BiketoberFest 2007

Triumph Street 675, other Triumph bikes, Hooter's Girls, Racing, Monster Dash on Daytona International Speedway.

I put on my kids on the school bus and then headed for Daytona at 7:20am. I arrived at about 9:30 to find a line of a dozen guys in front of me at the Triumph Demo Rides. By the time I got to the front of the line, there was only one slot left for the Street left 3pm. I got back in line again and signed up for the Daytona at 4:30. It was 10am now, and I went to the Buell Demo rides to try and sign up for a 1125. But they didn't have one :(. I then went to Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, but they were all full, because I arrived a little late, I only had 2 rides lined up. I made a quick stop at the Hooter's booth for a pix and then rode back to the Triumph area.  Note to self: Get to demo rides by 8am if you want to sign up for allot of rides :)

Took some pictures and bought my ticket for the Monster Dash. Now the wait was on. I was disappointed that they didn't have a stock Street 675 without the aftermarket pipe.  I walked around the vendors looking to buy some new riding gear, but there really wasn't anything (no helmets, jackets, pants, gloves, etc) just allot of black leather, wife beater's, t-shirts. I was disappointed in the lack of vendors and race information.  Since I had time to kill, I rode into the infield and then around to the back side of the race track and walked into the stands. I was the only person on the back side and it was completely open. I sat at the end of the back straightaway and next to the chicane and took a few pictures for about an hour.  Then I rode over to Shake-n-Steak for lunch.

I then wandered around the vendor area again and headed back to the Triumph area. It was then time for my demo ride on the Triumph Street 675. It was white, had a arrow pipe and flyscreen. The bike felt good, I couldn't flat foot it, but it was comfortable. I expected the exhaust to be loud, but it was quieter than my Buell with a stock pipe.  The group ride was about 30 minutes with a few nice curves and turns. I found myself many times in the wrong gear, but it didn't seem to mind and was very forgiving.  I almost fell off when the guy in front of me started the Rocket3 with another after market pipe. It sounded like straight pipes and was really loud. The first chance I got, I passed him.  The bike handled well, was very light and had enormous power. I hit 11K rpm a couple of times and might have cross 100 mph, but I couldn't watch the road and instruments at the same time and there wasn't much time to accelerate and stay within the group.  The ride was over too soon and it was time to wait for the next ride on a Daytona 675, which was scheduled for 4:30. About 4pm someone from the track came over and told them that bad weather was headed their way. They said as soon as the rain started the demos would end. About half way through the pre-ride briefing it started to rain and everything was cancelled :( 

Now I had 3 hours before the Monster Dash to wait, and possibility it might be cancelled too for weather.  I headed back to my stands to watch the racing that was scheduled to start at 5pm. I really don't know what types or racing/class/bikes there were. There seem to be different classes of bikes because some seemed twice as fast as others.  These were just practice sessions, so maybe some were practicing harder than others. The scheduled 5pm 2 hour session was delayed for about 15 minutes because of rain.  I sat around, took a few more pictures and then around 6pm headed to Krytsal's for 6 burgers & a Dr Pepper. I came back to the track and lined up for the Monster Dash.

For those of you that race, this wouldn't be a big deal, but for me the honor of being able to ride on the Daytona International Speedway, even if it was at cruising speed was a hoot and well worth the wait. Most of the bikes were Harley's and about a dozen Spider Can-Am made up the rear of the pack. I rode with my camera around my neck and would let go of the throttle and take a picture every once and a while. We cruised 2.5 laps around the oval and then turned into the road race and finished in the infield.  The pace car started at about 5 mph for the first half lap until all the bikes were on the track and then did the 2 laps at about 35 mph.  I got it up to 70 mph a few times doing allot of sling shoting with my Buell Blast, if I had the Street I could have probably done allot better.  Regardless of speed, it was a hoot :) and made my day.

Here are my pictures. I took over 300 and edited out the really bad ones.  Many of the track pictures were shaky, but then my Blast is always shaky :) As always the pictures are clickable for enlargements.  They start with the 2008 Triumph Street 675, in the color I have on order.  Next are all the other Triumph bikes, followed by a few Hooter's shots, Racing and finally Monster Dash pix. I had a Triumph employee take a picture of me on the bike, I should have checked, but apparently he didn't know how to push the button, so no pix :(

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