A Postcard from Backfiremoto #68 Spring Opener

Well, It was a rustic Pacific Northwest  Spring opener as usual.  Planning the spring opener is always a gamble. Every year, we have to study the weather and wait as long as possible to decide whether to make a go of it in March or not.  The Groundhog in Pennsylvania doesn't usually help us out with the decision. The weather reports can often be wrong this time of year.  All we really need is a four-hour window of decent weather to draw out all the hibernating  PNW moto-folks.  Actually, over the past nine years, we have been extremely lucky in terms of weather.  We have only had a few rainy spring openers and maybe one with snow and hail.  In the past, we have postponed the date to April a few times. The April option always puts us on or around tax day. Which is a bummer.  And then there is the daylight factor. Waiting till April definitely helps with having more time to see. But, everyone is anxious to get their " Spring on ".  So in the past, if the weather looks bad,  we have made the March Spring Opener an informal and un-official  "meet and greet ".  That works too  , but the next month it might rain again as well. So, all in all, it is hard to win.  Or maybe we will either way.  Just about now  I can hear all of the " soggy bottoms / "I always ride in the rain" people saying," that is what rain gear is for!" ... And now I can hear that guy saying " Rain gear is for wussies!".  It doesn't matter where you stand on the matter ..... If you ride out to Backfire and it is too Dark , too rainy , too cold , and too windy to chill out and  walk around outside and mix it up with your friends and see the sweet bikes, then it's just not as good.  And that is why we try to pick the best date to have the spring Opener.  This time we were kind of lucky because we just had inclement weather meaning a few sprinkles and wind in Ballard. But, It was raining all over the area north and south of us.  So the turnout was pretty small, but as they say" the people who did show had a great time! ". Below, you will find a few highlight from that evening. ​

Mark showed up early on his 1958 Lambretta.

Doug showed up on his new build. It is a 1978 Suzuki PE175, shopped down to a cafe/flat tracker style. Doug is planning to race it at dirtquake this year! Whoohoo!

​There was definitely enough attendees to have a good time and see some interesting bikes. It was not a 500-600 person turn out like in the Summer, but a good time was had for sure

A beautiful Triton showed up. This is Jacks new ride for the Season. It came from Gloy Motorworks from LA.   He is in the process of tweaking it to his own liking.

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Jack

Nice BMW side car showed up. ​

​Nice ! Hey, put that down.....haha....

When in doubt, roll up on a classic Cafe Racer! ​

We even got a classic PNW rainbow for the occasion! ​

If you didn't  make it to the Spring Opener, this is the shirt from the event. We have plenty of them left, so please drop by the red info. / DJ booth and buy one to help support us. Thanks and see you on Wednesday, April  19th for Backfiremoto# 69. Cheers TW