Jenius Biker: 2 Stroke Extravaganza 2019

This past weekend, May 18 & 19th, the Bats took part in the annual 2 Stroke Extravaganza. We have made a point of going every year and the last couple years we have increased our presence on both the ride and at the show. For this years event we brought down 6 bikes from the Bats stables so we rented a big trailer to haul everything down. Marcus has the biggest, baddest truck so he is head of logistics for the Bats.

Here is the “Beast” that hauled six of our motorcycles down from the bay area including all our gear and luggage. The 800+ Ft lbs of torque made the trailer feel like we just threw a bag of potato chips in the back, but the length was tricky to navigate at times.

Let me preface this by saying I am inherently biased in my opinion, but this is the best motorcycle event held on the west coast! Sure you can spend lots of money on entry and lodging for the Quail Motorcycle Gathering to putt around on a “parade” ride and drool over beautiful, never ridden, garage queens or bid $10’s of thousands on more motorcycle porn that you will never ride, but that’s not real motorcycle culture. That’s for people who find motorcycles interesting and have money to waste on vehicles as “art” instead of their intended purpose.

The 2 Stroke Extravaganza on the other hand is motorcycle culture at its purest. It’s dozens of enthusiasts with a passion for two stroke motorcycles coming together to ride, enjoy, buy, and sell some of the best motorcycles ever made (more bias :-) The range of enthusiasts who attend spans the spectrum of baby boomers, hardcore restorers, 60’s & 70’s, hipster 80's riders, 90's-00's racers, and Gen Xers who don’t have a two stroke yet, but find them fascinating.

Ride meet up spot. Lot's of trucks and trailers!

The meet up for the Saturday 115 mile ride brought out lots of sweet bikes you will rarely ever see on the street. This was the longest ride we’ve been on in quite some time, but our little 70, 85, and 125’s all were able to keep up with the 250’s, 500’s, and 750 triples through the mountains. The ride leader was on a really clean rz350 with brand new top ends so the pace wasn’t too fast on the way up, but coming back down the mountains he certainly picked up the pace a bit and only two of us were able to maintain the speed through the twisties. Fortunately for the rest of the group there was a chase truck with a trailer, in case of breakdown, and a sweep rider aboard the RZV 500.

The three Bats bikes lined up next to the sweep RZV 500

Pretty good turnout for a real ride through the mountains at TT speed and a questionable weather forecast. Halfway point of the ride we stopped to fill up our bikes and more importantly our stomachs. Yes there were a couple 4 strokers that joined the ride too!

My Aprilia RS50 that was built specifically for this ride developed a bad fork seal leak on the way back. At least I have a year to get it right before the next Extravaganza!

Sunday was show time and although it was raining on and off the morning of, there was still a decent amount of attendees.

We got to the show an hour early so we would have a prime spot right at the front and set up our double EZ-UP Bat cave. We brought a 2001 Honda HRC RS250, 2003 Derbi Motard, 2006 Aprilia RS125, and a couple of Aprilia RS50’s.