CLASSIC MOTORCYCLES NEEDED FOR MILWAUKEE MASTERPIECE

Each year I am in charge of signing up antique and classic motorcycles for exhibition in a prestigious event known as The Milwaukee Masterpiece or "Masterpiece of Style & Speed."

The Masterpiece is a showing of classic cars, trucks and motorcycles on the Milwaukee lakefront in August. It is a beautiful show with most of the vehicles arranged in "circles of elegance" in Veteran's Park with the lake on one side and the Milwaukee skyline as a backdrop. It is a great spot for picture taking.

This year's Masterpiece is set for August 25-26. The first day is called "Club Day" and Sunday is the Concours d'Elegance. It is the concours event that I am charge of arranging motorcycles for.

The show has a website www.milwaukeemasterpiece.com that you can go to for all the details and pictures. You will see that the show is organized by a charity called Jewish Family Services. They have a show staff in Milwaukee. Class chairman like me are volunteers who work from where we live and our role is to select vehicles we would love to have in the show and invite them.

If you know of a motorcycle or a friend's motorcycle that would be just right for The Masterpiece, please get in touch with me by email at Gunnellj@TDS.net or by phone at 715-281-5925.

There will be two bike classes at the Sunday show and each one exhibits about 10 motorcycles. So I am looking to invite 20 nice motorcycles, representative of different classes and styles, to take part in the show.

All bikes that are entered must be 1972 or earlier models. We have had some fabulous bikes. But it seems that every year we go way past the April deadline for signing up entrants. This year I'm trying to get my invitations mailed out on time.

Since there is a limited number of invitations, they have to be handed out to serious participants only. Many of the bikes we have shown are mint originals or perfect restorations, but we have had "barn finds" like a Shaw and a Flying Merkel.

Please let me know by April 1 if you would like to be invited or if you are not interested, but know of someone else with a nice bike that would like to come. Please send me their contact information so I can mail them a personal invitation.

There is no entry fee. Everyone has some expense involved in bringing a bike, but forThe Masterpiece is a very good place to have a bike seen so that people can appreciate your restoration skills and if you sell classic bikes or parts for them, it is a great place to network with potential new customers. It is no secret that classic car collectors have been moving into bikes lately and that all of the car auction companies are starting bike divisions.