The AMCA Australia. National Meets

NATIONAL MEETS

The AMCA’s annual calendar of National Meets and Road Runs, organized by affiliated Chapters in the United States and overseas, represents some of the premier antique motorcycle activities held anywhere in the world. From major events attracting thousands of visitors to friendly gatherings of a few hundred enthusiasts, they all offer the chance to share an appreciation of classic machines and the people who ride them.

The heart of most National Meets is the vendor field, in which AMCA members can offer for sale parts and even entire motorcycles over 35 years old. It can take a keen eye to spot the truly significant piece among the acres of parts offered by vendors, but many award-winning restorations have begun as piles of parts found on an AMCA vendor field.

In addition, every AMCA National Meet features the Club’s National Judging Program, in which motorcycles are displayed to be judged by experts. For AMCA members, bike judging offers recognition for restoring, or preserving, an important piece of motorcycling history. For spectators, the judging field turns into an antique-bike show rivaling the country’s best museum exhibits.

Beyond these two common elements, each AMCA National Meet takes on a flavor of its own, based on other activities over the weekend. These range from the incredible Timeline of History at the Grand National Meet in Rhinebeck, New York, gathering together 400 or more motorcycles representing every year from the dawn of the Motorcycle Age through the ’70s, to seminars on historical subjects and displays of featured motorcycles matching an event’s yearly theme.

In addition, many National Meets offer the chance to appreciate antique machines in motion.

In between all that, there is plenty of time for vendors and visitors to settle in and talk about old bikes, from the fledgling efforts of early experimenters to the classic machines of the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s.

In short, an AMCA National Meet can be a weekend escape from the modern world to a simpler, more relaxing time.

That description goes double for AMCA National Road Runs, which offer the chance to ride with others on the machines of yesterday. These multi-day events follow routes laid out by local riders, who know the back roads of their own area best. Each night, participants get together to share road stories over dinner.