Table of contents
- Life: Quail Motorcycle Gathering Vanities Fair
- A representative cross-section of motorcycle history
- Oddities and curiosities on every corner
- Three times GP world champion at your fingertips
Blacksmith
Sports & scene
Events
Quail Motorcycle Gathering in Carmel / California
Life: Quail Motorcycle Gathering
Vanities Fair
At the Quail Motorcycle Gathering in Carmel / California, airy, lightly dressed women in summer dress meet classic two-wheeled beauties. And ex-GP stars on petrol heads of all stripes, legendary motorcycle types on the most bizarre bike creations.
Thomas Schmieder
04/24/2014
The sky is royal blue, the sun is shining yolk yellow on California’s Pacific coast. But lush green dominates this May Saturday: well-tended English lawn on the “Quail Lodge & Golf Club ”in Carmel, south of San Francisco. Motorcycles are neatly lined up wherever else is putted. Discreet wooden boards under the stands protect the machines from sinking into the golf course. The fifth annual Quail Motorcycle Gathering is a stylish event. Strolling outside at the visitor parking lot was already worthwhile, with hundreds of completely different motorcycles parked, from World War II WL Harleys to the BMW S 1000 RR.
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Noble and exclusive machines are for sale on the “marketplace” in front of the entrance. For example a Kawasaki Mach 3 and an extreme chopper with an ultra-long fork and a Harley Evo V2. “Everything you need to be angry,” says the sales sign on the custom bike. More like a bargain for $ 11,500. Absolutely not everyday: a “PsyClone”, a freely interpreted replica of a board tracker from 1914. According to the information board, only eight copies of the historical model, the Joerns Cyclone, exist worldwide. Last auction price reached: a whopping $ 530,000.
A representative cross-section of motorcycle history
The 236 motorcycles exhibited in the infield, on the other hand, are presented for purely show purposes. Provided that their handpicked owners received an invitation weeks beforehand. The organizers are interested in “showing a representative cross-section of motorcycle history ready to drive”. Classics from Ariel to Zundapp (KS 600 from 1941!) Are mostly lovingly restored or even in their former condition. Series machines with indicators and license plates stand next to powerful racing machines or lightweight off-roaders. The range extends from almost 110-year-old machines to the current Ducati Panigale. The machines from Bologna are well represented. Ten thousand kilometers from Italy, California is celebrating 20 years of Monster – Ducati’s most built series saved the brand. Miguel Galluzzi, one of today’s most important motorcycle designers, explains personally what drove him to create the monsters in the early 1990s. The Argentine giant patiently gives autographs, signed Ducs. What all the people here have in common is enthusiasm, a love of motorcycles.
Numerous men stroll between the finely presented motorcycle types, only a few amitypian in shorts and T-shirts, significantly more in shirts and summer jackets. They often have distinctive companions by their side: attractive ladies in light, airy summer dresses on high heels. Elegance matters here. But suddenly many visitors only have eyes, or rather ears, for an English lady. She wraps her sonorous, rattling three-cylinder in a fiery red dress: Brent Lenehan throws his “Magni R3” on for the sound check, brings it up to temperature with short bursts of gas. Brent himself built the red beauty: a tuned triple of a BSA Rocket in the Magni landing gear for MV Agusta.
Brent is Australian, lives in the USA and maintains English motorcycles. He patiently shows his Dunstall-Norton 810 (“In 1972 it was the fastest thing that could be driven on public roads in series!”). In addition, Brent’s BSA Q7 from 1936 is parked as an absolute highlight. It looks like it just rolled off the production line. He bought it in 1973 as a heap of rubble in an unconventional swap in the Australian outback – from the first owner! And painstakingly restored it completely. Brent tells how the participants of the Quail Ride raced three laps together on the legendary Laguna Seca racetrack the day before.
An acoustic illusion follows: the four cylinders of the 1000 Ariel Square Four, arranged in a square, sound like a VW Beetle. “This is my tractor,” says owner Stuart Garison, “perfect for attaching the Watsonian sidecar”. The fiery red copy is from 1956 – the Square Four was built for 28 years, from 1930 to 1958! She is Stuart’s fifth Ariel of this type. It was 1,500 miles, around 2,400 kilometers, from Dallas / Texas to here.
Oddities and curiosities on every corner
The Quail Motorcycle Gathering / Johnson
“Metal Man” Randy Grubb (with aluminum helmet) builds “Art Deco machines”, streamlined aluminum cladding (Harley Sportster) “They should put a smile on our faces.”
Since the quail officially only opens for five and a half hours, statistically speaking, there were less than one and a half minutes per machine.
It means to concentrate on what is important. Curiosities and curiosities lurk around every corner. The absolutely crazy driving aluminum works of art by Randy Grubb from the US state of Oregon are constantly surrounded. The man is a craftsman, tuner and sculptor in one person, packing motorcycle and scooter engines under sweeping full aluminum cladding. His “Decopod Bi-Pod” is built around a Piaggio Fly 150, the “Decopod Tri-Pod” surrounds and covers a Piaggio MP3. And under the “Decoson” with disc front wheel hides a technically standard 1200 Harley Sportster from 1984.
The rider literally merges with the motorcycle, reaching for the hidden, narrow handlebars through holes in the large aluminum. The fully polished cladding, which sparkles in the sun, endangers the retina. Randy also created a matching helmet, dashing across the green as the “Metal Man”. The native Californian is a master of metalworking. “It takes a month to make such a full fairing,” he explains with a friendly smile. “Art Deco machines” is what he calls his unique, streamlined motorcycles. Technology as a continuation of art. Lust meets passion, also at www.randygrubb.com.
Decorative, as the name suggests: The “Decoliner”, Randy’s nine-meter-long “Motorhome” (mobile home) in flowing, organically elegant shapes. It is built in the style of the 50s and, as a highlight, can even be steered from the roof that can be walked on.
The collection of British scramblers and US dirt track machines in bright colors and excellent condition is also captivating. American star designer Craig Vetter is here, who designed the windjammer fairings and the stylish chopped Triumph X75 Hurricane with three-in-three exhaust system in the 1970s. Today he presents “Motorcycles of the Future”. For example Fred Hayes “Diesel Streamliner”, which should only need 1.6 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers. Deszo Molnar’s “flying motorcycle” is completely lifted off. His “Molnari GT2” has a gyrocopter function with rotor blades in addition to the roll mode.
Three times GP world champion at your fingertips
King Kenny Roberts honors the event, the three-time 500cc world champion has time to chat here and there. He confidently reveals that he “doesn’t like to give thousands of signatures”. Wayne Rainey, who is also a three-time world champion and comes from California, is named “Legend of Sport”. Unfortunately he has been in a wheelchair since his serious accident in 1983. Both GP warriors entertain the audience in an interview with racing driver anecdotes. “I don’t really like riding old, unreliable motorcycles,” confesses Kenny Roberts. A journalist wants to know what he likes: “Well, modern motorcycles that are agile and stable at the same time.”
Wayne Rainey’s winning 1991 motorcycle graces the meeting. The US boy won his second world title on this Yamaha YZR 500 (OWD3) (“To be honest, the world titles didn’t hurt”). In gratitude for his achievements, Yamaha Rainey gave the ex-works racer as a gift in an extraordinary event.
AVA Velocity Works proudly unveils its debut motorcycle, a 250 named Swift (Sailor). It is a stylish cafe racer with a 17 hp ohc single, “inspired by small GP racing machines from the 1960s”, as AVA founder and designer Adrian Van Anz says. One of the trends of 2013: “Big Trails”, large travel enduros with 45-degree V2 engines from Harley-Davidson. Patriotic stud animals.
The organizing committee invites the most unusual motorcycles and their owners to the award ceremony in the afternoon. There, in various classes, one little piece chases the next: a 1967 road racer Harley-Davidson KR 750 TT, for example, a 1957 BSA Gold Star flat track. Cute and unusual: the little-known Capriolo Corsa 75. Sinfully expensive award winners: Vincent Black Shadow Series C from 1951 and Brough Superior SS 80 from 1936 with a Watsonian sidecar. Randy Grubb won the innovation award with his Harley “Decoson”. And Wayne Rainey’s YZR 500 is honored in the “Best of Show” chapter. Compliments and congratulations – this also applies to this special event.
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