Featured Triumph Wins At Harley Event

I had a pretty unusual evening this week. At the last minute I heard about what was supposed to be a local cruise-in kind of bike event in my town. It was on Wednesday evening and as I only then had heard about it I thought I’d at least ride over for a bit and check it out. When I arrived a bit early there were maybe 20 to 30 Harley’s parked about, so I pulled into a spot.
For a little history, my town is Jonesborough, in eastern Tennessee. It is the oldest town in the state, first incorporated in 1779. Not too old compared to where most of you all live, I know. It has a lot of the older buildings left intact and still looks like a town from the 1800s.
Back to the bikes. The longer I stayed, the more bikes kept rolling in, all Harley’s. By the time the evening was in full swing there were around 300 bikes, all Harley’s. My poor Triumph felt a bit out of place! As I walked around I discovered that this was what is called a National H.O.G. Rally, a touring show that visits several towns selected every year. It is covered by enthusiasts magazines and is evidently a big deal in the Harley world. And here I am on the only non-Harley bike in my Triumph T-shirt and leather Ace jacket.
I will say this about the Harley crowd I met. I know we all like to take the piss out of anyone, but I was welcomed in without question. It didn’t matter if it was someone who looked like a lawyer having a midlife crisis or a hardcore biker that had ridden for decades, they all were glad I stopped by. I had plenty of interest in my Street Cup and everyone liked it. Many were not that familiar with Triumphs and were pretty impressed. The ones that got to me though were several older gents, probably 70 to 80 years young. You could see it in their eyes as they were talking about my bike, all with a similar story. Something like “When I was overseas for the war (WWll, Korea) I had my first bike, a Triumph Bonnie, never forget that bike.” It was great to hear those stories from their younger days, and you could tell how fond of those bikes these guys were.
Well, I’d had enough fun, so I geared up and started to head out when someone came running up and said “you’re not leaving are you?” Yes, since it was getting late and I had to get to work early in the morning. They replied that I couldn’t leave as they were about to announce the winners of the bike show I didn’t know was occurring. I also didn’t know I had inadvertently parked where all the bikes entering the show were supposed to be. They proceeded to say I couldn’t leave because they wanted all the event winners to get their trophies and a group pic for the event! I am now thoroughly confused, it turns out they have a class at these events that is for metric bikes. Basically anyone who shows up with a non American bike can be in this class, and I had won it without meaning to! So here I am in my Triumph gear, a trophy from a Harley event, taking a group pic with a bunch of hard core Harley enthusiasts who had won their classes, and I had the greatest time!
I have just a few pics, as it was getting dark by the end of all this. It just goes to show that for the most part as much as we like to give each other some grief, it’s all in good fun. This was the nicest bunch of people I’ve met in a long time, and shows we are all disciples of two wheels, (even if you ride a trike)!

 

A few pics of the evening




The one bike I got a shot of. It has multiple parts from classic Cadillac cars on it. Can you spot any?

 

That’s my lone little Triumph sitting back a couple rows