Chili con Moto

Clean Cut, the Captain and I went to the Chili Cook Off / Bike Show in Plymouth today.
We washed away our cares as we hit the freeway in absolutely perfect riding weather. It didn't matter that it was boring ol' 696 b/c it felt good to be alive and cruising on 2 wheels. I would trade away all the seasons just to stick w/ today's temperature. It ruled. Anyway...
The bike show was alright. We had a good time just hanging out together and whatnot, but the show is just... too family friendly! I prefer gatherings that your mother, daughter, sister, cousin, whatever, wouldn't find anything enjoyable about. This had chili, kids, cover bands, bullshit merchandise, "army of the lord" rider tents, old ladies, and happy normal people. Not my vibe. Throw into the mix a ton of Harley dudes and beige trikes, and the Prez gets sour. Having said that, we saw some diamonds in the rough. Norton Alley was there again, as well as a few really nice bobbers and choppers. We definitely saw some people do some cool shit w/ Harleys, too. Clean Cut was drooling over what someone had done to "his" bike in the way of bars and exhaust. Maybe if he ever signs on to the blog he can post some pics. He started chatting up a Rob Halford lookalike and Captain and I turned the other way. That's two nights in a row that Clean Cut has been talking to Halford-esque bikers... I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Anyway, the above bike is another Moto Nisto bike. It looked sharp as hell.

Here are some shitty pics I took real quick on ye olde iPhone. (sidenote: signed up for the iPhone 4S today and can't freakin wait to get it. i will actually spend more time taking decent shots and video from here on out once i have a phone/camera worth its salt. the iPhone 3 is way past its prime at this point...)

 Awesome gas cap. Some crazy nautical compass or somethin...

 Sick custom pipes! This was probably my favorite bike of the day. Just tons of great details. It had marbles all over it, beautiful patina on the seat, spitfire skateboard wheel for a chain tensioner (?)...

This was actually in the vintage category. Don't know how old it is, but they did a great resto' job. The paintwork was a little amateur, but it was still really nice overall.

Sweet lookin old Yamaha. The battery was strapped in place w/ an old belt. Too cool.

In summation, I think the All Clubs Day is far and away the single "do not miss" moto event of the year in Michigan. Battle of the Brits is second. You wouldn't want to miss either, really.
Although I didn't get to attend the Ypsi Ton Up this season since I was out of town, that's probably third. The Plymouth Chili CookOff would be fourth, and HarleyFest would round out the events at number five (we didn't even go this year. too much testosterone and samey-ness. It was cool when it was in Hell, but when it moved it kind of lost its "charm").

I'm listening to Ravi Shankar right now, brothers. I'm outtie...