Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

goin g to be tr ying to do double and triple jumps with their Velocette motocross machines. Our average member's ag e is 43, and AHRMA is clearly driven by nostalgia. If you ' re 23, you basicall y ha ve no memories of motorcycles that you wanted to own when you were younger. I think that by definition a gu y who wants to ride in vintage racing need s to be over 30, and it's usually about 35 to 40 that the absolute fire goes out. By the time your 35 you realize that there's some things that you cannot do and some things that hurt when you do them. Then you look back to what you w a n te d to d o when yo u were much younger and basically you try to relive your youth. I think that 's the definition of nostalgia. "I d oubt that a vin tage organiza tion would be overrun by youngs ters, and I' d have to say that its something that we 're not looking for. I don 't want to see 17-yea r-ol ds flying around on BSAs. I remember when I could d o it, but I certainly d on't want to see a sudden inrush of yo ungsters. They ha ve their w hole lives before them where they can prove themselves as World Champions or not World Champions on modem machin es doing modern things." So what ' s the ince n tiv e to ride an 'AH RMA event? "The incentiv e for an ybody to join is the comradery, the friendship , the good s po r ts m a ns hi p a nd the relative ly res trained racin g. We're not looking for guys w ho wa nt to rub wheels. While there's maybe 15% of our riders w ho are serious abo ut what they're do ing, tha t leaves 85% who are ha ving fun an d in two specific areas: in p re paring the motorcycle and making su re the mo torcycle is as good as it ever was, and in some instances, better than it ever was. The ot her area is to go aro u nd a mo tocross or road race circuit, occasionally getting a shot of adrenaline and living a past that in some instances didn't exis t." Wh e re AHRMA will b e 10 yea r s from now is anybody's guess, and while Smith is quite confiden t that there is no end in sight to the vin tage mo torcycling movement, he did sa y that predicting the direction AHRMA will take is not an easy thing to do. "When I joined AHRMA, I thou gh t I could write a business plan for them," said Smith. "But it became very obvious that I couldn't, beca use what we ha ve with AH RMA is a jelly that runs anywhere it wa nts to, an d it's not possible to pred ict beyond certain broad lines. In 10 years, I'd like to see AHRMA ali ve and well and running events all across the USA. I believe it will be there. I also believe that in 10 years' time AHRMA will still be running SoS and BoT races. Some of them m ight even be World Championship races." While he can 't predict the direction AHRMA will ta ke , Sm ith offered a strong argument as to why vintage fever w ill continue to grow. "I think that there will be a wa ve of nostalgia hitting the mot orcycl e industry in the next 10 years, because, as you know, in the mid 1970s and through the mid 19805, more than a million motorcycles were sold each year in the Ll.S, People who bought those machines have gone through life's rich path. Then they suddenly realize, 'Boy, I remember when I had a Suzuki or a Kawasaki: or whatever they had when they were young. Then those people are going to become nostalgic and want to pick up some of the machines they always wanted or once raced , put them back in good order and come out and play." And that premise may include not just nostalgi a for other motorcycles, bu t for other forms of competition as well. "We're about to get into drag racing, a nd end u ros are also becoming more . im porta nt. Wh atev er competition was available in those years w ill ultimately be available within AHRMA." One aspect that is somewha t lo st upon prospective AHRMA members is that whil e AHRMA is hea vily involved in racing, competition is not the sole reason for its existence. Smith said that to take such an ap proach would be missing the point. "True, racing is our middle name, and the great attraction for most people is the motorcycle racing or competition that we indulge in. But racing's not the full reason why AHRMA exists:', Smith said . "AHRMA is interested in the restoration and preservation of motorcycles, but we believe as a group that there should onl y be one perfect example of every motorcycle in a museum somewh ere , and all the rest of them should be ridden. Our aim is to pull in people w ho are interested in the renovation and use of those motorcycles - the way they we re origi nally int ended - into contact with ea ch other. An y draftsmen who drew a motorcycle onto a draft board knew that he was a drawing a dynamic animal. A motorcycle, when it comes to rest , falls down. Therefore it should be m oving . It shouldn't be sitting in a museum somewhere." Whil e Sm ith sa id that AHRMA's qu est for a high-quality event is a neverendi n g process of imp rov eme n ts a nd refinements - which he must continually oversee - the job is one tha t makes him happy: "All of my adult life was consumed in working for motorcycle companies. In the commercial world of motorcycles, nobody ever calls you up to tell you that the machine worked good , They usually call you up to tell you that the machine didn't work good and they expect you to do something about it. You just don't speak to too many people who are po sitive. In AHRMA, everybody is positive. What we've got is people who are at peace with their motorcycles because the machines are over 20 years old, and everything that can be known about them is known. Now, nobody calls me up to tell me that their bike d idn't work good. They call me up to as k where's the next place that they can run the machines. So it's a very satisfying job to be delighting motorcyclists." For Smith, that still means d onning a helmet and getting into the act occasionally. He usually compet es in the 50+ Expert division, and he is still very competitive as evidenced by a 1993 AHRMA National Championship in the class. "I think I've ridden twice this year so far. Certainly I enjoy every time that I do get out on a motorcycle, but it's getting more and more rare because now I'm putting back into motorcycling exactly what I took out. I spend more time making sure the events run well, but I still ride from time to time, and I still get a hell of a kick out of it. And that 's an important mes sage to get across to people. Vintage motorcycling is growing, and it's fun. That's why it's growing." a

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