stuck at the Moto Hang. That was his story. He brought the motorcycle back the next day. Only had an additional 285 miles on the clock. I never asked what town he was going to.
Catching Up on the Moto Hangs
Not sure what the Taylor’s neighbors thought of all the motorcycles suddenly congregating in their quiet neighborhood. We’re a relatively quiet, sedate, well-behaved group so it wouldn’t be like the Hell’s Angels rolled up the street. Still, a lot of motorcycles anywhere does give one pause.
I’ve not been to all the Moto Hangs this year and I’ve been a lax photographer at those I did attend. But I’ll share a few images from the season now.
Robert is a serious rider on and off the pavement. He’s done an around the world trip that you can read about on Adventure Rider. Unfortunately all the photos are gone. That was the best part. Fix that Robert!
Don’t miss the last regular Moto Hang of 2019 at the original Moto Shack in Boalsburg. This one will take place next week. Here’s the information:
When: Wednesday, September 18th, 5:30 – 7:30
Where: Moto Shack, 101 N Academy Streeet, Boalsburg, PA
Food: Claire will be making some food and Ken will provide beer
Hope to see you there!
Ha ha! Nice picture, Ken Hull.
Ken is just one of those photogenic subjects!
“When autonomous vehicles become pervasive (which they will) and motorcycles and scooters present issues for them (which they may), it’s not hard to imagine the government saying, “Hey old white-haired guys, we’re not going to let you ride on the road anymore.”’
Absolutely! And it will also apply to all the “Ricky Racers” who love to run their bikes at 2-3X the speed limits (sometimes with sandals and tank tops). Probably first apply to all federally-funded roads, then all state roads. May even happen sooner if bike technology doesn’t keep up with 4-wheel tech (prior to autonomous). The future of 2-wheel travel looks like it will go the way of horses – private roads/spaces only (unless you’re Amish).
I’ll have to look into the process of registering a motorcycle as an Amish vehicle. Something tells me I would have to talk to the bishop first. Perhaps the black bumper Amish outside Lancaster would be a good place to start…. *grin*
Oh, this looks so good. Too bad I can’t make next week’s season finale (scheduling. distance, Et Cetera). Might still try to make it to your neck o’ the woods while the sun shines relatively warm.
The fact that you had not one, but two bikes there reminds me of when I lent a bicycle to the kid of a friend for that year’s Five Boro Bike Tour in NYC…which I was riding on my other bike. I have a picture I took of him riding alongside me while on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (which was closed to motor traffic for the event), which was both beautiful and surreal. Seeing that pic you snapped of your K75 speeding away made me grin…you only trust certain people with your ride. 😉
The strange thing about other people riding your motorcycle or scooter — usually no one asks. And those who feel they can ask always seem to be people who I trust. Thinking back I can only think of three people who have ridden my scooter. And Paul is the only one who has ridden the K75. My buddy Dan is waiting for a ride but we haven’t crossed paths yet.
On my last trip to Denver I got a call from someone who had been following the blog. We never met but arranged to have dinner with his wife at his house. He had some work related things to do when I got there so he tossed me the keys to his motorcycle and said to get lost for a couple hours. I guess he trusted me from the things I had shared on the blog!
There have been riders who have visited that I would not hesitate to toss them the keys to my scooter or motorcycle.
P.S. I think the whole “autonomous” thing might be a bit farther down the road–ahem–then people think, for a host of reasons (technical/logistical/political), to the point that I don’t think we need to be overly concerned with being forced off the road…I think there’ll be otherproblems to deal with in that stretch of time, but that’s not one.
Yeah. In my case, I’ll probably run out of health before the government forces me off the road.
There some good pictures in there. That’s quite a collection of Motohangs this year. Durty Dabbers Robert was at every meet I think. That blurry one of me driving away reminds me of the Danny Lyon
shot. – Paul
I thought the same thing about the Danny Lyon pictures. We need to shoot more riding action than we do. How many Moto still lives can I shoot?
That’s a good idea. Let me think about the technical. Drone. Scooter mount. Tripod and remote trigger etc. Or full Hollywood: Pick up truck with camera on pole out of bed close to the ground.
Perhaps to start we just photograph our respective bikes as we ride. No trickery needed in terms of weird mounts and stuff.
May I least pan and shoot at 1/25th so the background is blurry?
I wish we had these type of gatherings in my area.
We never had them here until Ken Hull decided to invite some riding friends to a little gathering he call “the Hang.” It started with just a few riders but took off after awhile.
Maybe you can start your own Moto Hang!
Very cool gatherings!
It’s fun. And now it’s over until May…