In July each year American Honda has a homecoming at their manufacturing plant in Marysville, Ohio. Also that weekend, the Valkyrie Riders Cruiser Club held their 3rd annual INZANE rally 90 miles east in Zanesville, Ohio.
So on Thursday, the 24th of July, three members from the Kankakee Chapter of RIDE left Kankakee at 5 a.m. just as the sun was coming up--Mike on his black 1998 Honda Magna 750, Carl on his red 2000 Honda Goldwing, and myself on my 1999 red and black Honda Valkyrie. Our goal was to make it to the Homecoming around noon EST to beat the crowds and tour the plant without waiting in line. We would then head over to the Valkyrie rally to check out the vendors and meet up with a couple of riders who post on the Valkyrie bulletin board.

Carl is relatively new to motorcycles. His longest ride before this was a roundtrip of about 300 miles from Kankakee to Springfield, IL and back for the Flat Track race called the Springfield Mile. Heck, we planned to do that many miles on the Marysville trip before lunchtime! We stayed off the interstate and headed west on Route 24. About 175 miles into the trip we stopped for breakfast. In talking to Carl when we stopped, we knew he was ready for a full day of riding. He never thought that he would ride 175 miles before breakfast and that it could be so much fun. The next stop was Marysville and the Honda Plant.
As we had hoped, we got right into the plant. The plant is amazing. They build the Goldwing, Valkyrie, Valkyrie Rune, VTX 1800 and 1300 and the Shadow line, along with two models of 4-wheelers. As we walked through the plant they were building Goldwings and VTXs on the same line; 4-wheelers were being built across the aisle. The tour also took us through the paint area, frame welding area, and the area where they make the gas tanks. The engine blocks are made about 18 miles to the west in Anna, Ohio. Then we checked out the rest of the Honda exhibits and got something to eat at one of the tents Honda had set up. Unfortunately, the motorcycle demo rides were all booked for the day, as they tend to fill up fast.
Another goal was to get a photo in front of the Honda plant sign. During a trip two years ago, we had stopped at the plant with Ken and Herm and had to ask Mike to park his Yamaha out of view from the photo we were taking in front of the Honda plant sign. Now that Mike is a fellow Honda brother, we let him be in our group photo this year! We then headed east to check out the Valkyrie rally.
The Valkyrie Riders Cruiser Club (VRCC) http://www.valkyrieriders.com/ has over 20,000 riders signed up, and it's board can get a thousand hits a day. We checked out the Valks and the vendor area. I bought a couple of t-shirts and talked to a bunch of riders and just kind of hung out for a while. We talked to Daniel Meyer, who was signing his book Life is a Road. Now I'm not much of a reader, but I read his book of short stories in two nights. It's not some great literary work or anything, but it's a comfortable read--it's kind of like sitting around telling stories about motorcycle trips or events, and maybe the truth gets stretched a little.
http://www.valkyrieriders.com/articles/life_is_a_road.htm
Then we headed back west to our hotel room.

Friday is a big day for the Valkyrie Club. Their 1,000 Valk March was planned for 10:00 a.m. The march is a parade-type ride that started in Marysville at the Wal-Mart and traveled thru town and then into the Honda plant. The VRCC did miss their goal of 1,000 Valks this year by around 160 bikes, but it was still very cool. The Goodyear blimp was flying over, and Honda brought out two new Honda Valkyrie Runes to lead the march. Honda had released the Runes for sale at dealers that morning. Corbin's "Ride On" TV show was also there filming the event for an upcoming show. http://rideontv.com/episodes/2003Season/CRN8011/valkyrie.html
When we got to the plant, the plant manager drew 30 names from all the VRCC members who attended for a chance to take a Honda Rune out on the Honda test track. Well, my name was drawn, so along with 29 others I headed to a bus and out to the track. Honda did not let anyone but the riders go out to the track, so Mike and Carl headed over to the 4x4's and took some demo rides.
At the track we were greeted by all of the department heads. Of course at Honda you can't tell they are department heads since everyone from the plant manager to the janitor all wear the same uniform. Everyone was hyped up not only because of the chance to ride Honda's newest and one it's most expensive production motorcycles ever made, but also because of the fear of doing something really stupid and becoming famous (or at least infamous) by dropping the Rune!
The plant manager went over the rules. We would each get two laps around the banked Honda test track on one of the two Runes that they brought out. We were asked to keep it under 60 mph and to not go higher than the middle lane of the track. After several checks of my motorcycle license the wait began. The first few riders went off without a hitch. But as I was getting my jacket on, a rider missed a shift and a roar went up from the crowd. As two riders returned from their laps at the same time, two of us headed to the bikes, but we both headed to the red bike. I politely asked if he wanted to ride the red bike; he did, so I climbed on the black bike.

The first thing I noticed was that I sat very low and was stretched out. The tank is very big and made my tank on the Interstate look small. I paused for a photo and then put the helmet on and headed to the track. I had never ridden on a banked track before, so I took the lowest lane the first lap around. The second lap I headed into the middle lane as I got a feel for the bike and then brought the bike up to my 60 mph limit. The bike handled great with lots of power. I think Honda had figured out that everyone would need a couple of laps to get comfortable, so they cut us off before we could put the bike to a real test! The ride was short, but I will remember it for a long time.
Thanking the plant manager after the ride, I was told that the red Rune was number 11 off the line and the black one was number 2. Good things come to those who wait!

Luckily, I like to carry a disposable camera on motorcycle trips cuz if you lose it or drop it, it's no big deal. And, as fate would have it, another Kankakee area rider that I knew was also picked to ride, so I took photos of his ride and he did of mine. But, of course, after the ride the disposable if you lose it or drop it, it's no big deal camera became very valuable!
The rest of the trip was kind of a blur, but I think I had a smile on my face for weeks. I did take some ribbing from Mike and Carl about a constant smile and my few minutes of fame, but I didn't care cuz I had ridden the #2 Rune.

Mongo - US-IL-Kankakee