Still Keeping track

[Hank]

Just received my copy today! Thanks Al and all contributors.

[paul arthur busick]

As always, your hard work and talent have given us another out standing Still Keeping On Track. We the membership have been blessed with your ability to produce such a fine publication. Thank you Al.

[Mike OReilly]

In regard to Issue 101 and the article by Clint Hawk about the 50th anniversary Ride: I have to say that his writing totally captures the spirit of the weekend.

I rode in '03 at Jim Hoellerich's and this year's event was very different. Not better, and certainly not worse - more relaxed laid back and less formal - more in keeping with all of our advancing years. I was concerned about running out of gas all weekend - and I don't mean in the gas tank. My training consisted of a 1 hour prep ride the Wednesday before. Never even took the bike off the truck before I left for Vermont! It was an incredible relaxed (mostly) tour of a beautiful area of southern Vermont.

In fact reflecting on the event later in the week I came to the conclusion that it was basically a fantastic banquet, with some really good riding thrown in. Hard to argue with that formula.

I really wondered how the scorers were going to decipher the writing on my score card 'cause I sure couldn't. As it turned out, on Sunday, Gary Richards said to me "I think the scorers went home and had a beer - or two".
So...we were left with according to Joe: "did you have fun" - yes; "did you finish" - yes; "did you ride well" - yes; OK you're on gold!

My only issue with Clint's article is I hope we don't have to wait for the 60th anniversary to do this again. None of us are getting any younger, maybe we can do it again for the 55th?

BTW. the only major brand not represented this year was Bultaco. I have a basket case Alpina and this prompted me to get busy re-assembling it to ride next year, and possibly Vermont in 2028? Mike

[ALB]

I am happy that you all are pleased with the latest newsletter number 101. It was not as dynamic as the previous 3 newsletters as the 50th anniversary of the 1973 ISDT celebration is winding down.

I wish to thank Clint Hawk for his wonderful article on the Reunion ride. He did a good job on describing all the different aspects of that event. Plus it saved me from having to write about it.

Mike Whitney was the member profile and at first he was apprehensive about doing it because he was not a big named famous rider. I get this kind of response from a lot of our members when I approach them to tell their stories. Mike did a good job of telling his story and sharing it with our members. As far as I am concerned, all of our members have a story to tell. If you are will to share it, I am willing to help you write it.

I would like to thank Kevin Donovan for sharing his story about the center fold Carl Cranke ISDT replica bike that he built. His story was published in Trail Rider magazine and I asked him to pare it down to just 2 pages, which he did. Fortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, in assembling all the articles, I wound up with extra pages that needed to be filled, so I let him know that his original 3 page article would be published.

When I get all the articles to these newsletters together, I sometimes run into a problem with have a blank page, so I fill them in with a page from an old Penton catalog. With this latest newsletter I came up with 2 blank pages and I lined up to print 2 pages from a Penton catalog.  I contacted Ted Guthrie, who has been doing a series of articles on motorcycle restoration and  asked him if he was going to write any other articles for his series. He let me know that he is extremely busy and writes the articles when he is doing road trips. He surprised me when he sent me his follow up part 5 article. Timing was such that even though it was submitted past my deadline and the newsletter was at the printer, I was able to slip it in and replace one of the Penton catalog pages.

And not to be forgotten is Dana Delp who shared his story about being a spectator at the 1973 ISDT event. Thank you Dana.

If any of you POG members would like to share your Penton stories in a member profile article, give me a call and start writing. And while you are at it, start digging through those old photographs so you can share them with your stories and also help you to refresh your memory banks about all the good times that you had.

The next newsletter, number 102 is in the works. An interesting center fold photo has been chosen. The other articles need to be written, so the opportunity to share is available.