Twine Ball 2010

Wow. About a year ago we started a silly social networking website for the chopper-inclined: Chop Cult. Not long after the launch last August a few members piped-up that they were tired of reading about fun times on the internet and wanted an event of their own. We didn't have the time or energy to do one more event, especially not one 1500 miles from home. Being the go-getter Americans that a few fellows were, they took matters into their own hands and organized the Twine Ball Run. The idea was simple, Osborne Kansas had a fairground that was near the world's largest ball of twine and also happened to be squarely in the middle of the country so folks who don't happen to live on either coast could make it a little easier. Plus, the town was named after Ozzy so you know it likes to party. We loaded up a couple bikes and trailered them out there in a non-stop coffee-fueled frenzy with our buddy Joel and another truck behind us with Craze, his wife Lori who wins the award for least complaining woman of all time and his friend Dan. Now, it may be douchy to trailer your bikes, but we did it and it allowed us to make it to the beer soaked campout in about 28 hours. We made it home in just under 24. I've got to say driving Kansas in the daytime is hard. We all agreed that the state is moving the same direction as the truck, because you never seem to get anywhere. Corn. Lots of it. Anyway, the event was a relatively simple affair, but that's only because CC members Bulldog, ChoppyGee, Weedkiller and the rest did the heavy lifting. These dudes proved that you can put some work into an event without needing a whole lot of moving parts. There were no vendors or organized games or entertainment, but there was plenty of cold beer, a fire pit, a huge circle track raceway, food, bathrooms and antics galore. I'd estimate we had 50+ people. Did I mention pink hats and tribal tats? Check. We actually rode our motorcycles on Saturday. We went around 200 miles and turned about four times. Kansas may be boring to ride in, but you don't need a helmet and it's pretty easy to navigate. We ate lunch at a cool bar and visited a world class motorcycle museum as well as a neat Triumph shop in Marquette, Kansas. There was a low key bike show back at camp later that night and raffle to make sure nearly everyone went home with something. I think by the end of the deal everyone was stoked on it. I know we were. Thanks to everyone for the gumption to do the event in the first place and sack to ride from all over the country just to hang out with other sweaty dirt bags you previously had only known on the internet! You can see some pics of the mayhem here, I stole the ones I'm using on the blog because I still haven't gone through the hundreds we took.