65 YEARS OF DREAMS

In the early to mid-’50’s Jay Richter had a small group of customers with NSU’s ranging from 125cc to 250cc’s. The loosely knit group spent their Sundays at scrambles and hill climbers at sites within 30 miles of Winnetka. They would gather their families in trucks and haul their bikes out for a day in the sun. They were car salesmen, welders, machinists, assemblers from the GM plant in Van Nuys, accountants and of course those from Rocketdyne or Atomics International who were building rockets or developing the solid rocket fuel which would propel objects into space.

We would spend our Sundays at the “races” with the yellow Chevy pickup loaded with tools, tires, chains/links,spare parts gas, tie downs, and coolers with Cokes, beer, sandwiches and fruit.In 1955 that changed and we added CATALINA Grand Prix to our adventures. No longer would the Chevy pick up be used, we had to put all the bikes and their gear on barges and ship them over for a weekend of racing thru the streets of Avalon sand surrounding hills. Riders made the trip on the “Great White Steamship” in 3 hours, flew from Long Beach across the 26 miles to the island landing at the “airport in the sky”. The deHavilland Dove (passenger limit was 12) and then take a harrowing 45 minute bus trip from the airport into town (longer if the buffalo were roaming across the one lane road). The best way to go was the Grumman Albatross which departed Long Beach Airport and landed in the bay at Avalon and then bobbled over to the dock. That first weekend in May was truly magical for 9 year old Laurie and her big sister. We would stay in a little cottage and make a trip to Safeway to buy bread, milk,, cereal, lunchmeat, ..you know staples for a kitchenette and 3 days with Dad and the guys. Friday was preparation, unloading the barges, matching gear with the bikes, meeting everyone as they disembarked from whatever method they had used to cross the Pacific.

Saturday was RACE DAY for the “little bikes”. The streets had been lined with bales of hay and closed. At 8:30am they were lined up and ready to be let go. We would count the laps, scurrying from one vantage site to another trying to keep track of all 6 of them. By 11:30 to noon is would mostly be over except for a few stragglers. The WVCS team won their classes in the top 3 and we were so proud to have been a part of the excitement and the fulfillment of each riders dream accomplishment.

NSU during the 1950’s held the world speed record for their size and were nimble and quick. Over 1 million 49cc NSU Quickly’s were built and sold. In 1956 the first ever 200mph+ on a motorcycle was on an NSU at the Bonneville Salt Flats.While big brother Bud Ekins rode his Triumph to victory at Catalina, little brother Dave was on an NSU!

Sunday RACE Day was for the “big bikes” 500cc’s. A couple from the shop ran and finished on BSA’s. After the race, we supervised the packing and reloading, the guys went to the Tiki Lounge to celebrate or commiserate while Jay and his girls meandered off to the Casino to catch a movie before heading out. Dad didn’t race or ride fast but he was there to provide whatever support, advice, technical repairs or logistics were necessary. There was no official sponsorship of our team; no advertising on jerseys, no corporate logos on helmets. The team was made up of a group who wanted to challenge themselves and do it on their own.WVCS provided assistance with the logistics and followup so they could concentrate on what they wanted to do (and discounted parts!).

On a particularly hot day this past summer, a Red Tesla pulled into the WVCS lot and we met a guy who had a dream to fulfill and was looking for a bike to take cross country. There was no electricity in the shop, inventory bikes were dirty and crammed handlebar to handlebar as we had just gutted the building for the remodeling.Without taking out 20 bikes to get to the one up in the corner he wanted to sit on, he said he’d wait and come back later. This is how we met Carl Reese and are honored to have been a very small part of Carl’s World Record setting run from Los Angeles (Winnetka) to New York City in August. Some of our most stressful moments ever came after Carl pulled out of our driveway just after 3AM on August 28,2015. Carl had left GPS Live Tracker on Jay’s laptop and we were able to follow him until 6:04pm Saturday night when the tracker reported “ignition off”.