Xmas Ride and Party
We’ve been delaying posting this journal as it’s been an incredibly busy January for us sorting out the new season’s tours starting very soon!
Truth is…we wanted to get together to celebrate the re-establishment of RIDE 70s as a fully fledged Motorcycle Club for a while, and could never find the time, but a Xmas party on the 29th of December was finally the right excuse to celebrate friendship, family and our grand plans for 2023. Being a last minute soirée, we decided to keep it intimate and simple: ride in the afternoon, BBQ and drinks at night.
Friends began arriving at the R70s Clubhouse in the morning and from all over: Bologna, Padova, Naples, San Marino, with Davide even stopping by on his (800km) way to a family Xmas in southern Italy. One by one we started taking out the bikes for the day to satisfy their thirst for petrol. Properly preparing classic motorcycles for a ride and introducing them to their riders is always a bit of a process, one that R70s Pietro has done many times before. Fluids, tires, cables, spark plugs, warm up, and by around 3pm everybody knew what to do with their rides, had a traditional Piadina snack (thanks Manuela!), and we were ready to take off onto that fast twisty road out of San Marino.
As we enjoyed the smooth ride across the neighbouring Emilia Romagna hills (a region famous for its amazing ham and cheese produce), while marvelling at the mountains and villages in the distance, suddenly a thick fog with a visibility of some 20 mt swallowed us, making it feel like we just entered the next level of a video game. Reaching this tiny ancient village atop a mountain called San Leo, the full on experience then climaxed with a sudden crack in the clouds, the sunshine through the fog and onto our faces for 5 minutes of glory. Up in the town main square the locals studied us at as if we had just reached Mont Blanc. Seeing us with vintage bikes they must must have thought we understood why they live in such an old village, or maybe they thought we were crazy riding in December. Either way, they were very interested to know why we’re there with those bikes and who we were. Perhaps the novelty of seeing a bunch of bikes from their teenage years…
Back at the clubhouse after a good few hours of riding beautiful mountains and countless twisties the party was on the way. Stefano from Birra Seriola was setting up his draught beer and Argentinian Lorenzo was lighting the fire for the bbq, while Magda and the others were laying out giant olives, tasty Coppa (cured ham) and Reggiano (Parmiggiano cheese) for us hungry riders. It was cold, I’m not gonna lie, but we were all pretty hype for the great ride and it took no time for the party to get going. Cars and bikes started piling up in the big courtyard outside, while the mood inside warmed up to the music beat. Our friends at Italian Birra Seriola kindly sponsored the event with copious amounts of ‘motorcycle' craft beer: the so called single, the twin, the three and four cylinders beers, plus the ‘miscela’, an interesting on the spot mix of cloudy hoppy beer and juice. Thankfully numerous trays of perfectly grilled beef an
In the end, our Xmas ride and party was an intimate affair and a great success, a beautiful opportunity to bring old and new friends together to celebrate our ‘new’ RIDE 70s as a sport association and classic motorcycle club dedicated to incredible Moto-tourism in Italy, and open to everybody round the world. Yes, we would have really loved to make this a much bigger event, inviting friends from further away, but the time of year and the last minute arrangement made this impossible. As we are already planning our next ride and party, we hope it won’t be long before we see many of you at the clubhouse!
Godspeed!
