An invitation with all the details should go out pretty soon but there will be a BIG Party in downtown Frederick on the afternoon/evening of 8/23 so MARK YOUR CALENDARS as this PARTY will be one you DON’T want to miss!
On a related note - I bumbled onto a thread on KTM Talk late last night which has 5 pages of responses and took a shot at MY response
The Title of the Thread was - ideal wife??? involved or allowing??
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as my buddies get married seems there are 3 types of wives in regards to hobbies. ones that join in, ones that allow their husband to go play but don't care and the kind that make their husband's friends think he has died.
obviously the 3rd option aint gonna cut it.
there seems to be a healthy representation of the first two on this forum.
so i pose a simple question would you rather your wife go to races, hunt, fish, camp with you or let you go play and have her own thing going on?
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BigBird Response:
Interesting thread! - I'm still with my first wife and TODAY is our 50th wedding anniversary!
Some of you have seen me say I believe I am the LUCKIEST MAN ALIVE and SHE is the most important reason! Although not always possible - I would rather do anything/everything WITH HER (rather than alone).
She traveled with me to most of the SCCA Rally Championship events I went to all over the country to win the national championship in 72 and 73. We also both autocrossed our modified Bugeye Sprite on non-rally weekends in the 60s and 70s.
When I started dirt bike riding in 1973 at the age of 30, she got into it too and became good enough to run several enduros on the Yamaha MX100 I set up for her (with enduro transmission, pipe and flywheel) and LOVED passing guys riding the old heavy Hondas, etc. on muddy rocky climbs. The reason for the little 100cc bike is that she was (and still is today) only 5' 2" and 105 lbs.
She gave up riding at 34 when PG with our second daughter (and I quit when I was 41) but then it was HER idea for us to get a Harley when the kids were gone and we were 55. It was soon replaced with a 2001 GL1800A with every imaginable handling upgrade which she has ridden over 100K miles on with me in 10 countries. She LOVES it when I latch onto a sport bike rider in the twisties and he tries unsuccessfully (except for 2 very good liter bike riders in the Alps ) to drop us.
She won't let us ride with our touring bike friends as they are too slow for her. Rather she insists that we go on rides with the sport bike/crotch rocket club groups who are surprised the first time the old folks show up on a yellow Goldwing with a picture of BigBird on the cowl and with a wife and dog on the pillion seat - (until they find we can hang with them). She is a total adrenalin junkie that isn't happy if something isn't dragging in the hairpin turns and is bored if we aren't pushing the envelope!
We also have done many thousands of miles of tandem bicycling including a 14 day 1K mile loaded tour from MD to Canada and 4 trips from San Francisco or Monterrey down to Santa Barbara. She is also stokes our Ventana ECDM full suspension tandem mountain bike which we have ridden on trails up and down both coasts and which we sometimes tow behind the GL1800 when traveling so we can do a ride mid trip.
When I resumed dirt bike riding upon retirement at 67 I was having SO much fun that she had to give it another go. So I built her a trail bike out of a Beta trials bike (added seat, Scotts damper, etc.) and she did pretty well but decided she no longer had the tolerance for the inevitable falls, bruises and injuries that occur in the gnarly stuff we ride. So we got a Polaris RZR 800 WE sport side-by-side and she LOVES it. We just got back from a RZR ride that was gnarly enough that we had to use the winch twice to drag it off of rocks that were so big that we got stuck on top of them and all 4 wheels just spinning! Again she LOVES to push the envelope with speed and/or gnarlyness!
As I said initially, it is not possible for us to do some things together but she fully supports (and often attends) my solo outings to the tune of letting me have 3 KTMs (including a 2014 Freeride 250R) 3 Betas and 3 other dirt bikes including one of my 125 Pentons and the 1972 OSSA MAR trials bike that she used to share riding with me in our 30s.
At 70 she still pushes this OFG (Old Fat Guy) up the hills on our tandem on our weekly Wed evening ~15 mile group bicycle rides and occasional longer weekend rides. Earlier this month she pushed both this OFG AND our dog Bandit up the hills above Santa Barbara, up the climb from the California coast into Ojai and then around the "17 Mile Drive" loop and around the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea while on our family CA vacation. I love her so much I even take her to the gym for her twice a week training sessions (which makes this lazy OFG exercise a little while there).
As you can tell - I'M TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH THIS WONDERFUL GAL! who is BOTH Involved and Allowing although what I LOVE is the INVOLVED!
