Two-Bits Rally '05 - by Phil Tarman

Here in Colorado, Randy Bishop, who has ridden the Utah 1088 (and has a good report on their website), has organized what he called "Two-Bit Rallies" for the Concours Owners Group. (Two-Bits because they're 1/4 of a 24-hour rally.) I've only been able to ride in one of them due to the fact that I'm a minister and when people from my congregation want weddings, I'm a tad leery of begging off to go ride in a motorcycle rally.

The one I rode in started at Grand Prix Motorsports in the SW Denver area. They generously supplied donuts and coffee and a room for the Rally Master to give us our instructions. The base route was about 250-275 miles and there were bonii along the way that stretched that out a bit further. There was a brief check-in and simplified tech inspection and then we got the rally packet 1/2 hour before the start time.

The basic route was west of Denver through Idaho Springs, where one bonuses was finding out who put up the statue of Steve Canyon (ed. - a bonus on the 2007 IBR), the comic strip Air Force pilot and adventurer from the late 40s and 50s. West of there, most riders stayed on I-70, picking up bonuses such as the one in Silver Plume (it was something about the firing order of an *old* abandoned Jeep in a vacant lot in "downtown" Silver Plume), getting the wording of a warning sign on top of Loveland Pass, copying the message that the Rally Masters had written on the back of the sign at Ute Pass, a phone number from the Green Mountain Inn in Heeney, facts about the Bell Huey Cobra on the pylon in Kremmling, the zip code at the post office in Parshall, the altitude at Willow Creek Pass north of Granby, the date of the founding of a general store in Frasier, and so on.

I ingeniously decided that I could get some big-point bonii by riding the route counter-clockwise, so I didn't see another rider until I got to Parshall and met the first person going the other way.

If I had realized that the warning signs on Loveland Pass weren't just at the top of the pass, I would have had ridden a mile or two south of I-70, gotten those points and won the rookie class and been 4th overall. As it was I came in 3rd in the rookie class, and got back about two minutes before the 6-hour window closed at 2PM. It was a good experience and one of these days, I'll manage to make one of the bigger rallies. If there were a 12-hour rally nearby, I could probably fit that into my schedule. I just can't understand why all the recreational things I like to do seem to happen on weekends. If only I could manage to get my 4-5 hours/week of work all done on Tuesday, my life would be much simpler.

For some of us, at least, the short rallies are great!

Phil Tarman
Ft. Morgan, CO