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Midwest Headcount

3K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  trialsguy 
#1 ·
Hey all,
I'm not sure about a national-level get-together of N1K owners, due to peoples' availability, but I'd really love to meet up with you Midwesterners in the spring. Maybe in WI or Chicago area? Would make a nice short-ish weekend trip. I'm open to as early as the snow thaws, hopefully that's March but it could be in April sometime.

Who all is up for it? Where could we meet? WI? Chicago? I'm open for anything within about 7 hours of Saint Paul. Probably wouldn't want to go much further than that.
 
#2 ·
All I need is for you to set a date more than 30 days out so I can schedule coverage for my absence.
 
#3 ·
You’d be pressing your luck to ride in March. Maybe April. Roads are either still snow covered or full of sand/salt depending on snow for the year.
 
#5 ·
Fine, April. I will be riding as soon as my alley dries.
@tomb393 - That sounds like a fantastic spot. I can follow the river all the way down there from the twin cities, so that'd be a gorgeous route for me. Any other takers for that area? I can lay out some potential dates with a poll on date/location if we can get a few more responses.
 
#6 ·
I'm interested. Through out some dates out there and see if they stick. That would be a great place to ride. If we included May 6th as an option, then we could include the Slimey Crud Run (Pine Bluff to Leland), and see a few thousand bikes while we are there. Hmmm... now that I think of it, May 6th is my wife's birthday... D'oh!!! ;o)
 
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#8 ·
For any one that's interested - If you do come up for this event, I'd be glad to show off my favorite twisty and scenic roads in the North Kettle Moraine hills that surround the Elkhart Lake area.


Elkhart Lake is about a 40 minute ride from where I live.
 
#10 ·
Elkhart Lake is a little far for me, but not something I couldn't be convinced to do... But I'm definitely busy that weekend. My presently open weekends are the first 3 weekends in April, and the weekend of May 12/13, and maybe the 26/27th.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Another possibility would be to combine our Midwest outing with this Rally, that is hosted by this Madison based club, and is based in Soldiers Grove, WI, around mid-May each year. I rode this a couple of years ago, and this BMW group welcomed non-BMW riders. I was riding my Kawasaki Versys 650 at the time. Madison BMW Club : 44th Annual Great River Road Rally (GR3)

Side Note - I attended at this Soldiers Grove Rally two years ago. Shortly after arriving at the Rally on Friday afternoon, I ran into Mike Wolfe of the "American Pickers" TV show on the History Channel. He's from the area (northeastern Iowa). [ AMERICAN PICKERS SHOW ON HISTORY CHANNEL WITH MIKE WOLFE - Two Lanes Blog ] . He was looking at my highly modified 2008 Versys (with all the badging removed). For several minutes, he couldn't figure out what "brand" my bike was. I let him puzzle for a while, and then one of his buddies figured it out. Mike then proceed to point out everything I had on the bike that I added or replaced, likely based on the differences in the "patina" of the accessories and mods from the original bike. He invited me to ride with his group for the weekend and take in some local winery tours. I graciously declined, as I already committed to ride with another group for the weekend.

This Rally is in a great spot, is well organized, low key, and has lots of room to camp. It's a large gathering, but riding is small groups makes things manageable. The roads and the scenery are better, and are on a larger scale, in the Soldiers Grove / Driftless Area than the "Elkhart Lake Road America / Kettle Moraine" area.

-Dave
 
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