2006 Motorcycle Classics Barber show winner Jack Wells and his 1912 Abingdon King Dick.

Just about anywhere you go these days, you’ll find classic bikes showing their best for a growing crowd of classic bike fans. Ahhh, but where do they shine brightest? Oregon and Utah or Alabama and North Carolina? We aim to find out, with the Motorcycle Classics East Meets West Classic Bike Shows, and the winner gets to see his or her bike featured in the pages of Motorcycle Classics.

The challenge is simple: East or West, who’s got the best bikes? To find out, we’re holding two shows with – you guessed it – one East and one West. We’ll hold the first show, the Motorcycle Classics Bike Show West, on Saturday, Sept. 6 at the 3^rd Annual Bonneville VintageGP at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. Presented by Motorcycle Classics, the Bonneville VintageGP hosts rounds 14-15 of the AHRMA Michigan Engineering Historic Cup Roadrace Series and rounds 18-19 of the AHRMA Speed & Sport National Vintage Trials series. There’ll also be opportunities to make a run at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats, plus a Sunday ride, a swap meet, sidecar racing, the list goes on.

The second show, the Motorcycle Classics Bike Show East, will be on Saturday, Oct. 18 at the 4^th Annual Barber Vintage Festival at Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum outside of Birmingham, Ala. Easily the most incredible classic bike museum in the world, the Barber Museum also hosts the annual Vintage Festival along with the last races of the AHRMA racing season.

We’ll pick the best in category from each show, and when it’s all over we’ll hold a People’s Choice vote for the best overall classic bike from the two shows. And the best is still yet to come, because the winner will see his or her bike featured in Motorcycle Classics. So get yourself over to the Motorcycle Classics East Meets West Classic Bike Shows sign up page and register now for one or both shows. Bonneville or Barber, we’ll see you there. – Richard Backus

Fresh from the pile of press releases we get here are Motorcycle Classics is one that we hope will excite the travelers and the enduro-junkies among you.

Long Way Down, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s new motorcycle adventure rides into movie theatres for one night only. On July 31^st at 7:30pm local time, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman embark on the motorcycle adventure of a lifetime, riding 15,000 miles through 20 countries from Scotland to South Africa in Long Way Down, created from more than 1,200 hours of footage for a one-night-only event shown in High Definition in more than 430 select movie theatres nationwide. Exclusively cut for NCM Fathom, Long Way Down delivers a unique theatre experience following McGregor and Boorman as they face many challenges from the unknown and unforgiving terrain that tests their endurance and riding skills, and pushes their friendship to the limit.

Long Way Down is the highly anticipated follow-up to Long Way Round, an epic journey the duo took in 2004 circumnavigating the world from London to New York, riding East, via Eurasia and North America. It became an instant television series hit in Europe and the United States and has since sold over one million DVDs and 900,000 books worldwide.McGregor and Boorman returned to the open road in May 2007 for the making of Long Way Down, an amazing journey through Western Europe and Africa.

Tickets for this special one-time-only event are available at presenting theatre box offices. For a complete list of presenting theatre locations and prices please visit the website at www.FathomEvents.com

Our man Dave Miller's mighty 1966 Moto Guzzi 125 Stornello

The inaugural Motogiro America ended Thursday. Over the course of five days, riders on bikes ranging from tiny, early-Fifties Italian singles to Seventies Italian twins and Japanese multis rode over 900 miles in and around California’s Central Coast. From Sunday’s start in Monterey to yesterday’s final run from Paso Robles back to Monterey, some 120 classic bike enthusiasts flogged their little machines across California’s heartland in the classic rally of the year. Dave Miller gives us his final report …

Dave Miller, our man at the Motogiro America, riding a 1966 Moto Guzzi 125cc Stornello with support from Moto Guzzi, filed his final report from the rally’s end in Monterey. It was, clearly, the experience of a lifetime for Dave. And the element of the event he says he’ll remember most has nothing to do with classic bikes, but the people riding them: “The warmth of the whole thing, you could see there were a lot of bonds created, including for myself, with my running mates John Goldman and David Hills. I was jersey #3 and they were #4 and #5, so we rode together all week,” Dave says.

“There was a lot of emotion at the awards. A few people got placed who didn’t expect it. David Hills ended up in 2^nd place for the Vintage 125 Class riding his Motobi Imperiale 125cc single. And one of my students, Ivan Thelin, got 3^rd in the 125 Vintage, also riding a Motobi Imperiale 125. I think I would have beat him in overall time if I hadn’t had the two late start days. He had the watches, was doing the math and all that kind of stuff, and I know I did as well as he in a lot of the stages.

“The two top guys were the two top guys the whole week. First place over all was Stephen Flach from Ravena, New York on a Honda CB160. He entered in the Super Sport Class, but he won the overall award. There were a lot of winners who were in combined classes. The #2 overall was Hugh Schink of Montico, Calif., again on a Motobi Imperiale 125! Seeing a trend here? Stephen Flach was very emotional about his win. He’s a big bear of a guy, a regular, soft-spoken kind of guy, and you could tell he was just overwhelmed. We went over 900, and his time penalty over 900 miles was 9.1 seconds -- for over five days and 900 miles! That’s the kind of machine this guy is.

“A cool thing that was a surprise was the people from the Italian Trade Commission and from EICMA, the big Italian motorcycle show, who supported the event hugely, presented him with a grand prize of a trip to Italy. Paola Bellusci, from the commission, presented the award to Flach, which included all expenses from airfare to tours, hotels, even visits to Italian motorcycle factories. He worked for it, that’s for sure.

“In Vintage 175, Michael Harper-Smith from Tarzana, Calif., was first riding a Moto Morini Tre Sette 175; second was Matt Prentiss from San Francisco on a Ducati single; and third was Steve Lawrence from Alamo, Calif., riding a Ducati Sport 175. Hugh Schink was first in Vintage 125, as well; second was David Hills; and third was Ivan Thelin. First overall in Vintage was Hugh Schink, and second was Michael-Harper Smith.

“In the Super Sport Class; first was Stephen Flach; second was Barry Porter from Santa Clara, Calif., on a Bultaco Metralla 250; and third was Mark Duncan from San Jose, Calif., on a Ducati Silver Shotgun.

“In 70s Sport Class; first was Rob Diepenbroek from San Francisco on a Ducati 860; second was David Edwards from Cycle World on a really beautiful Triumph; and third was motorcycle journalist Allan Girdler.

“In Scooter Class; first was Harely Welch, who runs the Motogiro California, on a Parilla 175 Special; second was Peter Savantaes from Scoot Magazine. There was no third, there were only two bikes. Peter took over for somebody who crashed out the first day. Even starting a day late, he was within striking distance of Harley Welch. This guy can ride, he’d ride by taking pictures, he aced every special test and he can do wheelies on a freaking scooter.

“There’s also a combined class, I guess taking everybody’s overall score. First was Gary Porter on his Bultaco; second was Peter on his scooter; and third was Jimmy Dillard on a Parilla 175 Gran Sport.

“There was also a Rodney Smith award. Rodney Smith was heavily involved in vintage car and motorcycle racing in the Monterey area and he was instrumental in the expansion of Laguna Seca raceway. He passed away last year. His big thing was his cars and bikes were always extremely well prepared, very fast and show worthy, to the nth degree. So Burt Richmond and others went around all week looking for a bike that would fit this award, and the winner was Lester Townsend from Orange, Calif., on a Bianchi. Unfortunately, the hotel lost the trophy. They can’t find it. Rodney Smith’s widow was here to present the award, and they handed out a bunch of Swiss chronographs in Rodney’s name, also, and I actually got one. The way they decided who got these, they asked Rodney’s widow what her favorite numbers were, and that’s how I ended up with one because one of her favorite numbers was #3.

“As far as is known, they’re planning on running it again next year. They want to do it same time, same place, because they’re planning on running the MotoGP again. So all of this is supposed to become a yearly event, including the show put on by Loren Guy, the classic bike show, plus the classic bike auction by Mid America. The auction and the bike show were a big success, they were very well done. Hell, everything was well done. Considering that they only had five or six months to put this together, it seems like they’d been doing it forever. In my opinion it was that good.

“Would I do it again? In a hot second. If you want the epitome of class in terms of machine and people, the way you spell classy is Motogiro America.”

Dave doesn't know yet how he placed, but as soon as he does we'll add a line at the end of this blog letting you know. - Richard Backus

The 1966 Moto Guzzi 125cc Stornello our man Dave Miller is riding in the Motogiro America
Yesterday was day four of the Motogiro America, and Dave Miller, who’s riding for Motorcycle Classics and Moto Guzzi in the Super Sport Class on a 1966 125cc Moto Guzzi Stornello, tells us that Day 4 saw the first accident of the event. Dave reports: “It was a very good day except for the gentleman who crashed. The medical teams are all volunteer, and they responded and were on scene within two minutes, it was incredible how well dispersed it was. This guy overcooked it in a turn and hit a parked car. One of the first  doctors on scene is part of the Ducati owners group in San Louis Obispo, Doctor Rushdi; I’m not sure of the spelling. From what I can gather he laid it down, and the bike went under the front of this parked truck. He got off the bike before it went under the truck, but from what I’m hearing he broke his pelvis, his arm in three places and his leg in two places, and had some internal bleeding. They did surgery on him here and then airlifted him to Stanford. The last word is that he’s stable and it all looks good and he’s expected to make a full recovery. There was definitely a little bit of somberness because of the crash. The organization that put these people together … this medical team worked … my hat’s off to the teams that did everything.

“The wreck was on Peach Road, and the route today took us from Paso Robles all the way to Morrow Bay, and then through the back country where we ended up at a little roadhouse, semi-resort, a little out of the way place with excellent food. And we came back from there.

“Today was a medium day, maybe 130 miles. Yesterday was long, like 171 miles. It was hot again. And nice roads, but nicer roads today, except for Santa Rosa Hill road, an extremely steep hill, almost like motocross and extremely difficult on the little Guzzi. It’s so worn out, it’s hard work. We were also in the neighborhood of where James Dean was killed, or so they said.

“The big highlight was the dinner auction. Doctor Rushdi, he and the Ducati owners group here support an orphanage in Sri Lanka with something like 150 young girls and they had an auction to support the orphanage. They ended up raising maybe $2,500. It was pretty touching. I mean, most of these people here are high rollers, and they weren’t being shy and were throwing money, and that was really cool.

“As far as positioning, Hill and Ingram dropped their spots. Positioning is pretty fluid, except for the top guys. Tomorrow’s the last full day. The final banquet is supposed to happen.”
We’ll get one more report from Dave tonight, after the final banquet and awards ceremony celebrating the end of the Motogiro America. – Richard Backus
 

Dave Miller's riding this bike, a 1966 125cc Moto Guzzi Stornello
Dave Miller, our man at the Motogiro America and riding a 1966 Moto Guzzi 125cc Stornello, is still in the running, even though the Stornello has been giving him a few problems. Dave reports:
“Since I talked to you last night, they had announced results, and for me the highlight was that my running mate David Hills, riding a Motobi, is in third place in the vintage class and Stewart Ingram is in second place riding his Moto Morini. Our tired old hacks are in second and third! I love it when that happens.

“Last night I was up to midnight working on John Goldman’s bike, sorting electrical problems, so I didn’t get much sleep. We got it running, he made it about 40 miles today and the clutch quit, so it looks like I’ll be ripping into that tonight.

“My morning started with my roommate saying, ‘Hey did you know we parked next to a sprinkler?’ So I went down, and it didn’t look too wet, so I tried to start her, and she was mad at me and decided she was gonna become a two-stroke for the day; she promptly fouled a spark plug. Naturally, I didn’t have one, so I went rushing around looking for a spark plug. It takes an NGK B8ES, but somebody had a B5HS. I knew that was a lot hotter, but I stuck it in, it tried to start but wouldn’t, so I rolled it over to Stewart; it’ll always start for him because he owns the bike. So I pulled the plug, checked the gap, it was closed up. So I thought, okay, I gapped it again, stuck it back in, it started and ran for a minute, sputtered and quit.

“So now I’m late for the start. I told Stewart to tell john and Dave to go, and I pulled the plug and the gap’s closed up again. So I got the fouled plug I couldn’t clean, and I held them up to each other, and the electrode on the 5HS sticks out about 30 thou more, so I surmised the piston is just barely tapping the plug, just enough to close up the gap. So I ran around looking for a plug, but I couldn’t find one. So I gapped it again, took the sealing ring off the other plug, stuck it on, and it started and ran like a champ!

“I hot-footed to the start, late, and got on the road, and it’s just singing along. I made it to the first checkpoint, and made up the time, although I was till docked of course for being late. So I catch up with my running mates, and Goldman happens to have a brand new one of the correct plug. So I pull out this Mickey Mouse plug that was burning beautifully, stuck the proper plug in, and we go through our checkpoint. I’m sitting around, and all of the sudden Dave Hill asks, ‘have you seen my key?’ What’re you talking about? ‘It was in my bike when it was over there. I lost my key, what am I gonna do?’ It’s one of these Italian jobs, just a pin. I said I could fix it, so I took my fountain pen apart, my favorite pen, by the way, and it fired up, but the pen wouldn’t stay in there. So I took the pen, stuck it back in, and took some tape and wound it around to get it to stay in place. About this time he comes diddy bopping back with his key! After I’d wasted my favorite fountain pen from Matco tools.

“And about five miles later Goldman’s bike quit. So we kept going, and we’re going, and we’re hitting it pretty hard, so I came down this long hill, and I was ahead of Dave, and all of the sudden the bike’s losing power and dragging. And I stop and think, I think I just fried it. So I kick it over and it starts! It’s not seized. So I say go, let’s go while it’s happy. So we get going, and it’s running, not running good, but it’s running, and the further I went the more convinced I became that the points were welding themselves together and then breaking apart. So we made it to the lunch checkpoint, and I took the side case off and the shifter and got in there. They didn’t close up, but sure enough there were weld points. So I got out the trusty Buck knife and cleaned it off best I could, and it ran pretty good and made it through the rest of the day.

“It’s hotter than hell, by the way. I immediately went to NAPA and got some plugs and engine oil. I blew the freaking last field test. It was just a straight, go slow, 25 seconds, not a long section. So I’m counting to myself, and normally if I’m not going slow enough I can stop and balance, but I was too tired and I dabbed a foot, but I don’t know how they’ll penalty that. So that’s the story. I’m supposed to help John before I go to bed. If John needs me, I’ll do it. But he owes me big time.”

Dave was pretty exhausted when he gave me this report, but he’s obviously having a blast. With any luck, we’ll talk to him again tonight and get another report in tomorrow after Day 4 of the 2008 Motogiro America. – Richard Backus

The Motorcycle Classics entry in the Motogiro America: a 1966 Moto Guzzi Stornello 125

The first-ever Motogiro America kicked off on Sunday, July 13, and our man Dave Miller, with support from Moto Guzzi and riding a 1966 Moto Guzzi 125cc Stornello in the Super Sports Class, made it to the start – but just barely. “Everything was good before we left. We got down here, and as luck would have it I’m number three out of the gate. It starts at 9am, which means I leave at 9:01 every day. The start was 12 minutes away, so I go to start the bike and it won’t start, so I push it, figuring it’s a fouled plug. Nope. So I push it back to the truck and determine it’s the carb, and I pull the carb apart in the parking lot. I wiped the carb off, found some problems with the float and needle, put it back together and it starts and runs decent. I ended up hot-footing it through town, and made it to the start 14 minutes late, which isn’t bad for overhauling a carburetor. So being late, that’s a penalty, but that couldn’t be helped. I hauled ass. I was really pushing the little Guzzi, and it was flawless after that,” Dave reports.

Day 1 had participants lining up on Cannery Row Ave. in Monterey, Calif., before heading off to nearby Laguna Seca Raceway, where everyone got to make a lap of the track. “That was a thrill. I’ve been to a couple of races at Laguna Seca over the years, but going around it is like … I don’t know how to describe it. It almost brought me to tears. I was somewhat of a racer in the early part of my life, and I always wished I could have made it racing. The thrill of getting on a big circuit for one lap, if nothing else that made the whole trip for me,” Dave says. After that, it was on to the official route and 130 miles of back roads running inland of California’s Central Coast.

Day 2 saw riders rolling on another 161 miles, with no problems to report from Dave and the little Stornello. “We went to Gonzales for lunch, and the Rotary Club put on lunch for us. Barbeque, sodas, it was really first class, just a wonderful, hospitable group of people,” Dave says. Dave reports he’s doing okay on time, but doesn’t exactly have his timing down. “At the end of each section you time out, and then go through an agility test, and a lot of these guys who do this stuff regularly really have their act together, where I’m counting my way through, ‘One Mississippi, Two Mississippi …” But this is my first time through and I’m trying to learn through all of it.” Since he’s not killing the points, Dave decided to lighten up one of the agility tests by going through trials-style, stopping and balancing the Stornello. “I was just playing the crowd, and they liked it,” Dave says.

That bring us to today, Tuesday, July 15. We’ll post another update tomorrow or Thursday, so check back. – Richard Backus

Motorcycle Classics and Moto Guzzi team up for Motogiro America

If you're like, oh, about 99.9 percent of classic bike fans, right about now you're probably wishing you had something along the order of a 100cc 1955 Moto Guzzi Lusso so you could participate in the upcoming Motogiro America, kicking off this coming Saturday, July 12. And who could blame you? With a planned field of 120 bikes competing in the Vintage Class (1957 and older, 175cc and smaller), plus a Super Sport Class for 250cc and smaller, a Super 70s Class for 1,000cc and smaller, a Scooter Class and a Tourist Class open to any bike – any year, any size – it’s going to be the classic rally of the year. Well, thanks to some help from our friends at Moto Guzzi, Motorcycle Classics will be there, running a 125cc 1966 Moto Guzzi Stornello in the Super Sport Class for 250cc and smaller bikes built before 1969.

Patterned on the successful Motogiro d’Italia (go here to see our article on last year’s event), a retrospective rally launched in 2001 celebrating the Motogiro that ran in Italy from 1953 to 1957 (itself a recreation of the original Il Giro Motociclistico d’Italia that ran, with interruptions, from 1914 until 1931), Motogiro America is enticing classic bike fans from as far away as Italy – including Fifties Motogiro winner Giuliano Maoggi – to come participate in what’s hoped to become an annual event.

We knew as soon as we heard about the rally (Giro organizers frown on calling it a race, preferring to focus on the event’s five stages as trials for time, not speed) that we’d have to get an entry in some way, some how, but it wasn’t until recently that we finally found the rider, the bike and the support to make it happen. The support comes, fittingly enough, from Moto Guzzi, a manufacturer with a long history in the Giro including entries in the early races in the 1920s and again in the mid-1950s after the race was relaunched in 1953.

Although I’d been hoping to make the rally myself, reality set in and it became clear I’d never be able to pull together the resources of time to make it happen. Spreading out over a full week and then some, the event kicks off with a bike show and auction on Saturday, July 12, and ends five days later on Thursday, July 17, with an awards dinner at the Hyatt Regency Monterey, the unofficial event headquarters.

Sunday, July 13, will be the big day. That’s when competitors will line up under Cannery Row bridge in Monterey before heading off to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for a lap of the famed track, which will host the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix MotoGP the next weekend starting with practice and qualifying on Friday, July 18. Friend of the magazine Dave Miller, who teaches motorcycle restoration at City College in San Francisco (we featured Dave and his class in the July/August 2006 issue; go here for more), will be riding for us, decked out in a special Motogiro America jacket crafted for us by the folks at Vanson Leathers and riding a 1966 Moto Guzzi Stornello plucked from San Francisco resident Stewart Ingram’s lovely collection of Italian tiddlers. Ingram will also be on hand as well, riding a Moto Morini from his collection.

We’ll be running regular postings on our progress in the rally, so check back daily for updates on our bid to take the Super Sport class with our little single-cylinder Moto Guzzi Stornello, and look for a full article on the inaugural Motogiro America in an upcoming issue of Motorcycle Classics. Bene! – Richard Backus