AMCA Yankee Chapter Swap Meet
Hebron CT August 1st 2008

Photographs taken by Vintage Focus

The AMCA Yankee Chapter is one of the six sponsors of the Rhinebeck Super Meet held at Rhinebeck NY in June but they still hold their traditional chapter meet at the Hebron CT Lions Club. This year the meet was held on August 1-2 (Fri-Sat). There was the good assortment of campers and day riders and vendors at the meet. Lots of old Harleys and Indians and a good mixture of many other old bikes. Events included a bike show with judging and a group ride. The weather was pleasant up until Saturday afternoon when storms threatened.

I had a logistical problem attending this meet. I was picking up a 1973 BMW R50/5 there. I spotted the bike for sale at the Rhinebeck meet in June and made a down payment then. My truck and trailer were off the road so I had to ride the bike home and Hebron was a good place to pick up the bike. I had to get there with my riding and camping gear and ride the bike home. My plan was to take a bus from WRJ VT to Willimantic CT and then walk and hitchhike the 12 miles to Hebron. It was summer and the weather was nice and the days long so this seemed like a reasonable plan. I arrived by bus in Willamantic around 6pm Friday afternoon but walking with all my gear was difficult and then painful. No one seemed to want to pick up this heavily loaded hitchhiker with this AMCA Hebron Meet sign. After 3 hours and six miles and sore arms and total darkness a cell phone call to Darryl, the seller, at the meet got me a quick ride the rest of the way and so after a long day I finally set up camp at the Hebron meet. The ride home (150 miles) on Saturday afternoon on my "new" R50/5 by way of back roads was quite enjoyable. It had a few quirks as expected for a bike not ridden any distance for 20 years but even a small rain storm midway did not lessen the fun of that first ride. Before I left on Saturday I was able to take 1300 photos of most of the motorcycles at the meet A CD of all photos in 1280x960 format is available for $10 shipped anywhere in the world (CD 08_09).

Sample Photos

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