Miracle Ride 2009

[BadDawg]

Did any of our members go on the Riley Hospital Miracle Ride for kids?

It was a really nice day. Someone said there were around 7,000 bikes that went. It is a really great event and the kids have benefited from this through the years.

[Captain Bligh]

I rode for the second, and probably last time.

I like the gathering before the ride begins. It's fun to walk around and see all the different bikes and chat with people. The stage presentations were fun, too.

However, I liked the old staging spot better than the Lucas Oil Stadium staging spot. Lucas seemed more crowded and you can't see so much because the bikes were jammed so close together.

It's a noble cause and I like particpating on one level but...

Too much of the ride was at too low of a speed, between 5 and 10 miles an hour. You never stopped and never quite got going. It was slip the clutch and try to balance as if you were in a slow race contest. I nearly put a foot down about 1,000 times. About the time, I thought I was definitely going to stop and readied myself to put a foot down, the bike ahead of me moves and I could slip the clutch to inch forward another foot or so before doing it all over again.

The group I was with decided we'd prefer to go riding with each other someplace else next year.

The very best part of the day was that they didn't call me to tell me that I won the Victory Vision.

[BadDawg]

Yeah I agree with you about riding in the procession. So this year I only attended the staging. I was wondering about the loop for life around 465 but I think that might be a little too crowded also. It's pretty neat to see all the bikes tho.

[elamey]

Sorry guys...I had a blast. It was my third time and i'll go again until I can't. That lap around the Indy speedway is the shiz and for me, worth the wait. They do have some issues though.

1. Registration at the hotel - I heard they will be moving back to the parking lot across from the speedway next year. The parking lot was tore up for re-construction. The hotel was a fiasco but they were forced into it this year.

2. Barny Fife wanna be - Some speedway dude was driving a truck around the track slowing everyone down and generally creating a safety hazard. When I pulled on the track, I got just in front of him. My dad was behind the truck on his gold wing. I took off on my Street Bob..the guy in the truck was flapping his arms like a chicken, so my dad says wtf, hits the hammer and went around him. He wasn't going to catch us till our lap was over so whats he going to do. I guess the bikes were stacking up and he wanted to slow the pack down to wait for some of the bikes to exit the track. That is the stupid way to handle it, they real problem is the tiny exit where only one bike at a time can go through...see item 4 below.

3. If they want to limit speed on the track, they need to come up with a policy. I would suggest a speed limit in the turns. You pay your money, you want to crack the throttle on the track, most of us aren't racers so wacking the throttle on the straits would be good. Also, a slow/fast lane would be good. Make a slow lane on the bottom 1/4 of the track. We sign a waver, let us run. But a speed limit on the turns would be a good thing. They just need to have a set policy.

4. Bikes exiting the track. WTF!!! They have a tiny exit where at most two honda rebels could get through at a time, so the bikes stack up well back on the track. My gosh the speedway has the safety track, all those F1 Roads....exit the bikes off onto the safety track where you can get at least 4 wide, then route them through the internal F1 tracks to the exit. The exit under the track has several lanes. But the bottleneck is that tiny exit opening. Stack the exiting bikes up on the safety track and infield, leaving the track clear so you can get your lap, instead of 1/2 a lap. Besides being able to run your whole lap, it would be much safer stacking the exiting bikes up in the infield. But you have to get 4-6 bikes off the track at a time, not just one!

Like I said, I love it and will be there again and again (i'm a Riley kid myself).
I'm willing to put up with it for the experience.
But like some of the posts above describe, not everone is.