Timonium • Mid Atlantic Motorcycle Show Feb 10, 2007

The Mid-Atlantic Motorcycle Show was worth the admission. The displays ran the gammut from the small custom motorcycle shop with only one bike on display, to complex displays with overhead lighted trussing that honestly, …reminded me of my days as a sound engineer traveling the countryside in a truck full of gear, and the time it took to set it up.

They really must have done a great job of promoting it because it was packed when we (My son and BW) got there around 3PM. The place was so packed you would have thought you were at a concert.

BW is a true Triumph diehard and I think he was on a mission. He must have spotted the Triumph section on the show pamphlet while I was still recovering from sensory overload. He lead my son and I straight to the Triumph hotspot. Here he is straddling a Triumph Thruxton.

There were plenty of antique motorcycles for the purist. We saw “world war” era bikes right up to some really nice 70’s motorcycles. One that stands out in my mind is this 71 FX Superglide that set the standard for motor cycle sales for years to come. This 59 Ariel square 4 MarkII is something you aren’t going to see very often. The Ariel makes me think of when I used to be a member of the Antique Motorcycle Club of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba. These guys had collections of these old bikes that were impressive. I remember Barry Smith had several old bikes he was restoring at the time. The motorcycle club seems to have a British theme now.

Now here is a unique looking machine. It’s called a McLean Wheel. Can you imagine the strange feel this thing must have when driving it. I can imagine if you locked up the brakes too quickly you’d flip around inside the wheel.  It kinda remind me of Star Wars. The picture, even though you can’t see it clearly here, is a picture of someone riding it on the street. Aparently a few of them have been produced. This is a small one suitable for a kid. I couldn’t find a dedicated website but the McLean Wheel is the topic of many articles. Here is a page with an article describing many attempts to create the monowheel by other people dating back to the late 1800’s. Of course they were pedal powered back then. I showed this to my wife and her first question was, “Oh my god! Are we going to make one now?”

So here you have it. A motorcycle show is not necessarily all about the newest in Harley Davidson’s and the latest, fastest Japanese bikes. There really is something amusing for guys like me who used to ride a motorcycle but are stuck on their classic cars. Check it out sometime.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Classic car events. The entry is tagged under You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.