VINTAGE BIKE OC NEWS

Huntington Beach, Calif. - A beautiful August afternoon at the beach a perfect day to get together and look at vintage motorcycles. People are showing up early, at 1:30 there were already 20 bikes in the lot, by 2:00 we had 54 and the official count was 110. Things are going more smoothly as we get used to our new home.

We had a lot of new people and bikes today, of the five top vote recipients, three were new people and four were new bikes. I just never know who or what will show up. Many people opted out of the Bike of the Month competition, yet they had very nice bikes.

Bike of the Month
There was a clear Bike of the Month winner today. Mike Carpenter of Huntington Beach won first place with his 1970 Kawasaki H1 500. Mike won a Mr. Pete's Grill T-shirt and gift certificate. This was Mike's first time to our meet. The bike was purchase brand new in Huntington Beach in April 1970. Read all about it on our Bike of the Month page.

Second Place
Another first timer, Mark Cilani of Newport Beach took Second with his 1975 Yamaha RD350. Mark isn't quite finished with this project. He has racing decals to add and a few other touches. This bike has a liquid cooled Banshee engine instead of the original air cooled RD 350 engine. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished, I thought it was...

Third Place - Three Way Tie
Jimmy Garvey of Santa Ana brought his recently aquired very original 1968 Yamaha YR 2C 350. Known as the Giant Killer this factory road racer has 5 port cylinders. Jim bought the bike from Dave Kulaga who found it with 1,500 original miles and made some minor mods such as the seat and bars.

Kevin Blaty of Huntington Beach brought his 1976 Honda Elsinor 250 again today and gathered enough votes to be in the mix. Maybe it was because it was his birthday, but he and his brothers always bring some cool bikes.

Another first timer, Matthew Ettinger of LaHabra Heights brought his recently finished 1973 Triumph Daytona. This is a fine example of John Calicchio's work from Triumph Classic Motorcycles in Costa Mesa.

Thanks to everyone for showing up and making this another great event and a special thanks to my team, Brian Tink Tinkler and Hobo John. I'll see you on September 13, 2015.

Keep On Ridin',
Joe Kagerer