Orange County DGR

[Gone in 60]

Well, just as they have for all of my previous attempts, the Motorcycle Gods conspired to keep me from participating in the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride. In 2015, I threw out my back days before the ride, and waved the riders off at the start of the ride while holding a cane with the other hand. Other years, family emergencies, work trips, etc.

I had my CB1100 ready to go, had my most dapper outfit chosen (I don't dress up these days, that was a feat in itself, and required a vest acquired from a local Salvation Army store). Then, two days before, I caught a bug... a home test confirmed I didn't snag a second round of Covid, but a bad cold at the least. Got a day's rest in bed, pumped myself with sinus and flu pills, and we were off to the races.

Mrs. Gone came to see me off. A week of gloomy days cleared for Sunday's ride, and it couldn't be better riding weather. Out of the 200+ bikes that came to participate, the oldest was a '51 BMW. The "You gotta see this" bike was a custom BMW built on NDT Jeep tires. But, even the CB1100 got some attention. There were no others on the ride, which sort of surprised me, but at the same time, didn't. I got a few comments, like "Huh, I've never seen one of these", "Are these getting valuable yet?" and "Is this one of the modern ones?"

During the kickoff speeches, it was announced that the Orange County riders group had raised almost $70k for mens health causes, the 14th highest worldwide. When the ride kicked off, everything went smoothly enough, but, with over 200 bikes riding up a popular beach road on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the ride became a bunch of small groups, and although I had a great time, I was reminded why this is my one and only attempt at a large group ride each year.

I ran into a few friends I had made at the kick-offs for the previous rides, and made a few new ones. All in all, a good day for a good cause.