2025 | Jampot

The 48th Annual Jampot Rallye 2025 - Turning Lemons into Lemonade

By Tim Powers

Once again, having planned some vacation time around the annual gathering of Jampot attendees, one thing is for sure. Mother Nature showed up as she always does. In anticipation of the event, I was watching the extended weather forecast as most of us do and as usual, she did not disappoint. Set up on Friday was very hot and humid but by the evening, surprise.... it was raining. Attendance this year ended up being very low. In fact, we had 10 people, including myself, my son Mark, John (the Kahuna) and Claudia, Doug and Julie, Bill & Gina from Yorktown Heights, a fine Gentleman named Keith from western NY, and Jeff from PA.

It rained on and off on Saturday but a couple of the guys ventured out between the rain drops. Jeff was having problems with the aftermarket horns on his 70 Triumph so I jumped in for the assist, with help from Keith. Our Kahuna, John Les, as usual, was a trooper. He had to make a lot of last minute decisions on the situation at hand. With Claudia by his side, they did their absolute best to keep everyone fed, comfortable, and happy. All meals were prepared on site this year including the Saturday night dinner in which John showed us his culinary skills by cooking filet mignon off of a tabletop Blackstone grill. Dinner was AMAZING to say the least.

Jampot alumni, Chuck Wittig was scheduled to be there with his wonderful wife Ginny and his 1973 T140RV Triumph, but ended up being scheduled to work Friday and Saturday at the last minute. While there was nothing else to do but watch it rain, we sat and discussed old times and Jampot memories of past rallies. We even got to name the huge puddle on the lawn in front of the bike canopies, JAMPOT LAKE! Although many rally attendees don't really care for the current venue, it does have electric, running water, and a bed to sleep on as opposed to the sheds at Bucksteep plus it currently fits the budget that John has to work with. My thought is, it's not about the location or amenities, it's about the bikes, and most importantly, the people who keep the love of these old machines alive. New attendees or old, you can always look forward to having a friend at Jampot that is fast to become family. While many didn't make it there this year, all were missed!