Love Ride 2006
For the past 23 years during the month of November, Glendale Harley-Davidson has put on what has become the largest, one day bike event in the country. The Love Ride is a charity run that raises money for numerous charities such as the Muscular-Dystrophy Association, The March of Dimes and others.
Over the years, the Love Ride has raised over $20 million dollars in funds and this year's total was over $1.5 million. Not bad for a bunch of "outsiders" huh?
This years run, as usual started at the Glendale (CA) Harley dealer and as he does most years, Jay Leno was the MC of the whole affair. The guy is incredibly funny..even hungover at 7:00 in the morning. While riders arrived as early as 5:00 am, the ride doesn't start until 9:30. What goes on beforehand can only be described as an early morning concert and wake up call.
This year the 7:00 concert at the dealer was by none other than Edgar Winter. Now I don't know about you but I loved this guy in high school and he certainly didn't disappoint the crowd. As my wife said beforehand, "You can never get enough of "Frankenstein" at 7:00 am. Was she being sarcastic? Bike-bitch. (I love ya honey)
It's a great scene at the start of the ride. A lot of folks don't want to start at the dealer but we've found it enjoyable. Sure, we could sleep in and ride directly to the lake but you miss the whole vibe of everyone getting ready for the ride up.
A Few Pics From Glendale
The crowd typically starts to swell between 8 and 9 and riders are still coming in even after the front of the pack has taken off to Castaic Lake. Castaic is a recreational lake and park about 40 miles north of the starting point. The amazing thing about this ride is the sheer number of bikes attending. This year there were over 17,000 bikes slamming up Interstate 5 to the lake. That's not a typo - 17,000. To be fair, many do not start at the Harley dealer but however you look at it, that's a lot of metal and chrome.
We were fortunate this year to have purchased passes that got us the Bob Ueker seats for the start of the ride. We were probably in the front 200 bikes so we got out of there early and safely.
The ride up is always a gas but with that many bikes, even on a Sunday morning, you can imagine how it affects traffic. Things bog down when you get close to the lake.
Regardless, we got there and started to check out the place, grabbed a few beers and since it was a beautiful Southern California November morning with temps in the high 70's, we relaxed, walked the vendor booths, ate, smoked cigars and waited for the main concert to come on later in the day.
The Black Crowes were the headline and they were awesome. I had planned very early on that I wanted to be down by the stage when they came on so we headed down to catch them front and center. Okay, so remember that old saying, "If it's too loud, you're too old"?
I'm too old.
Holy shit, the Crowes come out, start playing and it was a sonic blast. We hung in as long as we could but found that a nice stroll about 50 yards away was great. Despite my subsequent hearing damage, we had fun watching them. Chris Robinson is one kool kat. Any dude that walks around looking like John Lennon circa Abbey Road simply has to be cool. And he didn't even shed a tear over Kate Hudson not being there.
The concert wound down and since we'd been up since 5:30 and were heading to an after-party at a local bike hangout, we decided to make the walk back to Lucille and get out of dodge.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason (too much beer and testosterone maybe), it's always the Indy 500 heading out. We saw two accidents in the PARKING LOT on the way out with 3 people down. Bad scene. Once on the freeway it's balls to the wall and get the hell out of anyone's way. Of course, with all these bikes on a late Sunday afternoon, and folks in cages heading home from a weekend, the potential for nastiness is always lurking.
We play it cool and keep a wide berth of cars. Most of the people in cars look petrified and afraid to move out of their lanes but a few try to skirt between bikes.
All in all, another fun Love Ride and a beautiful day in L.A.!
Ride Safe!
Over the years, the Love Ride has raised over $20 million dollars in funds and this year's total was over $1.5 million. Not bad for a bunch of "outsiders" huh?
This years run, as usual started at the Glendale (CA) Harley dealer and as he does most years, Jay Leno was the MC of the whole affair. The guy is incredibly funny..even hungover at 7:00 in the morning. While riders arrived as early as 5:00 am, the ride doesn't start until 9:30. What goes on beforehand can only be described as an early morning concert and wake up call.
This year the 7:00 concert at the dealer was by none other than Edgar Winter. Now I don't know about you but I loved this guy in high school and he certainly didn't disappoint the crowd. As my wife said beforehand, "You can never get enough of "Frankenstein" at 7:00 am. Was she being sarcastic? Bike-bitch. (I love ya honey)
It's a great scene at the start of the ride. A lot of folks don't want to start at the dealer but we've found it enjoyable. Sure, we could sleep in and ride directly to the lake but you miss the whole vibe of everyone getting ready for the ride up.
The crowd typically starts to swell between 8 and 9 and riders are still coming in even after the front of the pack has taken off to Castaic Lake. Castaic is a recreational lake and park about 40 miles north of the starting point. The amazing thing about this ride is the sheer number of bikes attending. This year there were over 17,000 bikes slamming up Interstate 5 to the lake. That's not a typo - 17,000. To be fair, many do not start at the Harley dealer but however you look at it, that's a lot of metal and chrome.
We were fortunate this year to have purchased passes that got us the Bob Ueker seats for the start of the ride. We were probably in the front 200 bikes so we got out of there early and safely.
The ride up is always a gas but with that many bikes, even on a Sunday morning, you can imagine how it affects traffic. Things bog down when you get close to the lake.
Regardless, we got there and started to check out the place, grabbed a few beers and since it was a beautiful Southern California November morning with temps in the high 70's, we relaxed, walked the vendor booths, ate, smoked cigars and waited for the main concert to come on later in the day.
The Black Crowes were the headline and they were awesome. I had planned very early on that I wanted to be down by the stage when they came on so we headed down to catch them front and center. Okay, so remember that old saying, "If it's too loud, you're too old"?
I'm too old.
Holy shit, the Crowes come out, start playing and it was a sonic blast. We hung in as long as we could but found that a nice stroll about 50 yards away was great. Despite my subsequent hearing damage, we had fun watching them. Chris Robinson is one kool kat. Any dude that walks around looking like John Lennon circa Abbey Road simply has to be cool. And he didn't even shed a tear over Kate Hudson not being there.The concert wound down and since we'd been up since 5:30 and were heading to an after-party at a local bike hangout, we decided to make the walk back to Lucille and get out of dodge.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason (too much beer and testosterone maybe), it's always the Indy 500 heading out. We saw two accidents in the PARKING LOT on the way out with 3 people down. Bad scene. Once on the freeway it's balls to the wall and get the hell out of anyone's way. Of course, with all these bikes on a late Sunday afternoon, and folks in cages heading home from a weekend, the potential for nastiness is always lurking.
We play it cool and keep a wide berth of cars. Most of the people in cars look petrified and afraid to move out of their lanes but a few try to skirt between bikes.
All in all, another fun Love Ride and a beautiful day in L.A.!
Ride Safe!
posted by Mike at 3:47 PM PERMALINK
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