Maybe God didn't want us to ride today. . .

Then again maybe he did. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is a day for the gathering of vintage motorcycles and fun at the Turkey Pro National at Al Smith's place in Mertztown, PA. I had planned to attend and invited a friend from church to join me. We met at his house in Bernville his beautiful yellow Triumph Thruxton looking fast just sitting still. We hit the road only to have the Triumph die about 1/4 mile down the road. The bike just died. after a couple of minutes it fired up but died again quickly. Once it started again and we rode back to Daryl's house to fetch his 1982 Suzuki GS650. In the process I left my key on and the headlight, driving lights and heated grips conspired to kill my battery. No issues, jump the bike with his car and off we go. No issues getting there and soon we were checking out the bikes and waiting for the slow races to start.

Daryl standing behind my K11ooRS. The bike in the foreground is a really nice Norton Commando.

A Triumph flat tracker.

A daring young man on his Goldwing running the slow race. At least he didn't crash like a certain Mac-Pac member who shall remain nameless. At least he wasn't wearing his purple Barney KTM jacket when he dropped his KTM. (Seriously, if you can't figure it out e-mail me)

This guy did really well on the Honda mini-bike. They sure can go slow. He didn't win however.

A 1949 Vincent. Ducdude got some good advice and tips from the owner on his project.

Sweet old Norton. Owner even had the pudding bowl helmet.

A nice Indian Chief. I have known the owner for several years. We were chatting about his bike and he offered me to sit on it. I usually will not take someone up on that offer, but I jumped on the chance to sit on an Indian Chief.

Harley flatracker. The only Harley I would consider owning.

Some nice Italian iron.

Vincent Comet 500cc Single. (drool)

On Thanksgiving day the motorcycling community lost a good friend. Karl Duffner passed away after a valiant fight with pancreatic cancer. Karl was a friend of my father's and my father truly respected him, which spoke volumes to me. I did not know Karl as well as Dad, but I got to speak with him on several occasions. Below is a 1953 Harley DuoGlide that he owned, which he sold to a good friend. I can not be certain, but I know that Dad sold Karl parts for that bike when he worked at Harley Davidson of Philadelphia. He admired the bike in the 70's and I am sure that he would love to see the shape it is in today.

Karl's tombstone will make sure people know what his passion in life was. Rest well Karl.