Brings Riders To Thomasville

Lure Of The Long Road Table Brings Riders To Thomasville

By Lincoln infield , Contributions By: Mike Allen

The Long Road started 12 years ago as a ride between the epic bike rallies known as Smokeout West in Arizona and Smokeout Rally in North Carolina. The ride was started by Greg “Edge” Scheuer, was run by “Captain Jack” for a few years then handed off to Brian “Uncle Ben” Sauer and has been the subject of editorial centerpiece in Easyrider Magazine, the Horse Backstreet Choppers, The Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine and on Bikernet.com to name a few. Once arrived at the Smokeout Rally, the Long Road riders set up camp at the Long Road Lounge. It was recognizable at the end of the vendors row, draped with military style camouflage with a bunch of skuzzy looking dudes having the time of their lives hanging out and enjoying the Smokeout. It also had a big sign that would tell you that it was the long road lounge. Well the centerpiece of Smokeout’s “fortress of fun,” was a ten foot long, bar height, blood red table covered in road inspired sayin’s, stickers and signed by members of the Legion of Long Road and other giants of the motorcycle world.

2019’s Smoke Out 20 found local custom motorcycle builder Zach & Kristin Shipwash of The Rebel Spirit set up at the end of vendor row set up by the Long Road Lounge. Apparently, hosting 2 bodacious burnout contests per day in front of your vendor spot isn’t good for the food trucks to be down wind of, but wouldn’t bother these road warriors. At the end of the weekend, as luck has it, The Rebel Spirit crew was breaking down camp at the same time as the Long Road crew. The Long Road Riders were done lugging that particular table around and offered it to Zach and Kristin. Instead of letting the table’s tenure end in flames, they secured this Smoke Out Rally heirloom and brought it back to their HQ in Thomasville. The Long Road Table tradition has been kept alive in the meanwhile with quite a few late evening get togethers specifically designed around this rally relic. The Long Road Ride is typically a “Gypsy” ride which means you ride with as many or as few others as you want. The stop for everybody is the same each night and covers a distance of typically 1,200 to 1,500 miles during week. It’s a fun ride without having to really push any limits. Uncle Ben was unable to make the ride this year and had considered skipping a year due to the Canadian border being closed. To keep the ride going, Long Road Rider Mike Allen took it over for 2020. To deal with the unpredictability of any events or campgrounds being open, the ride was set up as a “home base” get together with rides set up for each day. The Planet Chopper roadhouse in Woodlawn, Virginia, was the perfect home base for the 2020 Long Road, no worries about being closed and there’s not a bad day ride in any direction. Planet Chopper was actually conceived during a previous Long Road and has grown into the only company doing tours on custom motorcycles with rides set up in New Zealand, the USA, and the Himalayan mountains. The destination highlight of the 2020 Long Road routes included; the Back of the Dragon, visits to several breweries, AAF Tank Museum in Danville, Virginia and a stop at The Rebel Spirit motorcycle shop in Thomasville, NC, to visit the Long Road Table. Zach and Kristin hosted the 2020 Long Road Riders making sure there was a giant cooler full of cold beers, some snacks and cheese balls. The riders toured the shop checking out some of Zach’s works in progress, the freshly completed Boogie Nights ’74 CB750 Chopper (featured in the Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine’s September 2020 issue) and of course, the Long Road Table. Mike did the honors of placing the Long Road 2020 sticker on the table while some of the riders scrawled this year’s signatures and sayins’ in between past scriptures. We were also witness to the awarding of the Long Road medallions to two new riders. It wasn’t long before the riders had to head back to The Planet Chopper Roadhouse for the evening. Big thanks to Mike Allen and Planet Chopper Roadhouse’s John Devinshire and the Long Road Riders for keeping the Long Road rolling. And to Zach and Kristin for curating the Long Road Table as piece of Smoke Out Rally, Long Road and NC motorcycling history. Honestly, I can’t wait to get back to the Long Road Table, and hang out for a few hours.

Long Road Riders Scrawling Road Advice For Future Generations On The Long Road Table

Zach Give the low down on his latest chopper build, "Boogie Nights"