Join us for the MC Ride & Show at Road America, June 8-10, 2012. 

Featured Events  

May 5
The 4th edition of the Quail Motorcycle Gathering, along with the Bonhams & Butterfields Auction, returns to Carmel, Calif. This year’s event will showcase “The Evolution of the Motorcycle” and will feature Indian motorcycles. A barbecue lunch is included in the ticket price. The show runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the auction immediately following. On the web at Quail Lodge Events.

May 18
The 13th annual Riding Into History returns to the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla. Mitch Boehm, long-time editor of Motorcyclist magazine, will be the Grand Marshal. On the web at Riding into History.

May 19
Join the Oregon Vintage Motorcyclists for the 32nd Annual Vintage Motorcycle Ride, Show and Swap Meet, Saturday and Sunday, May 19-20 at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis, Ore. The featured marque will be Royal Enfield. More info at Oregon Vintage Motorcyclists.

May 19
Visit the 44th Annual Hanford Vintage Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet, which will feature an antique and classic motorcycle show, a vintage parts exchange and sale corral, camping in swap space and RV hookups, and more than 150 vendors. On the web at Classic Cycle Events.

June 1
Head to Anamosa, Iowa, for the National Motorcycle Museum’s Second Annual Vintage Rally, June 1-3. 1986 and earlier motorcycles are invited to participate in the bike show, which will feature both a café racer class and a new drag bike class. Enjoy the swap meet, a panel discussion on drag racing and more. On the web at National Motorcycle Musem.

June 3
Visit Kansas City for the 21st Heart of America Motorcycle Enthusiasts Bike Show and Rally. This awesome event will feature more than 100 vintage motorcycles on display inside the great old hangar that is the Airline History Museum at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City, Mo. On the web at Heart of America Motorcycle Enthusiasts.

June 8
Head to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., for the Road America Vintage Motorcycle Classic, June 8-10. The weekend will feature AHRMA road racing, motocross, cross country and trials competitions on courses built specifically for vintage racing. Motorcycle Classics will be there again this year hosting the Road America Motorcycle Classics Ride & Show, which is open to all bikes 1991 and older. On the web at Motorcycle Classics.

More Events  

May 4-6
Motogiro East. Hancock, MA. MotoGiro USA
Classic Motorcycle Fun 

May 6
VJMC First Sunday Show & Swap Meet. Kansas City, MO.
KCVJMC: Kansas City Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club 

May 6-8
AMCA Los Angeles Chapter Road Run. Solvang, CA.
Los Angeles AMCA 

May 12-13
USCRA Vintage Celebration. Loudon, NH.
USCRA 

May 13
Moto Concourso. City Hall Plaza. Simi Valley, CA.
e-mail: Ereeves250@yahoo.com, phone number: 805-558-5112

May 18-20
Southern National. Denton, NC.
AMCA 2012 Southern National Meet 

May 19
8th Annual Thunder on the Smoky. Marquette, KS.
Kansas Motorcycle Museum 

May 19
New York Antique Motorcycle Auction. Newburgh, NY.
MidAmerica Auctions 

May 20
11th Annual British & European Classic Motorcycle Day. Clarksburg, MD.
British & European Classic Motorcycle Day 

June 2
Cars and Motorcycles of England. Oakbourne Mansion, Westown, PA.
Delaware Valley Triumphs 

June 2-3
Ohio Valley BSA Owners Club Spring Classic. Toronto, OH.
Ohio Valley BSA Owners Club 

June 3
2nd Annual Vintage Motorcycles Reborn 2012 Exhibition. Golden, CO.
e-mail: Superhawk65@gmail.com 

June 3
Bayfield Old Bike Day. Bayfield, Ontario, Canada.
Bayfield Old Bike Day Facebook 

June 5-9
30th Annual Americade. Lake George, NY.
Americade 

June 8-9
Rhinebeck Grand National Super Meet. Rhinebeck, NY.
The Rhinebeck Grand National Super Meet 

June 8-10
GABMA 27th Annual British in the Blue Ridge Rally. Hiawassee, GA.
GABMA 

June 8-10
Lake Erie Loop, Clare-Mar Lakes Campground. Wellington, OH.
Lake Erie Loop 

June 11
USCRA Vintage GP. Loudon, NH.
USCRA 

June 15-16
AMCA Fort Sutter Chapter National Meet and Swap Meet. Dixon, CA.
Fort Sutter Chapter of AMCA 

June 15-16
AMCA Antique Motorcycle Show, Minnesota State Fairgrounds. St. Paul, MN.
Viking Chapter – AMCA 

June 15-17
40th Annual Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group Paris National Rally. Paris, Ontario, Canada.
CVMG Paris Rally 

June 16-17
AHRMA racing at Grattan Raceway Park. Grattan, MI.
AHRMA 

June 17
Motorado Classic Motorcycle Show. Santa Fe, NM.
Motorado Motorcycle Club 

June 29- July 1
Triumph Come Home. Oley Fairgrounds, Oley, PA.
Triumph Come Home 

June 30- July 1
CJMC Classic Motorcycle Show and Swap. Auburn, CA.
Classic Japanese Motorcycle Club 

 

Already racking up a milestone in its history this year is Triumph, celebrating its 110th birthday as the oldest existing motorcycle brand in more or less continuous existence.

Triumph produced its first motorized bicycle — powered by a Belgian Minerva engine — in 1902. One year later, by which time Husqvarna and Harley-Davidson had established, Triumph had already produced and sold more than 500 motorcycles under the ownership of German immigrant Siegfried Bettmann. In addition to producing bicycles and motorcycles at Triumph’s Coventry factory, Bettmann established a second factory in his hometown of Nuremberg, Germany, to do the same.

Triumph prospered, initially using other companies’ engines to power its products. In 1905, Triumph produced its first motorcycle built 100 percent in-house. The rest is history, as Triumph went on to become Britain’s largest and most successful manufacturer in the 1960s, and of course once again after John Bloor acquired the Triumph name and manufacturing rights in 1983, following Triumph’s closing.

Following on from the runaway success of the limited-edition Steve McQueen SE Bonneville launched in November, all 1,100 of which were immediately snapped up by eager customers around the world, Triumph will recognize its 110th birthday with a Special Anniversary Edition of the Bonneville, due to be available in May. Triumph will celebrate this landmark at the 2012 Triumph Live festival, August 31 to September 2, to be held at Mallory Park race circuit, just seven miles from Triumph’s Hinckley, England, headquarters.

Following the success of the first such occasion, a one-day event held in 2010 that attracted around 10,000 bike fans, music lovers and families to an on- and off-track celebration of all things Triumph (ending with a rock concert headlined by Mumford & Sons and The Stranglers), Triumph has decided to make the Triumph Live 2012 version much longer and bigger to celebrate its 110th birthday. “We were bowled over by the reaction to the 2010 event, and are determined to make 2012 even better,” says Triumph Motorcycles general manager Guy Masters. “Extending the event to three days allows us to include much more for customers to see and do, while the proximity of Mallory Park to the factory gives visitors an unrivaled opportunity to see our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities for themselves.”

Visitors are expected from all over Europe, and will be able to view the latest range of Triumph motorcycles, together with a selection of some of the company’s best customized bikes and key bikes from its history, as well as ride Triumphs on the Mallory Park track. Log on to the Triumph Live 2012 website for more details.

The 2012 show season is in full swing, and three shows sponsored by Motorcycle Classics are right around the corner.

National Motorcycle Museum Vintage Rally: First up is the National Motorcycle Museum Vintage Rally June 1-3, 2012, at the museum’s new digs in Anamosa, Iowa. 

This will be the second annual show for the museum, which last year celebrated the grand opening of its new 36,000-square-foot facility. The museum houses a collection of 325-plus motorcycles, ranging from early board trackers to homegrown racers and popular classics including Ducati, Honda and Indian, to name but a very few. It also boasts one of the most incredible collections of vintage motorcycle-themed toys in the world, not to mention an impressive display of vintage bicycles.

Motorcycle Classics is sponsoring the Vintage Bike Show awards, which feature 40 awards in multiple classes for 1986 and older bikes, including a special best “original unrestored” award. Ace Café will give out a special Café Racer award. Attendees can search for missing parts in the swap meet, and inside, the museum will have a special exhibit of artifacts from the cult classic TV show Then Came Bronson, along with Quarter MileStones, a new exhibit featuring 20 vintage drag bikes, plus photos and vintage film footage from the early days of drag racing. John Stein, author of the recently released Motorcycle Drag Racing: A History, will be on hand for the dedication of this special exhibit, with a special timeline tracing the tuners, their machines and the riders who stormed the strip.

There will also be a Sunday morning ride and lunch sponsored by Motorcycle Classics, followed by the 63rd Annual Motorcycle Hill Climb, which will feature a special Vintage Hill Climb class sponsored by the museum and featuring a $500 cash purse.

 

HOAME Rally: That same weekend also sees the Heart of America Motorcycle Enthusiasts 21st Annual Vintage Motorcycle Rally, at the National Airline History Museum in downtown Kansas City, Mo., on Sunday, June 3. This is a spectacularly cool show, held in the cavernous hold of one of the old hangars at Kansas City’s Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport.

Described in an early 1960s Federal Aviation Administration memo as “the most dangerous airport in the country” — it’s directly across the Missouri River from downtown Kansas City — the airport has been rally headquarters for four years, and it’s proved to be immensely popular.

And for good reason. The National Airline History Museum is no ordinary museum, housing as it does five classic airliners, including a spectacular 1958 Lockheed Super Constellation, which the museum has fired up during previous rallies. Old airplanes and motorcycles seem to be a natural match, and listening to the “Super-Connie” roar is as cool as the first time you hear a Vincent Rapide bark out its distinctive twin-cylinder beat.

Extend the weekend by getting there Friday, June 1, for the First Friday vintage ride-in block party in the Crossroads district of downtown Kansas City, starting around 6 p.m. The Crossroads is just a stone’s throw from the Airline History Museum and downtown, and the ride-in will be a great opportunity to meet local riders and owners before the big rally on Sunday.

We’ll be at the rally as we have every year, along with thousands of other vintage bike fans who return for what’s become a seminal event on the classic bike calendar. Last year’s rally saw trophies awarded in 24 classes, and this year Motorcycle Classics will award the trophy for People’s Choice. Ducati is the featured marque, with special displays of classic and modern models of the iconic brand.

 

Road America Motorcycle Classic: A week later it’s time to point your scoot north to find the best route to Elkhart Lake, Wis., for the 3rd Annual Road America Vintage Motorcycle Classic at Road America race track.

The inaugural 2010 event drew an estimated 5,000 classic bike fans, and an estimated 7,500 people showed up for last year’s event. Vintage racing returns for 2012, with rounds seven and eight in the 2012 American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association’s (AHRMA) CPL Systems National Historic Cup Roadrace series. Other AHRMA action includes round seven in the National Vintage MX Series, round four in the Speed & Sport National Vintage Trials Series and round nine in the Penton Owners Group National Cross Country Series.

The classic bike swap meet also returns, as does the Motorcycle Classics Road America Ride & Show. Occasional rain kept a few show attendees on the sidelines last year, but that didn’t stop many owners from joining us for a beautiful 40-mile ride through Wisconsin’s incredible Kettle Moraine area. Bikes participating ranged from a Laverda SF2 to a Benelli Sei and a Honda CB400 Super Sport, and following the ride our show awarded 10 trophies in five categories, including People’s Choice.

Great vintage racing, a swap meet, a show and the chance for great riding through the Wisconsin countryside all add up to make this one of the great weekends of the year. Don’t miss it!