FTW100: Laconia Bike Week 2011 Bike Build Off

Masshole Moto goes to the
88th annual Laconia Bike Weak 2011
And does the the Lobster Pound-Bike Build Off...

-What can I say, that was on HELL of a week! Rain every day,heat,cold,the Weirs traffic,cops,mosquitoes,Drunks,skunks,and more BS than a farmer can sling,or so you think.
Day one started out with a bang,well not really more like a slow,half a sleep crawl.See I was supposed to leave Thursday afternoon about 4 so I could get there in time to set up camp before dark,

Brother Gike helpin out with the packing when the storm rolled in.

Well that didn't happen.Long story short I got stuck loading another truck till about 9:30 that night,no big deal considering a near hurricane of a storm rolled in that lasted till 11pm here and in N.H..So anyway I was on the road at 3:30 am Friday morning because I was told we needed to be there early that morning.After a little over 2 hours I got to the campground,Rocky Road Campground.By about 6:30am I was set up and sitting in a lawn chair waiting for Rocky to wake up so I could go check in.Thing is Rocko don't get up before 10,so I headed down to the Weirs to unload the tools at the Pound and get it over with.

I was waiting on Paul to bring the second load of tools so I went to the L.B. restaurant to get some grub.He got there about 5pm and after I ate we got it in fairly quickly.Headed back to camp and got prepared for the week,or so I thought...

On Saturday we headed down to the tent for the first day of actual building.The rain started about noonish but we were building in a tent so it wasn't a big deal.The set up sucked balls since we only got 110v for juice to run a hole shop of tools.If you tried to grind when someone else was welding pop went the breaker.Then there was the wind,even with the screens closed the welding was a bit iffy with the storm gusts.As the week went on it was up and down,good day,bad day.Got some thing done then made no progress...

Paul had to split back to MA. on Sunday night so after he left I headed back to camp alone,strapped an 18 rack on the back of the bike and headed back to camp to huddled up under my canopy in the dark to stay dry.

On Monday Goma showed up but it was later on and I wanted to get to the build tent to make friends with the crowd,and work some votes.He showed up around 3:30 and we got ready for our 4 pm shift by havin a few beers.

This is how the week went on one guy show up another then leave by Wednesday more and more got there and camp was filling up.By Friday we had 12 or more at camp with 2 camper trailers and a shit load of tents...Paul,John,Matt,Goma,Jenn,Josh,Crystal,Dirty,Barry,Cuz Weed,Brother Gike and me.Sorry,no group shots.

So I'll get skip ahead to the good stuff,the end.With 5 on deck on Saturday we cranked out the last little bits of the bike,with me on the bullhorn mostly working the crowd...Plus,I'm not one to fight over tools or a place to use them.With 15 min to spare the bike was checked for spark and everything looked good,.Shit,John had to build his own Rectifier from radio shack parts last minute.We got some gas and one by one the builders started them up.20 kicks in she wouldn't pop to life.There was worry on all faces but I kicked her like a mule.About the 40th kick we realized that when the tank was leak checked water was used and the petcock had been opened letting it run into the carbs...UhOh!!
I kept kicking untill I was just about to drop and then,bbbrr.I kicked again ,bbbrrrrrrr.

Then one more kick and she popped.The crowd in front of us went nuts!!!!I revved that thing till nearly blowin the motor,till we couldn't here the screaming.

So she ran,that was step one.Step two was to get here down the dirt hill to the main tent and through the crowd with only a jockey rear brake.We rolled here out and a small crowd followed.

And this is my petcock...

So we rolled into the big tent,the place goes nuts.All the bikes line up in front and we all get up on stage.It's so load I can barley hear the guy announcing. They call us out one by one,say a little something about us and start the judgeing.Well,we didn't get last place but we didn't come in first.4 out of 5 ain't bad for a bunch of knuckleheads with a zero budget and 2 month notice!
-Congrats to Deadwood choppers for there win.

Here are some pics and vids from Sat.More pics to come day to day...