Midwest Moto Swap is Tomorrow!

Midwest Moto Swap commercials have been running on cable TV in NE Ohio for the past week. Weather is looking great with 77 degrees and sunny! The turnout should be stellar, we have people coming from all over the midwest to show off their bikes, sell at the swap meet, or dig through piles of old parts for their own personal white whale. Some vendor spots are still available, fill out and pay with this online form to reserve yours, or call Will Stoner at 440-591-5099 or via email at will_stoner@live.com to reserve yours now.

Vendor Highlight: The Gasbox

Jesse Bassett & The Gasbox will be at the MWMS with some Gasbox-built bikes on display and a swap meet spot full of old bike parts. Come check out their award-winning builds in person this Saturday!

The Nosh Box will be at the MWMS This Saturday

Happy to announce another food vender at the MWMS this Saturday, The Nosh Box! Specialties include Philly sandwiches and walking tacos. Get some this Saturday at the Medina County Fairgrounds will scoping out motorcycles and digging through parts!

Cleveland BBQ Company will be at MWMS

The Cleveland BBQ Company will be on hand at the Midwest Moto Swap this Saturday, June 15th, 2013 to serve up some killer BBQ via their custom Deuce-And-A-Half M-109! Come dig through the swap meet, check out all the cool bikes in the show, and get some good food while you're at it.

Midwest Moto Swap Bike Show Trophies

Here are just some of the trophies that will be awarded Saturday, June 15th at the Midwest Moto Swap in Medina, Ohio! There are 11 classes, plus Best In Show. Did I mention that you can enter your bike in the MWMS Bike Show FREE with your paid $5 entry to the event? That is 12 chances for you to win glory and bragging rights, as well as a kick ass trophy. Take that wedding picture or your kid's soccer trophy down and replace it with one of these bad boys. A huge thanks goes to Biltwell for making these trophies, and to Josh at Old School Helmets for painting them!

From the top, left to right. Best Modern American Custom (any year), Best American Custom (pre-1985), Best European Custom, Best British Custom, Best Japanese Custom, Best Cafe Racer. Click here for a full list of classes and Bike Show info. See you there!

Jakprints: Print Sponsor of the Midwest Moto Swap

Thanks goes out to Jakprints for helping support the Midwest Moto Swap by handling all of our printing needs, from our VIP Vendor laminates to the thousands of color fliers we have passed out around North East Ohio! Jakprints is a Cleveland-based company, check them out for all your printing needs.

Hot Rod Parking @ Midwest Moto Swap

There is special parking at the Midwest Moto Swap for hot rods, so don't be shy, you can drive your classic cager while swapping and shopping for proper motorcycle parts and snag a primo spot while you are at it!

Vendor Spots Filling Up Fast! Get Yours Now.

Indoor and outdoor vendor spots for the Midwest Moto Swap taking place Saturday, June 15th are filling up fast! The vendor laminates just showed up (thanks Jakprints!), which get receive once arriving for setup on Saturday morning (setup is 6 a.m. - 9 a.m. day of show) and get you in the door and entitle you to free coffee and other such benefits.

For those of you who haven't locked down your spot yet, good news, you can now register online and pay securely with credit card by using this online vendor registration form!

Vendor Highlight: Imperial House 71 & Shawn Long

Midwest Moto Swap is proud to announce that Shawn Long of Imperial House 71 will be in attendance, selling some hand striped and lettered goods and doing hand lettering and striping on the spot. He will also have his Shovelhead and Panhead (being built for Born Free 5 right now) with him. Check out some more of his work at Imperial House 71.

Meet Will Stoner

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!"