Old Motorcycles in Dixon, CA

 Saturday, June 17, 2023: 

The Sutter Creek Chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America hosts an annual swap meet and judged show at the Dixon May Fair (fairgrounds) about 20 miles west of Sacramento. I became aware of this event last month when I attended an old motorcycle show in Chico, CA and saw a flyer at the AMCA booth. I left San Francisco on my Harley Low Rider S a little after 10 and rode over the Golden Gate Bridge and up Highway 101 to Novato where I went east on Highway 37 across the delta to Vallejo and I-80 east. The weather was cool and cloudy and my throttle (right) hand was cramping, but, fortunately, I'd had the optional cruise control installed at my last service and I was able to set a speed and then flex and bend my hand until the cramps stopped. Once over Hunter Hill outside Vallejo the elevation drops and the temperature rises, which is sometimes unpleasant but today was welcome. What was not welcome was the heavy traffic that began in Fairfield and continued almost all the way to Dixon. I split lanes for 10-15 miles and eventually turned off in Vacaville for a stop at the Harley dealer (Iron Steed Motorcycles) where I shed my jacket liners and switched to lighter gloves. Back on I-80 and after a couple of miles I turned off on Midway Road, then left on S. 1st St. (CA 113) and parked across from Dixon May Fair. 

At the entrance to the fairgrounds I paid a small donation and began looking at the bikes on display. One of the first to catch my eye was this Ner-A-Car, the creation of Carl Neracher, which was made in the USA from 1921-1927 and in England under license from 1921-1926. It incorporated many advanced features such as a friction drive, multi-speed transmission, a pressed steel chassis, good weather protection, and hub-center steering. It was intended as a low-cost alternative to the motorcar, but Ford’s Model T wasn’t much more expensive and offered better weather protection and the ability to carry multiple passengers and cargo. Even so some 10,000 were made in the USA and another 6500 in England. In 1922 Erwin G. “Canonball” Baker rode a Ner-A-Car from Staten Island to Los Angeles in 174 hours, and the Ner-A-Car won several reliability contests in England.

    

This 250cc Yamaha (1969 or so) is a development of my first bike, a 1966 YDS3 250cc Yamaha. 

    

Dennis Magri, seated in the center, brought his “Vindian” - an Indian Chief with a Vincent engine and transmission. He also brought his Chinese Red Vincent Rapide, to which he added floorboards.

    

    

    
The single carb BSA Thunderbolt was the “cooking” 650cc bike as opposed to the hot Lightning with its twin-carburetors. However, this owner installed the Lightning twin-carb cylinder head on his Thunderbolt.        

    

Still, he wanted to make sure that anyone looking at the bike would know that it started life as a Thunderbolt. Nice airbrushing.

There was even a Good Humor three-wheeler, although he wasn’t selling ice cream.

    

The show area featured several beautiful BMWs

  And a trio of Triumphs from 1969 - two Bonnevilles and a Tiger 650.

   

An immaculate Thor and a very stylish Indian.

    

    
The Honda CBX with its inline, air-cooled,  six-cylinder engine was probably not a money-maker for the company, but it sure showed off Honda’s engineering and production expertise.

    
    There was a British Morgan 3-wheeler, which at the time of construction was classified as a motorcycle and thereby had substantially less road tax than a car.

    

And finally this 1920s (?) Harley replica board track or flat track racer is eye-catching orange.

   

At the show I spent some time talking with a guy from Sacramento who was raging about the traffic on I-80. I completely agreed with him and we tried to figure out what could have caused the traffic because there were no accidents or active road construction. We came to no decision. Fortunately, whatever had caused all the traffic on I-80 had gone away, and I moved along until the usual slowdowns in Fairfield where the road goes from 5 lanes to 3. I elected to try my luck with CA 37 instead of the Richmond Bridge and all was well until the west side of the Wilson Ave. Bridge where the two lanes become one. I had about a half mile of stop and go and my clutch hand was getting very tired by the time the traffic finally began moving along at a reasonable pace. The rest of the way home was uneventful and I pulled into the driveway just in time to take Walter on his afternoon walk.;