Greetings, Broiled Bikers:

    One couldn't have asked for a more pleasant evening to ride as the BMOK faithful gathered at Doctor Denny's secluded suburban stronghold for the July monthly meeting, which naturally would be the case since Sum poor schmuck had to meet with a client late and was forced to arrive on four wheels. Eleven others were more fortunate, adorning the site of Cornett's construction with three Triumph(H)s, three Beemers, two Ducs, two far eastern products and George Davidson's Polini, an adorable miniature motorcycle entirely too tiny to be ridden too very far by anyone over 3 feet tall. (George brought it in his Mini Cooper and just rode it up the driveway for his grand entrance, which is more than most could have done)
    One of the Triumphs was naturally Big John Schroeder's, who has now passed the half way mark on his quest to be the only BMOK to not only attend all of the meetings for the year, but to do so on two wheels, either the Haunted Hinckley or his Meriden Bonneville. (When the poltergeists are active in his Speed 3.)
    Virtually the sole item to be discussed during the business meeting, other than some side conversations about Mid-Ohio and Ed mating with Jill, concerned meeting locations for September and November. Bob Fiske has tentatively agreed to host September and 'twas decided that if that were to fall through, we'd just show up at Parsch's new garage, bringing refreshments along with us. That way, Steve and Marcia will have at least been at *one* meeting this year.
    Denny and the long suffering Lady Jane once again put on quite a spread, with brats, dogs and sausages on the grill, accompanied by chips, dips, watermelon and Jane's famous cookies, all washed down with an ample supply of various beers, ales and soft drinks. With the amount of trouble and expense shouldered by the few reoccurring meeting hosts, I'm seriously considering proposing a system where doing so constitutes paying dues for the year, but I haven't worked out the details. Stay tuned for updates on this breaking story.

    Yikes! I just looked at the calendar and realized that this rag must hit the snail mail the day after tomorrow, (I hate it when Wednesday is on the first) and this is as far as I've made it, so here goes the Cliff's Notes on the rest:

>The August meeting is to be at Charlie Robinson's den of all things purple, which is located at 1914 Covey Trace in LaGrange. His contact numbers are 222-5400 or 432-6345. We will be having a group ride to the meeting, departing from the Dairy Queen in Prospect at 6:15 on Wednesday, August 8, and taking the scenic route to Charlie's, led by either our host himself, Ed, me or whomever steps forward to take the lead.

>Some photographs taken at the INOA's Hell's Backbone Rally have been made available at http://rides.webshots.com/album/560040038zXSxzL. (If these are too tame for ya, check out some real wildlife at http://www.stevebloom.com/pages/slide_untamed.html.)

>Additional information about the all new spares Vincent assembled by the Vincent Owners Club can be found in this online story on motorcycleusa.com, which can be found at http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/Article_Page.aspx?ArticleID=4923&Page=1.

>Anyone interested in spending money polishing up their apparent green credentials should read about this electric motorcycle: http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4024869.

>A collection of photos of some truly unusual vintage racing machines, taken at a vintage cement track event in Germany, can be found at http://www.craig.howell.net/uwe/zementbahn07/.

>The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is currently hosting a display of vintage two wheeled racers, details on which can be found at  http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/news/story.php?story_id=9583.

>Anyone interested in acquiring their very own not-that-all fired-vintage road racing machine can talk to Denny Cornett about his Montego Blue 1993 Mazda RX7 available for $14,000.00. 244-6249 or dbcornett@insightbb.com.

>Any vintage britbiker whose in need of a USB hub for your desktop should check out this offering. (Be sure to watch the video. It's a hoot!) http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/26/solidalliances-usb-2-0-engine-hub-drives-your-geek-cred/

    Riding sweep on the month and saving you from a one page newsletter is the following submission from the BMOK representative at various world hot spots, Lt.Col. Al Seal, who has had the misfortune of being sent back overseas, this time to that Middle Eastern playground for the indiscriminate roadside bombing set, Iraq:

   "I have a couple of items to report on, but nothing exciting so don't get your hopes up.
   First item: Back on 25 Mar 07, I went to the Walneck’s Motorcycle Swapmeet and Show in Springfield, OH.  I have always enjoyed Walneck’s magazine (especially before he sold it and it turned into Walneck’s Classic Cycle Trader) for many years and had high expectations for the event.  But I was quite disappointed. The event was changed from just British, European, and Japanese to all makes. There were about 100 venders/sellers set up and about 2,000 people attended the event. The vast majority of people there, about 99%, were individuals who had embraced the “biker” lifestyle, and there were several 1% clubs represented. In the swapmeet, there were only a couple of Brit bikes and a few brit bike parts amongst the other stuff, but only a few and no treasures.  The actual “bike show” wasn’t too impressive, just stuck over in a corner.  But since I had driven so far, I unloaded my bikes and sent my family off to find a more family appropriate environment for the day.  I set by my bikes for a few hours and talked to people, there were some people that were actually interested in old Brit and Japanese bikes so that was good.  The high point of my day was talking with Mr. Walneck, he was a real nice guy, and he complimented me on my bikes. It was sad to me that he seemed so out of place at his own event.  My bikes were awarded 1^st Place 1960’s British, 1^st Place 1970’s British, and 1^st Place 1970’s Japanese.  I would like to be able to say that this was a great accomplishment, but I wouldn’t want to lie, there were only a couple of bikes in each category.  I’m sending a picture of the bikes and trophies.
   Second item:  I am currently in Iraq for a year. I’ve been here two months and have ten to go.  I’m assigned to Multi-National Forces Iraq (MNF-I) and we work out of the US Embassy, which is located in one of Sadam’s old palaces, in the International Zone (also known as the IZ or the Green Zone).  I work in the Strategic Operations Center (the SOC) and we run the war on a theater level.  We stay busy and the work is interesting. Compared to what I’ve seen in the rest of Iraq and Kuwait, we have good living conditions.  We have electricity, AC, running water, a TV and I sleep in a bed.  The downside to life in the IZ is that we are a big stationary high value target and the bad guys like to disrupt our peaceful existence with indirect fire as often as they can.  Not too much motorcycle news to report from here.  Inside the IZ there are a few small motorcycles and mopeds, nothing exciting.  I’ve only been out in the Red Zone (bad guy territory) a couple of times and we are buttoned down in armored vehicles, so you don't see a whole lot.    
   I’m sending a couple of pictures from inside the IZ. These were taken at Sadam’s old parade plaza, where they did the big military parades.  There are two big sword arches at each end of the plaza, these things are huge, as you can see from me standing on the base of one of the sword hands.  Sadam built the arches in honor of Iraq’s victory over Iran in the Iraq/Iran war.
   Hope all is well and you enjoy safe riding." ............Al.

    Well, that's all the time that there is. C'ya, hopefully at Charlie's next Wednesday.