Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid-Ohio - 2023!

Hi everyone,

It's almost that time again: the AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days will be happening at Mid-Ohio from 21-23 July!

This is a really fantastic event. There's a lot going on, plenty of racing and amazing bikes, and the swap meet is enormous.

This year I will be the infield coordinator for the VJMC (instead of being in the swap meet area), so please stop by the tent and say hello.

More info here www.vintagemotorcycledays.com/ and here midohio.com/tickets/vintage-motorcycle-days-ama
There's a map of the Mid-Ohio complex here: midohio.com/info/facilitymap

 

I'm planning on attending next year 
 

I'm going to Mid-Ohio this year and Barber next year.

We'll be in swap meet spaces 193 & 194 this year.

We very recently bought some inventory & tools from a defunct bike shop close to home.  We'll be taking much more to Mid-Ohio than in years past:

An un-stamped (!) KZ1000G frame (no title) & KZ1000G FI exhaust system (dirty, but looks to be in VGC otherwise),
A few Z1 and KZ1000 cases (one has been machined for big sleeves),
Many assorted Kawi wheels; spoke & mags,
Various racks of 4 cyl. Z-bike carbs (some good, some for parts only) & many loose carb parts,
A rack of CB750 4-cable-pull carbs (K0?),
A complete Z1 head in cosmetic GC (needs one cam tower bolt hole inserted for sure),
(2) 1000J jugs in good cosmetic condition.  Need bored or sleeved,
A few Z-bike tanks (not Z10,
A Z-bike tailpiece & sidecovers (not Z1) ,
(1) complete Z1 crank that needs rebuild (one rod small end trashed),
A Vance & Hines 4/1 Z1 street system w/street baffle in near-new condition.  We bought it new circa 1990 and ran it on The Lovely Z1BEBE's '75 Z1-B for one season before we found the correct 4-4 pipes.  It's been in it's original box since.
Many Z1/KZ900 dyno covers, stators & internal rotors,
Too many asstd. air & oil filters to mention,
Z1 R fenders & LTD F fenders,
Many, many  NOS aftermarket gaskets.  Mostly air-cooled 4 cyl. Z-bike, but also some 4 cyl. Suzuki gaskets.  Many copper & other specialty gaskets for same (the shop owner built & raced Z1 Top Gas);
Accessories, duds & a few collectibles
And on & on & on...

With PM is still down, please do not hijack this thread with questions about buying any parts; we won't respond.  We'll make a new thread in "PARTS WANTED" and we'll respond as time allows. Only make inquiries there.

We're under the gun to get everything ready & loaded, as this deal happened late & spur of the moment. We will likely monitor KZR only once or twice daily through Wed., 7/19.

Hope we see y'all there.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

I’ll be sure to stop by on Friday. I’m looking for a set of correct KZ900 carbs and am hoping to find them at VMD. 

How about some pics?

The Gods of Mid-OH extracted their water tribute with a gentle shower Thursday evening. Friday. thru Sunday the weather was cool & picture-perfect.

We'll likely never do a shop buyout parts offer ever again; too much work for not enough return.  This is s'posed to be fun. Trailer was overloaded & packed like a jigsaw puzzle. The Lovely Z1BEBE and I are gettin' a little too old to pack heavy/bulky/obscure stuff around for insufficient return.  Counting the days we spent cleaning/sorting/ID'ing/pricing parts & such, it's a losing proposition for us.  We have a newfound respect for the younger vendors that pack variations of the same stuff to Mid-OH year after year and set up in multiple spaces.  We're gonna return to our favored position of years past wherein we offer a few high-quality parts for fair prices, and enjoy the social aspects of the event.

We didn't want to bring anything from the shop buyout back to speak of and, with a few exceptions, aggressively priced stuff to sell.  We did bring back a couple of tanks, a couple racke of Kaw(?) carbs and a mystery 4-2 exhaust system, but for the most part we divested ourselves of the vast majority of shop buyout items.  Other vendors and a few Japanese brokers mostly cleaned us out Friday at bargain prices.  We'll offer some leftover things here first, before going to other selling venues or discarding as scrap.

Took the time to ride into the Infield to say "Hi" to Nerdy, who was handling the VJMC bike show.  The Lovely Z1BEBE manned (Womaned ?  Personed?) the VJMC swap site for a few hours Friday & Saturday, and sold some memberships.  Got to know a few VJMC members we'd not met before.

Neither of us walked the swap meet.  Felt we needed to man (Woman? Person?) our swap site to help move inventory & negotiate prices.  Heard tell of a rack of ribless Z1 VM28's found in a stack of KZ650 carbs for $10.00!  Saw a stack of six Z1/KZ900 Lester mags at the vendor next to us that they obtained for a total of $400.00.  Rumor of an early '73 Z1 selling for $32,000.00 to a Japanese broker.  Saw a very nice, green '76 KZ900 go for $12,000.

Next year we'll revert to our more low-key posture, with fewer & higher-quality items for sale, enjoy the social environment and browse the swap meet at our leisure.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

I guess if you can sell enough to cover your costs so you get a "free weekend" without working too hard it's a "win-win"   On my recent trip to Italy I managed to buy enough of a "consumable product" which is heavily taxed in the UK, that my saving over UK prices covered all my diesel for the trip (approx £500) Every little helps 

slmjim+Z1BEBE wrote:

The Gods of Mid-OH extracted their water tribute with a gentle shower Thursday evening. Friday. thru Sunday the weather was cool & picture-perfect.

... This is s'posed to be fun.
 

It was strange: there was a MASSIVE storm bearing down on Mid-Ohio, and then it sort of split and most of it went around us to the north and to the south. A couple of locals said they thought it was the influence of the large reservoir that sits a mile or two away from the track. If that were true it probably would have helped in previous years, which it definitely has not. But yes, the weather was absolutely perfect for the rest of the event.

It was nice to see you, slmjim. I'm glad you stopped by, because I didn't leave the VJMC tent at all during business hours. I didn't even walk around the infield to see the [Royal] Enfields, though I did go next door ("next tent"?) to visit the British motorcycle club. They had some amazing machines, including a 1920 Douglas which is genuinely a work of art. We were low on volunteers - and one person who signed up for two shifts didn't show up at all - so it made more sense for me to remain in place. I did poke around the swap meet briefly Thursday afternoon but didn't see anything I couldn't live without.

We signed up (IIRC) about a dozen new members and processed three renewals.There was a lot of foot traffic, especially on Saturday when Old Bike Barn had their show. Having said that, to your point it wasn't really that much fun. If I do the infield coordinator thing next year, we're gonna change a few things.

Getting set up before the crowds arrived:

 


And here is the Douglas:

 

Glad to read your report Jim.  We are all getting older now and beginning to think about the orderly disposal of our treasures, rather than passing on unexpectedly and having someone send it all to landfill.

Forgot to mention that Thursday's late-afternoon rain shower produced a spectacular rainbow that portended the fine weekend weather that was to follow.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE