1st Sunday of the Month, Two Wheels at the Reservoir
My inspiration for the 1st Sunday of the Month RTE at the Reservoir was from some events I had attended in the past and something I had remembered from reading columns from one of my favorite moto journalists, Peter Egan
From a very young age I had not only completely falling in love with riding my motorcycle I was also mildly obsessed with finding everything about them in print. Books and magazines could be found in every room in my house. At one time I had boxes in my garage with hundreds, maybe thousands of motorcycles magazines from the early 80s up to the early 2000s. From technical details of how motorcycles were manufactured to stories of travel both local and around the world I just couldn’t get enough and consumed everything I could read.
One such publication had Peter Egan writing a monthly column called “Leanings” and each month it would be the very 1st thing I would read when that magazine was delivered. Mr. Egan had a way to pull you into his stories, so at times you could almost feel like you were with him sitting in his old barn up in Wisconsin drinking a glass of wine celebrating the purchase of another bike, or riding along the Pasific Coast Highway with him and his wife Barb. One other subject he would talk about time to time was the Slimy Crud gang and the monthly meetings they would have. And by meeting s they would go something like this, here let me quote Mr. Egan
“IT STARTED FOUR YEARS AGO AS AN IDEA kicked around at one of our casual monthly Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang meetings. And by “casual” I mean these meetings are nothing more than a bunch of guys in leather jackets standing around in someone’s garage or driveway, alternately gazing at motorcycles and examining the labels of the beer bottles they’re holding”
The few members of that group decided to start what they called the Slimey Crud Café Racer Run which was a loosely organized event where people showed up early one Sunday Morning at a location and stood around and chatted while checking out all the cool bikes. Then at a certain time they would all leave in separate groups and ride for a few hours only to meet up at another spot for some lunch. If you want to read the original article, he wrote about it you can find it here.
Also, around that same time we had another gathering of bikes here in New England that would pull in large crowds of motorcyclist. Super Sunday at Marcus Dairy in Danbury CT. YouTube search MTV at Marcus Dairy and you will see a fun little video from the early 90s when the music television station visited Super Sunday. This event started in the late 70s and ran all thru the 80s, 90s and the very early 2000s until the little Dairy Restaurant closed its doors and was swallowed up by a shopping mall, once a awesome gathering of motorcycles now replaced with a Supercut’s, Panera Bread and a mattress store 🙁
I was lucky enough to attend one of the original Super Sundays on my 1986 Concours was back in 1990 after I had seen a Kawaski Ad in a magazine. I was amazed at the amount of people that showed up on that cool summer morning. Walking around the parking lot just checking out all the bikes was such a fun way to spend a few hours. No planned rides were going on, just show up park get a little bite to eat and enjoy the scene.
Then many years later while on Facebook I came across another event that seemed interesting. Ephrata American Legion First Sunday Breakfast held each 1st Sunday from March to November in Central PA. The first time I attended this event back in 2012, and again several times in the following years I was amazed at the number of bikes that would show up in this huge parking lot in the middle of central PA. It reminded me of the old Super Sundays and the Slimey Crud Cafe Run events and I knew New England needed something like this!
So, this is why in 2021 I decided to start what is known as “Two Wheels at the Reservoir, 1st Sunday of the Month RTE” My dream was to get a bunch of motorcycles in New England to gather around one Sunday a month, have some coffee, kick some tires and enjoy some beautiful New England Roads. Originally It was called Two Strokes at the reservoir, hoping to get a bunch of 70s and 80s sportbikes to show up, but quickly became known as just Two Wheels at the Reservoir. It’s not specific to any type of bike or manufacture all bikes and riders are welcome. Just be respectful and follow traffic laws so we can continue to keep this event happening.
So, if you find yourself looking for a fun event on the 1st Sunday of each month, and you are local to Central Massachusetts then come on by to the Wachusett Reservoir in West Boylston at the northern Junction of rt 12 and 140 and have a cup of coffee while you check out some bikes!
