Who Would Have Guessed
A week or so ago I took my son who was visiting from Washington state to the Classic Care Museum in Gulfport, MS. There we heard talk about a vintage motorcycle show that was to take place November 15th on the Coast. After a little investigation, I found out the Mobile Bay Vintage Motorcycle Club was holding their semi-annual show in Biloxi, Mississippi. Who are these folks? A little checking revealed some interesting facts. They can be found at mbvmc.org and as they say on their website, they are a group of people “who love the art of vintage motorcycles.” Sounds good to me. After finding out the dues are “free” I joined.
Now I had to get to the show. Since I wanted to fit in, I cleaned up the Royal Enfield/Kozi Rocket rig and rode it down to the show, about a 90 mile run. Didn’t really expect to do much. Hoped to meet some like-minded people and look at some nice vintage bikes. Admission to the show was free (this gets better all the time) but if you wanted to compete, there was a $10 registration fee. What a deal, I just wanted to look around and enjoy. After some pleasant talk, the lady at the registration table talked me into entering. But what class? Certainly not vintage. Not British (really) or other European. Not made in USA or custom. The only place it fit was “Original – Unrestored.” So, I’m in.
There were only two other sidecar rigs at the show. One of them entered his Ural in the modern European class. The other was piloting a Kawasaki KZ off road rig with a Sputnik sidecar. He was just enjoying the show with his two four legged companions. We talked in detail about sidecars, touring and a host of other topics.
Had to stick around until 3:00 PM to find out who the winners were but I didn’t want to leave anyway with all that beautiful equipment to look at. Turns out the Ural rider takes a trophy in his class and then, who would have guessed? My very own Royal Enfield G5 takes second place in its class, and it’s a stock setup! People did seem to flock to the bike and I spent a lot of time answering questions about sidecars in general and Royal Enfield in particular. Over all it was a great day, even if the wife wasn’t too happy about being deserted.