2018 Motorcycle Classics Ride ‘Em, Don’t Hide ‘Em Getaway

Participants in the 3rd Annual Motorcycle Classics Ride ’Em, Don’t Hide ’Em Getaway line up for a group photo at the top of the Johnstown Incline in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

The 3rd Annual Motorcycle Classics Ride ’Em, Don’t Hide ’Em Getaway happened Aug. 10-12, 2018. Sixty-four riders on 58 classic bikes joined the editors of Motorcycle Classics and special guest Alan Cathcart for a 130-mile ride to the Johnstown Incline in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a fascinating and obscure bit of Americana reached via miles of beautiful backcountry roads.

Truth be told, just a few days before our ride, we were wondering if would even happen. Although rain is always in the offing in Southwestern Pennsylvania — and particularly in the Laurel Highlands area where our ride headquartered — this year has seen more wet days than normal. On Thursday, just two days before our ride to Johnstown, the local forecast called for a 90 percent chance for rain on Saturday and an 80 percent chance on Sunday. It’s one thing to get caught in the rain, but another to start out in it, and we really didn’t like what we were seeing.

Miraculously, Saturday dawned not exactly bright owing to the fog that had settled in the surrounding valleys, but decidedly clear of rain, and our group made the trip to Johnstown and back without issue and dry as a bone. In fact, the sun actually broke through while we were having lunch at Asiago’s Tuscan Grill at the top of the incline, a beautiful location overlooking historic Johnstown, once the steel manufacturing capital of the world, the old mill buildings still dominating the cityscape.

We ended the day back at ride headquarters Seven Springs Resort, where we gathered for a banquet dinner and listened as international motorcycle journalist Alan Cathcart filled us in on some of the more interesting experiences in his 40-year career. The next day we hit the road again, and the weather was even better, with rapidly clearing skies as we headed south and looped through the Laurel Highlands, swinging back north past architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Falling Waters and back to Seven Springs.