The Rotten Dead MC kicked off the 2009 riding season by riding to a “paension” (Korean condominium type of lodging) near the small town of Keumsan near the west central part of the country.

We had all anticipated arriving in Keumsan in the early afternoon.  However, as could be expected, several things went wrong.  Heretic got a flat tire late Friday night and had to wait until Saturday morning to get it changed.  The Pusan group had their own issues to worry about on Saturday morning.

Big Daddy was scheduled to have surgery the following Monday morning to remove the titanium plate in his leg that had been there since he plowed his bike into a concrete power pole in September 2006.  As the surgery was scheduled for Monday morning, check-in procedures at the hospital had to be completed on Saturday.  Koz and Big D. met up and rode to the hospital at 9:00am.  The check-in procedures were more time consuming than expected.  Three hours.

After finishing at the hospital, Koz and Big D. had a quick lunch at McDonalds and hit the road at just after 1:00pm, 4 hours behind schedule.  They made tracks out of Pusan and through Masan.  After about 2 hours of hard riding, they pulled off into a rest area to stretch the legs and warm up a bit.

 Koz took some time to soak up the sunshine.

 They called the Seoul group to find out how they were progressing on their ride.  The Seoul group had not left yet.  Apparently, it was going to take the wonderful and effecient people at Harley-Davidson Korea in Seoul approximately 7 hours to change a back tire.

At around 3:00pm, Pony got tired of waiting for Heretic for 5 hours at the Seoul group’s meeting place.   He took off to Keumsan with a guest, Achilles, in tow.  Eventually, the tire got changed and Heretic set out on his 4 hour trip at around 5:00pm.

It started to get dark and cold as the March sun set.  The Pusan group arrived at the paension just after dark and settled in to wait for the other two groups to arrive.  While waiting, Big Daddy and Koz explored the house.

 Pony and Achilles arrived hungry and frozen shortly after 8:30pm just as Koz and Big Daddy finished watching Transformers on the big screen TV.  Heretic arrived just after 9:00pm.

With everyone assembled, the first and only item of business was to begin grilling dead animals and imbibing several different beverages.

 Pony was the first to succumb to the evening’s festivities.  He has paid handsomely to destroy all photographic evidence of what happened next.

 However, he had everyone else had recovered nicely by morning in time to enjoy a breakfast of champions of ramyeon, Cap’n Crunch, Pop Tarts, Cheese, bagels, and leftover meat.

 We cleaned up our gear and prepared to leave the house for the rides back to Pusan and Seoul.

 Before leaving, we took a short ride around the neighborhood to see some of the sights.  It was quite a lovely area.

The Seoul group took their time riding home.  However, as Big Daddy had to report to the hospital by 7:00pm on Sunday night, Koz and Big Daddy tore up the highway and got back to Pusan as quickly as possible.  The ride back to Pusan was interrupted just long enough to take a few pictures of an odd, man-made waterfall.

We had an awesome Toy Run this year, far surpassing last year’s donations and this year’s goals.

We held a raffle and auction at Ghetto’s a local bar in Pusan and raised around 1,400,000 Korean Won cash for donation to the Heerakwon children’s center.  Also, a truck load of private donations of clothing, toys, and household items were collected and delivered to the director of Heerakwon.

The Rotten Dead gathered at Pusan City Hall to launch the ride.

We were joined by the president of the Wombat RC and by two members of the Ocean Riders, a Korean riding club.

Children from Sunny International Home School also joined us at Heerakwon.

We saddled up and made the 30-minute ride to Heerakwon.  We made our donations to the Heerakwon director and then enjoyed a performance by the kids from Sunny International Home School.

After that, we showed the kids our bikes.

We then played some basketball, soccer, and other games with the kids before heading home as the sun began to set.

The RDMC would like to thank Dr. Martens,  R Led Hair, United Seamen Service Center, Ghetto Bar, Fuzzy Navel Bar, Jinsung Motors, and Sunny International Home School for their donations and assistance with this years Toy Run.  We would also like to thank the numerous individuals who donated cash and items for this year’s toy run.

We look forward to even better results next year.

For some reason, we returned to Jeonju after having been there only two months earlier.  Most likely, it had something to do with Pony hoping to run into a woman in a bar there that he knew several years ago.

The P., Koz and Prospect Nate started out from Pusan late in the morning.   They rode throughout afternoon through Masan, Jinju, Hapcheon, Geochang and over to Jeonju.  They arrived at the hotel just before dusk and settled into Nate’s room to await the arrival of Pony and Heretic from Seoul.

The Seoul group arrived at around 8:00pm.  We all gathered in Prospect Nate’s room.

After a bit of small talk, we held a super-secret patching ceremony and made Prospect Nate a full patch member of the RDMC.  As Nate fancies himself to be a bit of a behavioral psychologist and therapist, we tried to get Nate to accept an officer position of the RDMC analyst/therapist, but Nate refused to accept the “ANALRAPIST” tab.

The five RDMC members then headed out to dinner for Ddalkgalbi (spicy stir fry chicken) and beverages.

 The next several hours were spent walking the streets of Jeonju’s university district sampling local food, drink, and people.  Feeling that he had sampled a bit too much of the local drink, and the flask he brought with him, Nate decided to head back to his room to sleep it off.

The four conscious Brothers then headed across town to the Bar where Pony hoped against hope to meet the mysterious woman.  No woman. Just adult beverages and interesting characters.

Thereafter, we headed back to the hotel and retired to our own rooms.

The next morning, the Club rolled out of Jeonju and headed back to Pusan and Seoul.

22 & 23 November 2008 - RDMC rides to Jeonju, Korea

The Rotten Dead’s annual Fall Haeinsa Temple Run was held on October 25th - 26th.

As usual, Big D and the Pusan crew, this time including Prospect Ian, set off Saturday morning.  Big D, Ian, Nate, and Nate’s old lady enjoyed a great ride through spectacular countryside highlighted by the changing leaves.

With plenty of time to kill, they made their way to the temple on a very circuitous route.  Instead of the 2 1/2 hour mad dash through Masan to Changryeong and over to Haeinsa, they headed north out of Pusan toward Yangsan and then cut cross-country toward Miryang.   About 30 minutes outside of Pusan, they stopped to check out Cheondaesa Temple built in the mountains between Pusan and Miryang.

The temple is in the process of carving a Buddha statute out of the cliff face.

From there, the Pusan contingent rode straight through Miryang and onto highway 24 toward Changryeong.  They climbed the mountains along the twisty road favored by racing streetbikes.

The group stopped for lunch a restaurant know to local bikers for the seafood-onion pancakes (파전) and the commanding view of the valley and the road from the cliff-side tables.

After lunch, they made the final leg of the journey and arrived at Haeinsa temple in the afternoon without a hitch, and enjoyed an evening on the mountain eating more onion pancakes and chicken stew (닭도리탕)

Also as usual, the Seoul members, Pony and Heretic, were delayed from leaving until late in the evening; this time by a late season downpour and thunderstorm.  A break in the rain finally occurred around 9pm, and the two decided to make a run for it.  They had a good 45 minutes of dryness before the rain found them again.  As it turned out, the rain didn’t lose them until they were well south of Mungyeong.

Pony and Heretic, soaked and shivering, finally made the Kimcheon rendezvous with Big D and Ian nearly seven hours after departing Seoul…  Three hours later than they should have, and six hours behind schedule all in all.  After taking time to stretch and down some much-needed hot coffee that Big D and Ian had waiting for the soaked Seoulites, the four thundered back up the dark mountain road, arriving at the resort around 3:30am to indulge in equally-needed booze.

The next day had Big D, Ian, Nate and his old lady make the hike up the remainder of the mountain to visit the temple proper.  Pony and Heretic, still exhausted and slightly hungover from the aforementioned booze, declined to make the effort.

Nonetheless, the group in full made the ride down the mountain later in the afternoon and onward to Hapcheon.

In Hapcheon, the two groups bade each other farewell** once again until the next time we could gather.

**No bikes were harmed in this installment of the Rotten Dead monthly run.CLICK HERE to view more photos of the event.

On October 11th, American Steel Motorcycle Club hosted Oktoberfest 2008 in Dongducheon:  A huge gathering of bikes and bikers, bands, barbeque and beer.

Rotten Dead MC rode up from Seoul in the company of some ASMC and other MC members and independent riders in the early hours after dawn.  The day’s main event was a 75-mile poker run involving one hundred bikes lasting four hours.

Upon returning from the run, the horde of MC members, Korean H.O.G. riders and independents settled into Dongducheon Pavilion and Mojo’s Bar for an evening of booze, BBQ and music headlined by the LRD Band.

Rotten Dead MC thanks ASMC and all others for a great event and a great time!

11 October 2008 ASMC Oktoberfest

CLICK HERE to view photos of the event.