Huntington Beach, Calif. -
Today we informally celebrated 20 years of Vintage Motorcycle meets
in Orange County. VintageBikeOC has officially been around for 17
years but this meet was started in 2004. Today we had 47 bikes
to help celebrate the anniversary.
The meet was started at Mossimo's Pizza in 2004 by Thomas Harper and Greg McBride.
Many people here today were part of those early meets. I joined the group in August
2006 and it was beginning to dwindle in size. In August 2007 with an emailing list
of 85 addresses, I took over the meet and created this VintageBikeOC website. Our mailing
list today hovers near 1,000.
Here are the Numbers:
We've had 194 meets since August 2007, missing 8 months due to Easter Sunday and some during the Pandemic.
166 Bikes at the largest meet, in March 2011
5 Bikes at the smallest meet, in December 2022
Averaging 73 bikes at each meet,
with a total of 14,287 bikes at all meets combined.
Special Thanks
Today I honored 4 people who have helped me with this meet over the years.
Debbie & Tom Hopkins
Debbie & Tom Hopkins with Joe Kagerer
Debbie & Tom were honored for 10 years of dedication and service to
our group. From 2009 until 2020, they helped out at virtually every
meet. Thanking them was long overdue.
John Zindler
John Zindler with Joe Kagerer
Since 2020, John has helped out at every meet with voting, setup and
teardown. I really couldn't run the meet without dedicated people like
John.
Vanessa Tortora
Vanessa Tortora with Joe Kagerer
Vanessa T. of Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys has been serving our meets since
May 2019. She is so friendly and always brings her smile. Today I honored her
for 5 years of dedication and commitment to our group.
Brian "Tink" Tinkler
Today I mentioned Brian but failed to have a plaque for him. Many, many times over the
past 15 years Brian has stepped up to the plate. Early on he was providing extra photos
for each meet. All of them more artistic than my own. He brought the equipment to the
meets for several years while I rode a motorcycle. I will fix this soon.
As I mentioned today so many people have helped out over the years. Some aren't with us
any longer, such as Hobo John Hoeinghaus, he is sorely missed as a good friend to many.
Video by Sarah Upton.
BAM: Breakdown and Legal Assistance for Motorcyclists
Venessa T., a So Cal Marketing Representatives for Russ Brown Motorcycle
Attorneys once again spent her Sunday afternoon with us promoting their BAM program.
Learn more about it at: www.RussBrown.com
We had many cool bikes this month but three were absolute stand-outs and garnered most of
the votes.
Bike of the Month - Mario Taferella
Mario Taferella of Santa Barbara with his 1958 Cushman
Congratulations to Mario Taferella of Santa Barbara for winning Bike of the Month
with his 1958 Cushman.
Mario won the Bike of the Month plaque provided by Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys.
www.RussBrown.com.
This is the third time Mario has ridden his bike 140 miles from Santa Barbara to come to
our meet. The first time he missed it all together, the second time he was too late for
the contest, but today he was right on time.
Mario is Angelo's brother, Angelo has won Bike of the Month twice this year!
This family sure has some cool toys...
Second Place - Cory Edwards
Cory Edwards of Fountain Valley with his 1974 Honda CB750.
Congratulations to Cory Edwards for taking Second Place with his CB750.
Cory started the frame up restoration in 2018 and finished it in 2019.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Cory is the son of Perry Edwards.
Perry, a retired Honda employee is known in Orange County as THE guy for
Honda restorations. At least that's how I see it...
Third Place - Tony Nguyen
Tony Nguyen of Huntington Beach with his 1947 Harley Davidson FL.
Congratulations to Tony Nguyen of Huntington Beach for winning Third Place with
his Harley. Tony has owned the knucklehead for 5 years, and has been to our meet
a few other times with other bikes.
Tony is the owner of Landspeed Parts, You can find him on Instagram
@landspeedparts
He promised he'll bring a pristine 1942 Harley Davidson WLA with a side car soon.
I really hope to see that one too.
Thanks to everyone for showing up and making this another great event.
A special thanks to John Zindler for helping out with the voting.
