Ephrata Sunday

On the first Sunday of each month riders from all over are drawn to the sleepy little town in Lancaster County PA called Ephrata (pronounced F-er-ta). Said riders gather at the American Legion to eat, tell lies, laugh, bike watch, and then tell more lies. A day like last Sunday draws a lot of bikes, hard to say exactly how many were there, but I do not think that 1,000 bikes would be over estimating.

We gather at Wawa. I am on the far left. Picture by Theo



I do not live far from Ephrata, in fact its about 9.9 miles from my house to the American Legion according to the GPS. However I chose to take the long way. On Friday while checking my e-mail I saw a posting on the Mac-Pac from Theo, saying basically meet at Wawa in Limerick and ride to Ephrata. I turn to my wife, "Honey, can I go for a bike ride on Sunday?" See, Sundays are tough. Church in the morning and getting the two girls ready in time can be a lot like herding cats. But my wife knew that I was Jonesing badly for a ride, so she said "Sure". There are different kinds of "Sure" but I take it as an affirmative and I run with it. Cool.

Here I am on the road, picture by Theo


The weather Friday was bad, Saturday was incredibly windy, but dawn Sunday and all was at peace in the world. Great Temp and a brilliant beautiful Spring Sun. Ahh, perfect motorcycling weather. Our group was to meet at the Wawa gas station in Limerick PA. Known for its nuclear power plant Limerick is in Montgomery County. I rode there Sunday morning not knowing who else I would encounter. When I got there Theo was there on his Suzuki SV650, and Clay (another Mac-Pac member) was topping off his K1200S. A sweet looking missile in silver, blue and black. We talked for a while and waited to see if anyone else would show up. A fellow Beemer rider from Philadelphia arrived soon enough. I do not remember his name, but that's the thing about we riders. We can ride all day with someone and never really catch there name, but its all good.

Here are a couple of pictures of Clay on the road. Taken by Theo.

Soon enough it stands up and we roll out. Theo led the way, he had done the ride in the past. We went almost exclusively on two lane or even single lane roads. Tight, twisty, gravelly and challenging. it was a workout on the first "big ride" of the new season. I never store my bike and I do take it out in the cold, but this was the first over 100 mile day of 2009. We went through, Montgomery, Chester, Berks and Lancaster Counties on the "Long Way". I rode 30 miles to get to Limerick, then another 70 or so to get to a place that is 10 miles away. Ludicrous, but oh so much fun.

The following pictures are of the crowd in the American Legion parking lot. One of the impressive things is the diversity of the crowd. Not only motorcycle wise either. In the parking lot you see vintage bikes, sport bikes, super motards, cruisers, and just about everything in between. There are plenty of people from all sorts of creeds and lifestyles as well. From the Pagan MC members and the girl with the "Property of Stinky" patch (yep, I saw that one) to the Spanish speaking sportbike enthusist. And the best part is that everyone gets along. All appreciate the nice machines, and even the rat bikes.

At one point we were admiring a brand new Ducati 1098, while not to far away across the baseball field stood a Suzuki with its fairing held together in many places by zip ties. So you do not have to have a perfect bike to have it looked at in Ephrata.

The pictures below were taken by Clay.

Many people just wander the lot checking out bikes, like a bike show, but free

Not only Harleys add chrome


Pretty packed in places, and we actually got there as many were leaving.