Sign of the Week

The Sign of the Week comes to us from Waynesboro, home of Mike's Cycle . Mike's shop is part Ural dealership, part museum, part eccentric hang-out. The motorbike suspended from the sign is a Honda Dream, as far as Sam and I can make out.....

Sam and I had the pleasure of a major south-west 225 mile motorbike fang that tied the killer twisty highways of Tn 48, 99, 228, and 128 together. I had the head-ache from constant grinning. Too good.

We checked in at Clifton to discover and mourn the passing of the ferry that used to cross the Tennessee River there. The last time we were there in early 1998 we were able to cross. This was the ferry crossing used twice by Nathan Bedford Forrest to seuge into west Tennessee during the Civil War.

Breathing

According to Stone Temple Pilots, Breathing is the hardest thing to do.

Doesn't look to be too much of a problem for a 500 plus cubic-inch Oldsmobile mountain motor in a Can-Am sled. Can you say yow?

This is the Can-Am car campaigned and financed by Sam Posey, and designed by Ray Caldwell, the Caldwell D-7 . It had many forward thinking ideas for the time, but was never really competitive.

It's on display at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville. Last year they pulled this baby out into the parking area on Murfreesboro Road and fired this mother up. Lordie that must have been a glorious sound, I'm sorry I missed it!

If you'll look closely in the background there you can see Sam about to scurry up under the back of the Formula Vee car to the right. Sheesh.......

Tool Time

At the Threshing a month or so ago there was a fellow who had a great collection of old hand tools. This is but a small sampling of them.......very interesting.

Trials by Murray.....

Murray the Grey and I rode an hour, maybe an hour and a half the other day, while the guru prepped his cheater TY250 for the AHRMA 2-day National Trials in Minnesota on 8/19 and 8/20 .

Then we went back to cool off, get more liquids, and to help the guru button his ride up so we could all go play for a little while. We rode another hour and a half, with the guru making some ugly mind-boggling turns (turns I'm sure are gonna' show up on the 1 line in October).

I hit the ground once pretty good. High-siding blind and backwards about 8 feet is no fun, kind of like a good pool crash, except that a Suzuki RL250 follows you in, instead of just a skateboard......and the pool floor is not littered with cantalope sized rocks. I love stone bruises.....

I think we may have worn out Murray, but he also was making turns that he couldn't make before by the end of the afternoon. Good ride down by the creek too!

L8R
PWA

The Captain's Clown Car

Check it out.......The Captain, king of all things Kawasaki Green has a new clown car!

Huh!

Gangster

This is some kind of big honking gorgeous gangster type of car made in some third world country. The stuff at the Lane Motor Museum is so convoluted that it's all a little more than a bit confusing. I mean, I wandered around there and shot pictures, took no notes, all the time telling myself that these are so unusual that I'd be easily able to remember the particulars about each vehicle......

Not.

Anyways, here's the car and the beautiful dash......

P.S. I mentioned the other day that the time went by quickly for us at the museum.....well you might notice a theme, Sam has to read EVERYTHING, and he also has to climb under, into, and all over most stuff!

Beavis and Bushhead

I lifted THIS from the widely acclaimed Nashville Knucklehead .

It made me laugh out loud....

More IRL from LMM

You may notice, there is no Big Gulp cup holder here.....Nor a horn.

There is however, a loud pedal.

Indy Car

This is an IRL (Indy Racing League) car that is on display at the Lane Motor Museum.

Unless you've stood next to one, you can't fathom how low and primal this type of car is.....When you were a kid this is the go-kart kind of thing that you dreamed of/obsessed about.

Lane Motor Museum

The Captain was right in his comments on Saturday about the Teaser blog......

A couple of weeks ago Sam and I were able to sneak a motorbike ride to the Murfreesboro Road area to the old Sunbeam Bread Bakery to tour the Lane Motor Museum that currently resides there, in some excellent digs.

We rode our DRZ Suzuki's in the surburban/inner-city attack mode that they are ideally suited for. Downtown Nashville alleys and rail-road track crossings were made for the DRZ! Sidewalks too......

We arrived at the Museum shortly after the opening of the doors, and then all too soon were were asked to leave, as it was closing time. It went by pretty quickly because most of the vehicles on display demand your attention, kind of like listening to Thelonius Monk , you don't listen to Monk to pass the time, and you don't tour the Lane Motor Museum to see anything main-stream.

The LMM is the works of Jeff and Susan Lane, and he says he only collects vehicles that make people smile. I concur, he made us smile many times that day.

Much more to come, oh yes, you're probably gonna' get sick of this.....

P.S. More Jim Pomeroy info is HERE .

Rokon Test Ride....

Skatetruck got a chance to ride a Rokon Trailbreaker on Saturday at Mid-Ohio. I'm not sure what scared the crap out of me more, the two-wheel drive Rokon or a 1300cc Suzuki Hayabusa. It's a toss-up......

On a way uglier note......One of the all time motocross greats and just a damned good guy, Jim Pomeroy was killed in an automobile accident on Sunday morning. HERE is a story from Cycle News, and ANOTHER from his hometown newspaper in Washington state.

I've only had the privilege of meeting or hanging out with him a few times over the past three years. He always had a smile on his face and a funny story to tell. He was a true character. He will be sadly missed by the vintage off-road motorcycling community.

Godspeed Jim Pomeroy.

Teaser.....

Miracle Revival Crusade....

More Motor Coach

Jesus Loves Me

Evidently Rev. Leggette was a bit of a deep thinker. The rear of his motor coach sported a back porch with wrought iron style railings and a musical note motif that wrapped from one side to the other. The music is "Jesus Loves Me".