Cherokee Chapter News

[shelbyinparadise]

Texas 2015 Spring Smithville Event Moving

After 18 months since the reorganization of the Cherokee Chapter, Our Board has just unanimously approved the largest undertaking we have tried yet, After all the success with our Meet and Greets, Bike Displays at Car shows and Swap meets, social events, and our hugely successful National Road Run, We are set to announce our next project first of next week for Spring 2015 on our Website Blog www.cherokeeamca.org This will be a Regional Event with other Chapters and Vintage / Antique Clubs of all makes at a huge established Venue and will be the replacement for our annual Smithville Bike Show and Swap meet held in May

No, I am not talking about the Antique Bike Week "Destination Eustis" in March, but I am talking about a Texas sized event attended by thousands of people from all over the country. The Cherokee Chapter will be putting on the Largest Antique Motorcycle Display, Swap meet vending and Social Event in its History. Watch for the official flyer not false or ill-informed rumors. I will start a new Thread with all the details.

Shelby Withrow,TexasUSA.jpg Membership and Events Director of Cherokee Chapter 940 748 2555 shelbyinparadise@wccs.net

[shelbyinparadise]

The Summer issue of the Cherokee newsletter has been posted on our website www.cherokeeamca.org, check out the events, pictures and blog. Of special note is the Cannonball in September. Enjoy

[shelbyinparadise]

The Cherokee Chapter is closing out 2014 in High Spirits, our to do list for the Year is almost complete, We now have our Face Book page up for our members, we had an outstanding Christmas Party and elections. Proud to say the Current Officers were re-elected By the entire Membership. This year we sent out Ballots to all members so those that could not attend the General Membership meeting, could still have their say, every vote counts.

12 of our members were involved in the Cannonball Run in September, with some difficulties we achieved two second Place finishes in two of the three classes, by Mike Carson and Jon Neuman. Not everyone's cup of tea, but is shows how active our Chapter is in all forms of Antique Motorcycle enjoyment.

We had a lot of Fun Hosting a National Road Run in Kerrville that was widely acknowledged as one of the Best with 185 riders, Many other events were attended by our members to help expose our Chapter to those that had an interest in the older machines but had never had exposure to the Antique Club.

Our website is now over a year old and has a hit rate that is hard to believe all that watch what we do during the year, but we created the website to be a beacon to attract new members and keep our members informed of events as they come up, We are approaching the 200 member mark with pride, and making friends across the country.

We encourage internet members, those without a local Chapter but who like the close friendly way we run our Chapter for the enjoyment of our members, Not everyone can get to all events they want but we encourage those that want a Chapter to keep them informed and involved with both AMCA and Non-AMCA events, Join us at www.cherokeeamca.org $15 a year to local Chapter for AMCA members. Sponsors and Donor page on website will be up in a couple of weeks. We encourage those that think we are on right path to help however you can.

Happy New Year..... Look forward to 2015. Shelby Withrow, Membership and Events Director

[shelbyinparadise]

The Cherokee Chapter has lost 3 Members in the last three Months. All of our members are important, some just had a larger footprint in our world.

We lost C.D. "Foot" Martin in January shortly after his Arlington Texas Swap meet and Bike Show. Foot was well known on eBay and through out all major meets by his company name of Arlington Cycle Works or Texas Harley Salvage. Foot and I shared many friends from when I moved my shop from Arlington to Paradise, Foot Will be Missed, RIP

I am sad to report that our good friend and Cherokee chapter member Will Carnahan passed away. The last time I visited with Will was at Sweetwater. Even though he was ill, we all had a good time just enjoying the good company. Will who was always a gentleman will be missed by all. I had only known Will for a few years but he had made it a goal to live out the bad health sharing time with friends. RIP Will.

It is hard to report the loss of Buddy Reveile Owner of Bud's Cycle Shop in Austin, Texas, well known and respected in the AMCA world. He will be missed by many. Bud had a large family, 4 sons and 7 daughters. RIP Bud.

With Respect, Shelby Withrow, Cherokee Chapter Membership Director

[shelbyinparadise]

Over the last few days at Pate Swap meet we had people show up from the four corners of the country, and signed up more than 30 new and existing AMCA members to our Chapter, now nearing 250 and growing. People "Get" what we are doing, Leading by example instead of edict from on high. We are proud of the 300 or so that vended and/or exhibited their bikes in our Show. Our Board voted to take this to the next level next year, our VIP party was attended by heavy hitters in the industry that want spaces and will help sponsor the event next year. Face book coverage was excellent, the weather was perfect, and our friends and members made it happen.

First year was a Total Success.

Our Future of the Sport Program is off and running, drawing in Bike Builders of Biker Build-offs, drawing in the younger people that feel welcome with us "older members", Hell, that is how most of us learned the basic skills when we were young, unless you are a "credit card rider"

Pate sold out completely again this year of 10,000 vendor spaces, and the Cherokee Chapter will grow in size, over 3/4 of our vendors prepaid for next year and wanted more spaces. Texas People know how to throw a mean Social Event.

Proud to be Cherokee, Shelby Withrow , Events Director

[koanes]

There is a Texas size plate of bullshit being served up here. Of the 381 spaces the chapter had, less than 10% of those spaces had venders offering vintage motorcycles and parts. The rest of the spaces were occupied by cars and parts and flea market crapola. If you were looking for guitars or water skis or fishing gear or knickknacks, etc. you were in the right place. The chapter had an awesome display of motorcycles, and the venders that were present were all fun, friendly people with some excellent and reasonably priced goods. I appreciate that the folks there are trying to get a good local antique meet going, the people I met were the real deal and showed the famous Texas hospitality so we had a good time, but let's keep it honest please.

[shelbyinparadise]

There is a Texas size plate of bullshit being served up here. Of the 381 spaces the chapter had, less than 10% of those spaces had venders offering vintage motorcycles and parts. The rest of the spaces were occupied by cars and parts and flea market crapola. If you were looking for guitars or water skis or fishing gear or knickknacks, etc. you were in the right place. The chapter had an awesome display of motorcycles, and the venders that were present were all fun, friendly people with some excellent and reasonably priced goods. I appreciate that the folks there are trying to get a good local antique meet going, the people I met were the real deal and showed the famous Texas hospitality so we had a good time, but let's keep it honest please.

The above statement was balanced with a partial explanation need to clear up one point, The Pate Swap meet is a Transportation Related Swap meet. The Cherokee Chapter obtained a very large number of spots mostly connected. Like all Swap meets, people who had paid to reserve their 2014 spaces for 2015 had no knowledge of the large Motorcycle event that was being planned around them.

So when Kyle described a mix of vendors that seemed out of place in a Motorcycle area he is reporting what he saw. What he did not see is the work we did at the meet, talking to these non motorcycle people about moving them to more appropriate spaces for their wares, and we have been able to accommodate most of them verbally, but we still have to wait for confirmation of space swaps with Pate Management. We, the Cherokee Chapter, were authorized to expand up to 500 spaces next year, 2016 but we will still have several,?, old vendors that have had spaces at Pate for years that will not move, yet.

Please do not loose sight, this is a Regional AMCA Chapter Event, who went from our long Springtime meet in Smithville Texas, who had 7 vendors, and maybe 15 motorcycles last year, to 135 Antique motorcycles and Vendors from 11 States.

We had 135 Antique Motorcycles from 1903 to 1980, from many states, vendors from 11 states, and yes people were able to sell anything transportation related items, along with their Motorcycle parts, a 75 year old member sold two row boat or canoe the first day, but he had plenty of parts also, His Motorcycle won best in show.

We are a social Chapter and 65% of the vendors have prepaid for next year, no Bullshit. This will never be a Davenport, motorcycle event, But if we did this good first year, We are proud to "Lead By Example" of what a local chapter can do without National Support. We had Three National magazines doing feature articles on Winning Motorcycles, and our Chapter gained 30 or so new members to now approx. 250

Pictures on line at www.cherokeeamca.org Shelby Withrow Event and Membership Director, no bullshit!!!!

[frichie68]

"Transportation Swap Meet", NOT necessarily a motorcycle-only affair. That pretty well explains the so-called bullshit. Shelby and the rest did an outstanding job. More great photos on the caimag website.

[deacon jones]

The Pate I attended far exceeded my expectations. I even found a 1918 HD T motor with magneto, frame, left side tank and handlebars for a very reasonable price. People who don't normally travel to the big shows have some cool stuff down here. I talked to numerous buyers and they all had some cool finds. All vendors I talked to seemed pleased as well. I look forward to next year.

Greg McFarland
AMCA# 15265