Monday, September 17, 2012

Kansas City Bikers for Babies - 2012!!!

Yesterday, Tim and I participated in Kansas City's Bikers For Babies fundraising event. It was the 5th year I participated - except last year I paid my entrance fee but I didn't ride the 100 miles becuase it rained the day of the event. I refuse to ride in the rain.

This year, Bikers For Babies was in full swing! There were over 5000 participants that gathered yesterday at the racetrack to begin our 100 mile ride for the babies.

Our event yesterday raised over $650,000.00 for the March Of Dimes. WOW!!

Kansas City holds the largest Bikers For Babies event in the nation, and the largest fundraising event in the Midwest. It's a lot of fun and very cool to see that many motorcycles in one place at one time.




Tim and I got to the racetrack around 9:00 AM
We waited outside the gates to meet up with a few of our friends.

As we waited I took a few pics of bikes arriving:





Here is my Timmy watching for our friends. This motorcycle is our new one. I was excited to ride the 100 miles on this. We haven't had it very long and we have only taken it out for a few short rides so far - out to eat or a quick run to the store. I wanted to see how comfortable it would be on a longer ride. I was pleasantly surprised!!!! We had a very nice ride.

I love my "queen" seat! It's as soft and comfortable as it looks.



For comparison, here is Tim's other Harley. I have been riding on the back of this one for over 4 years now. It's a very nice bike, but the new one is so much more comfortable for longer rides.


By the way, now that we have the "new" bike, the old one has been changed (redecorated?). Tim has removed the back seat and the sissy bar. He changed the seat to a single rider seat and now the bike in the pic above can't have a passenger. If Tim is hauling me around, we can only ride the new bike now.

Anyway, we met up with our friends and we headed into the racetrack for the opening ceremony.
The event is held in the "pit" area of the track. In order to get into the pits, you have to drive through a tunnel that goes under the track.





Thousands of bikes already there! We parked and walked around to look at some of the vendor booths and talk to friends.


Tim is a busy man! He didn't have time for a proper picture

The vendor booths are inside these garages. The garages are the actual pit areas for the race cars during racing season.



We didn't walk over to the opening ceremony, although on previous years we have always walked over there. Johnny Dare was there as the MC (He is a DJ from one of our local radio stations -  98.9). Johnny Dare has been the honorary chairman of the KC Bikers For Babies ride for 17 years now.
Here is a picture of him in one of his posters for the ride:

How sweet is this?


As the ride started, we all got back on our bikes and waited our turn to exit the racetrack and begin our 100 mile ride.

Here is a short video I took while we were waiting to get going.
(If you are at work, you may want to turn your volume down)



Heading back through the tunnel to get out of the pit area


Here is a very short video I took while we were going through the tunnel. The guys sure like to make noise in there............boys will be boys!




Here are a few pics of our ride.




There were people along the route waving to us as we rode by. It was kind of like a parade. The small towns we rode through were a lot of fun with a lot of people waving and cheering us on.
In Eudora, the firemen had one of  their trucks out to welcome us as we rode through. They had the ladder up and a flag hanging off the top for us to drive under.





After our 100 mile route, we were back at the racetrack for free lunch.
Price Chopper (grocery store) donates hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, bottled water and cans of soda for the participants. The lunch was nice because we were all starving when we got back.


Such a nice day, and a nice ride. We really enjoyed ourselves and we are looking forward to going again next year.



5 comments:

  1. What fun!!! We bought a Harley last month and it has been a pleasure to ride it. We need a better pillion seat though.

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  2. Yes, it really is a fun thing to do every year!

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  3. Your pillion seat looks super comfortable. Any idea what is called, I mean from which Harley line? Ask Tim please, he is the expert :P

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    1. I asked Tim about the seat, he says its called a "pillow seat" and the one we have is the factory seat that comes with the Harley Electra-Glide.
      He said you can get a seat like that at a Harley dealership, or you can look online to find one. Here are 2 websites he uses to order Harley stuff online:
      J&PCycles.com
      Customcrome.com
      I hope you are able to find one. It's really a comfortable seat!!

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  4. Thanks so much for finding out. Please do thank Tim on my behalf. I will look for a pillow seat now and hopefully won't snooze while riding coz the seat is too comfortable. We have a good Harley dealership here but they take months to get a custom made stuff since it has to be shipped from the US of A. Have a nice day!

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