Race Shop Rides (February 25+27)

Back to Concord, NC on Friday February 25. It was a warm and very windy day; but after two weeks of just wanting to be on a motorcycle, was good to again be on mine. Took this photo in Concord; got a kick out of my shadow following me, and thought this photo was sort of different. Turned out better than I thought, as did the ride. Friday in the area is pretty busy traffic wise, and this day was no exception, but I knew a few roads that were usually not bad traffic wise. Rode up NC-73 and turned onto the Kannapolis Parkway where I came across Stewart-Haas Racing. I had not seen that shop, did a little backtracking, and found my way to the door..which was open.
Inside the shop was a lot of really cool cars (which will be featured in my "Richmond and Me" blog) but also this motorcycle. This bike was built for Stewart Haas Racing by Orange County Choppers (aka OCC) in 2004, and it is quite a ride. Good quality job from what I could see, and its quite a looooonnnnnngggg motorcycle; I would think it could be a real bear to turn. This is the second OCC bike I have actually seen (another one was on display during one of the races, and can be seen on a previous post to this site) but it was a lot of fun to check it out. I was always a big fan of that show, and the work that those designers did. Kind of wacked now there, but whatever!

Got another view of the bike here, sort of a closeup of that big massive tank. Visited the shop for quite a while, and then went up NC-3 (figures don't it?) to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Surprisingly, the museum there is still open as most of the racing operations have been moved to the area of the Concord airport as a merged "Earnhardt-Ganassi" operation, but the older shop still had a lot of things on display and it was nice to be back there (and that shop was also open, which was a surprise). Rode some of my favorite roads back to the house in what was a three hour ride. It sure felt good to be back in the saddle again, and enjoyed a fun and interesting ride.
Non-bike on Saturday visited Wood Brothers Racing in Harrisburg, NC, but back on the bike on Sunday. Saw this sport bike on sale (just liked it, so snapped a photo) and rode for an hour. That and the previous ride gave me a total of 103 miles for the weekend. Much less windy on Sunday, and much less traffic too.
As I noted, got some good photos of the three race shops and also some of the items in it, which you can see on the Richmond and Me blog as noted.
Certainly was a smile-inducing weekend, could not have asked for better weather, and as always no better places to ride than can be found in NC.