Within the different communities of vintage motorcycle enthusiasts, there is often certain subcultures or niches that emerge over the years that tend to gravitate towards different models or brands. For example some people absolutely love 2 stroke vintage dirtbikes and nothing else and set out to devote all their free time and money to making sure that they keep them on the road and well appreciated. Well what about 2 stroke mini superbikes? Yep, theres a whole subculture for that and Brandon Friedman of Brooklyn, New York set out to make an event centered around his love for the 1980's-90's Yamaha YSR 2 strokes. In 2019 he put on his first YSR Daize in Suches, Georgia and the event has quickly developed a following from fellow enthusiasts around the country. Brandon's event is quickly coming up yet again on July 16th, 2021 so we wanted to give a little backstory on the event, what got him into these fun little machines and why if you own a YSR yourself, you might just be inclined to dust it off and set a course for Georgia here in a couple weeks.
Our adventure picks up where we left off with the completion of the Biltwell "circle of death" races and continues the fun leading into another night of good times and some exploration of the local sights further south of San Felipe the next day including the incredible "Valle de Los Gigantes" with towering cacti reaching 60 foot in height. We then circle back to camp for the Choppers magazine bike show and end the weekend on another bar hopping rager in town before saddling up Monday morning to make the scorching trek back through the desert up Hwy 5 into Mexicali, then onward into the beautiful winding Southern California roads leading us to Temecula.
We ran a feature recently on Biltwell's last wild El Diablo Run that took place in 2019, a biannual baja San Felipe run that's been going since 2006 and since it was now time again we saddled up and set a course back west for another EDR adventure. What we found was much like any experience in life, in 2 years a lot can change. The world was different and so were we, and even though the faces and the roads are familiar, you find yourself having a whole new set of experiences, some good, some bad, but always worth their weight in gold. If you've ever heard stories about the EDR well, they are all true and even though the destination is the same, everyone's journey there is quite different. Its all part of what makes it worth every second of unequivocal blissful agony it takes to reach that moment when you get to share the tales of your struggles with your fellow riders. Dipping your toes in the Sea of Cortez, clanking bottles of cold cerveza and locking arms in celebration of the moments that got you there. This weeks feature will bring things full circle to the 2021 run and those moments that came to pass.
With the pandemic shutting things down for the past year and some change, it’s nice to see things slowly getting back to normal. For us, normalcy is being surrounded by motorcycles and good people. Every year we look forward to getting out to events, checking out awesome motorcycles and talking with you the people. When the pandemic hit, all shows were halted and over the last few months we’ve seen many shows cancel and reschedule for 2022 due to Covid-19 restrictions in their states. When we caught wind that the One Moto Show was still a go out in Portland, this got us excited! In our eyes, this could be the start of shows + events coming back in the motorcycle world. Our pal Mark Adams just so happens to live out in Portland, and made sure to load us up with photos from this years One Moto Show.
The amount of great times that can be had in Daytona during bike week often seems limitless with events happening daily and one of the great ones not to be missed this year was the Traditional Chopper/ Chopcult show taking place at the world famous "Last Resort Bar" in Port Orange, Florida. This tiny hole in the wall bar has had a very long history of wild times and interesting characters that have left their mark on the establishment and the grounds that surround it. Also a scene for the Hollywood movie "Monster" starring Charlize Theron playing the female serial killer Aileen Wuornous who in real life made the bar one of her last stops before her final incarceration. Who could also forget the infamous "Japanese motorcycle hanging tree" that has a long Daytona history ever since the early 80's bringing to light the dark side of the divide in vintage motorcycle culture. While we do not condone it, the fact remains it's an interesting part of southern biker culture that has long since carved into history so we had to see the tree, the bar, the show and the grounds of Last Resort for ourselves.
