Bunn Twin Shock Event!!!!

Well, after loads of work by many people the day of the event finally came. We had 25 riders, 4 of them including my friend Sam and his son Ben were first timers. In my group we had me, Jim Ellis, Jerry Young, Mike Young, Mark Barnette and John French on his pristine Matchless. Jerry does things on a twin shock bikes most guys never accomplish on their modern bikes. He does floater turns like a squirrel jumping from branch to branch.

Jim dedicated the event to the Pass Masters Trials and Bill Grapevine. The Pass Masters is an event that was held years ago that Jim used to attend that required riders to complete 2 loops of 50 sections on day one and 1 loop of the same 50 section ridden backwards the next day. This event became so popular it even attracted Mick Andrews who flew over from the UK in his prime. Pretty impressive if you ask me!!! Jim had lots of memorabilia posted on a board about the Pass Masters event as well as a flyer from the first Bunn event held in 1991. It was very interesting to say the least.

Not only did the length of the event take a toll on me but so did riding a line that required more physical exertion than what I was used to. About 3/4 the way through the first loop my carb started acting up and I had to head to the pits for some help from Jim McKenzie to get going again. In the process, I missed about 4 sections and had to double up on a few and ride a few after everyone else was finished. I was so tired after the first 2 loops of 15 sections that I almost took 5s on the last 3 or 4 sections just to get it over with. I went ahead and rode the final sections and carded a few 3s where I would have had 5s had I given up.

It was a tough day for me mechanically, physically and skill wise, it just wasn't there today. Having said all of that, I had a great time and can't wait until the next one!!!! Hopefully we will be able to convince Jim to make this an annual event.

Let's try a KT

After trying to get the TL to ride well and figure out why it didn't have any power I came to the painful conclusion that the TL in stock form wasn't going to haul my big but up hills of any size or logs bigger than 3" in diameter!!!

After setting up sections with Murray and Joe and trying a few out on the TL, Murray Man let me ride his custom TMI framed TL-250. It handled great and had plenty of power. TL-250s have a reputation for being pigs but this one rode great????

When Murray pulled up on my TL-125 the first words out of his mouth were "How in the HELL do you ride that thing"!!!! I took another spin on the 125 and knew without megabucks pumped into the engine this just wasn't going to be the right bike for me even though I have always lusted for a TL-125.....

Anyway, Cowboy Joe, who has an insane surplus of vintage rigs offered to take my TL on trade towards a KT-250 that he had. After several kicks I turned the key to the on position and she fired up, first kick!!!!

Though this was a step up it still had it's expected vintage quirks and problems. Amazingly the bike was completely stock other than the handle bars, a missing tail light and the left hand grip. It even had a title to it!!!!

Anyway, the first thing I realized when I tried to ride my first event on it was that it had fork springs for someone about 70 lbs, rear shocks that might as well have been a hard tail and a frayed throttle cable that almost turned me totally away from vintage bikes all together!!!

After a little encouragement from a few valued riding buddies, I decided to put a few bucks into it and see if it made a noticeable difference.

I never got any "before" picture so here it is with updated bars, the lights stripped off, a number plate added, new fenders and stiffer fork springs installed.

Bunn Twinshock Preview