the Philo Beddoe Family Reunion

[LRChops]

Philo was one of the best weekends I have had in a decade! Excellent!!! Everything about it was just perfect (weather, food, ride, booze, music loop, raffle, and mostly the folks and great bikes)

[tankerdude135]

The Philo rocked! Great food, great people, great bikes.....good times had by all. Can't wait til next year

[TroopThrowback]

I second that. The Philo was a super chill, no attitudes hangout that featured incredible food (in enormous quantities), the classiest cycles, and a really killer 3 hour 40 mile ride. This is going on the yearly calendar for sure. Gabe always throws a good time, but this year he ordered the best weather all summer.

I'll get my photos up in a day or so.

[Guest]

Took the long way home threw Donner Pass and Reno. Going to bed now. More tomorrow with some pix.
Great time Gabe! That Tri Tip was the best!

[Guest]

Posted a bunch of pix on the blog. Too many to repost them all here so heres the link.

http://newbluecollarmoto.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-i-did-this-weekend-ride-ride-ride.html

I'll be posting more up tonight.

[AfterHours]

What a fucking weekend!

Friday night was chill - solid dudes started rolling in about 4, and just about 16 of us sitting around and having a family style spagetti dinner with decent fixin's and plenty of beer & liquor. Good food, music and people - what more could you ask for than the home made peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies the wife made? We even had our new friend JP spill his bike about 6 feet into the grounds, you just gotta like that.

Saturday rocked fo' sho'! We had an absolutely great ride with all the wacky beer stops, swimming in the lake, dangerous roads and near fatal wheelie attempt. The boys from Carson missed the trip somehow and instead of spanking thier monkeys all day they rode into Oakland to watch the A's beat Texas and still made it back way before dinner time....how fucking cool is that? Kyle from Cannon Printing made shirts Friday night, got his bike running and drove from Chico in time to make the breakfast ride with about 2 hours sleep - I was pretty flattered by his effort.

The Throwbacks from Grass Valley represented later in the day, along with the Roseville/Sac crew. Both groups plagued with blown motors but trucked in to have a good evening. From both groups we only had Scotty & Jared roll for the morning ride...NorCal blew it on that one. It was good to see a few of them roll in later in the day.

As dudes rolled in I started to relax a bit more. When we got back to camp Bill, Chris, Revelator, Rustrocket & my man Craze were chillin' in the shade from what seemed to be a great ride so far. Murray and Kelly were with us from Friday night and soon enough Matt D, Caleb and JD rolled in and put a huge smile on my face. I gotta say that SoCal represented in a big way. I'm not suprised. Jonathan from the DT's rolled in and guys from all over trickling into the grounds pretty much until dark. I am very pleased with the turn out.

We drank 2 kegs by the afternoon and had 2 more delivered promptly. As the sun went down we brought out the bar and got a bit smashed. My family rocked the kitchen and I piloted the maiden voyage of the Merrimack....anybody get a picture of my new baby? Into the night we had a great raffle of which I remember very little of. I think I mc'd alright...? I remember Lois wouldn't sing for everybody and I kept lighting my cigar, besides that there's some blank spaces in my memory. Into the night was simple ass-clownery. The only one to get hurt was my wife, who got the fuck knocked out by another chick while they were boxing with Bozo boppers. The swelling on her forehead went down by morning and by the time she got to work today she looked like another statistic married to a biker. I've been waiting for the local sherrif to pull up all day.

I think we'll do it again next year. We had more indoor space than we culd use but the place was off the hook. Maybe next year I'll work with the sponsors a bit differently or find a cheaper venue but it was worth the effort to finally get a true event/party up here. I have no interest in sponsors that have no intention on joining us. Any fool can throw a couple bucks out there, we're here to party.

We could do the vendor thing but commercializing a great party just fucks it up. I didn't even hang the banners and the sponsors didn't seem to mind. At the end of the day it has nothing to do with business as much as promoting a 'life style choice' of sorts. I'm terrible at promoting and was glad so many came out for this.

At $25 I knew there wouldn't be many cheapskates and everyone seemed to be fine with the cost -all in all it covered about 2/3 of the total bill and that helps a bunch! The wife and I have been trying to do something up here for 4 years and we finally just made it happen and hoped for the best. If you didn't eat and drink your fill I don't know what to tell you other than you suck.

Thanks to the sponsors :

LILLIAN ROSE CHOPPERS
BAXTER MOTORCYCLE
OLD ~ STF
BILTWELL
DICE MAGAZINE
...of course....AFTER HOURS CHOPPERS

Cycle Source threw in some subs and Cannon Printing brought some shirts - thanks to both!

I tried to get the new bike going but I just couldn't pull it together. I trailered it in like a homo, forgive me. It'll be a hell of a fun bike and I hope to have it at Bonneville at the end of the week or Trents GZTD in a couple weeks.

[Craze]

Gabe, you outdid yourself. You and your clan (LOIS!) were perfect hosts and we appreciated it dearly! We're always down to help any way we can, so let us know about next year! Great seeing old friends and making new ones for sure. Glad SoCal had a bunch of people crawl out of the woodwork for this one. Can't leave 'em thinking we only ride to the coffee shops down here.

A few shots -

Bill showing how to properly catch the ever-elusive "lunchable". Fish were in short supply, so we had to resort to dirty tactics!


Lake Lundy rules... look what washed up while waiting for fish (lunchables) to jump...


BCM Chris telling stories. Hey Chris, when you gonna remember that joke?


Bill and Revelator creating proper campfire furniture

[MattDavis]

Gabe, I just wanted to say what a great event bruv. From the killer location through to the killer food. Thank you, thank you and thank you for putting it all together, one of the best weekends I have had for ages. Sorry we missed the Saturday ride, but we had a brilliant one of own so all good there then. It was a real pleasure rolling into the campground and seeing lots of friends from Nor and So Cal. I think you should try and hold it at the same place next year if at all possible, it was perfect. And to the people who didn't go......well...... you missed out.

[TroopThrowback]

From the only one of the Throwbacks to make the Saturday ride, here's my report:

Starting with the perfect weather that dabbled between 65 degrees as I rolled out of Grass Valley at 8am to the 85 degrees as we hit the alpine water of Sugarpine Reservoir, not a bead of sweat fell from my brow until negotiating the posted 5 MPH switchbacks of Iowa Hill Road. And it had nothing to do with ambient temp, it was sweat from considering the stakes if my Triumph's single 7 inch rear brake shoe or any of its components failed! Trying to keep up with Rory on his Sportster Scrambler certainly proved a challenge, and he was two-up!

A cold beer at the bar on top of Iowa Hill (if anyone can answer the query of how you keep beer cold without electricity on top of a hill, open your own bar somewhere else, these people somehow do it!) and a mad dash back to Colfax and civilization via the most scenic canyon road I've seen in some time. Considerably refreshed we jammed back via the shortest, fastest route to HQ - the Grange Hall - for kegs of NAFTA Beer (domestic tastes on both sides of the contested US/Mexico Border were met) and some leftover cookies and spaghetti.

A big Thank You goes out here to Gabe's much better half, Lois, who whipped up some of the best background grub I've had this far from the dirty South. Hand-beaten biscuits, gooey cookies, killer salad (not that iceburg and ranch crap), all-day beans, the list goes on. Even grilled veggies to compliment Gabe's outstanding effort at the helm of his masterpiece; the Merrimack! What a grand Ironclad she is, capable of handling not only gargantuan tri-tip, but likewise smoking tube steaks with aplomb! Only Gabe himself could design such a contraption (experience help much?)

Beyond the food and drink, the overall atmosphere was perfect. No breaks in the shade in the 2 acre milling area surrounding the Hall, there was little need to venture indoors save to sample some of the treats Lois was preparing or swig some harder libations. The crowd was the best I've gotten to mingle with in some time, and no attitudes anywhere. Everyone had a great time, the raffle made a lot of people happy, and the shenanigans continued long after I stumbled home.

Enjoy some ride photos:

Foresthill Bridge:



JP's Beautiful Mongrel:



The Breakfast stop at Foresthill:





Monkey see:



Monkey Do:











Back at HQ:

[Guest]

Gabe & Murray, (and wives!) thanks for putting this shindig on.

We surely ate better than any other event I've been to.

Please don't add vendors and turn it into work.

As it was, it was just a good excuse to ride real far and hang out under the trees in a great spot. Revelator, Rustrocket, Craze, BCMChris, you guys rule and were good riding partners for sure. There are so many epic roads up there it's crazy, can't wait to get back already. I'll put up a feature on the run next week and pile a few more pics into this thread soon.

[AfterHours]

Gabe & Murray, (and wives!) thanks for putting this shindig on.

Please don't add vendors and turn it into work.

Steve from LRC was a huge help in making this happen as well, from spitballing ideas to manual labor to kicking down a couple hours of engraving to some very lucky raffle winners.

As for the vendors - agreed!

[Guest]

Posted more pix on the blog from the ride up. Having some problem with Photobucket not letting me download today. I'll post up some pix here when I get it worked out.

http://newbluecollarmoto.blogspot.com/2010/08/philo-trip-friday-ride-up.html

[battleborn]

Philo

Philo Beddoe Family Reunion was so much fun! First time I've been to an event like that, but I really can't figure out how it could get any better. Great people, great food, great bikes...in fact, I'm sure that will be the best party of the year in my book.

We didn't arrive until Saturday night, so I don't have many pictures except for a few bike shots that I snapped before we left on Sunday, but here they are. Sincere thanks to everyone who made Philo Beddoe happen.

[artkrhymes]

Thanks Gabe and Lois for the good ass food and really great ride... Def gonna come back for next year and stay for the whole shindig... I should have fuckin stayed.... Great people, real chill, fun, dope bikes... What more can I ask for! Oh thanks Murray for the grips, way better than the ones I got on there...

For those who missed the ride or kept buggin me on where I'll post the pics, stay tuned...

[TRUMPNUT]

It was a blast ! Best time I have had drinking with fellow thinkers since the first EDR . Great just wished my bike would have made it , But at least my wifes Triumph is solid !