By Holly Will Bond

The 23rd Annual Riding Into History™ (RIH) planning committee created a new class for their Premier Vintage Motorcycle Concours d’Elegance event on April 15th, 2023 at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida. With this new class, Under 35 is Alive!©, RIH is working to attract younger participants to get involved with our event and hopefully get bitten by the bug of collecting, restoring and showing vintage motorcycles.

If you have attended any type of motorcycle event or gathering of late, one thing you notice is none of us are getting any younger. This is especially true of the collectors of fine antique and vintage machines that RIH is known to be host to. Not to mention the volunteers who work tirelessly throughout the year to make the event a success for our entrants and our charity partner, K9s for Warriors. For years we have racked our brains to come up with ways to involve younger people, in the hopes they too, will catch the bug and usher in the next generation of passionate collectors, judges and volunteers.

For a motorcycle to be considered for judging at RIH, it has to be 35 years of age or older. The name of the new class, Under 35 is Alive!©, speaks to both the age of the machine as well as the age of the entrant. This class will allow bikes that are not yet 35 years old, and the class is limited to participants who are 14 to 34 years old. Hence, the name Under 35 is Alive!© was born. As an added twist, the motorcycle being entered must be as old as the entrant. For example, a 20 year old person would have to enter a 20 year old, or older bike. More information and the online registration form can be found at https://ridingintohistory.org/under-35-is-alive/.

In addition to this new class to attract younger entrants, RIH began the first youth judging program for any motorcycle concours in the US in 2014. More information and the online registration form for our youth judging program can be found at https://ridingintohistory.org/youth-judging/.

The featured marque for this year’s show is GET YOUR HEART RACING-COMPETITION MOTORCYCLES.

Our Grand Marshals for this year are AMA Hall of Famer, Brian Slark of the Barber Motorsports Museum and Motogiro D’Italia Hall of Famer, Vicki Smith of Ducati NA. Our Honorary Grand Marshal is none other than AMA Hall of Famer, Mary McGee, Pioneer Woman in Women Racing. Read more about the amazing careers of all three of these individuals at https://ridingintohistory.org.

We look forward to seeing you April 15th, and please bring the kids.

About Riding into History

Riding Into History™ is the premier all motorcycle Concours d’Elegance in the United States. Riding Into History™ is a non-profit 501 (c)3 organization with its primary charity, K9s for Warriors which provides service dogs for disabled veterans. Riding Into History™ has donated over $600,000 to local charities since its founding in 1999.