A beautiful day for a bike ride was not what lured us to take a bike ride to the southern shore of Lake Erie. We took the short ride to attend the 13th annual Thunder On The Strip bike rally in the tiny tourist town of Geneva On The Lake.
It's a good thing we didn't come to see the lake. The only parts visible in town were glimpses between the houses that lined the shore.
To get this view we technically trespassed on private property by walking down a driveway (which provided parking for several houses).
On the street bikers were starting to assemble. Both sides of the main street were sectioned off for bike parking. There were a lot of empty spaces, but most of the activities were not scheduled to start until this evening.
After attending several bike rallies including Daytona twice, we expected the usual assortment of booths selling leather goods, t-shirts and headbands, blingy accessories, carnival foods and services such as bike customizations and accessories. We should have realized that the size and location of the town would limit the number of vendors.
After perusing the vendors' tents, we looked at custom bikes.
This one's a Frankenstien trike because it's costomized by adding a variety of different parts not usually found on a "normal" trike. This one started in 1968 with a 1944 service car 45 flathead and was changed little by little until 2017 until it reached its present state. It may not be done yet.
We liked the colors on these two which both had skull heads on the gas tank.
This one featured custom handle grips, flame shaped mirrors and custom flame seats.
This one featured skull insets on the handle grips and on the foot pegs.
The majority of the bikes were black Harleys but we managed to find a few colors among this group including a couple of Harleys, a Victory, and three Spyders.
We also sighted one sidecar.
After strolling around looking for a couple of hours, we joined a few other people to watch the "Cage of Death" demo (far left). After waiting for 20 minutes we learned there was a discrepancy in the time on the schedule and the time the rider was scheduled to appear.
We decided to collect Duane's rally t-shirt and head home.
This proved to be our last little disappointment--only one graphic and no colors, only black, gray or white.
Despite our little let-downs, we enjoyed our ride, visiting our turn-around point, and--in spite of gathering rain clouds--arriving home dry.
Only two days left here at Jefferson, OH.
Louise and Duane
