Reprinted from Citybike, December, 1995, part 2
by Michael Psycle Bettinger
For
the second year, queer bikers invaded Death Valley in a (dis)organized fashion.
On October 13, 1995, twenty queer bikers left the Bay Area, traveled over Tioga
Pass, scared a group of tourists out of a natural hot creek and arrived at high
noon on Saturday at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley to find seven other queer
bikers already there. This was the 2nd Annual Queer Biker Invasion of Death
Valley.
This was a show and go run. No registration, no tee shirts, no pins. All you needed to attend was to show up and be a queer biker. For those who might be offended thinking this meant you had to be homosexual, queer has other meanings. You had to be queer as in eccentric, odd, peculiar, unconventional, unusual, bizarre, weird, grotesque or outlandish. Since that covers every biker on the planet, all were welcome. Sexual orientations ranged from gay to lesbian, bi, straight, curvy, crooked, bent and twisted.
Again this year, the group turned out to be the most open, fun, diverse and friendly bunch you could imagine. No one had to hold back because of the bike they were riding or who they thought was cute. It was the kind of biker group many of us hope for.
There were differences between this year's run and last year's. There was no snow over the mountains. In fact, California was blessed with a heat wave making the riding temperature perfect. And this year, there was no need to use a cell phone to call a medevac helicopter to scoop one of us up, as everyone decided to keep the rubber side down this time.
Highlights of the run included the beautiful weather, a natural hot spring in an incredible setting (on Route 395 just south of Mammoth Lake, follow the sign which says "Hatchery Road, Hot Creek" east for about three miles to a large parking lot. Park the bike and get naked in the water). Other highlights included long, straight roads in Death Valley where there is no place for the cops to hide where one sport bike rider claims to have hit 140 m.p.h. and many others claim to have done 125 m.p.h! Route 178 through the southern Sierra follows the Kern River through a twisty, narrow and steep canyon even at low speeds challenging the skills of all riders.
We hit the heights and the depths. Tioga pass, at almost 10,000 feet is as high a road as you can ride in California. The Lone Pine to Panamint Springs route has the steepest paved incline in California. And Death Valley, at 280' below sea level is as low as you can get.
The other depth of the trip was meeting two biker groups in Death Valley, one a HOG chapter and the other an "outlaw" looking club. No one in either group would acknowledge our mixed Japanese, American, German and Italian assemblage of bikes. Their loss.
The only causalities were a new Sportster which had to be trucked from Ridgecrest to San Francisco (bad valves) and a Honda with a flat fifty miles from home.
But the real highlight of this trip for this writer, who is also the (dis)organizer of this event, was my own secret agenda. While it might seem that this was simply an opportunity for queer bikers to take one last long trip before winter set in, the real reason for my (dis)organizing this run was that the meeting at Zabriskie Point occurred on my 50th birthday! It's my party and I'll ride if I want to.
So, if you are up for the 3rd Annual Queer Biker Invasion of Death Valley, be on Castro Street between Market and 18th Street on Saturday, October 12, 1996 at 8:00 a.m. prepared to ride 1,000 miles in three days and see the most incredible scenery California has to offer. Be there and be queer!