Meet Will Stoner. Will is helping organize the Midwest Moto Swap swap meet with his long list of contacts he has built over the years. You may already know Will if you are in the motorcycle scene in Ohio, but if not, here are some words about his motorcycling history:
"My first love was drag racing, but I married
motorcycles. I bought a Honda Scrambler 90 in 1967, which I misused and
neglected maintenance for three years. Not only did I not change the
oil, I didn't know where the dipstick was. In the summer of 1971, a
couple friends got Hodakas and started racing motocross. That sounded
like fun, so in November I picked up a very used Hodaka Super Rat for a
couple hundred bucks. Indian Summer was here on the Thursday I brought
the bike home and rode it in my yard long enough to get huge blisters on
both hands. By Sunday the weather had turned to snow for my first race.
I slathered around in the mud and managed to complete two laps. That
was enough to change my life. By the summer of '72, the drag car lay
fallow on its trailer and I was racing motorcycles twice a week.
The
only form of motorcycle competition I haven't done is hill climb and I
was all the way up to mediocre in all the rest. The closest to fame I
came was winning the 400cc class at the 1979 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges
road race. But I had three other fast riders and a team of forty people
helping. Three months after that race, I suckered one of our crew
members, Kit, to marry me. For the next four years, I dabbled
occasionally with bikes until I quit my job and Kit and I started a
landscaping company. In an effort to be a "responsible citizen", my
stable of motorcycles was sold.
The
next two years were spent harassing my lovely to let me get another
bike. She finally caved in when a friend called the house to ask me if I
might be interested his old Yamaha RD250. Several months before, I told
the seller, over several beers, to let me know if he ever wanted to
sell the bike. I wasn't home and Kit took the call. The selling price
was cheap, so she decided to surprise me and have Teddy, the seller
bring the bike to our house that Sunday, knowing that I had plans and
wouldn't be home until late afternoon. Whatever I was doing turned out
to be a bust, so I went home early. You'd think I'd caught her in the
bedroom with a boyfriend. She was red-faced and fidgeting. Then Teddy
pulled into the driveway with the Yamaha. WE walked out to the drive to
greet Teddy. I'm so stupid. I said.
"I know Teddy wants to sell this bike. Can I please buy it?
Smiling, she said "No."
"Why not?"
"It's sold". she said, grinning more. Did I mention I was stupid?
"who bought it?"
"a woman." Bigger grin.
"Did Grace (a former owner of the Yamaha) buy it ?"
"no...."
she giggled. The light bulb goes on. I start crying. She starts crying.
We start hugging and kissing in the driveway. Teddy thinks we're nuts.
Two weeks later I have a trials bike. I'm back in the motorcycle game.
I
start riding tiding trials, where I meet Bud Kubena and his
then-twelve-year-old son, Kerry. Bud is a BSA enthusiast and he and
Kerry restore old British bikes. I tell him I'd like to get an old
Triumph to restore. He tells me about a 1968 Bonneville rolling
basket-case in Pennsylvania. I buy it. The disease sets it. It's
incurable.
In
the fall of 1989, we're at a friend's party and I'm, of course, talking
bikes with another friend, Bruce. We're talking about BSA Gold Stars
and Bruce mentions that he has a 1956 BSA B33, the Gold Star's modest
cousin, the he wanted to sell. I go over to Bruce's house. The bike is
really neat. I want it. Bruce is asking $1,100 for it. I don't have
$1,100. He says it's mine whenever I want it. Genius Idea! I'll put on a
swap meet. I'm an expert at swap meets. I've been to three. I rent the
Chagrin Falls National Guard Armory for a Sunday in February, 1990. I
scour the phone books, bike mags, and harass friends for addresses. I
sent out thousands of post cards. I make tons of phone calls. I sell out
the Armory: forty-five spaces! It snows eighteen inches Saturday night
before the swap meet. i have a landscape business. We have over one
hundred plow customers! My seventy five year old mother gets stuck in
the snow. I have to go rescue her in the blizzard. I'm having a heart
attack! The snow stops. We get the plowing done. It's 6:00 AM and I
drive by the Armory. There are tracks leading in. I figure it's the
Sergeant and he's clearing the parking lot. I drive in and there's a guy
in a red pickup truck, waiting to get into the meet. Time comes for the
show. We pack the place. Everybody has a great time. I make enough
money to get the bike. I call Bruce. He says "Ya know, I've decided to
keep the Bike." I'm in the swap meet business!"
