Wide-Eyed at the Antique Motorcycle Club of America Festival

Antique motorcycles
Just one of the many side roads filled with a variety of vintage bikes, parts and interesting people.

The Antique Motorcycle Club of America holds a vintage motorcycle festival each summer in the rural community of Rhinebeck, New York. A two-hour ride north of Manhattan takes you to this quiet and beautiful area, with Catskill Reserve, a large state park just west of the Hudson River, quite nearby. The Reserve has light traffic and smooth roads, which wind through mountains and follow rivers.

Antique motorcycles
For $35,000, this historic Indian could’ve been yours.

As we entered the Duchess County Fairgrounds for the 2017 gathering, a motorcycle, long and brown, whirred quietly by. My buddy Doug and I exclaimed, “What was that?” This became our catch phrase for the next two days.

Antique motorcycles
You never know what you will see at this vintage show. Here is a two-wheel Barnum that rides along on wooden wheels.

We looked at beautiful and unusual parts on vendors’ tables and viewed unfamiliar motorcycles and contraptions on wheels. We watched with delight as two fellows from Boston pushed carts full of cherished parts, and I laughed as a man maneuvered a complete motorcycle front end across the field, arms outstretched comically as if operating a lawnmower.

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Antique motorcycles
Impeccably restored 1948 Indian once used by the Police Dept. of New York City.

Program organizer Don Spence and chapter president Keith “Mudfish” Moser told us they like to maintain a family-friendly festival. The atmosphere is open, lighthearted and fun, and it has a food court and nice people like first responder Linsey Henrique, who works the first-aid station.

Antique motorcycles
Chapter president Keith “Mudfish” Moser pictured with a smile.

Many of the sponsors who made the event possible were on hand as well, including Motorcyclepedia, Woodstock Harley-Davidson, Indian Motorcycles of Springfield, Massachusetts, Indian Motorcycles of Brookfield, Connecticut, and Spectro Oil.

Antique motorcycles
A period correct 1917 Henderson sidecar.

Beautifully restored early motorcycles from the teens through the 1950s were displayed in the large buildings. British and Japanese stock and period-correct customs from the ’60s and ’70s competed, choppers and hot rod cars brought back memories and the all-female Motor Maids club was even on hand. Founded in 1940, Motor Maids has several members in their 90s, and meets are staged at different locations throughout America each year. Club members must ride their motorcycles to the meet…no trailering. On our journey to Rhinebeck, Doug and I met two Motor Maids who were riding from Ontario, Canada, to a meet in Indiana!

Antique motorcycles
You can always count on the Motor Maids to make an appearance at a classic motorcycle event.

The heart of the festival takes place outside on the fairgrounds. Here history moves into the present tense. Vintage bikes fire to life and cruise the grounds. Motorcyclists ride in for the day on Vincent Black Shadows and 1934 Morgan three-wheelers. Others brought vintage motorcycles aboard restored vintage trucks. Astounding!

Antique motorcycles
The step-through Ner-A-Car (1921-1926), which was designed to accommodate a lady rider in her long dress.

The patina of many of the riders matched that of their bikes, too. Vintage Nortons, Indians, Harleys and Hendersons cruised by—rider and machine metered and rhymed. Some folks attend the event to show or sell their bikes; others attend to sell vintage parts, perhaps the bones of someone’s new project or precious parts needed to complete a current one.

Antique motorcycles
Mystery bike located, a “restored” 1919 Henderson 4 cylinder.

We located the mystery bike that whirred past earlier. It was an in-line 4-cylinder, 1,147 cc, 14.2-horsepower 1919 Henderson with an exposed valve train. The bike had sat in the owner’s barn in New Hampshire for 15 years awaiting completion. His friend said that the owner was fortunate to complete his project in such a “brief” time span—many collectors never complete their restorations because much-needed parts can’t be located.

Antique motorcycles
She might not be period correct, but the “old girl” did a Cannonball Endurance Run with Bryan Pease at the controls.

On the last day of the festival Doug and I watched as young children were given rides in sidecars or on trikes. The most heartwarming and hopeful event took place during the judging of the Japanese motorcycles. Sixteen-year-old Mason Thyng had restored a 1970 Yamaha two-stroke to original order. Mason’s father had brought the bike home after finding it in a barn near their home in New Hampshire. He wanted his then 14-year-old son to restore the bike on his own. Mason researched, studied, wrenched and polished the little blue-and-white Yamaha to perfection. At the judging, senior judge “Flathead Jack” questioned young Mason about his entry. Realizing immediately that the young lad knew volumes about 1970s motorcycles, he placed an orange judge’s vest on the young boy and pronounced him Assistant Judge!

Antique motorcycles
Young 16-year-old Mason Thyng, proudly positioned behind his award-winning 1970 Yamaha.

Perhaps the next time we attend a vintage motorcycle festival and exclaim, “What was that?” a young Mason Thyng will politely step up and answer our question.

1 COMMENT

  1. I love the idea of taking an antique motorcycle to a festival and riding it around. I love motorcycles and I really want to get one from the early 1940s. I think it would be so much to drive that around the festival grounds.

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