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Vintage motorbikes roll into Cloverdale for annual event on Sunday

Thousands of motorbike enthusiasts will fill Agriplex and surrounding parking lots
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Motorbikes surround Cloverdale Agriplex during the Classic & Vintage Motorcycle Swap Meet. (submitted photo: B. Lang)

SURREY — Classic and vintage motorcycles will fill Cloverdale Agriplex and surrounding parking lots this Sunday (April 23).

Thousands of motorbike enthusiasts are expected at the 31st annual Classic &Vintage Motorcycle Swap Meet and Show n’ Shine, which promises “decades of history for just $10” admission.

Mack Copan, a Guildford-area resident who organizes the show with his father, Todd, a Burnaby resident, said the event has grown significantly in recent years, since it outgrew venues in South Delta.

“Inside the (Agriplex) building, we’ll have anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 people during the five or six hours that day, starting at 10 in the morning,” Copan said. “There’s a rush at the beginning, usually, with a mix of families and collectors, guys looking for oddball parts for their projects. We fill the whole building, so the whole event is anywhere from 4,000 to 4,500 people, inside and out, for the show and shine, too.”

With British, American, European and Japanese bikes and parts featured, the event has become a “calendar fixture” for motorcycle enthusiasts from across North America, Copan said.

“There’s a culture, so to speak, around antique motorcycles,” he explained. “The building will be filled with (motorcycle) parts and interesting memorabilia, including vintage leathers, that kind of thing. Collectors like to have the period leather to go with the period of the motorcycle they are collecting, or have, and we have vintage license plates to go with those bikes.”

The event’s showcase bike is a 1917 Model F Harley-Davidson owned by Joe Drociuk, who spent years restoring the two-wheeler with parts sourced from Sweden and Australia, in an era before the Internet.

“That’s the bike on our poster,” Copan said. “What Joe did, travelling around the world, it’s just not common to be able to put a bike together like that without years of dedication and work, looking around websites and things like that. It’s like one big puzzle.”

Visit Classicbikeswapmeet.com for event details, or call 604-299-0020.

tom.zillich@ thenownewspaper.com

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Tom Zillich

About the Author: Tom Zillich

I cover entertainment, sports and news stories for the Surrey Now-Leader, where I've worked for more than half of my 30-plus years in the newspaper business.
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