Canadians from all walks of life have come to enjoy the motorcycle.

Alan Masters

Well, where do we start? When you’ve been riding motorcycles as long as I have, you tend to reminisce back through the decades and compare the state of motorcycling from one era to another from your own perspective.

In my case, I grew up in the British Rocker and Clubman era. I joined a local motorcycle club at 16 which had members who raced at the local circuits such as Brands Hatch and Silverstone. A club ride to the local track to support our members usually turned into a “helter skelter” mad “burn” after a short time, even though the club safety crew warned everyone to keep to the speed limits. The members racing that day would ride their self made, full competition machines with the group to the track with spare racing tires usually wrapped around their shoulders! The high performance state of tune of their machines tended to make them run rough and/or heat up at slower speeds. The result was, these members would blow by the club instantly creating a bunch of wanna be racers which included yours truly. Such “burn’s” became legendary around the English countryside and I’ll leave this story for another day!
Today, manufacturers make the clubman racer for you. We call them “Sport Bikes”... road going versions of the racers we currently see on tracks around the world today.
After living a very exciting life in my teenage years as a Rocker motorcyclist in the UK, I decided to emigrate to Canada in the early sixties.  I thought of shipping my Clubman Triumph over with me but my mates all said “don’t bother there will be ton’s of bikes over there for you to choose from”!!
Boy, were they wrong!  The first couple of months in Ontario, I moped around totally dejected. Not only were there few motorcycles, there wasn’t anyone riding them on the roads either! The excitement of the motorcycle life I had experienced and left behind in the UK was gone in a flash and I was basically told that the only people that ride motorcycles over here were in gangs and you would be branded the same way if you rode one! I very nearly went back on the next boat! Thanks to Scott and the boys I didn’t.

After a short stint in cars, I went back to my first love... racing bikes. Joining the CMA started to satisfy my craving for motorcycles again and provided a motorcycling community.

Since that time I’ve watched motorcycling grow in Canada and I must say with much satisfaction. I smile every time I see an average Joe or Josephine ride by me enjoying the freedom of riding a motorcycle. I wonder if they realize what it took to bring the level of motorcycling to what it is in Canada today?  We now have a great motorcycling community!

Cheers!
Alan Masters