Eldo Down: A Brief Ride Report

[Greg Field]

Yesterday was the Washington Guzzi breakfast. My friend Kevin from Michigan was in town, so the plan was to ride to breakfast from my house and continue on to do a lap of Mt. St. Helens, if the snow was off the passes.

 

After having coffee at my place eight Guzzisti on seven bikes left my house, headed toward Enumclaw. The ride was uneventful until we got on Green Valley Road, the fun, twisty part of the route. I asked the fast guys to go to the front and if anyone wanted to lead. No one did, so I took off, and had some fun. About 2/3 of the way along the route, I came around a corner to see a fluffy little dog frolicking in the ditch. "Damn," I thought.  "I hope he stays there."

 

When I got to where we turn onto another road, I pulled over and waited for everyone to catch up. Soon, Ducati Sport Classic-mounted Cool Hand and Cali Aluminium-mounted Steakdaddy showed up. Then, we waited and waited for everyone else. That's when Dave Talley, another Guzzi rider, who was heading to the breakfast on his own, pulled up on his new Norge and informed us the the rest were pulled over on the side of the road. I turned around to go see what was up. I hadn't gone a mile when I saw them whizz past me. I turned around again and caught them up when they pulled over by Cool Hand and Steakdaddy at the turn-off.

 

That's when I found out that my friend Kevin had crashed the Eldo overbraking in a corner when little fluffy the dog ran out in front of him. He said he was OK, and the bike seemed just scraped up, so we continued on to the breakfast.

 

About 20 bikes showed up. Here's a few pictures down the line:

 

 

 

Seemed almost like a mini-sidecar convention, too, as one fifth of the bikes carried chairs. Here's a few.

 

 

 

That's when I got to look over the damage to the Eldo. Mostly, the crashbars did their job, but the fairing and right saddlebag also took a hit. We mostly were able to straighten the crashbars and handlebars by tuggning on them, but they're pretty ground off.

 

 

There's Kevin with the post-crash Eldo. He came out of it not even sore or scraped in any way. Miraculous!

 

Here's the fairing. This will not buff out.

 

 

We had a great breakfast and some good fun catching up. After it was over, it was time to ride. I decided to modify the plan and stay local, just in case Kevin started feeling delayed reactions from the crash or the Eldo started having problems. Cool Hand and Tim Miller decided to go along. Cool Hand led, showing us his excellent new local routes. We spelunked our way north toward Monroe, having a ball, but Kevin seemed to be really having problems keeping up on the Eldo. I decided to trade off with him, figuring he would be more likely to keep up on the Billy Bob. It was a good theory, but Cool Hand and I still were always way out in front. That Eldo really goes. I never felt at any disadvantage against Cool Hand's 2007 Duc.

 

About  3:30, we stopped for lunch in Granite Falls.

 

 

Here's Tim and his green V11 Sport.

 

 

Here's Kevin and the Billy Bob.

 

After that, we rode home through a food coma from too much Mexican food. Despite the crash, a pretty good day . . .

[jrt]

Well, if everyone walks away, then I suppose it's a good ride. Sorry to hear about (your?) Eldo, and I"m not surprised that you can keep up with the Duc. Those old ladies can move if you ask them to.

 

Just curious- does Washington have a helmet law?

[Greg Field]

Yes, my Eldo. We do have a helmet law in Washington.

[jrt]

Well, I hope she's easy to get back to normal. Glad she's not bent up or broke. It's too nice a bike for that.

Is that a later model dual points setup? Is it a drop-in fit?

I like the lowers on it too- they look larger than the metal running boards-under-pegs setup that I've seen. I bet that larger size is convenient in wet weather.

[Greg Field]

Yes, dual points. I put in a B10 cam, which forced me to either change the gear on the distributor to that of the dual-point timer or run the timer. It was 5:00 a.m., and I lacked the patirnce to drill out the pins for the gears, so I installed a timer instead. It works fine, but I have always hated adjusting and timing thos things.

 

The lowers are made from a mold Bob Nolan has. They work great, so great that I remove them for summer.

[Guest JimFitz]

Greg:

Glad to hear your friend is OK and that the Eldo is repairable. Sorry to hear about the mishap.

I'll hope to make a better effort to join you next month.