Track Oldies

When I was a kid my dad used to take me to the track to see car and motorcycle races and to this day I still love anything with speed.  My heart would race, my adrenalin would shoot up at the screaming sound of the late 60's and early 70's motorcycles.  It was an amazing feeling to be around all these privateers and their smoking 2-strokes machines.  I was born in Mozambique, we never had any major championship compete there, all racers were privates and races consisted of a plethora of different motorcycles.

Last year I attended an event at the New Jersey Motorsport Park and these are some of the motorcycles at the track.

My dad had a BSA before I was born, I never got to see it but have heard lots of stories about his adventures.

 

I have a large collection of diecast model cars and will be posting pictures of some of them on another post but a few years ago, just before my son left for college, we were cleaning his room and found a stash of toys.  In between all the toys there were a few diecast cars which I kept and a few plastic motorcycles.  I couldn't throw them away so now they sit on a shelf in my office.

Gathering of the Norton's 2014

Spring is upon us and once again we start the riding season with a great event.  Every year the Delaware Valley Norton Riders organization hosts the annual "Gathering of the Nortons" event at the Washington Crossing Historic Park.  This year's event was the 21st and as usual it was a great event with lots of Norton's on display as well as an assortment of other British, American and Japanese motorcycles.
I rode in with the Monmouth County Kruizers group and later left with the RAT group (Riders Association of Triumph), my usual riding buddies.

As usual, I took lots of photos and obviously had to take a photo of my pride and joy, my amazing Yamaha Super Ténéré.

A beautiful Harley Davidson

The Norton Commando is a British motorcycle with an OHV parallel-twin engine, launched by the Norton Motorcycle company in 1967.   Initially a 750cc displacement but in 1973 it became an 850cc.

There were probably over 50 Norton Commando's on display. The event is always a great get together of Norton's.

Besides Norton's there were quite a few other motorcycles, some well known others not so much.  I had never heard of the Condor A350, a Swiss military motorcycle.
Condor

Two British Matchless motorcycles still in good shape.
Matchless

The Norton Commando VR880 was built by Kenny Dreer in the late 90's.  The VR880 is basically a ground-up rebuild of an old bike using many modern improvements and a bored-out motor.

I will post photos of other motorcycles on a later post.