Something is missing

[Magic]

The current judging system has been an improvement over the past when owners didn't know what was incorrect on their Motorcycles without the 100 point check off sheets. With that said the owner pride in their motorcycle and it's operation was lost with the Best running award in it's class. At the time that award was only eligible to Unrestored Motorcycles. When the time came for the "showdown" of starting your motorcycle and letting it idle in front of the judges and quite a crowd of onlookers because it was a pride and understanding as well experience with your motorcycle is what earned the most respect of the award. I would even believe adding restored motorcycles into this to challenge the owners. It's one thing to own a nice motorcycle but to have one running in excellent mechanical condition is another. Don't judge a book by it's cover. JMO Ride em

[Magic]

No comments yet so I'll go to the second part of this subject. We all know there is this push to encourage new younger riders/enthusiast into the AMCA. However what I am seeing is grandpa signing up their granddaughters/sons as new members and putting their motorcycles/scooters for judging under the child's name so they may receive awards and recognition as the youngest members. On paper that looks like what this Club needs. In reality it's a false mockery in many cases of building, restoring, studying the period motorcycles involved. I'm sure I'm going to take some hits for that comment. I didn't say every new younger member either. But the ones I have been seeing have never had a dirty finger nail in their lives. Let alone have a clue how the Motorcycle starts and runs. That is a mockery of the system and holds no future in attaining younger enthusiasts. You either want to wrench or you don't. Someone doing it for you makes you the biggest loser. Did I hit any nerves yet? It wasn't meant that way when you think about what I said. I see people all the time having no clue how to properly start or maintain their motorcycle. In the Antique world that reality stands out. Having a 99.5 point motorcycle and not knowing how it works is a failure of our system. Ride em don't shine em

[Rollo]

I also spoke to the new Exec DR. about this subject too and he is interested in growing the club with younger members and as a matter of fact we had a god showing of some young chopper builders who are actually taking to the old bikes. It is a money issue and they have a shop in NC and he spoke with them and is trying to get them to bring in younger folks as well. These guys were starting out like a lot of us did building and riding chopper, contraptions ( death rides) but the entered the field games contest at The Denton meet. Little tough to put tennis balls on top of traffic cones with no front brakes, true suicide clutch operations and then ride back and retrieve them, but the had fun trying and the crowd loved seeing them try to do it. One guy was even smart enough to set the idle higher with a pocket tool so he didn't have to worry about the throttle part of things. They seem like true enthusiasts and I'm sure we will be seeing them for years to come.

Tom (Rollo) Hardy
AMCA #12766

[vph-d]

I think it is realistic to expect some of today's young chopper guys to stay interested in old bikes. Many of us old farts started out on custom bikes back in the day just like they are now.
VPH-D

[painterdale]

True, and the bikes we started on then, are now the old bikes. Dale