On A Slower Paced Life

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Last night was one of those times and as well as having the good luck to get a room in a motel that had a ‘No Vacancy’ sign on it, we were lucky as well to meet three Norton riders from Seattle, WA, Jamal, Paul, and Doug. This morning as we were packing up to go to the rally, they were getting geared up. As an aside, I mention that their bikes are beautiful. Everything is shiny and clean, and they look like a million dollars.

Our next door neighbours at the Lariat Inn

Beyond Concours

Jamal's Norton

Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. When the guys were ready to leave and it was time to kick start those Nortons to life, none of them would start. Eventually, after many kicks, two of them started, while Doug had to change his spark plugs because he had flooded his engine. They did get on their way, but considering how great the bikes looked, the starting wasn’t the best. On the other hand, both Jim's and my Nortons aren't the best looking ones at this rally, but they are among the ones that start the best. Mine started on the first kick while Jim's fired up on the second. Take that, all you guys with pretty bikes!

A good start.

Because we figured that the line for the rally registration would be a long one at the beginning, we made the choice to drive in to Quincy and get breakfast. When we entered the restaurant, we met a couple who were riding a 1975 Mark III Commando, and sitting next to us was Doug MacAdam, the Norton legend, who started Colorado Norton Works, and who now builds bikes in Mexico. His company, Doug’s Baja Nortons, builds beautifully restored bikes. Doug now has a hearse which he uses for travel and to transport motorcycles. The slab usually used for coffins has been modified so that Nortons can be placed on it nd rolled into the hearse. Great idea!

Doug MacAdam's hearse

After breakfast we wandered back to the Plumas-Sierra County Fairgrounds where we registered and then tried to find a campsite. It was 11:00 a.m. and all of the camping areas nearest the main building were already occupied, mainly by various Norton Owners clubs including the Northwest Norton Owners’ Club. It has become a tradition at these rallies that the Seattle group, which Jamal, Dough, and Paul belong to, makes coffee for anyone who wants it. Since these rallies are usually held at campgrounds, having a ready source of decent coffee is a real godsend.  And Hatch, the Grand Coffeemaker takes pride in the quality of his brew.

Welcome to the Feather River Rally 2016

After we were set up, I wandered around to check things out. Amazingly, I met several people that I remembered and who remembered me. What started out as a perhaps twenty minute stroll ended up taking two hours. Not only did I visit with some people that I had met two years ago, whenever I stopped to admire a particular Norton, the conversation often lasted ten or fifteen minutes.

Camping next to us is Rex, an 83 year old guy who travels in a van with a bed, a work station for his computer, a heater, a Keurig coffee maker, and other conveniences. He takes photos of events and I’m not sure, but I guess that he sells them to people who want them. He has a little table on the grass beside his van and he told me that I was free to use his coffee and machine. All I had to do was put water in the coffee maker and turn it on. That’s the kind of people you meet at a Norton rally. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.

Later, when Jim and I were relaxing at our campsite, a woman came by and asked, “Do you know any Canadians?” I replied, “Yes. We are.” She said that she was looking for Clint Campbell, and she was his mother. It turns out that Cathy and her husband Mark are from Corpus Christi, TX, and they have ‘adopted’ Clint. She calls herself his mom, and they get together at these Norton rallies. She told us to visit and that we could find their RV because there were two American flags out front. She put two US flags there because she said that she couldn’t find a ‘Trump Train’ flag.

In my wanderings I met Gerry Kaplan, a guy I had met two years ago. He was riding around on a either a P11 Ranger or a Matchless G15, both of which are quite rare. But more of Gerry later.

Gerry Kaplan's Bill Hardy Norton Commando Fastback

Later in the afternoon I heard that there was an Egli Vincent parked near us so I decided to check it out. If you’re interested, you can check out Egli Vincent on Wikipedia for a far better explanation than I can provide. These bikes are among the most desired British motorcycles, and the guy who owned it was riding it as a daily rider, it seemed. I have to admire that, because instead of buying it and hiding it in a garage and treating it as an investment, he is actually using the bike the way the builders had intended.

Egli Vincent

Norton Commando 961 & Egli Vincent

Egli Vincent

Egli Vincent instrument cluster

Set up next to the Vincent, I met Lauren who had a yellow and black 1974 Commando Interstate. In our conversation it came up that in addition to his Norton, he also owns a 2013 Honda CB1100A, the earlier version of my new motorcycle. I jokingly asked him, “You wouldn’t happen to be driving a Toyota Tundra, would you?” He pointed over my shoulder at a Toyota Tundra. I wonder what the odds are of meeting a guy who has vehicles identical to the ones that I have. I’m certain that they would quite long.

Lauren with his Norton Commando Interstate and Toyota Tundra

Lauren knows Gerry Kaplan so he took me to Gerry’s campsite to see his Bob Hardy Norton Commando fastback. The bike is in immaculate condition and of course, so is Gerry.

On the way back to my campsite I stopped to visit Cathy & Mark. Sitting there with a beer in his hand was Clint. Cathy had found him and they were having a reunion. They asked me to join them and Mark offered me a beer which I gratefully accepted. The conversation turned to terrible airline flights. Clint had a great one about being stuck for two hours on the tarmac at an airport in the Dominican Republic, but Cathy topped everyone with her story of a flight to New Orleans.

She said that very professional looking woman carrying a briefcase and wearing a very expensive suit sat down beside her and when they were in the air she requested a blanket. Next thing Cathy notices is that the woman was rocking back and forth in her seat under the blanket. She was ‘rubbing one out’ beside Cathy and Cathy was trying to avoid acknowledging what was happening. When she was done, she neatly folded the blanket and gave it back to the flight attendant. Best in-flight story ever.

During the conversation it suddenly occurred to me that Cathy and Mark had sat with us at the awards banquet in Ashland two years ago, and that Mark had made a comment that in Texas, everyone was ‘fat, uneducated, and stupid’, a comment that has stuck with me for two years. When I see who they elect to public office in that state, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Louis Gohmert, and others, I suspect that Mark has made a very insightful observation.

The day was pretty well wrapped up with an ice cream social. I met Randy and another guy (so many people for a name challenged guy like me to remember) and we were talking about how people love their Nortons. My analogy was that Nortons are like steam locomotives. The technology is old and outdated and maintenance intensive, but it works, and for the most part is relatively easy to keep running. And, like old steam locomotives, Nortons have personalities of their own and can seem like living things at times.

It is terrific, being here surrounded by hundreds of Nortons and the people who love them. Everyone is friendly and a quick look at a guy’s (or woman’s) bike can turn into a twenty minute conversation.

Now, back to my revelation. I have often thought and observed that life in small towns seems to move at a slower pace than it does in bigger cities. Today I realized why. In big cities, life is mostly impersonal, where one deals with people on the basis of tasks or transactions. You work with people or buy stuff from them, but you don’t know them and your interactions are almost always limited to the task at hand. In smaller places, people have quite often known each other for a longer time and have connections based on history and interests. Interactions aren’t just perfunctory and businesslike, but are more personal. That’s why meeting someone can turn into a twenty minute conversation. Your life can’t be too fast paced when you take the time to actually connect with people. I’m going to have to remember that.

After one day, I am really impressed with the friendliness and the sense of camaraderie that exist between such a diverse group of people from all over North America, who have their love of Nortons in common. This feeling is worth every bit of the investment of time and money that it took to get here.