GREENFIELD — Peter MacMurray’s lifelong love of bikes started at an early age.
“I have been drawn to bikes since I used to be about 4 years previous,” he mentioned Sunday, the ultimate day of a nationwide vintage motorbike and swap meet hosted by the Yankee Chapter of the Vintage Motorbike Membership of America right here on the Franklin County Fairgrounds .
So did Dr. Seuss put Horton on a motorbike? Did the Cookie Monster have a motorbike on Sesame Avenue. Or Elmo, possibly? No, significantly better than that for a 4 yr previous.
“My dad and mom bought a babysitter for me and he drove up on a Harley-Davidson,” he mentioned.
Did the babysitter give him a journey? “No,” MacMurray mentioned, “a lot to my chagrin.”
The Holliston resident now owns 20 or 22 bikes and he rides all of them. “I have been using for about 55 years,” he mentioned.
MacMurray was considered one of dozens of vintage motorcyclist house owners and restorers on the Yankee Chapter’s occasion, the primary time it has been held in Greenfield.
In response to Ken Herschfield of the Yankee Chapter, about 2,000 individuals attended the meet and swap. There are about 90 chapters within the nation. He mentioned the Yankee Chapter is the biggest with about 250 to 280 members. The chapter’s motto, “Trip ’em. Do not conceal ’em.”
The nationwide meet included judging throughout which bikes had been judged for “trueness of originality.” All makes and fashions 35 years and older are included. The oldest bike there on Sunday was a 1913 unrestored Motosacoche.
In different phrases, not a lot as a nut or bolt is new on this motorbike, owned by George and Laura Kyller.
Even the restored bikes are held to strict tips, in response to Herschfield, who mentioned the motorbike should be “replicated as shut as potential to what it regarded like when it got here out the manufacturing facility door.”
The Yankee Chapter will have fun its fiftieth anniversary subsequent yr by internet hosting a nationwide street run. For extra data on the chapter, go to yankeechapter.org