The race is off.

We have just completed the third day of the ride. I wish i could find time to do more, but the pace is fast, deadlines extreme. We are struggling  with the hills.  They call the range the Never ending mountings and this is quite realistic.  They just go. The scenery is beautifully, however not when the blizzards and winds blow. We started strong on day 1, however 40 miles we lost our throttle cable. IT was something that we couldnt fix on the side so we were on the pick up. The start was amazing, rode through a cavalcade of people and this has been repeated most starts or finishes. The good news is that we were not last on day 1. Paul on his Vello dropped a valve, and the poor old triumph model p, made 9 miles. There were quite a few who failed to make the start and are still Whit us getting there bikes organised. We overhauled the bike and repaired what we could for the next day. We decided due tot he weather and the hills that we would try this solo, with the chair. The bike was running strong, 40 + miles / hr. The conditions were extreme and at one gas station the bike blew backwards in gear due to the wind. I do believe the right decision was to leave Christina in the support vechile. The clutch gave way at about 40 miles. This was a little problem as it is tuff to ride through and up hills without the clutch. I called for pickup, and decided to find a safe collection location. The result was a total of 7o miles for the day over all the Ski resorts and hills. IT was amazing country if you could see this. The total distance for the day was meant to be 310 Miles, so we were in the sweep and arrived at 9.30 pm. A quick unload, and we rebuilt the clutch, valves, chains, maggy, replaced the lost bolts, and had this back running at 3.00 am. The third day was the most difficult, as we had a boat ride on the ferry and this was 300 miles away. There was no way we could make this at 35 MPH average on time. We headed out, and were collected 1 hr after the leaving. The good news is that this was basically a time pickup rather than a failure. It doesn't matter, we having fun. Our bike is cool and tonight Willie Davidson and his wife Nancy were at the function at the museum. Willie was snapping photos and Nancy loved the sidecar. Especially the leather animals in the tauna cover. Had the Iron Indian Riders from South Carolina up here tonight, Its a small world. They were looking for us, and have some more cards coming so we can hand these out. I think we are about 59th or 60th in the listings , but there were many today who have problems. This just reminds us all of how tuff the men were back in 1920 when they originally rode.