Good People

You would think that during a rally there is a great deal to do and that participants are always busy. Not so, at least for me. While each morning begins quite early, usually no later than 6:45, by the time I wander to the washroom, get a cup of coffee from the Northwest Norton Owners’ Club, hang around and visit for a while, and then stroll back to the campsite, it is time to sit back, drink coffee, have a breakfast snack, talk about stuff, then begin to plan for the day, sit around some more enjoying the relaxing cool part of the day, it is well past eleven o’clock.

Jim relaxing with his morning coffee

Sign seen at the rally. Note who is holding the gun. Most appropriate.

Today was the day of the 'Minute of Thunder' and a large ride of Nortons out to Portola, CA, and other sites near Quincy. Jerry Kaplan, who is a well-known Norton afficionado had his Norton Commando Fastback ready for the ride. The bike is in beautiful condition, having been restored for the Bill Hardy collection. Hardy had at least ten Nortons restored and kept them until just before his death when he sold most of the bikes. Jerry got this one, which he considers to be the best of the lot. It is a beautiful motorcycle and he takes good care of it while riding it regularly.

Jerry Kaplan and his restored Norton Commando Fastback

The plate on Jerry's Norton showing some of its provenance.

On Thursday during the past two Norton rallies two events take place that are traditional and they are connected. While there are group rides set up during the week, on Thursday, the big group ride takes place. This time the ride was a loop to Portola, CA, then to a small mining town in the hills. Before the major ride there is a 'Minute of Thunder' where everyone who has brought their motorcycles to the departure point starts their engines and revs then for about a minute. This is done to honour the memories of those who are no longer with us and those who could not be here. Immediately after the Minute of Thunder the group left on the ride to Portola, and the Western Pacific Railway Museum, the same ride that Jim & I did on Tuesday. I don't know how many riders took part but it took nearly two minutes for all of them to clear the fairgrounds gate and get on the road. This video should give the reader a sense of what this was like. I chose to record the event rather than take part, but it was impressive to see so much old British iron still running and sounding great. 

Bad thumbnail for a Norton ride! Most of the motorcycles are Nortons, though.

By this time we are usually feeling guilty enough to get moving and actually get our gear on, start our motorcycles, and head out on the road. Today the destination was Bucks Lake up in the mountains to the south of Quincy. The road to Bucks Lake starts out easily enough being relatively level with gentle curves and a low speed limit, but in a few miles the speed limit increases to fifty-five miles per hour (ninety kph) and the curves become a little more sharp and frequent as the road passes through beautiful meadows and small canyons cut by the gentle stream that meanders through them.

Part way to Bucks Lake the road begins a steeper fifteen percent grade for three miles. The curves are even sharper and it wise to limit your speed because it would be quite easy to enter a decreasing radius curve too hot and find one’s self in serious trouble. Just more than an hour before we arrived at this stretch of road a woman bike rider did just that, missed a corner and was critically injured. The hospital is quite close to the accident scene so by the time we arrived, there was no evidence of the crash. We later discovered that she was in critical condition. Such can be the dangers of riding if one is not constantly aware of the situation. At the summit we stopped at the Bucks Lake Resort for lunch.

There we found Clint and Mark who were just finishing up, but they invited us to join them anyway. The service was slow, but we didn’t mind because in the beautiful surroundings we were all following Mark’s lead and ragging on Clint for having a smoking Norton. Mark even said that Clint’s Norton reminded him of those machines that are used to lay down smoke to kill mosquitoes. It wasn’t just Clint on the receiving end though. Everyone has their turn. Equal opportunity insults, I suppose, but it was all in good fun and I suspect that we all had a good time. I know that I enjoyed it. As Clint is fond of saying, "You can't bleed when you're swimming with sharks."

Mark & Clint at Bucks Lake, CA

Clint and Mark left before Jim and I did, but we took the same route. Part way down the mountain Jim passed Clint who pulled out in front of me. I slowed down, pulled in behind him, and Mark followed me. The road is a series of curves and Clint led us through them at a good pace; fast enough o be interesting, but not dangerous, although some curves had gravel on them.

At the intersection of the two roads Jim had pulled in for a cigarette and to wait for us slower riders. Clint pulled in and immediately checked the side of his motorcycle. His tachometer cover had fallen off and he was worried that he would lose the drive gears so he had to do a makeshift repair. Since none of us had tools or equipment we had to improvise with debris that we found along the side of the road. We scrounged up a Coors light can and some used electrical tape among other things, and Clint was able to fashion a plug out of beer can aluminum and electrical tape. He figures now that his Norton has a beer can repair, it is now part Harley-Davidson.

Clint repairing his ailing Norton Commando Fastback

We resumed the ride back to Quincy but lost Jim, not because he was riding slower than us, but because a large beetle had landed on his throttle cable and he decided to give it a ride into town. Clint later told Jim that the insect was a mountain pine beetle, the kind that is killing pine trees all over western North America. Jim might have been better to snuff it out rather than give a free ride into town.

When we arrived back at the fairgrounds, Jim had the opportunity to pick the brains of a guy who owned and had brought his Norton Electra 400 to the rally. Jim is restoring one of these motorcycles, but is short of information since Norton didn't make many of them and there is little or no information on the internet. The guy gave Jim a lot of information and made to offer to have Jim contact him if he had any further questions that he could answer. It was a productive day in that regard.

Jim getting information on the Norton 400 Electra (in the background)

Later in the afternoon I attended the International Norton Owners’ Association meeting. When I introduced myself I said that I needed to talk to Colin Kelly, the Canadian INOA representative about forming a Vancouver Island Norton Owners’ Club, or VINO for short. That way we could connect with the Whidbey Island Norton Owners, or WINO, the Genu-Wine club. Ours could be the 'Fine Vintage’ club. I’m going to copy their logo and see if I can find someone to create a new logo. At present Jim, Ken from Black Creek, and I would be the only members. I’m afraid that Colin Kelly, the Canadian INOA representative took me seriously and told me that trying to run a club on Vancouver Island was like trying to herd cats. I explained to him that I put that out as a joke, but that being said, I have met a fine bunch of people from the Northwest Norton Owners’ Club and perhaps in the future we can get together for a ride on Whidbey Island.

Template for the possible 'Fine VintageVancouver Island Norton Owners "VINO"' logo

One of our campsite neighbours is a guy from San Francisco, Mike Shiro, who has been a pretty friendly guy. Tonight after we were sitting around he walked over and explained that he was having clutch trouble with his older Norton. Jim and Ken immediately got involved, and after much throwing of ideas back and forth, and some wrenching, they seemed to have solved a lot of his problem. We spent until almost eleven o’clock just talking about a wide variety of topics.

Matt & Mike at the campsite

It turned out that at one point Mike owned twenty-five motorcycles although he has since sold a dozen of them and now has thirteen, mostly British and American twins. Mike works in TV and movie production and is connected with several shows that are shown on PBS. I can’t remember what they are, however.

Two other guys showed up, Randy and Evan. Randy trailered two black and gold 1972 Norton Commando 750 Combat motorcycles from Colorado and Evan drove from Portland so that they could ride together during this rally. I am really impressed that Evan understands the value of the legacy that his father is giving him and that they are able to have the time to ride these classic motorcycles together.

Despite the fact that we didn’t really accomplish much today it turned out to be quite a full one. Days like this let me really appreciate how fortunate I am to have the friends I do, to meet the people that I am meeting and to able to indulge in my love of riding classic British motorcycles. That, along with my great family, make me a very lucky guy.