The bike wasn't TOO horrible as far as the cleaning goes. I did a lot of cleanup while in Maryland the year before. But, many parts needed new paint, lots of polishing and much detail work. Used a lot of elbow grease and a Dremel wire brush combo.

After three solid days of cleaning, painting and polishing, she was ready to go. This was the most detailed cleaning I had done on this bike in years and she was standing tall and ready for the crowds.

With the old girl and the custom-made display board.

I took some time and made a nice display board to accompany the bike at the show. I called her the "Reagan Era Retro-Rocket". It really turned out great. Actually met a couple of ex-Yoshimura folks as well. They had worked for Yosh during the Kevin Schwantz years. It was a fun time discussing all those racing stories.

The cockpit view with DJ and dancers.

The show turned out to be such a fun time. Some of my co-workers showed up to support and vote. We got there early and Jack got us a killer spot right in front of the DJ booth. Our bikes got a lot of love from the attendees and we got a lot of entertainment from the dancers. So glad that we did the show.

After the show I was still commuting the bike to work. One lovely morning I exited highway 94 at a pretty spirited pace. When I grabbed the brake lever, it went straight to the bar. Pucker factor TEN! Luckily I was able to bleed off a lot of the speed with the rear brake and a possible disaster was averted. I was able to use the rear brake until I got to work. Then scrounged up a toolkit and repositioned the master cylinder so there was a little fluid left in case of an extreme emergency on the way home. All went well and I promptly ordered a new set of HEL lines, pads and M/C rebuild kit. Turns out the Fastline Brake Lines I installed back in 1995 started leaking which caused the failure. Once I got everything installed, it was a bit better than before, but still never felt quite right. At least I had decent pressure and could stop.