It is just eight acres, that neatly mown lawn by the Quail Lodge clubhouse in Carmel, California. You could run across it in 60 seconds or whack a Titleist clear overhead, given a decent swing. But it's plenty big enough to contain almost the entire history of motorcycling, yours to savor for – just $65? Admittedly, that matches the entry fee for many races and it's way pricier than cuddling up with Wild Hogs on Netflix. But when you leave The Quail Motorcycle Gathering, you will not be thinking about that. Instead, this year, you'd be contemplating the $175,000 it will take to buy a Vincent Black Shadow like the one belonging to Bruce Canepa that earned the Spirit of The Quail award, or how you missed the Vincent Rapide that collectors Mark Mitchell and Mike Long recently dug out of a So-Cal shed. You will be thinking about that tattooed cutie you saw nestled into Randy Grubb's alloy-bodied Decopod, and wondering why you couldn't manage to say hi. You'll be wishing for more of the luscious barbecue that's included with show entry. Marveling at the 1904 Belgian FN, now 109 years old, that looks as ready for a country ride as it did four years before the Model T arrived. Or contemplating the crouching Tavax cruiser that took Japan's Ken Tabata 3 1/2 years to build. So while the Quail Motorcycle Gathering is small, it is actually very, very large.
Let’s continue with the list of things you could have explored at the Quail, held for the fifth consecutive year this May, if you had more time. And that is the real problem here, because the event is technically just 5 1/2 hours long, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. With 236 bikes on the field, that gives you just 1 minute 23.9 seconds per bike if you want to see all of them and talk to their owners, who often stay closer than a mama grizzly to her cubs. And who wouldn’t want to connect? For starters, the owner could be someone like three-time Grand Prix world champion Wayne Rainey, who just happens to live nearby. Wayne allowed event organizer Gordon McCall to wheel his 1991 championship Yamaha YZR500 out of the living room and straight onto the lawn. The V-Four won Best of Show, and Wayne won a new Quail award, Legends of the Sport.
Fellow three-time GP champ Kenny Roberts was there too, as were Jim Rice and Don Castro, both of whom appeared in On Any Sunday. So was Danny Sullivan, the 1985 "spin and win" Indy 500 champion, with his Mert Lawwill-built Street Tracker. And so was the man who built it. Mert isn't into classic bikes per se – but he was there with the prosthetic hand he developed to help injured athletes return to competition. Likewise, Ducati organized a Monster ride up the famed Pacific Coast Highway from Southern California, and onto the field rumbled a dozen Monsters, accompanied by Monster designer Miguel Galluzzi.
Actually, there is little hope of absorbing every detail of the Quail show simply by moving through it faster, because this only means you'll miss those details. Our solution was to also register for Friday's 105-mile Quail Tour ($295 including a formal dinner and show entry for two), where this year 101 bikes – most additionally featured in Saturday's show – could be seen and heard in motion. One was a lovely 1967 Triton, winner of the Cycle World "Elegance in Action" award. Built over four years by ex-pat Brit Jonnie Green as funds allowed, it consists of a Norton Featherbed frame discovered at a swap meet, Manx-style bodywork and a 750cc-kitted pre-unit Triumph Twin engine – the exact cocktail that lit up the Ace Cafe scene back in the day. "It's a blast to ride, and it's also my exact vision of how a café racer should look," Green says. It's also our vision that great bikes are made to ride, and the fact that Green's Triton is really used – 12,000 miles since he finished it 17 years ago – cemented it as CW's award winner.
It’s impossible to know what will appear at next year’s Quail Motorcycle Gathering. But if it’s as promising as this year’s event, we’ll definitely be there – moving fast, as slowly as possible.