ANF ride review

[RichardMott]

Friday afternoon road ride:
Mike Perrett, Jake Sites and Rick Mott took a great road ride long the Alleghany River. About 1/3 of which was unpaved. Mike was on his modified 250 Hodaka Road bike. Jake on Mike’s 175 Hodaka and Rick on a Yamaha 550 Maxim. The Yamaha weighs in at about 450 lbs. With 50 HP and street tires, it was a bit spooky on the unpaved roads. The Hodakas had the advantage.
After the ride we had some Pizza and rode some of Mike’s stable of Hodakas to critic’. A fun day. See photos.

Saturday’s trail ride:
The bikes were all Hodaka. It was a Road Toad sandwich. Mike leading on his tricked out CW, followed by Jake on a Road Toad and bringing up the rear, Rick Mott on his reed valved CW.
A few miles in, Mike and I swapped our CWs to see the differences. The short story for me is that my CW is set up for my style of riding. Mike’s is set up for his. Even though Mike’s is not reed valved, it has good power. Although I missed having the wider power band of a reed valve on a particular rocky hill.
About 10 miles into the ride, the Toad lost compression. Our tow rope was back at the campsite, ten miles away. Rick was able to fine a public gravel road about 3 miles from the breakdown that led back to the campsite. It was just a matter getting the trailer as close to the Toad and tow it there.
After returning to the campsite, there was still a few hours of ride time left so Jake rode my backup bike, the WomAce 125. This ended the ride on a high note with Jake finishing out the ride on a functional Hodaka motorcycle.
Afterward, we all went to the “Super-Secret Hodaka Research and Meditation Center” to access the damage to the Toad. As suspected, a melted piston and broken ring at the exhaust port. Jake has had issues with this more than once. Mike agreed to see what he could to the correct the problem in the future.
So that was the weekend. A small turn out, but a good experience on the whole. The weather was great and the riders all came home with no injuries. Perhaps more riders can participate next year.

[jakecb420]

Good times, good people, good riding. It was a blast. I can't wait til next year.

Here a few more pics.....

[michael_perrett]

Took the opportunity to ride Rick Mott's reeded Combat Wombat during our ANF ride. With it being geared lower than my piston port Combat, I managed to ride in a higher gear to compare the two engines on actual trial riding. Actually I could not find any difference in performance in the mid range, while I feel strongly that my piston port ran much better at full throttle. Perhaps the Hodaka "Enduro/Cross reed valve kit" is more like a "Senior Citizen's" modification. I am getting to that age bracket, but I will keep my "Youthful" piston port Combat.

Mike Perrett
East Coast Hodaka Junk Yard Association, pension fund manager.

[joebat]

Looks like you guys had a great weekend. Wish I could have been there too. Looking forward to next year when I can ride again.
Joe

[RichardMott]

Joe,

We missed you too. I hope you are mended and well to ride with us next year.

[Bill2001]

Very nice ride. Now that Fall's cooler weather is here, I'm hoping to get some seat time in.