Weekend Dalliance

Felt a little guilty pulling up the Lynnwood Convention Center (exit 181B from I5 north, for those of you playing along at home) in a mere car, but I put a few miles on a couple of bikes this weekend and realized there’s a midwinter to middle age and it’s cold there. In the parking lot, I was greeted by the tiny vindication of gently falling snowflakes.

Euro Moto 2014 is like a highly spiced side dish to the large, bland main course that is the International Motorcycle Show. Euro is where you bump into your riding buddies, where the parking lot is more interesting than any showroom, and where spokesmodels in fishnets are replaced by smashingly attractive women possessing vocabularies, tantalizing tats that lead… somewhere, riding boots, and the keys to their own bikes.

It’s also where you can rub up against a Brutale Dragster, a piece of MV Agusta’s motorcycle performance art purpose-built to add Italian style to next your burnout contest victory; it’s where Motosport Beemers go to revivify themselves under the gentle ministrations of Boxer Metal, and where you can discover for yourself that the new Griso, in sharp contrast to its predecessor, looks better in person than in pictures.

Hey, look… it’s still snowing! Forget mowing the lawn this weekend; it’s still yellow, anyway. Take your Sunday ride – whether on-bike or in the cheater box – on up to Lynnwood and seize hold of your next dream. Admission (at the low, low price of FREE) includes a coat and helmet check. Attractions include great people, exotic rolling stock, adventurous accessories, and a whole continent of possibilities to fire your midwinter imagination. You might want to make the suggested $5.00 donation, though. It supports humanitarian medical relief, delivered via motorcycle all across Africa through the good offices of Riders for Health.

While you’re there, pick up a t-shirt and tell Dave Preston that Jack sent ya. It’s triply cool in that it it’s a motorcycle shirt (you know you need a few more), it’s an exotique event shirt (you’ll be the frostiest kid at your next lunch ride), and because it, too, supports Riders for Health.

Then the next time your spouse gives you blowback about dribbling your dollars out at motorcycle shows, just point to your t-shirt and tell her it’s not just recreation, damn it.

You’re saving the world!