Huge thanks to Paul Dutra of Back Alley Moto / Dutra Customs for doing all the hauling / trailering / crashing Thursday night and Sunday evening to get the bikes to and from the show. Vinnie, his partner at BAM was there the entire time loading/unloading and answering the endless questions about the bikes.
Vin's stellar Tangello Orange (all 8 coats of it) CB350F was truly the star of our display, drawing in the crowds with it's mesmerizing color and jewel of an engine. One CB750 owner swore up and down to me it was in fact a 750cc engine (truly) and someone else tried to convince me surely it was 350ci, not cc....
Paul and Vin rolled in with 7 minutes to spare Thursday night, at 10:53PM. The doors closed at 11PM, and we were booted out at Midnight. 8 hours later we rolled in with the last 2 bikes on Friday morning.
Thursday night was a snowy chilly mess, with highways closed due to accidents, idiots in pickup trucks changing lanes into the (empty) trailer etc. Sunday we were trailer-less due to Thursday night's highway bumper cars, so Paul and Vin made 4 trips in the van to move the 8 bikes.
Was a lot of fun - tiring at times, but fun nonetheless. Most of the bikes were entered into a judged competition for prize-money, the classes being determined by the show team based on what bikes were brought to display. We never really found out what classes our bikes were in, but I have a feeling they lumped them all into a single Vintage Cafe class, rather inappropriately. Paul and Vin's bikes are much more 'hot rod' or 'bobber' in nature.
So my XS650 ended up taking 1st place in the category, and Vin's beauty CB350 Four took 3rd place. While it has a solo seat, the upright bars and lack of rear-sets really don't suit the Cafe Racer category. It would easily have taken the win in a more suitable category, as would many of Paul's creations had they been properly categorized for competition.
Hope others have more pics to post!
