I was reminded today of the annual "Old Bike Ride" event put on under the auspices of the Norton Colorado Motorcycle Club. I'd participated in the 7th annual iteration of this vintage motorcycle event last year during May. The 8th Annual Old Bike Ride is coming up on May 23, 2010. If you love old motorcycles, not only Nortons but many other marques, this is a must-attend event!
Here's the photos I took and my recollections from last year's event:
May 9, 2009: A beautifully sunny and cool day here in Colorado, though it was a bit "brisk" as I rode Brigitta, my 1987 R80 to the Golden Hotel in Golden, CO to take pictures of the motorcycles participating in the ride.
I was not planning on doing the ride for two reasons, first I remain a solo rider by choice and second, I had family commitments I wanted to keep. Still, nothing to prevent a nice ride to Golden, meet nice folks who share my love of motorcycling, see vintage bikes that are actually ridden and learn their individual sounds. You see, I'd never heard the sound of a Norton, and it was a sweet sound indeed.
The credit for putting together and running such a great event goes to Bob Ohman, a member of Norton Colorado. He was in very large part responsible for not only this event but the first six years of this great ride. His efforts are known and appreciated by the members of Norton Colorado as you can see, and I'd like to add my appreciation as well for his dedication and enthusiasm.
I was the first one there when I arrived at about 0745 hrs. People started arriving soon afterwards though, with a fellow Beemer rider and four BSA riders making up the first contingent. While this was the result of Bob Ohman's now seventh year efforts to make this event happen under the aegis of the Norton of Colorado motorcycling club, there were a lot of the other marques as well. I saw BSAs, Moto Guzzis, Nortons of course, Hondas, Beemers and even a Laverda along with an ancient Vincent and a Henderson with a sidecar rig.
Truly an amazing gathering of motorcycles and I just kept shooting pictures of them as they arrived and gathered for the 0930hrs start of the ride. I shot over 150mb of pictures of all the bikes, no way to put them all in this posting. So if you want to see all the bikes see the slide show at the end of this posting. You won't regret it.
So here's the ones I liked best, this is not to say there's no beauties left unpublished, again check out the slideshow at the end of this posting for most of the shots.
1975 R90/6, first Beemer to arrive after me
click on each photo for a larger version from blogger.com
According to its owner, a "mostly 1972" Norton FastBack
Beautiful BSAs, one of the first groups to arrive
Another shot of the very clean R90/6 with Brigitta behind it
A R60/5 I believe, I forget the year....I really must take notes next time
A totally "unrestored" Norton, seepage in the lower half of the cylinder housing was evident in most of the Nortons that showed up! A normal condition apparently. To a man, all the Norton riders admitted you've really got to enjoy working on your bike to own a Norton!
The only Laverda to show up, proudly owned by Jim Dillard who also owns the "Vintage Motors" Vintage Motorcycles Museum Lower Downtown (LoDo) Denver. LINK to his site. I ended up paying his museum a visit soon afterwards: LINK.
Some more shots of the Laverda 1973 SF1
A Moto Guzzi 850 LeMans in sexy red
The predecessor to the sexy red model of Moto Guzzi
I ran into Pete Homan, who's done work on my bikes and who sold me Brigitta, here's his R80 GS Dualsport. Someday, I'll have a GS similar to this one.
A Moto Guzzi 1000 LeMans, also in sexy red, to include her wheels
A very nice looking vintage Honda
The Beast: a 1929 Henderson six cylinder made by Excelsior Motors, it was quite the hit amongst us all.
The Henderson's gauge cluster was, in my eyes, a work of art!
The Henderson again, this time you can see the sidecar it came with, awesome.
Another popular hit from the past, a Vincent in beautiful shape!
I love the shade of yellow used by Norton on this Commando
Beautiful blue fairing on this Norton
A pair of British Triumphs
A 175cc Honda
The epitome of Beemers in the late 70s, the R90S, and its happy owner
One of the last bikes to show, a signature Norton CommandoUnfortunately there was a bit of a fiasco near the beginning of the ride. Some downhill skateboard racing group had secured a permit from the city and had closed off Lookout Mountain Road at Windy Saddle! They had a security guy at the pillars guarding the gateway to the road and since this was the first point of the OBR7 ride, there was some confusion.
Still, the riders were not stymied for long, they got everyone turned around and staged up again and off they went after a suitable route had presumably been selected. I took pictures of them, as much as I could anyways, as they rode off to their ride.
On the move, a nice red Norton?
R90S, she's a beauty isn't she?
A Yellow Moto Guzzi I didn't catch at the staging area
Blue Beauty of a NortonA very nice morning of picture taking for me, I am sure the ones who were able to go for the full ride had a great time; they couldn't have asked for better weather!
Here's a shot of Brigitta, by her lonesome again, as we were headed south from Golden.
Finally, a link to Norton of Colorado's website, well worth the visit and check out their newsletter archives! Definitely not your usual "stuffy" club newsletters! LINK
Here's a link to the origina-sized photos on flickr.com, in case the small versions dictated by the slideshow prove too small: LINK
My thanks again to Bob Ohman and Norton of Colorado for this great vintage bike event! Make sure you go to the 8th Annual Old Bike Ride!
Ride Safe. Ride Aware.
Comments
Great bunch of pictures - I never get tired of looking at classic bikes!
Interesting notes you had on the Nortons. We looked at a couple of Nortons to restore before we took on the 1971 Triumph. All of the Nortons had 'issues' and that made us shy away.
Thanks Dom, I had been looking for information on this event recently and couldn't find anything. If you're going again this year I'll see you there.
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