That same old question again about Classic Bikes

I recently approached the Classic Club President of Victoria Ian Snadden about his editorial in the recent article in Sprocket on “true classics” and the old “bogey” on what’s a Classic raised its head again as it has done in the past in the IIRA. The CMMC have an ageing membership and are worried that as they have nearly 500 members and they are looking at 1/3 probably becoming inactive within the next decade for age related reasons & with not many younger members who are joining to replace them, seems similar to most clubs at the moment but not all. The best thing that ever happened to Indian was that in 1999 the game was on with Indian making a comeback and the roots of this are with the new Polaris Indian’s today, remember the hiccups with Indian, Gilroy, Kings Mountain, etc till we are now at a point where Indian’s are no longer the “new kid on the block”and are a serious threat to the Motor Co, for the IIRA it is and was a blessing in disguise as a small number of original souls formed the Iron Indian Riders decided the future of Indian would have roots in the past but we would embrace the future, others did’nt see it this way and of course, the end will be inevitable how that turns out as time passes. The IIRA has had it ups and downs but we embrace all Indian’s and as a result have a decent mix of all era’s and late model owning members have sometimes bought early Indian’s and visa-versa this can only lead to a viable and healthy future for us and the enviable position some clubs like the Velocette, Vincent, AJS, Ariel owners can only dream about. But back to Ian’s great article its good to see another club looking to the future and not relying on the past we are all people that like old bikes and not want to see them in the scrap bin, surely the basis of anybody’s future.