The El Camino Conundrum

El Camino can be a hard show to completely take in. The show opens at 8 a.m. and is basically over by noon. Yes trophies are announced around 2 p.m., but pretty much everybody else has split. Not a lot of time to fit it all in, especially when you get there around 9:00.

You don't really see things if your busy looking through a camera, so sometimes it 's best to put the camera down and just take in the experience.

Here's the drill. If I'm taking pictures, I'm really not checking out the show bikes. If I'm really checking out the bikes, I'm not taking pictures, or looking for parts. If I'm looking at parts, I don't have time for the first two activities. Then throw into the mix, running into friends every 10-15 minutes or talking with someone who is admiring the same bike you happen to be standing by. The day will race by, and later I'll think, what happened?

So here's my (limited) highlights of what happened.

A well restored early Sportster will always dazzle me. This '61 belongs to Glenn Bator. It started with 3 kicks and sounded real sweet. The overcast skies don't bring out the color quite as good as it really looked.


I didn't get a chance to read the board behind this bike.


The owner of this Super-Glide really wanted to sell it. It has a few incorrect items but is still very nice.


This black VL is refreshing.


Lowrider anyone?


It's nice to see old grubby bikes are still surfacing.


This was the first time I saw Keith Ball's Peashooter.


That tank art looks familiar? The fire extinguisher is actually an oil tank.


Original paint Sprint.


Police bikes shouldn't have whitewalls and look so much better without them.


Some probably hate the green. I like it much more than the typical red Injuns.


Can't go wrong with black.


These might be the best tank emblems HD ever offered.


Didn't see many vintage chops this year.

This sums up how this year went. I didn't take many photos, didn't really see all or check the bikes out that well, bought only one part, talked with several friends and a few other enthusiast.

Still a good time overall.