I planned on taking my newly acquired Eldorado to the West Virginia rally at the end of May, but I noticed more and more oil blowing out of it. So the Thursday before the rally I rode up to MG Cycle in Brooklyn, Wisconsin (about 90 miles away) and picked up new pistons and cylinders. I got home around 7:30 P.M. and by 10:00 P.M. the bike was alive and well! I couldn't believe how easily it went. I put about one hundred miles on it Friday and retorqued everything that evening.

Saturday I left for West Virginia around 4:30 A.M. As I was heading through Chicago I saw a guy pushing his Harley so I stopped to help. He had run out of gas and had about a mile to go to get to a gas station. I was carrying a spare gallon of fuel so we threw it in and he was good to go. He wanted to give me money but I said, "That’s not how it works; we're cool."  I was back on the road and the bike was running great. I took U.S. Highway 30 through Indiana, which was not really exciting, almost interstate-like, but it's pretty direct. In Ohio I dropped down on Ohio State Highway 309 through Lima and Marion. Ohio 288 came in after the small town of Iberia, and then over to a beautiful piece of road, Ohio 97.

A little past the Mohican State Park I took Ohio 39 East, and it was equally as nice as Ohio 97 with lots of sweepers and rolling hills, which makes you forget you're in Ohio. The bike was still running great and no motor oil was blowing out of it. I stayed on Ohio 39 to East Liverpool, and then I was in West Virginia, a short distance from the rally site.

I set up the tent, unloaded a few things and went for a little ride into Pennsylvania - kind of a loop around and back to the rally. It also included a stop at Beall & Nairn Company, a motorcycle shop on U.S. Highway 30. I left the rally early Sunday morning, heading south to Weirton. I picked up Ohio Highway 646 in Steubenville and headed west over to U.S. Highway 250, passing the Custer State Memorial.

Tappen Lake and dam was a nice. It was sunny again and the water looked as blue as could be. I hit U.S. Highway 30 in Wooster and it was pretty much a routine ride the rest of the way back until I stopped in Valpraiso, Indiana. I filled up at a station there and within a mile after I pulled out my perfectly running bike started pinging like crazy. I could only attribute it to bad gas. I made it through Chicago and back to Wonder Lake okay, but the pinging got pretty aggravating. To finally cure the problem I had to drain the tank, install some new plugs and fill the tank with fresh gas.

This was my first big ride on the Eldorado since I bought it a few weeks back. The experience was quite different from riding my T-3 that I'm used to. Drum brakes and a flip-flop shift pattern will wake you up if you're not paying attention. I wanted to sell it after I had owned it only a few days, but the more I ride it, the more it grows on me. I doubt I could get rid of it now!