Sunhine Nat'l area meets

[LouieMCman]

Why not just give the new meet venue a chance? Why all the nay saying before the event ever happens? What are you afraid of, greasy long haired beer drinking bikers wearing black? Just maybe it will work out , maybe not but who knows? Why would this club advertize for your meet? Would you advertize for theirs? I'm just tied of all this BS and yes I will probably go to both meets just to see which will survive....good luck to both.

[shelbyinparadise]

tfburke3,

I agree with you on the censorship!

If a member here asks a question, other members should be able to answer it.

You may have to look at the caimag forum to read about the latest censorship that just happened this morning, I was told this morning that the National Board had pulled an ad I had placed a month ago for the Spring issue of Club Mag on the last days before starting to print. An ad for the Volusia County Fairgrounds swapmeet taking place the same days as Silver Sands a few miles down on 44 was published, but my add for the Lake County Fairgrounds was pulled. Enough Bull**** of staying out of the local disputes by the National, Move over Charley I may be next. Shelby

[shelbyinparadise]

Well put Sarge, Florida people are seeing what is wrong with the idea of being next to the Cabbage Patch bar and campgrounds on opening weekend of bike week and the word is spreading. Shelby

[Sargehere]

EUSTIS SWAP MEET & Vintage Parts Manufacturers' TRADE SHOW

Most of us already have heard that the AMCA Sunshine Chapter walked away from the Lake County Fairgrounds, Eustis, Florida, site for 2012 after holding an Antique Motorcycle Club national Winter meet there for fifteen or sixteen years.

The move was suddenly announced as a "done deal" at the 2011 Wauseon AMCA meet, where little, printed cards were handed out. This was some stunning news to many of the folks who make up the Antique Motorcycle Club's Summer meet circuit, particularly, the vendors.

Many of the vendors who first heard about the Sunshine Chapter's sudden change of venue had attended the AMCA meets at the Eustis fairgrounds site for many years. They knew the layout, had favorite spaces that they had rented faithfully, year-after-year, and even had "favorite" neighbors on each side that they were glad to catch up with at the annual March meet. They also made sure to finalize their attendance the following year by making reservations with the Sunshine Chapter before pulling up stakes at the end of the meet and heading to wherever they had made plans for the remainder of Daytona Bike Week. With the change of location, obviously those reservations went out-the-window, and it was "square one" time!

The new site (for what was initially reported as a "regional" [read:local chapter] meet, instead of an AMCA national, then suddenly became a National Meet again in a little sleight-of-hand, mumbo-jumbo), is a horse show ring that abuts The Cabbage Patch, a well-known biker bar that sponsors their own annual money-maker, a campground/drunken circus and "midway" that boils like an unwatched pot on an over-stoked campfire for the entire Bike Week festivities. Some have noted that between the Cabbage Patch and the horse show grounds, they're not sure, but don't think there's even a metal fence, just a wooden split rail fence that you could climb through carrying a beer in each hand, if you wanted, making any swapmeet security next door to the Cabbage Patch somewhat of a nightmare.

That's just for starters, but the surprise news hit many of the biggest participants in the Eustis Swap Meet like a 2x4 upside the head, and it didn't take them long to decide what they were going to do about it. I'm talking about some of the biggest and best known names in the antique motorcycle "industry," the fellows who make and sell "most" of the parts that we use to finish, and to keep our decades-old prides-and-joys running.

Six of these fellows were standing together, just kibitzing at Wauseon, when someone handed them all the little cards announcing the cancellation of the Eustis meet as we've all known it and its re-constitution 45 miles away at the Cabbage Patch three-ring circus site.

The discussion that ensued soon resulted in the formation of the Vintage Motorcycle Alliance LLC (a "Limited Liability Corporation"), which, technically, is a new antique motorcycle trade group (something we've never had before) made up entirely of Antique Motorcycle Club of America members of long-standing, and which proceeded from that seed to become the entity which rented the Eustis Fairgrounds site after Sunshine Chapter declined to, and then negotiated with the City of Eustis for public camping in the parking lot at the fairgrounds site,something which was never allowed when the Sunshine Chapter met there, and made plans to hold a Manufacturers' Trade Show in conjunction with the swap meet; what's being called "an old-fashioned, back-of-your-pickup truck-open the trunk of you car," antique motorcycle swap meet!

The Manufacturers' Trade Show will draw the cream of the people who make their bread & butter, and make our mouths water, providing reproduction and reconditioned parts for our old motorcycles, from all over North Amerioca, and elsewhere. There will be demonstrations, of a kind like the New Jersey concern that will demonstrate and display all the different metal finishes they offer: different grades of cadmium plating, chrome and the colors they can provide in Parkerizing. Also wheel makers, tire manufacturers and makers of small, essential parts available nowhere else on the planet.

Many well-known names have signed up; one is Tom Faber, manufacturer of some pieces that restorers of vintage Harleys almost can not do without. Another is Tom Feesler, owner of Replicant Metals. Tom makes an awful lot of sheet metal for bikes, Harley and Indian and many others, that date all-way-back: fuel tanks, fenders and toolboxes among them. He is scheduled to be set up in his location familiar to Eustis attendees, right side, just inside the main entrance. Another one signed on is Dale & Matt Walkser's Wheel Through Time Museum; they'll bring a few of their tasty restorations down from Maggie Valley, North Carolina.

Another well-known restorer and dealer in small parts, Bruce Palmer III, will be there. His attendance was almost mandatory. The horse show ring is a muddy (when wet), dirt floor edifice, making the site non-ADA compliant, and nearly-unnavigable in the kind of power chair Bruce uses.

Here is a list of some of the vendors already signed up:

http://www.vintagemotorcyclealliance.com/vendors.html

That is the address of the Vintage Motorcycle Alliance website.
These fellows are serious about this. The swap promises to be a low-stress, old-fashioned trading session, Friday and Saturday, and simultaneously with the Manufacturer's Trade Show will be something completely new to antique motorcycling. Old motorcycles are invited for participation awards only, in an old-fashioned "display." No stress, no B.S.

There is really no direct competition with the Sunshine Chapter's formal judging, as the Vintage Motorcycle Alliance meet at Eustis will be Friday and Saturday, March 9th and 10th, and the AMCA judging is scheduled for Sunday, March 11th, by which time the VMA sponsors will have hatted up for Daytona to fulfill their plans for the remainder of Bike Week.

[shelbyinparadise]

Eustis

Yes thanks to moderator for keeping two threads open and even keeping the closed Eustis thread on page 6 viewable for those who would like to check facts on what was said and by whom.

There will still be a Regional meet at Davenport Iowa this fall still put together by
local AMCA members and nationwide vendors. Shelby

[Paul G Bergeron]

eustis debacle

thanks to moderator for not deleting this thread looks like lots of support for both venues . how are we to know where the good parts are free admission to public at both locations much nicer to stay around eustis area and visit amca meet than visa versa. needless to say much confusion many ive talked say that eustis is there choice to set up and vend .wait and see what crawls out of this can of worms good luck to all.paul g bergeron minot maine 7989

[PRG]

Howdy Rob,

Horses for courses. Ms. Patrick would be well out of her league here. Brute strength not beauty revered in this neighborhood.

Women's Cold Slaw wrestling starts next door to the new AMCA venue on Sunday at the Cabbage Patch. Some of the competitors could easily hoist a salad oil and cabbage lathered Danica overhead in each hand for an effortless pile drive.

[Knotthed]

tfburke3,

I agree with you on the censorship!

If a member here asks a question, other members should be able to answer it.

[tfburke3]

Although I dont use this forum often,I appreciate another members response to my question,although it seems to be a touchy subject.
My suggestion to the membership(owners of the forum?) and moderator would be to moderate similar to other groups,keeping out the profanity,etc,and let the forum be a free exchange among club members,without worry about censoring a conversation that may be percieved as somehow hurtfull to the AMCA.
Have Fun
Tom
AMCA 1716

[shelbyinparadise]

He has deleted my reply to Tom's question that started this thread. Gary did not send a "PM" to me to explain his actions. My reply included the link to the site for the Vintage Motorcycle Alliance. Where did Gary obtain information about the VMA was created "just as a protest to compete with an existing chapter and it's regularly scheduled event"? Gary I am a member of the Sunshine Chapter and one of the trustees for the Board and have not been informed that the VMA was a threat or a competitor. I would be interested to know who other than you is "the management of the AMCA forum" that has reached such a consensus?

Hello Tim, welcome aboard a rocking boat. I have posted in all three of these Eustis threads, and I explained I am (?) a member in good standing of the Sunshine chapter, and from the very first when we found out the move to Silver Sands Arena was in the works, we tried to have some say in our future at Eustis. When Gloria and I joined the club from out of state it was a show of support from a vendor to what was an excellent venue in Florida. Was it perfect? NO but it was so good for us and we felt a part of it.

I have not heard till your post any public stand from Florida chapter members about the VMA one way or the other except in private conversations, and have been trying to explain to Gary both publicly and privately all of this was born of an internal Sunshine AMCA Club decission to move without members support or input, and all of this grew from those roots. Thank you for stepping up, but watch what you might have stepped in, CattleRancher Shelby

[WebKahuna]

Gary,
What is it going to take to make the officers of that chapter and our national club realize that this "competing organzation" is our membership. They are not happy with the actions of the Sunshine Chapter. They simply do not want to attend a meet in that location. Have you seen the flyier for the meet? Take a look at the list of fleabag motels they recommend. No national chains.

Chris
Time most likely. I'm sure they're listening, I can't say what they're hearing.
Gary

[WebKahuna]

WHY?
Because,
It's the consensus with the management of the AMCA Forum that the group whose references are being deleted was created just as a protest to compete with an existing chapter and it's regularly scheduled event. As such we prefer to have our resources used in support of one of our own chapters and not those of a competing organzation.


Thanks
Gary



I find it interesting that Gary Palombia would use a moniker "Web Kahuna" instead of his name when conducting official Web business. He has deleted my reply to Tom's question that started this thread. Gary did not send a "PM" to me to explain his actions. My reply included the link to the site for the Vintage Motorcycle Alliance. Where did Gary obtain information about the VMA was created "just as a protest to compete with an existing chapter and it's regularly scheduled event"? Gary I am a member of the Sunshine Chapter and one of the trustees for the Board and have not been informed that the VMA was a threat or a competitor. I would be interested to know who other than you is "the management of the AMCA forum" that has reached such a consensus?

I'm not sure why it's strange to you that I use a moniker or handle on a forum site, I've always thought that to be pretty much standard practice. If your suggesting it's for some nefarious reason your wrong. That you have my name should indicate it wasn't really hidden, and as I recall access to peoples names was a reason a few of people left the forum a while back.
I apologize for not paying you the respect of a PM It was an oversight on my part.

TimR I am the moderator of the board and as such, more of janitor or handyman for this forum not really a manager. The owner of the AMCA Forum is the Antique Motorcycle Club of America and I believe the management of that is the board of directors
You can as a matter of the forum rules report my actions to the board of directors and they would be the ones to decide if I acted improperly

Gary Palombia

[Chris Haynes]

Because,
It's the consensus with the management of the AMCA Forum that the group whose references are being deleted was created just as a protest to compete with an existing chapter and it's regularly scheduled event. As such we prefer to have our resources used in support of one of our own chapters and not those of a competing organzation.


Thanks
Gary

Gary,
What is it going to take to make the officers of that chapter and our national club realize that this "competing organzation" is our membership. They are not happy with the actions of the Sunshine Chapter. They simply do not want to attend a meet in that location. Have you seen the flyier for the meet? Take a look at the list of fleabag motels they recommend. No national chains.

[TimR]

WHY?
Because,
It's the consensus with the management of the AMCA Forum that the group whose references are being deleted was created just as a protest to compete with an existing chapter and it's regularly scheduled event. As such we prefer to have our resources used in support of one of our own chapters and not those of a competing organzation.


Thanks
Gary



I find it interesting that Gary Palombia would use a moniker "Web Kahuna" instead of his name when conducting official Web business. He has deleted my reply to Tom's question that started this thread. Gary did not send a "PM" to me to explain his actions. My reply included the link to the site for the Vintage Motorcycle Alliance. Where did Gary obtain information about the VMA was created "just as a protest to compete with an existing chapter and it's regularly scheduled event"? Gary I am a member of the Sunshine Chapter and one of the trustees for the Board and have not been informed that the VMA was a threat or a competitor. I would be interested to know who other than you is "the management of the AMCA forum" that has reached such a consensus?

[rwm]

sounds like an indy ,cart kind of separation. both will end up watered down. maybe one group can use danica patrick