For the past few years, the crew here from the Common Motor makes the trip from Texas to central Ohio to attend the best motorcycle event in the country, the Mid Ohio Vintage Days, put together by the AMA (July 5 - 8). For those unfamiliar with the event, it is four days of vintage motorcycle overload in the middle of Amish country: racing (track and dirt ), a giant swap meet, camping, demos, burnout contests and vintage bikes rolling around the grounds ‘till 3 in the morning. There is so much going on it is almost impossible to do it all, I only wish it was a few days longer… The fun of Mid Ohio Vintage Days is that everybody is there because they’re into old motorcycles. New friends are made with a simple “cool bike, what is it?” If you have never attended this event mark your calendars for next July!
Vintage Days was the rally point and destination for our Long Haul project CB450. Our lead tech, William, rode the bike from our shop in Houston, TX to Lexington, OH in just three days, about 1,300 miles. For a CB450 it is a big distance on a fairly small bike in a short amount of time. We aim to practice what we preach, and the Long Haul is more proof that you too can ride these old Hondas the distance.
At Mid Ohio, Brenden presented at an official AMA seminar to the public about Community Garages, with fellow directors from Skidmark Garage (Cleveland, OH) and Hickory Union Moto (Kansas City, KS). The presentation was to educate the public about the role of community garages and how they are the gateway for new rider acquisition.
This year we decided to take it easy and just camp out in the swap meet area. Grilling, chilling and lusting over all the bikes for sale (you never knew you wanted a Greeves, till Mid Ohio). Thanks to all our customers that came by to say hi and share their stories (and a beer) about the bikes they are working on. It is always great to meet the people that you are supporting in person and to see their bikes back on the road. Also got the opportunity to meet other cool folks in the biz. Shout outs to Raleigh Moto and Burn Up Company, thanks for hanging out!
Sunday comes sooner than we all wanted, which means it is time for those last minute deals to happen. Shop member Owen, scored a project CB125, perfect to scoot around the city, while a CB200 was picked up for R&D. The crew shuffled down to Common Motor Collective North (hosted by our good buddy and CB450 collector Mike who is an amazing supporter of CMC) and got ready to make our way out of Ohio. William prepped the Long Haul CB450 for some more miles (including running a beta of our Shockwave electronic ignition system), heading up to Detroit, and then the upper peninsula of Michigan on the way to Minnesota, and eventually back home to Texas. Simultaneously Tom and Brenden geared up and rode an R&D CB360 and CB550 back to Houston (we like to test the parts we sell in context).
Plans are already in the works for 2019 Mid Ohio vintage days here in the shop. We are going again, we are riding and hopefully bringing more folks to experience the best vintage motorcycle event in the country. If you had to pick only one motorcycle event to attend a year it is Mid Ohio Vintage Days. Got almost one year to get your bike ready; so ride out and meet us there in 2019!
