Blue Knights ride

On Sunday I left my house and traveled about 35 miles to the Woodrow Wilson Service Area on the  NJ Turnpike to meet up with the Knights of Lusitania RC.  I get there after a quick stop at a Wawa for fuel and a cup of coffee and then waited about 30 minutes for the group to arrive.  Once the group arrives, we quickly leave and head north on the Turnpike towards Newark, about 60 miles.  We were a group of about 20 riders and when we arrive at the meetup there were quite a few other bikes already there. 

My Yamaha Super Tenere

Two of the guys in my group have two motorcycles I have always salivated over.  The Yamaha VMAX and the Honda RVT RC51

A few of the other interesting motorcycles already there

A Honda Valkyrie RUNE

A beautiful matte black Indian

A little later the ride starts, there were easily over 200 motorcycles on the ride.  I didn't take any photos during the ride since I forgot my small camera and only had my SLR with me.  The ride was pretty long, up the Turnpike to Fort Lee, down under the George Washington Bridge and then along the Palisades Parkway and  eventually making our way back mainly through back roads.  Being the Blue Knights ride, all the police departments along the way basically blocked all roads for us to pass unimpeded.  I'm sure some people were stopped at intersections for more than 15 minutes which I think it's kind of unfair.  The Newark police were very professional and the ride went without incidents.  Here's a few photos of the Newark motorcycles.

I had never seen so many police motorcycles in one place.  The yellow are from the Newark police department and the few white are from the Linden police. 

After the ride it was time for lunch.  By the time I got inside the food line was already pretty long but there was plenty food for everyone and since most of the groups are Portuguese the food was catered from a Portuguese restaurant.

  

 

 

While some of the people were having fun inside with the band playing some good songs, others were outside watching the bike washing girls.

There were lots of dollar bills flying around, I think the girls did well.

As the afternoon wound down it was time for the Knights of Lusitania to leave, they had about a 90 mile ride to Philadelphia.  I decided to stay a little longer and watched them leave.

Outside I saw this Suzuki wrapped in red vinyl, it was pretty well done.

The group assembling and getting ready to leave

The event had a burlesque dancer and not only was she beautiful but danced well too.  She did two routines and everyone was entertained for sure.  I will show more photos in another post, I will end this post with two teaser photos.

More to come....

Dakar Rally

The Yamaha Super Ténéré won the grueling Dakar Rally from 1991 through 1993 and then 1995 through 1998, a total of seven victories. Six victories at the hands of Stéphane Peterhansel and once with Edi Orioli.  The Yamaha Super Ténéré YZE750 won the Dakar rally once and then six more times as an 850.

The motorcycle is named after the notorious Ténéré desert stage of the former Paris-Dakar Rally in northeastern Niger.

This video is put together by Nicolas and his Youtube channel has lots of videos of Ténéré concepts.  The video shows one of his concepts for the new Ténéré but it's so well put together and the music is so beautiful that it has become one of my favorites Ténéré videos.
As Nicolas puts it:
Yamaha Super Ténéré, a motorcycle, a legend. The spirit of adventure, travel and freedom.
Music by Hans Zimmer: "Injection".