Emerica Wild Ride 2008 Part One

Posted on Monday, June 16, 2008 by Ryan

Photos and Captions by Ryan Clements

This is the alley behind my house in Ybor. Geared up to get down. I had no idea what was ahead for me

That’s the mileage I started with as I hopped on I-4

This is SO Florida...just outside of St. Augustine off of I-95

Total outlaw biker somewhere in GA off of I-95

I got used to this quite a bit considering I only get 100 miles per tank out of the Sportster. Small bikes on long trips will kick your ass

After driving solo for 540 miles I decided to call it a night in Florence, SC. Ironically I stayed at a hotel across the street from one Rob Meronek, Scotty Conley, Sean Albright, and I stayed in a few years back. We actually skated this bank-to-curb on that trip. Cheers

The next morning I rode 150 miles to Raleigh, NC to meet up with the crew. Andrew Reynolds showed up first and got a late birthday present from the Emerica family...a 45-year-old guitar. He was very hyped

This is the scene out front of Endless Grind in Raleigh where they did a signing

That’s Fat Bob Reynolds. I had lunch with him and Will Campbell at Vertical Urge (killer name) in Raleigh

The rest of the team ripped the street course while Spanky did bonelesses in the bowl at Vertical Urge

They were throwing out these weird objects in the product toss at Vertical Urge

Emerica Team Manager Jeff Henderson goes the extra mile by filling up Braydon’s and Brandon Westgate’s tanks

Green Acres campsite in Williamston, NC

The Boss likes onions. Thanks to Mark Waters and crew for cooking out

Jerry Hsu, KSL, and Sean Eaton enjoying the campsite

A group at another campsite dropped off a bunch of crawfish and Marquise Preston went to town

Figgy is extra-stoked on the burgers

Marissa del Santo about to melt some marshmallows

This is what my sleeping arrangements consisted of while camping

The next morning Ben Gilley was up early and packed up before anyone else

Patrick O’Dell had never ridden a bike prior to this trip. He learned quickly and rode this loaner-hog from Williamston to Virginia Beach

Of course Heath Kirchart was there. He keeps a low profile

This dog belonged to another campsite, but he took advantage of our big crew’s willingness to throw pinecones for him. He was relentless

Sean Eaton went from little kid a few years back to grown-ass-biker-man and rides with the best of them

Remember Randy Browne that used to work the Shop at SPoT? He now lives in NC now and tagged along for a few days

We were 20 deep rolling through middle America

This is right when we rolled up to the KOA in Virginia Beach. The guy with the white shirt, I think his name was Harvey, is all the way from Vancouver, Canada and drove 2500 miles to join the group. He and I have the same bikes with small gas tanks, so along with Joey Tershay we had to leave everyone, gas up, and then catch back up. I took the Sporty up to 110mph at that point. It was sketchy…that bike isn’t supposed to go that fast

Suski showed up in Virginia Beach and TM Jeff Henderson greeted him

On the right is Kyle Berard posing with his boy Paul under the “no cursing” sign on Virginia Beach. Berard lives in VA and met us down at the touristy spot

Berard and Paul took us to a decent Mexican joint and the rest of the crew met up with us shortly thereafter. The place went nuts when Bryan Herman “won” a lobster. See that machine in the background? Well, it’s like one of those games that kids play to try and pick up stuffed toys, but instead you pick up live lobsters. Herman walked to the bar with it and they promptly cooked it up for him

Randy and I cut out early and went to the biker bar right by the KOA. I think we went to bed at like midnight, but it got really loud at our campsite in the wee hours of the morning. This dude didn’t quite get his tent posted!

The next morning we left the KOA and got breakfast down by the beach. I shot this photo of Rick Eusey at about 60mph on the way back. He’s another dude that went from am-status to full-on grown-all-biker-man. He’s a badass

Then Emerica took the ENTIRE tour on a trip to the local water park in Virginia Beach. Were they giving free swimming lessons or something? This is right before we got kicked out