A Fair Deal 2005 -The Roadgypsy Report

The edited version of this story first appeared in the Coldwater Press

October 31, 2005 Volume 2, Issue 20

 

Well, once again rain threatened our beloved Coldwater Fall Fair. Although the early Sunday morning rain had deceivingly led us to believe it was going to clear up, it soon returned with a vengeance, much to the dismay of our die-hard motorcyclists who dared to venture over to the 2nd Annual Motorcycle Show ‘n’ Shine. Compared to last year’s overwhelming success, the exhibitor numbers were well below last year’s total of 68 bikes. A meager 19 motorcyclists attended, braving the weather to support our event. Clusters of bikes from the Southern Cruisers as well as the Goldwing Touring Association showed up, equipped for the threat of rain. However, behind every cloud is a silver lining, you know, and surprising was the number of people that made it a point to come over to the curling club, check out the machines and cast their vote - 154 spectators attended. Obviously the people took note from last year. Unfortunately, this type of attraction greatly relies on the weather, but with a lotta luck and even more sunshine hopefully next year will give us a better show.
A huge thank you to The Coldwater Curling Club for the use of their facility and all the staff that generously donated their time and energy:

Pit Crew
Dawson Smith
Joe Riley
Claude Chamberland

Registration
Cathy Bedard
Kim Riley
John Whittingham

Presentations
Katherine Bokfi-Ferguson
Michelle Duff (Guest Presenter, former Canadian Motorcycle Racing Champion)

Donations
A & K Equipment
Motorcycle Mojo Magazine
Michelle Duff
Roadgypsy Innovations

Trophies
Roadgypsy Innovations
Shear Creations

Winners
Best Harley Davidson – Wayne Campbell – 1955 Panhead
Best Foreign – Bernie Swaile – 2001 Goldwing Trike
Best Special Interest – Don Cook – 2002 Softail Custom

NOTE: Unfortunately, due to a defective roll of film (really - not a defective photographer...) photos are unavailable from the show. Another reason to go digital...

 

Well, I went and did it again! (Britney Spears, eat your heart out!) I opened my big mouth and there I was organizing a motorcycle Show 'n' Shine.

It all began...

I'm standing in my salon cuttin' hair (seems these things always happen when I'm standing there cuttin' hair!) when my client, who just happens to be on the Coldwater Fall Fair Board in charge of antiques section, asks me if I had any ideas on how to increase attendance on the Sunday of the fall fair. Before I knew it, the words tumbled off my lips in true Harley fashion, "Sure Margaret - hold an Antique Motorcycle Show. Better yet, because it always rains on fair weekend, make it a Show 'n' Shine, open to all types of bikes. Most antique owners wouldn't ride them in the rain anyway. But you might get some die-harders come along." I rambled on about how I would have three classes, peoples choice, blah blah blah blah and sent Margaret happily on her way with her new 'do', only to receive a phone call one week later from her - informing me that she ran my idea past the board - and for the most part, they liked it. I'm back paddling like crazy by now, and she's fightin' it. "It's too late Lizzy - they liked your idea and they would like you to come to the next meeting and explain to them how you would run it."

Well, two meetings later and I'm full steam ahead into planning my show 'n' shine. Over the next few months I would be allowed into the secret world of Fall Fair Planning. Every detail of the fair at these meetings would be presented, deliberated and at times heatedly disagreed over, until a unanimous decision had been made, right down to where the portable johns would be located.

It's no secret I've been riding many for many years now, and have attended many bike shows, rallies, show 'n' shines and the like and have helped organize some of these events myself. Even still, having the entire responsibility of organizing a show 'n' shine was a daunting task. Just receiving curling club approval was a feat in itself - especially when the ice was scheduled to go in the day before the event was to take place! Once approved, keeping the floor free from oil was my next concern.

Fast forward to early September, with the day fast approaching. It was to be a people's choice show. A couple of local carpet retailers were more than willing to donate bound carpet samples to be used as oil drip mats, thus taking care of the curling club floor. My dad donated his time cutting little square side-stand pads. My daughter Katherine did all the stapling of the ballots, and spent one long night of cutting up old flannel sheets for polish rags. It truly was a joint effort on everybody's part. Motorcycle Mojo Magazine supported the event when others wouldn't, with advertising as well as on-site presence. Members of the fair board, as well as myself and clients included, distributed flyers everywhere we saw a bike parked. We had massive promo from the local radio stations.

September 26 arrives and there hadn't been a drop of rain for weeks. The forecast called for sunny skies and 23 degrees. (That's celcius for all you Americans.) Operating on only 4 hours sleep, I anxiously awaited the arrival of the bikes. They started rolling in around 9:30.

My 'pit' crew assisted the bikes in and directed them to their parking spots, placing drip mats etc. under the machines, and really kept things rolling. There were 68 bikes registered that day, and 1062 ballots had been cast. I was informed Sunday the staff had nick-named me "The Little Pit Bull" - what that meant really I wasn't sure.

There were some beautiful machines show up and although I didn't have a lot of time to peruse them all, I did notice there were equally as many nice machines parked outside the rink.

It was a great success and they've asked me to organize it again next year. I'll have a whole year to recover from this one and if nothing else, I'll once again be entertained by the goings-on at the fair board meetings and I'll get to put my own two-wheels worth in - now that's a FAIR DEAL.

BEST HARLEY DAVIDSON

2002 Road King - Dave Kadlec

(sorry, photo unavailable)

BEST FOREIGN

2002 Suzuki Volusia - Keith Farmer

(sorry, photo unavailable)

BEST SPECIAL INTEREST

1989 Volkswagen Trike - Tammy Kadlec

 

One note - there was one more smaller plaque that I had decided to have on hand for an honourable mention. This would go to a bike that just happened to roll in that was worth mentioning in the event that the general public possibly would not choose. It was after all a people's choice. So when Jim rolled his 1940 Indian Chief in, and it did not get selected by the people as Special Interest, I decided along with the registration staff that the honorable mention should go to the owner of the Indian.

HONOURABLE MENTION

1940 Indian Chief - Jim Collis

 

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