39th CVMG Paris National Rally

2nd CMA Vintage
National Rally

Look back - way back - to 1967

                                                                               
                Lester Pearson was Canada’s Prime Minister and the Centennial Flame was lit on Parliament Hill to Commemorate Canada’s 100th birthday.  Expo ‘67 in Montreal attracted 50.3 million people and visiting French President, Charles de Gaulle, set off a furor by endorsing French-Canadian separatism - “Vive le Quebec libre!”
                At the movies we were watching: The Graduate, Valley of the Dolls, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Bonnie & Clyde while on TV, one could relax and enjoy - Gentle Ben, Mannix, Laugh In, Carol Burnett and Ironside. Radio stations’ favourites were Ruby Tuesday, All You Need is Love, Up Up and Away and By the Time I Get to Phoenix - are you in the picture?
                The first heart transplant was performed in Cape Town, South Africa by Christiaan Barnard. The much loved, Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup - how could you forget? Hamilton Tiger Cats won the Grey Cup and  Gary Nixon won the Daytona 200 aboard a Triumph followed by Buddy Elmore’s Triumph with George Roeder third.
                First Canadian Grand Prix for Formula One cars was held at Mosport and the first Grand Prix of Canada, an International Classic Motorcycle Event counting for the World Championship, sponsored by the Canadian Motorcycle Association and supported by the Federal Centennial Commission as a celebration of Canada’s Centennial, was held at Mosport.
                Yearly incomes were about $6,300, a house could be purchased for around $15,000 and an automobile for $3,200 which is just about what we paid for our 1967 Beaumont in plum mist with bucket seats and four-on-the-floor..
                In retrospect, sounds almost too good to be true, yet the  History of the Greater Vancouver Motorcycle Club by Bob Carey says - “In 1967 there was a drop off in the club activity, largely due to the economy and members being unable to replace their aging machines, coupled with the insurance situation. It was not unusual to only get 7 to 9 people out to a club meeting and not always the same ones.”
             But it was also the “Summer of love” - rock stars, hippies, prize winning novelists, middle class home owners and rebel professors repeatedly came together to protest the Vietnam War and to bring about a new age in which people would “make love, not war.” The antiwar movement embraced young and old and most of its members lived in traditional communities but for growing numbers of disillusioned young people, opposition to the war was the impetus to seek out ‘alternative’ lifestyles. Thousands of ‘flower children’ took up transitory residence and freely expressed alternate values.

CANADIAN VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE GROUP

And in this “summer of love” another group of individuals came together - for the love of old motorcycles. Al Johnson  recorded the following history -  Concept of the Group arose in 1967 in Confederation Centennial year. There were occasional meetings of interested people until 1969 when regular monthly meetings began and after a couple of them the name, “Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group” was chosen. No dues or constitution existed at that time, meetings were at people's houses on a rotating basis; contributions for future mailings of a notice of the next meeting, paying host for refreshments was done by "passing the crash helmet." There were apparently 13 people at the first "official" meeting of which Pete Gagan and John Cooper are still active. Several events were held in this 1969-73 period, one a display of bikes at the Ontario Science Centre, another a demonstration lapping of the track at Mosport at the Confederation Cup races (1971). In 1973 the Group, which by then had about 70 on its mailing list, decided to formally form an executive and to have annual dues of $5.00. In that year the first of the Annual Rallies was held at the Welland MCC Grounds with 37 entries.
                It was the late 1970's before the basis of the current constitution was developed and the Group registered as a non-profit organization in 1979. Later came the idea of sections and a revision in the constitution to give each section a vote at the National Exec. meetings. At that time all events except the Annual Rally became the responsibility of a particular section. The Annual Rally, being very large even then, was to be done by a committee of volunteers from the various adjacent sections, operating under the guidance and supervision of the National Group and Exec. The Rally had been at Welland for the first few years, then went to Molson's Park at Barrie for some years, then one year at Cayuga, several back at an expanded Welland Club site (which had unsolvable drainage problems for a large event) and for the last decade or so at the Paris Fair Grounds (probably the best of all the sites we have operated at).
                Matters remaining with the National club were the Newsletter, Roster, membership and membership fees, insurance, affiliation to the Canadian Motorcycle Association (anything of a non-local nature). Support of sections through moral or fiscal help was also envisaged as a National responsibility as all who are part of a section are also paid members of the CVMG. Sections are, in effect, local operating parts of the main National group, responding to the vintage motorcycling needs of the local members. 
             Growth of the Group membership has been gradual but steady over the years and if correlated with any particular factors is probably related mostly to the increasing quality of the CVMG News and the formation of sections in previously unorganized parts of the country. The CVMG has been successful in lobbying government for fairer laws for concerning motorcycles - exemptions to Headlight Use 1976, Licences for all vehicles not used on the road 1983 as well as  Safety issues 1976 onwards, changes to Ontario’s general Motorcycle Insurance (1987-1997) and Vintage Insurance (1973- 1980's and 1991 onwards)
                The CVMG is, as far as I have been able to determine, the largest, all volunteer independent non-profit motorcycling club in Canada. It is the only one which publishes a monthly magazine. While the CMA with many more members, does not publish any magazine or newsletter and exists only because of paid staff and the need for insurance by member clubs. Any of the other organizations, such as HOG, CMRC, ORRA, ABATE, or Ride-for-Sight are either sponsored by a motorcycle brand, a private for-profit racing organizer, an umbrella co-coordinating committee of various clubs or a single-purpose motorcycle rights or charity ride organizer.
                 CVMG has somehow grown over that period of time, possibly because we have more local sections to which people who move from one area to another can link up with or possibly because one can be active in vintage motorcycling for much less investment than with a group like HOG or other "expensive" bike clubs.
                Congratulations, Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group on your 40th Anniversary -  Let’s celebrate!

By Vada Seeds
CVMG Newletter January 2007

To learn more about, or to join the CVMG go to:  http://www.cvmg.ca