This is our first blog featuring Will Stoner as our main contributor. We are very excited to have Will on board with us and I'm sure you will see a lot more action in the Poop area forthcoming. Welcome Will!
Last weekend John II, Hilo and I took in the Progressive International Motorcycle Show at the I-X Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The building itself is a wonder. Originally built as a B-29 bomber plant, the facility covers one million square feet. That’s nearly twenty three acres! In the center of the place is the world's largest indoor Ferris Wheel, spinning 125 feet and soaring 35 feet through the roof in a glass atrium.
The show was geared toward new bikes and new products, but had a section designed for vintage bike enthusiasts. The area featured displays and booths from the National Motorcycle Museum, Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club (VJMC), Penton Owners Group (POG), The Antique Motorcycle Club of America (AMCA), Classic Swap Meets and legendary motorcycle film producer Peter Starr’s Moto DVDs. Anchoring this “vintage village” was the Moto Flix stage. When interviews with vintage motorcycling personalities weren’t being held, the Moto Flix stage ran excerpts from films and TV shows, including Starr’s iconic 1980 film “Take It to the Limit”.
Besides Peter, there we met other “stars” of motorcycling at the show, and we got to talk with all of them. Motorcycle Hall of Fame members John and Jack Penton were on hand, as well as Hodaka zealot Paul Stannard. The senior Penton is credited with starting “the off-road motorcycle revolution” with the production of the first Penton enduro motorcycle in 1968. Son Jack is a multi-time International Six Days Trial (ISDT) gold medalist. Stannard has kept the flame of the defunct Hodaka marque burning, while developing a cult-like following of thousands to the brand. The coolest thing about all these folks is they are genuinely nice people who love motorcycling and are almost embarrassed to talk about their accomplishments.
Hilo and Johnny II each had a bike in the VJMC display; Hilo’s 1973 H2 Special and Johnny’s 1976 KV 75. Two of our customers also displayed Kawasakis that our team had a hand in restoring: Jason Reed’s 1970 Big Horn and Ray Holen’s CSR1000. All these machines featured our “Homegrown” parts. I brought a selection of our parts to show the VJMC members and show goers. Everyone was impressed.
Check out our selection
Will Stoner of Classic Events had a booth promoting his 2011 shows. Will has been producing vintage motorcycle swap meets and shows since 1990 and is known as one of the best in the business. We’ve been going to his shows from the very beginning. His next swap meet is Saturday, February 19, 2011 in the Community Center Building at the medina County Fairgrounds in Medina, Ohio. We’ll be there with a selection of our goodies for Kawasaki and other vintage bikes, as well as some of our project bikes. Get more info on
Classic Swap Meets.
We were quite pleased to see that the AMA brought the raffle bike to the IX Center to market tickets and show off the bikes. We are honored that the AMA chose us to supply this year’s vintage raffle bike. It looked fabulous at the booth. The bike seemed to be well-received and sparked a lot of interest. Pictured left to right: Mindi Green, Hilo Ito, my son Johnny Bova II, myself John Bova, and my wife Robin. As it's always nice to connect a face with a name, Mindi answers the phones and processes incoming orders. Hilo is our top-notch mechanic responsible for restoration job on the AMA bike.
Thanks to your requests, we are going to post an edition of “Johnny’s Poop” more regularly. We’ll tell you about what’s happenin’ at Johnny’s Vintage Motorcycle Company, the places we visit, updates on our growing inventory of “Homegrown” parts, tech tips and more. Tell all your friends and stay tuned…