Motorcycles, Scooters, Bicycles to be Featured at Camp Petaluma in CA late April 2018

[Major Asstyrd]

Military motorcycles, scooters, and bicycles will be featured at the Camp Delta West Coast Military Vehicle Gathering & Swap Meet, April 24-29, 2018. Location is Petaluma, CA, USA in the North San Francisco Bay Area. Here is an ad with some details. Click to make larger:


Must be a genuine ex-military machine. There will be a People's Choice Contest. It will be a three hour display and at the end we will parade the campground with whatever is running. Not sure what day, might do two - Thursday afternoon and again on Saturday. As usual, participants display their vehicles for days at their campsites or at places assigned by the promoters. We will have a good spot for your bike if you are commuting from nearby hotels or home, like at my cabin.

I am the point-of-contact. Please message me if you can bring something and and when you will be there. See event details at www.MVCCNews.net. Check back for updates.

John

 

[Tracer]

Just a few of the Motorcycles, Scooters, and Bicycles that were present at last years event.

 

[Major Asstyrd]

Thanks Tracer. I'll have my Indian there, and will stir up the bikers who are in the regional motorcycle clubs including the Antique Motorcycle Club of America. I have always thought there are many more military motorcycle owners on that side of collecting rather than in the organized MV hobby. Motorcycle collectors often have a number of bikes and usually they bring the red and chrome ones to their meets. Maybe we can get them to break out their OD equipment.

Reminder that the showcase is for genuine ex-military machines. Several of the bikes in those photos are not. But people can bring anything to the meet to putt around on. The campground is large and part of the cabin and RV pull-through area is on a hill. These Spring and Fall swap meets are not static MV displays.

Three MVs, one of which will not be at Camp Petaluma. Click to expand:

Major Asstyrd in 1988 at the 2nd Wings of Victory Air Show in Novato, CA


Here is some general info about attending this event for those who have not been to Camp Petaluma and are planning to commute from home or hotel. This is a GREAT event for those with campsites or cabins, including daily visitors who work with their camping buddy to share their space and use some of their wristband passes. Besides the numbered sites, there is a Group Camp Area with a low cost option. More on this in a minute.

Prior to the inaugural Petaluma event last April, the weather was unusually wet which made the adjacent visitor parking fields including one below the KOA entrance road often used for dry camping, unusable by vehicles. So we had offsite visitor parking and shuttle buses. In 2018 if we have dry conditions and can use that field below the road, it solves our visitor parking challenge. But we have to plan for offsite parking. In this case we will have a procedure for delivering MVs, which we will make room for inside the meet. Best option is to unload offsite and drive it in. By the way, we are also looking at having volunteers with pickups help transport trade goods to or from the parking lot.

A day visitor who has not worked out something with a camper has an option to drive in and park inside the campground. People paying attention to certain pre-event advertising last time, or who talked to a MVCC organizer, learned about this. The Group Camping Area offered a low, $10 nightly fee, which happened to be the same as what KOA was charging day-user. The obvious advantage is the space rental brought a place to park and a wristband. We will know soon about these fees for 2018 but this Group Camping Area is something to consider.

Stay tuned to the Military Vehicle Collectors of California website, www.MVCCNews.net, which will have all the details as they develop. We will also put details into the EVENT forum threads here and on G503.com.

 

[Tracer]

Major, Bigmike also has a nice WW2 Indian and I hope he brings it. I think that some of the kinks we had last year with the new KOA at Petaluma, should be worked out for this years event. Looking forward!