Vintage cyclists just like to have fun
Posted Jul 29, 2010 By Jack Evans
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EMC Lifestyles - Ameliasburgh - They (vintage motorcycle owners) come from across Ontario and even parts of the United States for this "rally" as they call it. They want to network with their fellow club members and proudly show off their shiny machines.
Jack Evans, Belleville EMC
Roy Hollands of Consecon, president of the Quinte section, Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Club, tries out a 1931 Indian Chief machine on display at Ameliasburgh.
But they also come with friends and families with their tents or trailers and enjoy a relaxing weekend camping, singing, swimming and playing special motorcycle games.
This is the annual Vintage Motorcycle Rally and Show organized by the Quinte section of the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Club. It has been an annual event for 22 years, normally drawing "about forty families" said Roy Hollands, president. The site is always the same, a sprawling field owned by the Prince Edward Car Club behind the Ameliasburgh Museum overlooking the shores of Roblin Lake.
The show also draws many spectators who just want to look at the motorcycles. For most, it's a chance to return to their youth, remembering their own motorcycles dating to the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
Last weekend started out on a wet note Friday, but predicted heavy rains and thunderstorms for most of the weekend proved false. But even if they hadn't, "We just take the weather we get," said Hollands.
Most registrants are regular attenders, but there are always newcomers. This show and rally may not be the biggest or most famous, but its idyllic location, offering convenient fishing and swimming, a museum complex and sports field and urban attractions nearby, has a serene ambiance.
"We even had one fellow from England who dropped in Friday night," said Fellows. "This was one of a couple of shows he wanted to visit while he was in the country."
In many cases, the motorcycles on displays are more than just exhibitsthey are stories. For some, they are the first motorcycle they owned. For others, they represent hours of work to rebuild, restore and maintain over many years.
One machine on display owned by Lyn Ventress of the Brighton area was a 1931 Henderson, a large, old-style four-cylinder motorcycle built in the United States and used originally for police work. Ventress' father bought it many years ago. Back in the 1940s, they hooked a large saw blade onto the rear wheel and used it to slice through slabs of ice on Brighton Bay for the ice harvest common in those days.
Another spectacular machine was a yellow 1946 Indian Chief which just recently attended the largest annual rally in Ontario at Paris where it won the Peoples' Choice Award. It is owned by Paul Riedel from the Peterborough area.
Barry Mitton and his wife, Anne, come from southwestern Ontario, but he had lived in the county for some years when he worked as an electrician at the Lennox Generating Station. "When they mothballed the station, I was transferred to Nanticoke, and that's where I first learned about the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Club," he said.
Mitton began riding motorcycles as a youth in England. "I bought an old bike cheap and restored it myself," he said. "That was the only way you could afford one."
Since getting involved with the CVMC, Barry has restored and now proudly owns several machines, including the exact model he used to drive as a teenager in Britain, a 1970 two-cylinder 650 cc BSA Lightning.
He sums up the goals of the CVMC as "to restore, preserve and use vintage motorcycles." He has become quite active in the Ontario group, helping to organize the large annual rally at Paris one year, it's an event that attracts literally thousands of vintage machine owners.
Wayne Lovell of Pefferlaw was showing a 1970 Triumph, one he, too, had restored himself.
"If you don't know how to fix them yourself ... you can't afford them," he said, a thought common around the show grounds. This was his first time to come to the Ameliasburgh rally and he was thoroughly enjoying it.
Part of the weekend program included motorcycle games, like seeing how slow one could go without putting feet on the ground, or having a passenger pin clothespegs onto a line. Then there was just family fun, campfires, trying out each other's machines, swimming or fishing in the lake, browsing through the adjacent museum and, on Saturday, even taking in the annual Art on the Fence Show going on at the museum. There is also an annual show where all the bikes are lined up and judged for prizes.
Hollands said the club has a close partnership with the museum, letting the museum collect the spectator fees. "We also gave a donation of $500 to the museum this year to help restore their kitchen," he said.
Having dodged most of a rainy forecast, Hollands and his fellow organizers are now looking forward to next year.
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