2010 Road Trip To Redmond: Trip to Redmond

I took Friday off from riding and just stayed at the county fairgrounds and walked around and took it all in.

The fairgrounds were huge! A sprawling bunch of large buildings and grassy fields and every place, nook, and cranny filled with motorcycles and tents. At the final awards ceremony they would announce that there were 6,100 motorcycles there.

I walked around and took pictures of the more interesting bikes I saw, and looked at all the vendors and went to a few seminars.

Here are a few of the pics I took.

My camping site - with all my laundry hanging out to dry in the sun

Here is a nice shot of a street looking north with Mt Hood off in the distance (about 60 miles away).

The picture below is a fairly typical BMW GS (dual sport - on road and off road) with large saddlebags and lots of custom stickers all over it.

Here is a BMW LT which is their luxury touring bike, this one complete with a trailer and a cooler!

Below is a good example of the creative and funny stickers people put on their GS bikes.

Now I can't read much German but I think this sticker means we are having a lot of fun.

Nice paint job!

Another nice paint job!

Somebody rode their new S1000RR to the rally. This is a 193 hp, 190 mph screaming machine!

Look at all the stuff on this guy's bike! Two GPSs, a radar detector, CB radio, but I don't know what that box is in the middle.

This is a great example (below) of a fully loaded GS. They are obviously riding two-up but look at the saddlebags, tailbag, additional softbag on top of the saddlebag, a large tank bag, and a couple of tank-mounted saddlebags. I don't think I saw another bike with so much on it! The next couple of pictures are of the same bike from different angles.

Finally, I noticed one of the helmets which must have been hers.

Finally, on Friday night was the awards ceremony for the finishers of the "Redmond 1000" - the 1,000 mile ride into Redmond sponsored by the Iron Butt Association.

Now, if you are not familiar with the Iron Butt Association, it was started over 30 years ago by Mike Kneebone and has evolved into the premier long distance riding organization around the world. A "Saddlesore 1000" is just the entry-level ride to qualify for membership, there are many other long distance challenges available that I won't go into here. But the Olympics of the sport is the Iron Butt Rally held every other year where only 100 riders are selected to compete for points in a ride that goes for 11,000 miles in 11 days!

Anyway, the point of all that was to give some background about who Mike Kneebone is, so you understand the significance of him hosting and speaking at the awards ceremony. The vast majority of people who gain membership into the IBA send their paperwork in and have someone anonymously verify their ride details and then they get their certificate in the mail. So it was pretty special to see The Man Himself at the microphone and hear him speak.