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     Froggy |
2009 Crotona Midnight Run. Last Saturday night was the start of the 2009 Crotona Midnight Run. It’s an on road legal rally-like race. It begins at the Nathans in Yorktown, and takes about 60 miles of back roads all the way to the Carmel diner. From there you take a two hour break, and take a slightly different route back to Nathans. Flyer - http://www.ramapomc.org/2009-Crotona_Flyer.pdf. Ramapo Motorcycle Club - http://www.ramapomc.org/ I found out about the run only a few hours before it started. That would make things very interesting for me, as I had no clue about anything related to this. I was running into the fire blindfolded. I did some quick work on my bike; I have no lights at all in the rear since doing the Ulysses tail conversion, so I would have to improvise. I yanked the hyperlites out of the XB tail light assembly, and mounted them to the top of the tail section. I will be using them as my brake lights till I get the rest of the wiring hooked up. I geared up, headed out to Nathans and was in shock when I got there. Because of the unusually warm weather, there was a ton of bikes! I found out later about 90 ended up participating in the event, with more that didn’t stick around.   There was a ton of bikes, including 3 Buells, and an Ural!    The Ural won coolest bike hands down, it even has reverse  My key time was 65, so I had to wait an hour and five minutes before I could depart. I ended up killing time and just observing the wide range of vehicles from sport bikes to cruisers to adventure tries.    After that it was time to gear up and get ready. Sitting in the line to go was tedious. It felt like a year went by before I was up next, yet it was only minutes. When it was my turn, they make me stay till it’s exactly my time to go. I had to wait about 50 seconds, yet it was the longest 50 seconds of my life. I was tempted to get DQ’ed by leaving early! And I am off, so far so good, the route is pretty simple, all I had to do was maintain about 30 MPH. Let’s just say that went out the window by time I made it to the first light   I made my way down the road, and thanks to the street lights I was able to read the route while it was in my map pocket. Didn’t take me long to catch up to the guy in front of me, that’s when I realized I had to slow down a notch. Things got real interesting a few minutes later, as part of the route is on the Sprain Brook Parkway. Doing 30mph on the highway without a rear running light is about as wise as a box of rocks. I decided my best was to pick up the pace, and then just spend some time on the shoulder of the off ramp. Unfortunately because of this I couldn’t mentally figure out how long to wait. Then it struck me, I glanced at my Veypor VR2 and noticed the average speed dropping, and I waited till it got back to about 30MPH. Now I understand why the computer wasn’t allowed in the race. Fat chance of me winning the race anyway. Shortly after the highway was the first of several checkpoints. You stop briefly, and the guy at the checkpoint reads your key time and Initials. He finds you on the sheet and marks your time. I believe the closer you are to a certain time, the more points you score. Nothing really exciting happened for a while, just followed the specified route. It got harder the more north I got, as the lack of street lights made it difficult to read the route. I pulled over r more than once and took the route and held it in front of the headlights just to figure out what I am doing. Suddenly a group of 20 hogs came up from behind me. I started to wonder, am I falling behind or are they ahead of schedule? I decided to let them pass, and I ended up just picking up the rear. It ended up working out great that way, as the leader had a PA system and was shouting the directions as we went! “Ok guys we are making a left at the next light.” Looking at my clock I figured out we were getting ahead of schedule, and eventually the group of hogs pulled over to kill time. I passed them, waved and continued ahead. I knew that I was getting close to the diner and that there shouldn’t be any more checkpoints. I decided to pick up the pace and then pull over a few blocks from the diner so I could time my arrival to be perfect. My plan had a fatal flaw; it wouldn’t matter if I missed the turn! I screwed up and miss read the route and ended up in Brewster. I looked at the clock and saw my arrival time was in 5 minutes, and I was about 10 minutes away from the diner. I hopped on I-84 and hauled ass for a few exits to get me closer to Carmel, and then made a bee line down Rt 6 to get to the diner ASAP. I had to stop at a light, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a screw rolling on the ground. Turns out one of the adjustment knobs on my windshield decided that it was sick of my antics and wanted out. I hop off the bike and am scrambling to find the washers and other bits that fell off. Just what I need at 3AM in the middle of nowhere! Light finally turns green and I head off. I finally arrive at the diner at about 3:15am, 10 minutes late. Parking was sparse at the diner, and the first spot I found happens to be next to the coolest bike in the world  Inside the diner was mobbed too. I ended up grabbing a seat at the counter; it was 45 minutes before they even took my order!   As usual I got a cheeseburger. OMNOMNOMNOM.  The best part was the free show. Some douche canoe got all pissed over his bacon egg and cheese and refused to pay and caused a scene. The owner called the police and got into a shouting match with the customer. The police arrived, and like the fine intelligent gentleman he is, shoved the officer. Needless to say he isn’t going home for a while.  (Note: I do not think he was part of the run) After that I geared up, it was time for me to go. The return route was different near the diner, but toward Yonkers it was almost the same as the route north. I ended up getting mixed in with a group of Yamaha FZ1, Suzuki SV and other similar imitation sport bikes. We were doing a very nice pace; I was having a hard time hanging with them, mostly because of my lack of confidence. My tires are 10k miles since bald, and not being down many of these roads before I don’t know what surprises are ahead. I kept with them for about half the route, and accidently got separated at a check point. I tried to catch up, and then I found the guy on the white Firebolt. I ended up hanging with him and his friend on the old Harley. His bike reminds me of Fritz’s bike, they might even be the same model but I don’t know for sure. The route back was beautiful. This was the first time I have ever ridden during sunrise. Several times I wanted to stop and take photos, I kind of wish I did. Breathtaking views of the partly frozen and snow covered lakes with the sun reflecting off it, and I know that I won’t be able to see a similar sight for a long time, or next snowfall. Riding the oldest bike in the race has its drawbacks, if you happen to stall at a red-light facing up a hill, it can be quite entertaining to get it kick started. Even then, it won’t matter if you run out of gas a few miles later!  I was cutting it close to my key time for arriving back at Nathans, but I decided to stick around with these two just in case they needed help. Luckily it ended up being nothing. Something is wrong with the venting on his tanks, causing one side to empty and not the other. He removed the gas caps and let it sit for a few minutes so the tanks even back out.  We then resumed our journey, only a few miles to Nathans. We arrive, clock in, and proceed to relax and BS with the others that were still there. Unfortunately we got back too late and all the doughnuts and coffee were gone.  Got to hear some stories and make some new friends.  This guy got a flat and changed his rear tube on the side of the road!  Then he needed a push start  The two Buells that made the journey  Nice and filthy!  I have no clue how he saw out the windshield   Even the spectators wanted a piece of the action  At time of posting, the scores weren’t release yet, but they did reveal the top 3, and I’m not one of them. Maybe I will have better luck next year! More photos can be found here, but I already posted the best ones. http://froggypwns.com/images/Crotana%20Midnight%20 Run%202009/index.html |
