Trail Rider Magazine

26 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com At the event itself, Bob rode his ISDT OSSA, and I rode an OSSA SDR I had restored. We both completed the first day, but Bob chose to sit out day two. During my climb up a rocky sec on of the course, there he was, leaning over the narrow trail and cheering me on. It remains one of my favorite memories. Bob's mind was an atlas of trails and back roads across New England, so we were never short of des na ons. From 2003 to about 2022, Bob and I—o en with a half-dozen others—spent most Saturdays on back-road and dirt-road rides ranging from 150 to 500 miles. Bob planned routes on paper maps and oversized route sheets, with no need for those newfangled GPS gadgets. I printed route-sheet strips, though Bob and I were usually the only ones comfort- able using them, so we took turns leading or sweeping the group. When Bob led, one chal- lenge was ge ng him to stop: bio breaks held li le interest for him, and with his hearing loss and intense focus on the road ahead, he o en rode on, oblivious to our a empts to flag him down. Together we rode the old NETRA Borderline Ride and many other recrea onal and enduro routes, the Pup- py Dog Trail, SMOG rides in New York, and a couple of mul -day New England Grand Tours on our 650s. We went to the BMW Owners Group rally in Vermont, visited Joe Bolger, a ended NETRA annual mee ngs, stopped by Jim Hoellerich's farm and museum, and showed up at dealer events, user-group gatherings, club mee ngs, and countless trips around New England so Bob could buy another old motorcycle or sidecar he wanted to bring back to life. We had a ball. Bob was a great storyteller. If we weren't on our bikes, I was o en happy to chauffeur him around. As soon as he got in the car, I would ask about some motorcy- cle topic. By the me we reached our des na on, he would finally wrap up with something like, "And that's the way it was." There was never much need for a fol- low-up ques on. When we weren't riding on Saturdays, we worked on bikes in Bob's barn. I o en commented that some old machine I had spo ed would make a great café racer. In September 2010, I was diagnosed with stage four pancrea c cancer. Two months later, Bob decided I Bob and Bill Dutcher at Jim Hoellerich's Museum of Vintage Trail Bikes Bob and Bill Dutcher at Jim Hoellerich's Museum of Vintage Trail Bikes

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