VOC 75th Anniversary Rally

California dreamin’: Vincent owners gather in SoCal for their international rally

By Corey Levenson
Updated on November 28, 2023
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by Corey Levenson
A pair of 500cc singles from 1936 and 1950 in the sunshine along the Pacific Coast Highway south of Big Sur.

The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club (VOC), founded in 1948, celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023 and every four years since 1977, the U.K.-based VOC has held an International Rally. The events are typically attended by hundreds of Vincent owners and have been held in various locations including Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, the U.S. and the U.K..

For 2023, the Southern California Chapter organized the event, and it was held in two stages between September 11th and 23rd. The first week of the rally was based in Ventura and the second week was held in Cambria which is north of Morro Bay and south of Big Sur on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).

The first week’s featured events included a visit to the Solvang Motorcycle Museum, a trip to the Daniel Schoenewald’s private collection of 150-200 motorcycles in Camarillo (Google it) and a tour of Jay Leno’s garage in Burbank, where Jay showed off his Vincents and other goodies. Rides included routes to Ojai one day and a foray up to the famous Rock Store on Mulholland Drive.

The Cambria phase offered great riding up the coast towards Monterey and inland through vineyards and olive groves. Thanks to a landslide that closed the PCH 50 miles north of Cambria, the rallyists enjoyed blissful traffic-free riding between Cambria and the road closure. It’s hard to imagine a more idyllic place to ride motorcycles than along the coast of California. Whether you stayed on the coast or ventured inland through the golden hills and vineyards, the scenery was fantastic, the roads were swervy and the weather was perfect.

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