rustyb's blog

Aug 12th - Hot time at Dolly's!

rustyb — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:07:27 -0500

Yeah, it was hot alright, a perfect day to test my newest silver mesh jacket. Actually, it was pretty comfortable as long as I was rolling down the road.

Only about a dozen of us decided to brave the hot weather. One group from the south side of town started out early with a large group that dwindled down to 3 by the time they made it to Holt for lunch.

We had a good group meet at MotorcycleCloseouts to ride together to Holt via my new "one-light" backroads route. The group include a brand spanking new Triumph 675 out for a break-in ride and a new KLR 650. We kept our speed down on the straight sections to avoid confrontations with law enforcement but sped up for the corners. :)

As usual, we had a pretty diverse group of bikes and riders which just makes it that much more fun. I hope to see you next time. -Rusty

July 8th - Nice Ride!

rustyb — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:20:16 -0500

We had a wide variety of bikes show up at MotorcycleCloseouts.com for our group ride to Holt on July 8th.

Rusty took a slightly different route this time which eliminated all but one stoplight from the entire trip to Holt!

On group rides two of the most important things to remember:
1) NEVER run into the guy in front of you, and
2) NEVER loose the guy behind you. (Wait for them when you turn)

If you keep these two things in mind, everyone can ride at their own pace and enjoy a fun and safe ride.

April 22nd - Storms a brewin'

rustyb — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:41:20 -0500

The weather looked questionable. Only 5 of us showed up at MotorcycleCloseouts for a group ride to Holt. The wind was kicking up and we felt some rain drops, but decided to Head 2 Holt anyway. We kept waiting for the clouds to dump on us, but it didn't happen. We just kept on going, until we stopped in Paradise on the north side of Smithville Lake for gas. There, they told us we were crazy to be out with all the tornado and storm warnings which were headed our way from the southwest. Uh oh, that was the direction we had to go to get back home! Well we chickened out on Holt and headed for home just in case. The funny thing was that the further southwest we went, the nicer the weather was. Our group split up and the three of us on sport bikes picked up the pace for a little fun in the twisties on the way back.

Even though we didn't actually make it to Holt, we did in fact "Head" 2 Holt and had a great time in the process.

April 15th - Day of the Dual Sport

rustyb — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:14:05 -0500

For some reason there was an unusually large number of dual sport bikes on this weekend. So much so, that the sport bikes and cruisers almost looked out of place. Now that's a switch.

Around a dozen riders showed up at Motorcycle Closeouts around 10:30 to ride to Holt as a group. After waiting on a few stragglers we headed for some twisties on the way around Smithville Lake and on to Holt.

As usual quite a few riders just met us in Holt for lunch. Dolly wasn't really expecting us this weekend, but they were still glad to see us and cooked up some great food.

After lunch quite a few of the dual sport riders went on a group gravel road ride led by Dean on his XR650L, which interestingly enough fomerly belonged to my departed friend Randy Staples, who helped me start Motorcycle Closeouts. Following Dean on my friend's old bike brought back lots of great memories. :) -Rusty

March 25th 2007 - WINDY!

rustyb — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 21:47:30 -0500

March 25th was a beautiful day, but very windy.

17 riders met at Motorcycle Closeouts around 10:30 and took the scenic route to Holt together. The ride took us across the dam of Smithville Lake and down some fun country roads on our way to Holt. At Dolly's Diner we met up with about another 15 riders for lunch. Everyone marvelled at the size of the tenderloin sandwiches. Not only are they huge, they are darn good too.

After lunch and hanging out in the parking lot awhile, a group of us went for a ride through Lawson, Excelsior Springs and then O Highway to 210 and back to KC.

July 9th was sunny in Holt.

rustyb — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 17:09:57 -0500

July 9th was sunny in Holt, but there was rain south of the river in the morning. The rain eventually crept north to about 291 Highway, but was light enough that I didn't even close my jacket vents on the way home.

Of course the rain hurt our turn out, but we still had about 40 bikes show up for a great lunch in Holt. As usual there was a wide variety of bikes represented including an Aprilia Falco from Whiteman AFB!

We are looking for suggestions to make Head 2 Holt even more fun. Any ideas? How about slow races, geocache, a dinner destination after, organized ride, breakfast meeting before, other places to go or things to do as a group before or after? Click "Contact Us" above and send me your ideas.

June 25th was a beautiful day for a ride

rustyb — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 00:28:28 -0500

Head 2 Holt had a pretty good turn out this past Sunday. The weather was absolutely perfect temperature wise, but a bit windy. There were a LOT of events going on around town, so we didn't expect a very big turnout. We still had about 40 bikes show up, the furthest being from Topeka.

As usual, we hung out in front of Joe's pizza and talked and gawked. Personally, I ate pizza for breakfast at Little Joe's, then walked down to Dolly's Diner and had a tenderloin for lunch.

Also as usual, people left in small groups to go for a fun ride on their way home. I was no exception. After digesting for a bit, I took the long way home. I tried the best I could to lose the SV650 that was tailing me, but the KTM can only do so much with knobbies on the street.

I sure hope to see you next time!
-Rusty

What you missed on May 21st

rustyb — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 20:59:59 -0500

Head 2 Holt #3 had a great turnout. The weather was beautiful and lots of riders showed up again. People were arriving as early as 10:00 to meet up with other riders to go for a ride before lunch. Others didn't show up until after 2:00 for a slice of pizza at Joe's. This made it hard to count the bikes, but I would guess around 70 showed up. The key is that we all had a good time, no matter what type of bike we rode or when we got there.

After lunch quite a few of us rode over to watch the Holt Hill Climb races. They are basically drag races up a steep dirt hill with a couple of jumps on the way up to make it interesting. The fast riders can do it in under 8 seconds. There we classes for all ages and sizes of bikes. We had a good time watching the races and continuing our conversations with fellow bikers. We'll be doing this again once the races return to Sunday afternoons this fall.

We are starting to see some regular groups show up each week. The group from Saint Joseph has got to be the largest group to have shown up all 3 times. This time they had 11 or 12 in their pack. After lunch they took the LONG way home and got in over 150 miles in search of twisty roads. Word is they found some good ones by heading east from Holt then south. More...

Head 2 Holt #2 and Country Auction on May 7th

rustyb — Mon, 08 May 2006 21:58:48 -0500

If you had a side car you could have purchased a duck or a chicken from the farm auction across the street. The auction provided a lot of local flavor and a few laughs. We also now know how many ducks fit in a truck bed tool box. You just had to be there! :)

The weather looked like it could rain at any time almost all day, but we still had over 50 riders show up on their bikes this time. Our friends from St. Joe brought even more friends and represented the largest group to show up with 9 bikes!

Once again we had a wide range of bikes to oogle over. Jim Koenig from Letko Cycles brought a brand spanking new hot rod Ducati Monster for all to see. Soon it will be available for test rides at Letko!

Mike Jones from Engle Motors was also there on his Triumph Tiger, but he parked it by the ducks and chickens for some reason. Maybe he thought the Tiger would feel at home there?

Jim and Matt Hall from Two Wheel Connection showed up on their GXSR 1000 and CBR 1000RR, which were of course spotless and totally free of chicken strips. More...

The first Head 2 Holt lunch run on April 23rd was a great success!

rustyb — Thu, 04 May 2006 00:24:12 -0500

On April 23rd over 60 riders showed up on their bikes for our first Head 2 Holt event. Riders came from as far as Emporia, Lone Jack and Saint Joseph. Most of the bikes were sportbikes, and we had some nice ones: Aprilia Factory, Repsol Honda, lots of Ducati's, 3 Buell's, an old Laverda, and the more typical sportbikes too. We also had about 10 dual sport bikes, some touring bikes and some nice cruisers joined in the fun.

Lunch was great at both Little Joe's Pizza and Dolly's Diner. Joe's BBQ sandwiches and pizza by the slice were a big hit. Those that tried a tenderloin at Dolly's were not disappointed. Word is her home-made pies are good too.

Some people met up early and rode to Holt as a group from various locations. Others left Holt for a brief ride and returned to hang out. After lunch people got together and headed out on several group rides. There are some good twisty roads, scenic rides around Smithville Lake and good gravel for the dual sport guys. More...

Everyone commented that the food was good and liked meeting up in Holt with other riders. So, we decided to try doing the ride twice each month. Starting in June, it will be the 2nd and 4th Sunday.