York Wings: Meet the Members

Our club seemed to have a lot of BMW riders, and Dick was one of the fanatical; that is, until he lost some purity and picked up one of the first Honda CX 500 transverse v-twins. He also provided many of us with transport when

Dick looks better in person — I think.

the weather got cold, and we traded in our two wheelers for cross-country skis and headed out to Horseshoe Valley. Whenever I think of Dick, it is the windshield of his Mazda RX3 that comes immediately to mind. Dick smoked a bit too much. The glass had been discolored yellow with nicotine and had permanent rivers of the resin-like substance running down it in vertical stripes; another good reason to keep smokers out of my car.

The most common bikes in the club were the Gold Wings. I have already mentioned Ron and Sid as owners, but there were many more. Jim Bentley rode one, and so did Paul H . Tom M., a student at the university working on his PhD in physics, had one that was Vetter equipped. He was also an instructor for one of the local motorcycle training schools. From him I learned about the type of protection leather provides its user. Tom was a strong believer of safety, and wore his two-piece leathers and full coverage helmet no matter what the temperature outside. One time he was

Tom loses his leathers.

clowning on one of the training school's mini-motorcycles during a course break, popping wheelies when one of them got away from him. At less than 10 mph, and to his extreme embarrassment (all his students, which also included my wife, were watching,), he went down. The leathers that he always wore provided far less protection at such a slow speed mishap than one would have thought, and left him with large patches of asphalt rash on both his hip and elbow. The leather itself was ground completely away in those two contact spots. He probably would have sustained less damage if he had been sliding at 100 mph.

There were many other members that I knew back then, like Dave M and his Yamaha XS 500, or Peter B (Honda 750F), Doug (Yamaha RD 400), Ralph A (?), Dave R (Honda), Bill B (HD), Stan W (HD), Murray H (Honda CB 750K), and many others whose names have now gotten lost in the fog of time. We shared many good times during our brief history together, then our paths diverged and we all drifted apart to other lives.

I'm told someone had taken the time to write the history of the York Wings MC, and I'm sure it still exists somewhere, but my only remaining contact from that era unfortunately no longer has his copy. In recent years, I've come across York Wings members that had been part of the club after my time, and I understand that the club continues to exist, though nowhere near in size of what it had been during its glory years. This past year there was pseudo attempt at a York Wings reunion at the 25th anniversary of the Ride for Sight. Perhaps one day someone will take it upon them self to really make it happen. I know I would attend.