Favorite Fall Weekend: Day 3

Motorcycle-mania and more could be found at the Rice-O-Rama vintage Japanese bike show and swap meet. This event attracted more people, bikes, and vendors than ever before, making it an outstanding success. This year the weather even cooperated and it was a perfect fall day. The photos I have posted below are just a very small example of what was seen on Sunday.

Here are a nice pair of 1974 Yamaha MX Bikes...an MX 250A and an SC 500A.

Vintage Rupp mini-bikes are highly collectable. Here is Rupp Roadster 2.

Schwinn Stingrays are also highly collectable. This one had an accessory engine added.

A Monoque framed Suzuki T-125 Stinger (twin cylinder) was for sale for $6000.

Kawasaki made two versions of these little street legal road racers, AR-50's and AR-80's.

A Honda 305 Dream, customized as a modern 'bobber'. Note the fishtail exhaust and solo seat.

This Honda CT-70H, 4 speed, sported a custom carbon fiber muffler and aluminum swingarm.

A trio of vintage Yamaha road racers.

This is a Honda CB450SC Nighthawk in disguise.

A flaming hot Honda Valkarie.

This is an all original Bridgestone street/trail 90, from around 1968.

Where else could you find a pair of Yamaha RD 400 Daytona Specials?

This mid-70's KZ 400 was converted to a single cylinder, pull start, diesel engine. WOW!

Experimental is putting it mildly.

 Last, but certainly not least, is Dave's invention the "Trailmobile" aka the Cyclops. He has been collecting these classic parts and this contraption is what his imagination came with. It has been a big hit everywhere it is shown. Everyone (including Superman...who is not normally part of the display) wants to drive this silent, battery operated 'vehicle' with the toggle switch on the handlebar. You can even drive it in reverse. The Cyclops has been dubbed a 'Rat Rod Hoveround'. It drives a lot better than it looks! See how many parts you recognize:

To complete the Cyclops, Dave came up with this information placard as a spoof, to see how many people believe it:

1928

TRAILMOBILE

‘truck-ette’

The roaring 20’s saw a need for the rapidly expanding motor-freight industry to deliver larger parcel shipments in an urban environment.

The ‘truck-ette’ was conceived as a motorized platform/hand truck to facilitate efficient city street and even indoor deliveries.

It was primarily used to deliver milk and dairy products.

It was designed to be used by one man and could even fit into an elevator.

It was used in conjunction with a full size semi-truck.

The Great Depression led to its early demise and examples are few and far between.



SOUNDS BELIEVABLE, RIGHT?

Favorite Fall Weekend: Day 2

Waterford's Tugboat Roundup celebrated the 13th annual event after having to cancel last year due to damage from Hurricane Irene. An excellent time was had by everyone and the turnout was impressive.

Dave spent quite a bit of time on board the Wendy B. He learned that it had just been purchased and had been previously sunk in the St. Lawrence River for 15 years. It was Canadian built in 1940, originally steam powered, and has a 5/8" steel, ice breaking hull. It now has a small GMC 6-71 diesl engine in it.

Its bow looked enormous from the low floating dock. The new owner purchased it in Washington, D.C. from a group of hippies that were using it as a liveaboard vessel.

An endless line of tugboats tied nose to the wall.

A Crosby 21 pleasure tug, with the Spirit of Albany behind it.

There were several small private tugs used for recreational purposes at the docks. Thimble is electric powered, and locally owned.

Atlantic Hunter II, was brought to the show on a trailer. It must be quite a sight going down the road. We noticed that its side lights were actually motorcycle directionals.

This is Dragonfly, a recreational replica pushboat. It is powered by twin Honda 8 h.p. high output outboard motors. We were invited on board by its owners, Janet and Stuart, who built it themselves. Even though it is still a work in progress, they worked feverishly to get it done enough so they could show it at the Roundup. Hat's off to both of them and we really enjoyed getting to know them!

The tug Frances (Turecamo) has a brand new coat of paint and looked really regal. These river tugs all have retractable wheelhouses to fit under the bridges of the canal system.

The Evening Star gave tours of the canal, up above the first of the 'Flight of Five' locks.

The "teaching tug" Urger was built in 1901 and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is powered by a direct reversing Atlas Imperial diesel engine. For more details and information on the Urger, click HERE.

The Onrust was also at the dock with its sailing rig back up, and we went on board for a tour. For more information on the Onrust click HERE for my previous blog post.

 Dave needed two hands to handle its huge tiller. It must be an amazing experience to steer this ship.

There were several of these small cannons on deck, and the crew would fire a salute over the water every hour.

It was a very windy day, with a strong cold front due to blow through sometime during the late afternoon. When the music group that was entertaining us moved to the dock, and they took the awning off the M.V. Grand Erie, we knew it was time to head for home before the thunderstorms arrived.

Another rite of passage completed for this year. Tomorrow is another adventure....Rice-O-Rama!

Favorite Fall Weekend: Day 1

Friday's featured event was the Adirondack Nationals Car Show, overlooking beautiful Lake George, N.Y.

We arrived in time to walk through the show area before they started their parade of cars on the main street.

Here are just a few of our favorites:

A right hand drive Jeep mail truck converted into a motorcycle hauler. The two bikes are a Yamaha RD 200 and a Honda CB 200, both set up for vintage road racing.

A colorful combination.

 This tow truck pedal car was adorable.

 

A 1934 Ford Cabriolet.

A 1954 second year Corvette, and highly customized. Note mesh headlight guards.

A 1926 Model T, doctor's sedan with suicide doors. I really liked the visiblilty with all the glass.

Great paint job on this custom 1930's pick-up truck.

I sure wish I still had my Chevy Vega. This one is a 1972 Motion Performance 454 (mine certainly didn't have THAT!)

 I've always wanted a Nash Metropolitan and this was a really nice one.

We didn't find find too many extremely unusual vehicles this year, but this was definitely a show stopper...The Aquarium Car!

 There were fish suspended from the 'bowl' top, and they even left them there while driving it.

It started life as a 1972 Pontiac. For $27,000, you could own it and get all the attention.

This truck is a 1957 Chevy C.O.E. (cab over engine) that nephew Matthew would love to own.

Lots of goodies to browse through in the vendor section. I wish I could have bought all of these hood ornaments! This vendor featured nothing but N.O.S. (new old stock) parts.

Then it was time for night cruisin' as the crowds lined the street.

That's a lot of engine!

And so is this.

These ladies wearing their poodle skirts, were riding in their custom matching 1959 Ford Galaxie trailer.

Now this is the way to travel and it's even my favorite color.

What a great event to start this busy weekend. We headed home a bit early because we wanted to be rested for the Tugboat Round-Up in Waterford on Saturday morning. Day 2 to follow......