Tag: Motorcycle Museum

On Sunday June 26^th, Deeley Exhibition will be hosting its 3^rd annual Vancouver Vintage Motorcycle Show & Shine.  Collectors and enthusiasts will ride (and in some cases trailer) their pre 1980’s motorcycles down to 1875 Boundary Rd to the parking lot of Deeley Exhibition to show off their ride and hang out with other motorcycle fanatics.

You never know what you’ll see when you come to our event. Last year Terry Frounfelker showed up with his restored 1926 Paragon Villiers motorcycle that had been assembled at Fred Deeley’s shop on Granville Street in Vancouver. He even gave everyone a show and rode around the parking lot. We saw Indians to Ducatis, touring bikes and café racers – we even had a few cool old choppers show up.

The event is always a lively one.  Along with the amazing and rare machines that come in, we get to meet the interesting owners of these motorcycles, all of whom are ready to share some info, tips, history and stories.   A food truck will be on site all day to keep visitors fed and hydrated and for those bikers that pre-register their motorcycle before the event will receive a voucher for a free lunch!  In addition, the Deeley Exhibition will display a few select rarely seen gems from our collection in the Show & Shine and offer 50% off admission fees to the Exhibit.  We are excited that this year’s response has been strong and have several rare motorcycles registered already!

Back by popular demand, our former Deeley Exhibition Historian Terry Rea will be on hand to share stories and the history of the Deeley Family and Collection.

Do you have a Vintage motorcycle you’d like to show off? Love antique motorcycles?  Whether you ride or not, don’t forget to come down June 26^th for Bikes, Burgers and good time.

For more information, call us at 604 293 2221 or Email info@DeeleyExhibition.ca to register. See you at the 3^rd Annual 2016 edition Vancouver Vintage Motorcycle Show & Shine!

In a Tribute to Movie Motorcycles, The Vancouver Province newspaper gives a great review of our Cycles & Cinema museum exhibit on at Deeley Exhibition. See the write-up in the Thursday May 5th edition of The Province:
http://www.theprovince.com/

http://driving.ca/

From gentleman’s activity to rebel trademark, a sartorial history of motorcycling.

Prior to the first World War, motorcycling was an activity favored by society’s leisure class. Wearing a tweed suit with a waistcoat and long duster jacket was au courant, and often worn atop a bike. Luckily for those early riders who happened to crash, motorcycles at the time were basically bicycles with motors attached, and rarely reached speeds over 30 k/hr.
By 1914, with the start of the War, thousands of motorcycles were produced throughout the world for military use. U.S. servicemen atop a motorcycle wore a uniform almost identical to the U.S. Cavalry uniforms – the shirts, gauntlets, pants (or jodhpurs), and boots were all the same. Long duster coats, which tended get caught dangerously in the wheels, were replaced by waist-length jackets. Cavalry uniforms provided a degree of protection and comfort, as needed mobility on a motorcycle was considered similar to that needed to ride a horse. In place of a protective helmet, military caps or soft leather or canvas aviator caps were worn, often with riding googles.

Not as popular today, kidney belts were an absolute necessity in the 1920s and 30s, with the rough roads motorcyclists had to ride before the arrival of full suspension systems. These belts were commonly decorated with jewels, tacks, hand painting or embossing—becoming Americana folk art—and are now coveted by collectors. Harley Davidson and Indian dealerships even offered matching kidney belts and saddlebags to stay on top of the trend.

A motorcycle helmet is unarguably the most important piece of motorcycle gear to be worn when riding. The first motorcycle helmet was invented by Gottlieb Daimler in the late 19^th century, for his ‘Riding Car’ prototype, but with only cotton batting as padding, it wasn’t built for speed. The Daimlet Reitwagen ‘Riding Car’ was capable of speeds only up to 12km/h. As motorcycle speeds increased, the fatalities increased in parallel. It wasn’t until 1935, when the infamous journalist T. E. Lawrence, or ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, crashed his Brough Superior and died from the resulting head injuries, that the world of motorcycling took action to address the need for adequate head protection. One of the doctors that attended to Lawrence was Hugh Cairns, who began an extensive study of head injuries resulting from riding. Cairns faced a lot of setbacks when conducting his research, the biggest being that he could not find enough motorcyclists willing to wear a helmet, which would prove that wearing helmets did make a significant difference. A major milestone was reached when the British Army heeded his research and issued an order in 1941 requiring all WW2 servicemen on motorcycles to wear either a cork shelled or rubber helmet.

At the Deeley Exhibition, we have the largest collection in Canada of vintage bikes from around the world, including a replica of the aforementioned Daimler ‘Reitwagen, and a spectacular Brough Superior in our current exhibit, Cycles & Cinema. We’re open every day, stop by to say hello and take a look at the collection!

Our present exhibit Cycles & Cinema showcases motorcycles in the movies, but you’ll also see some of the collection on the small screen, appearing on such locally shot shows as The 100, Proof, and A Girlfriends Guide to Divorce.

If you watch the final episode of the hit television series, The 100, you’ll see two motorcycles from the Deeley collection – a 1941 Indian motorcycle along with a 1927 Harley Davidson perched on the bar in a very cool looking living room space.  Believe it or not, the modern looking space is actually the lounge at the Vancouver Club – a designated “A” class heritage building.  It’s an amazing transformation by the show’s set design team.

Check out their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/cwthe100 and while you’re at it, check out the Deeley Exhibition’s page and give us a like at https://www.facebook.com/deeleymotorcycleexhibition

The Deeley Exhibition presents the Vancouver Vintage Show & Shine on Sunday June 28^th 2015 for its 3^rd year!  Everyone is welcome to come down – avid vintage enthusiasts and general public alike!  The event runs from 11:00am to 3:00pm in the Deeley Exhibition parking lot, directly facing Boundary Rd.

Since the collapse of the many local Vancouver and Lower Mainland motorcycling events, such as the Gastown and the New West Show and Shines, we feel it important to keep motorcycle related community events alive. This small but popular event typically attracts well over 100 people and 50 registered vintage motorcycles.

Several motorcycles from the collection, not seen by the public in years, will be brought out of storage and shown in the parking lot.  In addition, we welcome all visitors to visit our Exhibition for half price! We here at the Deeley Exhibition embrace all makes and models.  As our own Trev Deeley once said, “It doesn’t matter what you ride, as long as you ride!”

In our event, there is no category classes or awards – we are here to celebrate and share the love of vintage motorcycles.  Motorcycle registration is $5, which includes one lunch voucher and a chance to win one of three raffle prizes!  Come down and mingle with friends new and old while taking in all the collector bikes and vintage rides.

Raffle tickets will be drawn at 12:00, 1:00 & 1:30 for registrants. Food will be provided by Metro Catering.   Wayne is coming out with his BBQs and will be cooking up delicious burgers, smokies, dogs and ribs right in front of your eyes so come hungry!

All motorcycle registrants should enter and park in the East parking lot – entering the lot from East 2^nd Ave (off Boundary).  Cars are welcome but please park them in the designated car parking areas (just follow the signs).

The weather forecast for Sunday is mainly Sunny with temperatures up to 30°C!  Bring your awesome vintage ride, sunscreen and some friends – don’t miss a great time!

Image from 2014 Show & Shine

A Resurgence of Dirt Track Racing

2015 looks like an exciting year for Flat Track racing. There is a renewed interest in this long running racing format, from small local events here in B.C. like the Flat Track Moto Race at the Pemberton Speedway to the big races such as Return to Delmar with big names like Roland Sands. Another big name in racing getting into flat track this year is three time Superbike World Champion Troy Bayliss who recently started off the Memorial Day Weekend’s Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

Mark your calendars for the X Games from June 4-7 at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. For the first time, Harley-Davidson flat-track racing will be included, joining a diverse sports lineup featuring the world’s top action sport athletes. Harley-Davidson flat-track racing will feature athletes racing high-performance motorcycles around an oval track at speeds up to 130 mph.

With the roots of flat-track racing dating back to the early 1900s, the sport is one of the most traditional motorcycle racing disciplines. Flat Track racing is intertwined with the history of board track racing.  In the early years, motorcycles were used to pull bicycles onto 45-degree banked wooden tracks for races; however, soon the motorcycles began to replace the bicycles altogether. Motorcycles kept getting faster and more powerful until the board track races had become too dangerous for both racers and spectators. In 1925 the AMA introduced a smaller, 21 cubic inch race class intended to make board track racing safer by lowering speeds. The new class did not rescue the board track but did produce a formidable new dirt track racer. Race promoters began building oval tracks with dirt banks, and flat track, or “dirt track” racing became a hit in North America.

Joe Petrali joined Harley-Davidson’s factory race team and won all 13 A.M.A. National Dirt Track Championship races in 1935 aboard a “Peashooter”. The efficient overhead valve Harry Ricardo-designed cylinder head, gave it plenty of punch, which coupled with its light weight made it capable of nearly 100 mph when race-tuned.     Fred Pazaski built this replica of Petrali’s 1935 winning machine.

It is currently on display, alongside a 1994 883R Sportster Flat Tracker and Trev Deeley’s 1949 WR Racer. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, Trev dominated flat track motorcycle racing in the Northwest. He became a factory sponsored rider for Harley-Davidson. His bikes bore the number 22 and, as an AMA expert national plate holder, Trev was the first Canadian to have this honor. After retiring from racing, Trev continued to affiliate with the sport through sponsoring and tutoring new riders.

Come see this and other motorcycles on display here at the Deeley Exhibition.  We are in the same building as Trev Deeley Motorcycles, the world’s 4^th oldest Harley-Davidson dealership and to top it off, we also have one of Vancouver’s most unique reception venues here at Deeley Exhibition.

Interesting Links

• http://xgames.espn.go.com/xgames/events/2015/austin/article/12681894/x-games-austin-2015-introduces-harley-davidson-flat-track-racing
• http://www.amaproracing.com/ft/
• http://www.amaproracing.com/ft/about/
• http://www.harley-davidson.com/content/h-d/en_US/home/museum/explore/hd-history/1930.html
• http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=54