Hanford Vintage Swap Meet is Back and Better Than Ever Hanford, California

The sad news, at last year’s Hanford Vintage Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet, was that after being held continuously for 40 years the event was going to exist no more.  After 9 years of sponsoring and organizing the Hanford Show and Swap, Bator International had decided to discontinue organizing the Hanford event due to it’s many other commitments and acquiring the J. Woods Auction and changing it to Bator Auctions. The Hanford Swap meet was destined to become another victim of a combination of EBay, high fuel prices, lack of interest and the economy.  It was with sweet regret we, all who attended last year’s event, packed up our trucks and trailers to leave the Kings County Fair Ground for what we thought would be the last time.  As the months passed by and vintage motorcycle enthusiasts all over the west coast worked in their garages and shops on their antique 2 wheeled projects feeling like spring just would not be spring without the Hanford Vintage Swap Meet.  But early on in 2009 there were rumors that Marshall Baker, who had been working on the Vintage Show and Swap Meet with Glen and Deni Bator, had started Classic Cycle Events and would be putting on the 41^st Annual Hanford Vintage Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet.  Marshall would be the new hands on the handlebars, but Glen and Deni Bator would remain as primary sponsors and from my vantage point it looked like they both were working just as hard as in years past to make sure the event went off without a hitch.  News traveled fast and vendors searched out Marshall and his website www.classiccycleevents.com to find out the details of the event and more importantly send in the applications for vending spaces.  In fact there were more vendors signed up this year than in the past few years.  Hanford has become more than a bike show and a swap meet to most that attend.  It is more like a pilgrimage for many, a place to see old friends for most and an opportunity for all  to search for those precious parts that are needed for Knuckleheads, Flatheads, Panheads and Shovelheads.

 

Friday May 15 is a “vendors only” day and vendors were lining up at the gates early on Friday morning ready to enter the Kings Fairgrounds, find their reserved vendor spots and beat the heat by setting up early and to observe what treasures other vendors had brought with them. Friday is my favorite day of the event because after you get unloaded and set up the socializing begins with tall tales of new barn fresh finds of  Knucklehead, Panhead, and Flatheads, restoration tips and information, adult beverages consumed and good old fashioned BS sessions which go late into the night and well past the lights out curfew Friday night. 

 

The gates open to the public at 6 am on Saturday morning and with the opening of the gate more vendors came in swelling our numbers to around 150 purveyors of antique motorcycles and parts for vintage iron.  As most of us rolled out of our sleeping bags and stumbled to light cook stoves for some morning coffee, the early birds started their search for parts.  They were eager to find the deals on the parts that they needed and were treated to acres of vendors lined up in row after row of vintage part heaven.

 

Early on Saturday morning the motorcycle corral was filling up fast with antique motorcycles for sale.  The proud owners who had brought entries for the motorcycle show were busy polishing and primping their motorcycles for the judges.  There were a record number of over 150 entries in this year’s show.  This show was the cream of the crop, the best of the best with 16 classes for competitors to choose from.  One thing struck me as I was wandering between the rows and rows of vintage motorcycles in the show, was that one name was very familiar on several of the entries in fact he owned at least 5 of the motorcycles in the show, a 1948 FL Panhead,  two 1941 EL Knuckleheads, 1948 EL Panhead, and a 1959 FL Panhead. In fact Lunday Braake secured first, second and third in the Vintage American class.

 

This kind of swap meet does not have a lot of t shirts and apparel for sale, rather it carries you back to a time when motorcycle riders came together to exchange parts and ideas all in the name of keeping their rides running. There is something that you can get at a swap meet that can not be bought on EBay.  At a swap meet you can pick up the part, turn it over, feel it, ask the vendor what fits what, learn from his experiences and maybe get a lead on that elusive, hard to find much needed part. So get out to the next Vintage Swap Meet, join the AMCA to do your part to preserve our history, get your motorcycle out of the garage and ride it, and don’t hide it.