Hello fellow RAT members,

We just got back from the sixth annual Rat raid at Galena filled with good people and great riding. For those of you who missed it, you should have been there. Here are some of the highlights.

We all met Friday morning at the Fosters for a hardy breakfast and some last minute loading of gear for the weekend (thanks for the eggs Dave they hit the spot). Once on the road we headed for Rockford by way of the expressway where we picked up route 20 to take a more scenic route to Galena. The ride out took about three and a half hours and was an awesome ride on its own.

Upon arriving at the Chestnut Mountain Inn he settled in and I decided to take advantage of the Triumph Truck and its eighteen demo bikes. Apologies are in order to my girlfriend Sarah for trying to keep up with the sport bikes through the twisties while riding two up on a Bonnie. Toni got to ride a Daytona among other bikes and is probably thinking about a sport bike now, we’ll see. Afterwards we prepared to get registration up and running near the Alpine slide. Dave, being the ever-gracious host was mixing drinks in his room for all of us as we prepared for the arrival of our fellow Rat members. Friday evening offered dinner next to the Alpine Slide with a DJ for entertainment and unlimited rides on the slide for all. As harmless as it may have looked, I think the slide caused more road rash than any motorcycle related mishaps over the weekend.

After plenty of food and fun near the slide we returned to Dave’s room for more drinks and to hang out with Neal, the freelance producer putting together the segment for Speed Channel. After several more beverages Dave and Toni decided to start playing WWF in the room starting with someone putting ice down someone else’s pants. This later spilled out into the hall and finally ended outside the bar. Around this time I retired for the evening, but Janet, Jesse, and Toni partied on until the wee hours of the morning in the bar. Somehow during an attempt at creating a human pyramid one Rat member suffered a broken clavicle, but hey, at least it wasn’t the outcome of a motorcycle mishap. 

Saturday started with breakfast and apologies for the evening before. Once the cameraman arrived to meet Neal we were off to film for an upcoming episode of “Corbin’s Ride On”. Dave, Toni and I, along with several other riders spent several hours riding the curves of Blackjack road as well as route 20, getting some great shots for the show. This culminated with Dave riding two up with the cameraman and some nice shots in downtown Galena where we had to explain to the local police why we where holding up traffic. After getting everything straightened out with local authorities we actually got some help blocking traffic as we headed back out to the lodge.

Thanks to Neil for all his hard work and to Dave for putting together the group for filming. I’m glad to say that all the Windy City Rats that came to Galena were included; again if you missed it you should have been there.

Saturday night is always the big night for the rally and this year was no exception. Live music was on hand for the pig roast and this year all the participants got to vote for their favorite bikes on the concourse. Well, actually we forced them to vote before we let them eat. It seemed to work for me as I won the Best Sport bike category and Best in Show, thanks to all the voted for my bike and the offer still stands to put any of you in touch with my painter. The bike concourse also included many awesome Triumphs such as a Tiger with a turbo, Duker’s way cool Speed Triple (he won Best Triple) and a couple of Bonnies that made me think it’s time to buy a cruiser. The evening also included something new this year, Bingo as a way of raising money for the local EMS and to hand out some cool Triumph gear. Special thanks to Toni and Jesse for selling the Bingo cards and acting as our MC’s for the game. After giving out all the prizes we were entertained by Duker with his Speed Triple, which is set up as a stunt bike. He gave us all a show doing wheelies, rolling burnouts, and some tire shredding that ended up damaging that cool paint job, but hey it made for some great pictures. 

Sunday morning provided us with an opportunity to ride to the Dubuque airport for a charity breakfast and a walk along the flight line to get an up close look at some pretty neat aircraft. After breakfast we headed back across the river to Galena and packed up for the trip back to Chicago. 

I’d like to thank Jim, Jay, and everyone from Triumph North America for bringing the Triumph semi with the demo fleet for all of us to ride to our hearts content.

For those of you that missed it, you should have been there and we hope to see you next year.

Chris McKee