Membership

The 2004 AMCA roster shows 138 members living in Europe, with two thirds of them coming from the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany (with 17-30 members each) and twelve more countries supplying seven or fewer members each. So we are very spread out, but our Chapter is still growing. I would like to welcome Osvaldo Faustini and Severino Peretti from Italy, Gert-Ove Johansson and Veimar Samuelsson from Sweden, Ian Biddle and Mark Baldwin in the UK, and Juris Ramba from Latvia. With ten more countries joining the EC last week, I hope we shall see more enthusiasts like Juris, and more of the old bikes we love so much.

Message from the President 

Winter is over, spring has sprung, the days have got longer, and the show season is in full swing. There are reports on the Eustis and Oley shows in the USA, but the most important one for us is our own first ‘National’ meet in Dessau, 110 km south of Berlin, 18-20 June. This is now only a few weeks away, so take time off work and try to be there! Guenter Russek reports bookings from Germany, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, France, Finland and the UK already, so call him now while there are still hotel rooms and camp site spaces available. There are trucks carrying bikes across the water from the UK, Sweden and Finland, so contact your country representative if you want extra bikes taken. Chris Jones thinks he has got the ‘longest distance ridden’ award sewn up by coming from western Scotland on his 1930 Harley, but perhaps you can prove him wrong. Bruce Linsday (who I mistakenly called Bruce Palmer in the last newsletter) has shipped his 1947 flathead from the USA to the Netherlands, so the keen long distance riders will be there. We have AMCA Board members attending, and the first official judging of European bikes, so empty your garages of everything on two wheels! It is also the 50th anniversary of the AMCA, and how could those founding enthusiasts have guessed that the first international meet would be held in eastern Germany? For myself, I am looking forward to meeting our very dispersed membership, in a number of cases for the first time. Please attend if at all possible.

Steve Slocombe