Half Moon Bay Hosts Legend of the Motorcycle
May 6th, 2006, 10AM to 5PM

Story by Michael T. Lynch

This fabulously mechanical device is a 1931 Henderson KJ 4. It will be on the lawn at the Legend of the Motorcycle. Credit: Tom McKee

Last week we talked about recent efforts to upgrade events in the motorcycle collecting world and how some progress is being made. One luxury tour is on the calendar and some vintage racing clubs are trying to get bikes returned to period-correct specification and appearance.

At this critical juncture in motorcycle collecting, two San Francisco advertising executives, Jared Zaugg and Brooke Roner have begun the process of establishing a world-class motorcycle concours with proper judging standards and a setting miles ahead of any previous bike show. Named Legend of the Motorcycle, the first edition will be held on Saturday, May 6th, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel overlooking the Pacific at Half Moon Bay, California. Guests will be alternately informed and amused by Master of Ceremonies, Alain de Cadenet, the well-known vintage racer and broadcaster, whose commentary on both cars and motorcycles is often seen on Speed TV. De Cadenet will be departing Los Angeles on his Vincent on the Thursday preceding the concours, with some biking buddies in tow. It should be quite a caravan on the coast road.

Judging standards are important, because they have been very lackadaisical at most motorcycle shows. Many of the bikes are trailer queens and one has no idea as to their operability. A typical entrant response to an inquiring judge is, "I'm not going to start it, because it'll blue the pipes." If the bike is not started at The Legend of the Motorcycle, it will be marked down. The event gets its creds in this area from Advisory Board Member, Ed Gilbertson. Ed created the judging guidelines for the Ferrari Club of America, generally conceded to be the most stringent of all car clubs. He is also Chief Judge at Pebble Beach, where he introduced the Pebble Beach Tour, a driving event on the Thursday before the concours. If two cars are tied in the concours, the one that attended the tour is given precedence. A lifelong motorcyclist, Gilbertson's motto has always been, "Motorcycles are meant to be ridden." Chief Judge at Half Moon Bay will be Mike Jackson, a former racer and owner of Norton, Villers, Triumph. Other judges will include Charles Falco, Co-Curator of the original Guggenheim shows, Claudio Castiglioni, CEO of the Cagiva Group, Oriol Bulto, Founder of Bultaco, Bud Ekins, former master desert racer, movie stunt rider and restorer, and Arturo Pineiro, Vice President of BMW Motorrad.

The SS 100 was George Brough's masterpiece. They used both Matchless and JAP 1000cc Twins. Less than 400 were made. Some fine examples will be on the lawn at the Legend of the Motorcycle.

This year's featured marques will be Brough Superior and Crocker. With around twenty of each make, it will be the largest gathering of both in American history. Broughs were produced in England between the 1920s and World War II. After a reviewing journalist coined the term, they were known as the Rolls Royce of Motorcycles. Probably best known as the preferred mount of Lawrence of Arabia, who owned seven, died on one and had one on order at the time. These Machines were created by George Brough (1882-1969). Their speed and build quality were legendary and one set a flying kilometer mark of 169.8 mph in 1937.

American Al Crocker was a Northwestern-educated engineer, born the same year as Brough. He began building single-cylinder speedway bikes in the early thirties, but also, like Brough, his lasting legacy was his 1000cc V-Twins of which less than 200 were built between 1936 and the war. They were fast enough that Crocker offered a refund to any of his clients who were beaten by another stock motorcycle. Crocker's first V-Twin will be among those present.

Crocker will be one of the featured marques at the Legend of the Motorcycle. This 1938 Crocker 61 c.i. small tank belonged to the late Otis Chandler, one of the great car and motorcycle guys of his generation. Unfortunately, we lost Chandler on Monday, February 27th, 2006. Read Chandler Obit Credit: William Edgar, Edgar Motorsport Archive. William Edgar, Edgar Motorsport Archive

Lovers of Italian machinery know Italian sporting marques are among the most collectable of motorcycles. Since the introduction of the World Road Racing Championship in 1949, dozens of riders have won Championships astride Italian bikes. The list of makes that carried them to victory includes legends like MV Agusta, Moto Guzzi, Gilera, Aprilia, and motorcycling's version of etceterini, Benelli, Mondial, Morbidelli Garelli, and Minarelli. Many of these will be represented at Legend of the Motorcycle. There will even be at least one Maserati motorcycle present. This is appropriate, because one of the guests will be Aldolfo Orsi, whose family bought Maserati from the Maserati brothers in the late 1930s.

The bikes being judged in class will be vying for bronze sculptures by noted sculptor, Jeff Decker. Display bikes will include a celebrity section, with motorcycles of Elvis Presley, James Dean and Steve McQueen among others. Another wonderful group will feature pre-World War II straight line record run bikes. These will include Burt Munro's Bonneville Indian Special featured in the present feature film World's Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins, Hap Alzina's Bonneville Indian Arrow and Joe Petrali's Daytona Harley-Davidson Streamliner. Other esoterica will be the oldest known BMW in existence, a 1923 R32, a 1915 Pope board track racer, thought to be unique, KTM MotoGP and Dakar Rally bikes and some examples of Arlen Ness's custom artistry.

For those who can't get enough motorcycle camaraderie, there will be a kick-off reception Friday evening, an after-concours gala on Saturday night and the Tour of Legends on Sunday morning, featuring a coastal and mountain ridge ride ending with a seaside brunch. Participants in the Quail Motorcycle Tour will also look in at the Legend of the Motorcycle.

Carlo Ubbiali was a legendary racer who won nine World Championships in the 125 cc (6) and 250 cc (3) classes. He rode this 125 Mondial Bialbero to his first championship in 1951. It will be shown at the Legend of the Motorcycle. Credit: John Goldman.

The event takes its community responsibilities seriously. A portion of ticket sales and 100% of raffle/auction proceeds will go to the Special Olympics, Roots Initiative, and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Triumph Motorcycles has done themselves proud by donating for auction one of the Triumphs used by Tom Cruise in the soon-to-be released Mission Impossible 3.

Legend of the Motorcycle will be one fantastic event, and if you have any interest in motorcycles, this is an opportunity to see the cream of the crop in an incomparable setting. In future years, we may look back to the first Legend of the Motorcycle as a watershed moment when the motorcycle world showed it could create events on the same grand scale as The Quail, the Monterey Historics, the Cavallino Classic, Pebble Beach, Goodwood, and the Colorado Grand.

For Further Information, including ticket purchase, go to www.legendofthemotorcycle.com