CVMG National Executive Committee - 2012
Voting Members:
Bill Hoar – President (e-mail president@cvmg.ca)
Jim Briggs – Vice President (e-mail vicepresident@cvmg.ca)
Anthony Petti – Correspondence Secretary (e-mail secretary@cvmg.ca)
Betty Anne Clark – Membership Secretary (e-mail membership@cvmg.ca)
Holly Ralph – Treasurer (e-mail treasurer@cvmg.ca)
Alison Green – Newsletter Editor (e-mail newseditor@cvmg.ca)
Laurie Mills – Director
Brian Given – Director
John Tankard – Regalia Sales (e-mail regalia@cvmg.ca)
Non-voting members:
April Spears – Paris National Rally Chair
Neville Miller - Competition Chair
VACANT – Chief Judge
Rod Sheridan – Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Museum
Bios and pictures below:
President - Bill Hoar, Central Alberta
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Born and bred Central Albertan
Farm as a hobby (don’t we all?)
First bike: 1970 Honda SL 100, which I still own
2nd bike and first mistake: 1956 Norton Dominator Model 88, which I still own
Last bike purchased: 2006 Yamaha R6
Favorite bike: Manx Norton
Last big ride: Cross Canada and U.S.A. in 2007
Next big ride: Dempster Highway
Favorite Road: Cabot Trail and Interior BC around Kaslo
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Vice President - Jim Briggs, NORAL section
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Growing up, no one I knew had motorcycles, or ever expressed an interest in them. It wasn’t until I was about 12-years of age that I got my first ride. It was on the back of a step-through Honda belonging to a friend’s older brother. From that day on, motorcycles were my focus. But why did I have such a strong reaction from a Honda 50?
Back in the spring of ’44 my dad was in the Army. Unknown to me until my teen years, he’d been issued a motorcycle. But a slip on some sand led to a tumble as his Indian went down, leaving him with a broken shoulder. Sent home to convalesce, he was in my grandfather’s store one morning when a gentleman came in & spotted the injured soldier. He insisted the recuperating officer come to his home for dinner, neglecting to mention his two daughters. That September my parents were married & one result of this union was me.
Without that Indian, my mother & father may not have met. So clearly, my debt to motorcycles & my subsequent appreciation for them was firmly established before I ever came into this world… & I’ve never met one I didn’t like!
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Correspondence Secretary - Anthony Petti, Kitchener
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It was only a short ride on a friends dirtbike in the neighbourhood park, but I was hooked! Nothing could compare to that feeling of being propelled solely by my right hand! My parents didn't share my passion, so it wasn't untill my early twenties where I was rekindled with motorcycles again and I have been riding rain or shine ever since. I found the CVMG in 2002 through the purchase of my Bonneville and soon formed great friendships within my Kitchener section. I was invited to join the National Executive in late 2005 and have since taken on Web administration as well. |
Membership Secretary - Betty Anne Clark, Old Fort York
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Betty Anne became interested in motorcycles in her early teens having seen a photo of her Dad on an old Indian and then meeting a fellow with a Marusho. In 1962, she became the proud owner of a Mobylette Moped and has been interested in vintage machines ever since, both riding them and “wrenching” them. She retired in April of 2006 but continues to do part-time work as a consultant in the health care sector. Betty Anne has been very involved in the motorcycle community since the early eighties working on a number of groups and committees, is past chair of Ontario Roads Riders Association, and has held executive positions in a number of motorcycle clubs. With a working garage that includes a motorcycle hoist, air compressor, parts washer and too many tools to mention she is the envy of her neighbours and a few CVMG members as well. She was introduced to the CVMG by an avid member and since joining has been active with the Paris Rally and most recently volunteered to take on the role of Membership Secretary and tackle the challenge of our new on-line membership database.
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Treasurer - Holly Ralph, Olde Norfolk
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Holly is a retired teacher and longtime member of the Olde Norfolk section. Holly rides between 10 and 20,000 km per year, solo, mostly on modern bikes and for a long time used a 250 Virago to go everywhere. Holly is very proud of her ride to PEI on the BMW conversion, pictured here
Holly has held several positions within the CVMG including Chair of the National Paris Rally. She also does volunteer work for the Canadian Motorcycle Association and the MOA.
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Newsletter Editor - Alison Green, Nickel Belt
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Born and raised in Timmins, Ontario, I was exposed early-on to canoeing, camping and generally being rather self sufficient when out of doors - but no motorcycles... When I purchased my first bike in 1974 - a Honda 350/4, I had never so much as been on one before, not even as a pillion passenger. After a cursory "here is the clutch, brake, throttle" lesson in the parking lot of Westside Honda, I rode my new bike home. In the process, it stalled at least a dozen times - but I got home. Three years and many miles later, I even got a licence and became legal! I'm still not certain where or why the passion for motorcycling came into my life. In September of that same year, I purchased my then dream bike: BMW R60/6 with Vetter fairing and Craven hard bags. Today that same machine is now sporting a Velorex sidecar for gear and dog and fun and still being regularly ridden. I have continued to be very much a long-distance rider, having owned a succession of BMW airhead machines. My current rides include the R60/6 sidecar rig, a 1981 R80 G/S and my new bike - a 1992 R100R. Of late, the only problem is one of insufficient days in the summer to do as much riding as I would like.
When not riding, I am involved with the Canada Safety Council motorcycle training program as a senior instructor at Cambrian College in Sudbury. Part of the time, I also have to earn a living - fortunately this is on a contract basis and, although it takes me away from home for two or three weeks at a time, I have long breaks between hitches and time to pursue my hobbies and passions.
My involvement with the CVMG started with the Nickel Belt Section with considerable pressure from founding member Mike Pottier. Vada Seeds encouraged me to contribute safety-related writings to the newsletter and the "Headspace" column is now in its fifth year. This past November, the mantle of editor for the newsletter was flung in my direction... This is proving to be quite a challenge but with the support of the membership, we will hopefully continue to have an entertaining and relevant monthly newsletter.
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Director - Laurie Mills, Rocky Mountain
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Laurie has been riding a motorcycle off and on since he helped tinker with a friends' 1951 Triumph Thunderbird 725 in about 1955. The new displacement was due to a broken piston ring which required the barrel to be hogged out. The first bike owned was a new '75 Honda XL350 which allowed Laurie to spend happy times in the dirt as well on pavement. He learned very little about motorcycle mechanics in the 15 years he owned the XL350 because other one set of tires, a decent exhaust and some clutch discs the little thing never broke. As a retirement present to himself in 1996, after 35 years with CBC Radio, mostly as an Announcer, a 1979 Yamaha XS650 entered his garage. That was replaced in the fall of 2005 with a 2001 Suzuki 1200 Bandit, kind of an older guy's hot rod. He's waiting for the major lottery win which would have a new Triumph Tiger in his driveway.
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Director - Brian Given - Ottawa
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Brian has been riding for about 45 years, without bumping into anything, and combines his love of old bikes (Velocette, Harley and BMW) with photography. He is a former C.S.C. motorcycle instructor. He is an anthropology prof. at Carleton U. in Ottawa and swears he will one day get around to writing about motorcycle subcultures (the book will be called “The 99%’ers” and it will be about the rest of us). He is currently working on a research project about law abiding gun culture in Canada. Brian has owned about 40 motorcycles, beginning with an NSU Quickly (if ever a machine was mis-named!), a BSA B31 and a 1948 Harley EL, followed by mostly British and American machines. Like most of us he kicks himself periodically over all the vintage motorcycles he traded off when they were just old bikes.
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Regalia Sales - John Tankard, Keystone
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My first recollection of motorcycles is a Vespa scooter, which appeared in the backyard when I was about five years old. My father had gotten it from someone and it needed some repair. It lasted a little while and then was gone when we moved. When I was eight, one of the neighbour kids’ uncle came around with a Harley. I think it was a 45, red and black with the fringed saddlebags. The quintessential old HD!! It was ten years later when I got my first bike. It was a Suzuki 150cc S-32 twin. I paid ninety dollars for it and it came home in six boxes. Three weeks and an additional thirty dollars later, I had an operating motorcycle. Insurance for that year was twenty dollars. Going through about twenty-five bikes since then, I currently have a 1974 Bultaco Frontera 250 (my vintage bike) and a 2006 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail ( my daily rider)
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Paris National Rally Chair - April Spears, Kitchener
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When I was fourteen I read an article in Teen Magazine – everything you needed to know about getting into a sports car gracefully while wearing a miniskirt”. I practiced this “skill” until I was confident that when I met my boyfriend I would have no issues with the skirt /sports car. Unfortunately, there were two things I never considered:
1. My mother was not going to let me wear a miniskirt, and
2. My future husband rode up on a Yamaha 650 Maxim.
Here we are years later and since then I've traded the miniskirt for chaps. Still no sports car but I do own a 1985 Yamaha Virago and sometimes it’s not that graceful.
I have been a committee member for many years and have been fortunate enough to work with many great people. As the Paris Rally Chairperson, I look forward to another wonderful year and am especially looking forward to meeting friends - both old and new!
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Competition Chair - Neville Miller, Ottawa
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From the age of 11, after my first ride on the pillion of my brother’s ex-army G3L Matchless, I’ve been hooked on motorcycles. I began riding legally as soon as I turned 16 on a BSA Bantam. After I passed my driving test, I bought a Velocette MAC, on which I rode about 100,000 miles in various guises during the 1970s in England. My competition career started with a season of sidecar racing in 1975 on an uncompetitive Triumph outfit. I was the one ‘in the chair’. In 1978 I took up vintage racing with the VMCC and had a lot of fun over the next five years at the various circuits around England on a 1938 Velocette MSS. Soon after arriving in Canada in October 1982, I discovered the fledgling CVMG and started attending the monthly meetings of the Ottawa section. I am also an active member of the sister organization, the VRRA (Vintage Road Racing Association). I’ve even had a go at trials riding at some of the Eastern Ontario events. In recent years I have bought three ‘cammy’ Velos, the earliest of which I have rebuilt as a replica of the bike Alec Bennett rode to win the 1928 Junior TT in the Isle of Man.
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CVMM Representative - Rod Sheridan, Great Pine Ridge
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Volunteers: Ian Sandy and Dave Dobson are assisting with the management and evolution of this, the CVMG National web site. Ian and Dave are both Calgarians and you can find their biographies in the January 2012 Newsletter.
