news

Spring has finally sprung in Kansas City!

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:09:11 +0100

It has been a long, cold winter and we're all excited to finally see some decent riding weather. More importantly, the KCVJMC is gearing up for a tremendously active year. We just completed our first Spring ride of the year and plan more throughout the riding season.

We have our 3rd Annual Spring Show and Swap on May 11th. If the weather hold true, this will be the largest vintage Japanese motorcycle show in Kansas City. That is an amazing feat given our club was nonexistent four years ago. This event is a culmination of what we like best at motorcycle shows and events. It will be completely focused on the Japanese motorcycle enthusiast. That means you! We'll have cool bikes, hard-to-find motorcycle parts, local dealers bringing out the latest gear, and reasonably priced grub to munch on. Monetary donations support MDA so feel good about attending and contributing with a nominal donation. You're gonna like this show!

Later this summer we regroup at the downtown Kansas City - City Market for their Art of the Machine series. This will be our 2nd Annual exhibit and all Japanese bikes are more than welcome to show. According to the City Market management team our 2012 KCVJMC exhibit was the largest motorcycle event they'd ever had. What a tremendous outing and we look forward to eclipsing our 2012 participation. This is open to all Japanese bikes and makes for a tremendously fun environment in the heart of downtown KCMO.

Another positive step this year is our involvement with the national VJMC. The KCVJMC hosts a one day Midwest Region event in August! That's big, big news! This is a culmination of our club efforts to consolidate regional enthusiam and bring us all together for another great effort. We'll be at the New Century Airport supporting the Commemorative Air Force and their effort to keep antique American airplanes flying in our local skies. This is truly a patriotic effort and one we are proud to support.

Throughout the summer and fall our club will have additional scheduled rides and even revisit the popular Fall picnic with free hotdogs and soda. This is a perfect way to wind down the riding season with a fun, no-pressure get together.

We hope you make the KCVJMC a part of your 2013 plans and join us at our upcoming meetings and events. I guarantee this will be a dynamite year for vintage Japanese motorcycle enthusiasts in Kansas City. We're all excited and ready to make it happen. See you soon!

Frank Sereno
VP, KCVJMC

Kansas City is hungry for our Vintage Japanese Motorcycle club!

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:36:39 +0100

The KCVJMC sponsored a ride-in picnic for current and potential KCVJMC members Sun., 9/30/12 at Wyandotte County Lake Park. All bike makes and models were welcomed as we celebrated a successful first year! Although this picnic had only 10 days prior notice (due a canceled ride), the picnic had well over 75 bikes in attendance.

We cooked hot dogs for everyone and provided chips, cookies and soda as well. There were many, many new faces and the overall atmosphere was receptive and fun. Conversations were abound and those who knew nothing about our organization were easily engaged and felt welcomed.

A very special thank you to KCVJMC members John, Bill and Sandy for organizing both the park facility and food! Excellent job!

View all KCVJMC pictures here: http://www.kcvjmc.org/093012-kcvjmc-picnic.php

Additional pictures taken by John Bender are found here:
http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q148/pumps32/KCVJMC%20picnic/

Not Even Rain Stops The Vintage Japanese Enthusiast: First Sunday Event Recap

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:40:35 +0100

The Kansas City chapter of the VJMC is in its second year and has grown from a meeting of six people to an active membership of a little over twenty. We also have over 70+ local vintage Japanese motorcycle enthusiasts signed up on our Yahoo group site. We schedule two major shows yearly as well as support a number of other rides and events. Our Sunday afternoon meetings (held on the last Sunday of every month) are usually packed with regulars and we almost always have a few new visitors as well. The two major events we sponsor are called the "First Sunday Show & Swap Meet" held in early May, and the "All Japanese Motorcycle Show" held in early July.

The "First Sunday" event was held on Sunday, May 6th of this year. We had a great start but by late morning the rains came. By 11am, nearly 300 visitors had attended the event and around 78 bikes had been shown. I have no doubt that the numbers would have been substantially greater if the rain had not cut the event short! We had been watching the weather all week and had seen the probability of rain go from 0% to 30%, then to 80% the day before the event!

A local Denny's restaurant allowed us to use their truck parking lot for the event. We were allowed to use around 60% of the entire lot which seemed enough at the time. By 9 am, the lot was nearly full with visitors having to use the remainder of the lot for parking. The bulk of the lot was used by the 24 vendor who had signed up to use spaces. Not all the vendors showed up, however, the lot was nearly full.

A few members had arrived by 6 am to begin the set up. By 8 am, there were at least ten others helping in the set up and organization. The KCVJMC group certainly appreciated their help. With a clear driving path cutting through the lot, vendors were easily able to find spaces to show their bikes, parts, and other items. One long time VJMC member brought a car load of old VJMC magazines to sell, some going back to the 1970's. There was quite a number of complete vintage Japanese bikes for sale, a 1964 and 65 Honda Dream, a trailer load of 1970's Suzuki 750's and 1100's, a number of smaller 1970's 2 stroke dirt bikes, and a few first edition Honda 750's.

Some of the most notable vintage bikes shown were the following, a beautifully restored Honda CB100, a really nice CBX, Ron's "Black Bomber", a beautifully restored Suzuki 500, and a Suzuki RE 5 owned by Fred Reynolds, a past Missouri VJMC Representative. Jose's brought his nicely restored 1978 (?) Kawasaki 650, Mike brought a beautiful 80's Suzuki 1100, and James brought his 1978 Honda 750 Hondamatic. James also brought a 1987 Honda TLR200. Joe brought his Hodaka Wombat, Jim brought a beautifully original Honda CB500, and Mike (another Mike) brought his Honda CB900 with an original Vetter faring.

One member noted that most of the bikes were ride-in entries. There were a few bikes brought in on trailers, but the majority were ridden to the event. We had a number of 1980 and newer machines, however there were at least 40 bikes which were at least 25 years or older. The oldest bike was a 1963 or 64 Honda Dream.

Our event from 2011 did not include a "Swap Meet." The 2011 event had around 30 bikes which were vintage bikes with around 100 visitors. We struggled over having a Swap Meet because we wanted to insure that enough vendors would show up to make the event a success. We were concerned that if too few vendors were to show up, there would be less interest for the 2013 event. This was not a problem! There were at least 20 complete bikes for sale and truckloads of parts available. These are small numbers but a good start for a first time event. We would normally expect a 25% increase for the next years event. By year three, if these numbers were to continue, the event will be a much more significant one. It would have been a much better event if the rains had waited a day but they didn't.

Our event in 2011 also had questionable weather. Our goal is to have an indoor event but this may be an expensive proposition. So far, the weather has been our most significant obstacle which is a factor we have little control. We may consider a date change but this does not guarantee good weather either! All in all, the group had fun and we saw significant growth from the event last year. Now we can concentrate on our next big event, the "All Japanese Motorcycle Show" scheduled for July 8, 2012. This event is under cover, however, rain will certainly have a negative impact as well.

Mark Bayer, President - KCVJMC

March Madness ... with thanks to the Heat Miser!

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:03:09 +0100

A week and counting of nothing but 80-degree weather has us all jumping for joy at the record tempuratures. Is this unbelievable or what?! I cannot remember as mild a Kansas City winter as this year. When we were kids there was snow on the ground a minimum of three months: late December, January, February, and early March. Heck. Now snow last two days and it's all melted. Allow me to jump back to the 1974 Year Without a Santa Claus claymation movie. I'd like to personally thank the Heat Miser. This is a crazy dream winter.

Ok. Back to business. We're in the home stretch for our May 6th First Sunday Show and Swap. So far, we have over 10 different vendors committed to bringing Japanese motorcycle parts for swap or sale. Word on the street proceeds any kind of marketing attempt we're pushing out. I personally bump into strangers who have heard about the KCVJMC May event and we discuss all the details. If you haven't seen the flyer yet, click here. This is also last call to register for guaranteed Swap space. Really. No kidding. We are running low on dedicated space and absolutely want to ensure you get the free swap space you want and deserve.

Remember, all Japanese motorcycles are welcome at this event: mint, excellent, fair, rat, bobber, whatever. Do not worry about what condition your bike might find itself at this point. Bring it out and celebrate our love for both vintage and late Japanese bikes!

With such nice weather, KCVJMC members are organizing impromptu rides as well. If you want to Captain a group ride, let either Mark Bayer or myself know. The KCVJMC will also take a trip to Buckner, Missouri next month for Biker Sunday. Read the details here. This will be our first "official" bike ride led by KCVJMC President Mark Bayer. We hope you can make it out.

Frank Sereno

Vice President, KCVJMC

Big things sometimes come in little packages

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:56:51 +0100

Who knew so many beautiful motorcycles would be located in little old Lawrence, Kansas -- on a cold Superbowl Sunday? Wow! What an exciting motorcycle show this past weekend. The Antique Motorcycle Club of America (AMCA) Santa Fe Trail chapter put on a spectacular event with over 100 antique, vintage and classic bikes on public display. Besides the antique Harley, Indian, Excelsior, BMW, Ducati, Allstate Sears, Norton, and BSA, there were a few dozen vintage Japanese street and competition Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Hodaka bikes.

Show attendance was strong throughout the Sunday, 2/5/12 9a-3p event and KCVJMC members manned a booth discussing our club and upcoming shows. Located at the edge of the vintage Japanese motorcycle display, the crowd reaction to the KCVJMC was quite favorable. Visitors constantly engaged our members almost the whole day. Most were very excited to see our efforts. Others were glad to find a venue to pursue our shared interests.

We also distributed hundreds of KCVJMC show flyers and business cards. Overall, we felt positive about spreading the word.

Click here for the vintage Japanese bikes on display.

Mark Bayer and I want to especially thank KCVJMC members James, Gerald, and Claude for manning the KCVJMC vendor booth. We also want to thank Jack Larson, Jim Sneegas and the AMCA Santa Fe Trail chapter. They are a top flight motorcycle club and we certainly appreciate their enthusiasm and continued mutual support.

Frank Sereno
KCVJMC VP

Welcome to 2012!

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:41:19 +0100

This year promises to bring many exciting and new opportunities for our club. There are several KCVJMC-sponsored events as well as other interesting activities we plan to attend. 2012 also marks our first anniversary as an authorized VJMC club chapter. Both Mark Bayer, KCVJMC President, and myself cannot thank you enough for including us in your love of vintage Japanese motorcycles.

We may be in the heart of a Kansas City winter but I'm already excited for 2012. It's going to be a fun year!

Frank Sereno

KCVJMC VP