Today I planned to ride with a group of BMW riders from BMW of Fresno. They were to start their ride from the new and roomy digs in Fresno, head up into the foothills, then lunch at Dan Rouit's Flat Track museum in Clovis.
With sidestand up at 8:15am and fuel gauge on fumes my first stop was 22 mile house for fuel. Since the group was headed in the direction of Humphery's Station on Tollhouse Road, I decided to have breakfast there and join them as they rode through.
But my breakfast ended and they hadn't showed by in the time frame I think they should, I figured I missed them so I may as well just go for a ride. Not knowing the whereabouts of the museum I was bummed but the shop might do it again next year. So there's always next time.
Anyway, I rode south on Pittman Hill road figuring they would be coming up on that road. But they didn't so I rode on to Sample Road and headed back into Clovis. Eventually I was back on Watts Valley Road. From here the Sierra stands in the distance. See photo above.
Since I had been in the area a few days before I and didn't quite get a handle on which road went where I made a point to take them in the opposite direction for a different perspective. Glad I did. I preceded to cruise around and headed back to 168 for the ride home when 20 BMW riders zoomed by at Tollhouse and 168. Cool. I joined in and behind me were members of a sports car club of some high priced cars I saw earlier in the morning.
On to Rouit's.
This Japanese flat tracker was ridden on pavement tracks. Notice the slick rear and the treaded front. But all is not as it seems. The front is slick on the left side, go left young man, treaded on the right, go figure.
Next is a hell of a ride. Back in the day Kenny Roberts saddled up a missile to gain an upper hand on the dominating Harleys. The missile was a TZ750 road race motor in a flat track frame. He road the beast at the Springfield Mile for the win first time out and declared that, "They don't pay me enough to ride that thing, AMA should out law it". Well he gave it another ride at San Jose and I was there to see it. He and Scott Belsford on a newly minted 750cc Kawasaki triple road racer fashioned flat tracker were taking the long way around the mile clipping the hay bales while the Harleys were in the blue groove. Unbelievable racing I would never seen again. In the end the multi-cylinder two strokes were banned. This particular machine was the concept bike for what turned AMA flat tracking on its ear. Check this out.
Dan Rouit's Flat Track Museum can be viewed at his open house event on Sunday May 18, 2008. Contact him at (559) 291-2242
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