VINTAGE BIKE OC NEWS

Huntington Beach, Calif. - I ordered air conditioning for this afternoon, but it didn't arrive in time. A bit of an ocean breeze, but it was still a little hot in HB today. Even with the heat we had a good meet. We counted the votes a little early and by 3:50 Mr. Pete's was deserted. 83 people showed up today on their bikes including two at 4:15 looking for the show.

We had a lot of first time bikes to our meet today, a 1986 Honda Trail 110 (too new for our contest) with less than 100 miles on it, along with it's sibling a 1966 Trail 90. A survivor mid 1960's Suzuki (possibly a 1966 Suzuki S32-II "Olympian") which seemed like a fairly rare bike to me. Bill Blaty's 1913 Indian Board Tracker tibute bike. Also too new for our contest, it's electric motor disguised as the original v-twin Indian engine. I hope Bill brings it back, because for some reason I only shot one photo of it.

Bike of the Month
Bill Perrone of Huntington Beach took first place easily with his 1955 BSA Goldstar. Bill won a Mr. Pete's Grill T-shirt and gift certificate. Bill bought this bike from Terry Pratt's family after his passing in 2012. Terry was a motorcycle industry icon, Moto USA has a nice obituary for him here: Terry Pratt. Read all about the Goldstar on our Bike of the Month page.

Second Place
Stanley Tang of Aliso Viejo took Second place with his custom 1974 Honda CB125. Stanley has owned the bike for three years. It was pretty rough when he bought it for his wife, now it's a show winner. I thought Stanley had won Bike of the Month before with his custom Yamaha, but I guess he's always only placed.

Third Place
Larry French of Huntington Beach brought his 1969 Kawasaki 500 H1 back for the second time this month and took Third place in our contest. Larry bought the bike two years ago after it sat in a Palm Springs garage for 31 years posing as a chopper. Ari Henning, Road Test Editor for Motorcyclist Magazine did the year and a half restoration on the H1. See a couple of before photos in our gallery

Thanks to everyone for showing up and making this another great event and a special thanks to my team, Tom & Debbie Hopkins and Brian Tink Tinkler. I'll see you on October 11, 2015.

Keep On Ridin',
Joe Kagerer