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Ponoka Vintage Motorcycle Rally honours 50 years of Honda

The pistons will be popping and the extremely motivated members of the Central Alberta section of the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group will be roaring into Ponoka on the weekend of July 26 to the 28 to take part in the 23rd annual Ponoka Vintage Rally and everyone is welcome to join in on the non-stop action, fun, and keen camaraderie up at the Stampede grounds and around the community.
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Skinny Labine of Ponoka, who has been a long-standing member of the Central Alberta section of the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group is shown here with his 1970 CB 750 Honda. Photo submitted

The pistons will be popping and the extremely motivated members of the Central Alberta section of the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group will be roaring into Ponoka on the weekend of July 26 to the 28 to take part in the 23rd annual Ponoka Vintage Rally and everyone is welcome to join in on the non-stop action, fun, and keen camaraderie up at the Stampede grounds and around the community.

The gala 2019 event will be tribute to 50 years of first-class sales and service provided by the Honda Motorcycle Company to all Canadians, as well as celebrating a special toast to their powerful and pristine CB750 machine. As always the welcome mat will be out to the avid vintage motorcycle owners and their families, who will be proudly displaying their magnificent machines, showing off their skills, and of course casually mixing and chatting with team mates and visitors. As always there will be free camping available on the spacious sight, while the calendar of events will include: a tailgate swap meet and chili-cook-off on Friday July 26, a poker rally, show and shine, steak supper and thrilling game of Jeopardy, all on Saturday, July 27, and then the breakfast and award presentations on Sunday, July 28. There is sure to be some great surprises and shenanigans thrown in along the way by these congenial vintage bike owners, who are real characters. They will be hosting their unique display booths and are always willing to pose for a photo ops. The weekend will also include a very colourful display courtesy of the Reynolds Museum featuring some of classic 1970s to 80s motorcycles that were roaring around our town and county so many decades ago.

Early bird entry for the vintage motorcycle owners up to July 25 is $50 while walk-in is $60. Spectators are free and can purchase steak supper ticket at the event, where there is always lots of free parking available on the grounds. For more information on this very popular event please contact Ken Wiens at 408-877-5188 (kewiens@shaw.ca) or Jeff Woolley at 403-783-3138 or cvmgcaponokarally@gmail.com.

The early history of Honda

The Honda Motorcycle Company was founded in the late 1940s by Soichiro Honda, who as a young boy who would start tinkering and inventing things in his father’s Blacksmith Shop in the early 1900s. He would open his own shop in 1928, where he initially built parts for Toyota cars, then later formed the Honda Motorcycle Company and would introduce its first real Motorcycle in 1949, which was powered by a 98cc two stroke engine. As motorcycle sales zoomed throughout the world Mr. Honda would become tired and furious with the constant noise, smell and fumes of all two-stroke motorcycles, so in 1951 he finally created the world’s first four-stroke machine, the sweet Dream E (146cc) machine. By 1959 the Honda Company had become the largest producers of motorcycles in the world and have continued their supreme road worthy success in countless models to this day, realizing bike sales of $9.534 billion in 2018, and along the way would quickly expand their operation to also include autos, jets, robots, and on and on. Over all those years the Honda Racing team has always led the way in various track events throughout the world.

The Central Alberta Motorcycle Group loves to travel together

The CAMB is a long-standing member of the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group, which has quickly grown to over 20 section Clubs from Vancouver, B.C. to St. John’s New Brunswick, with each and every member possessing a strong pride and passion for their magnificent vintage motorcycles, which range in age from 25 years to the first historical models of the early 1900s. These “cycle fanatics” of all ages work for years of countless hours to restore, perfect, and pamper their historic motorcycles and then later love to head out on the road for a leisure ride with family and friends and safety and road courtesy as a priority. As well as hosting and attending local and district Motorcycle Rally’s the Central Alberta Motorcycle Group looks forward to countless Poker runs, swap meets, and lots of barbecues, where they can show off their wheels while helping to raise funds for so many special community causes. Already planned for the CAMG on August 17 is a ride to the Reynolds Museum and new members are always welcome to join in on the good times. Hope to see you all in Ponoka for a great weekend of motor-mania and family fun.



Emily Jaycox

About the Author: Emily Jaycox

I’m Emily Jaycox, the editor of Ponoka News and the Bashaw Star. I’ve lived in Ponoka since 2015 and have over seven years of experience working as a journalist in central Alberta communities.
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