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Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - From a Press Release- roadracingworld.com

PICKERINGTON, OHIO — The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) has announced that the Harley-Davidson Sportster will be the “Featured Marque” at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2007, to be held July 27-29 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

Introduced as the XL in 1957, the Sportster will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2007. This landmark line of motorcycles has become an indisputable icon in American motorcycling and has had a significant impact on American culture.

In addition to the XL, AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2007 will honor the Sportster’s earlier siblings, including the K, KK, KH, KR and XR models.

Owners of Sportster XL motorcycles, as well as owners of Harley-Davidson K, KK, KH, KR and XR motorcycles, are invited to bring their machines to AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2007 for display in the Sportster Corral. A select group of early and significant examples will be chosen for a special Marque of the Year display. For more information, contact Will Stoner at wstoner@ama-cycle.org or 614-856-1900 ext. 1227.

AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2007, which will benefit the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum, will include exhibits of classic motorcycles and memorabilia, the all-brands AMA Swapmeet, bike shows, a full slate of vintage racing, and other features to be announced in the coming months.

As in previous years, AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days will kick off a ten-day celebration of motorcycling at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, concluding with the AMA Honda Super Cycle Weekend presented by Dunlop Tire the following weekend, August 3-5.

For the latest news about AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2007, visit
www.AMADirectlink.com or call 1-800-AMA-JOIN. For tickets and more information about Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, visit www.midohio.com or call 1-800-MID-OHIO.

The American Motorcyclist Association: rights. riding. racing. Founded in 1924, the AMA is a non-profit organization with more than 280,000 members. The Association’s purpose is to pursue, protect and promote the interests of motorcyclists, while serving the needs of its members. For more information, visit the AMA website at www.AMADirectlink.com, or call 1-800-AMA-JOIN.

A comprehensive motorsports facility, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course features a permanent road racing circuit with two primary configurations: a 2.4-mile, 15-turn, and a 2.25-mile, 13-turn circuit. The park-like, 330-acre complex in Lexington, Ohio also features an amateur motocross venue. Located 60 miles north of Columbus and 75 miles
south of Cleveland near Mansfield, the track has been called the most competitive in the U.S. and annually hosts a diversity of locally, regionally and nationally sanctioned racing events for amateur, club and professional riders and drivers.

Midwest motorcycling doesn’t get the respect it deserves, declares an avid biker who aims to change that, one state at a time.

Now it’s Ohio’s turn.

“It’s such a really pretty area with fascinating history and wonderful back roads that twist and turn,” says Bill Murphy, author of Motorcycling Across Ohio (Arbutus Press, $17.95). Mr. Murphy, of East Lansing, Mich., will be at Signature Harley-Davidson in Perrysburg from noon to 4 p.m. today to sign and discuss his book, and at Harley-Davidson Sales and Service in Napoleon from noon to 2 p.m. Dec. 9.

Mr. Murphy, 59, also is the author of Motorcycling Across Michigan (Arbutus Press, $17.95) and says his next motorcycling book will explore Indiana.

One doesn’t have to go to the east or west coasts for good motorcycling, Mr. Murphy asserted in a recent telephone interview from his home. Admittedly, we don’t have spectacular mountain scenery or oceanfront highways, he said, but Great Lakes states offer plenty of opportunities “to get off the beaten path and see great countryside. That’s what most motorcyclists want.”

The 278-page paperback reflects the author’s passion for history as well as motorcycling — which is, he writes, “a wonderful way to replenish the psyche, which is constantly drained by the stresses and duties of everyday life.”

Mr. Murphy, who rides a Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200, speaks from decades of experience.

“There’s no better way to explore and learn about an area,” he said, speculating that we all would have absorbed a lot more history if we had studied it from atop a motorcycle.

He has a large potential readership in Ohio, where he says “the motorcycling family … is large and growing steadily.”

According to the Motorcycle Industry Council’s 2003 owners survey, its most recent, Ohio has an “estimated motorcycle population” of 389,600, and Michigan has 349,200. The two states were among the top 10 in the number of new unit motorcycle sales in 2005, the council reports: Ohio in fifth place and Michigan, ninth.

Although Mr. Murphy wrote the book with motorcyclists in mind, he said travelers could be encased in an SUV and still get almost the same pleasure from the trips he lays out — minus the smells and sounds of the countryside, the flow of adrenaline, and rush of the wind. “The trick is to slow down, get off the main roads, and travel the way people did decades ago,” he said.

Mr. Murphy’s book maps out 23 routes through Ohio ranging from just over 100 miles in length to a giant loop around the state totaling 814 miles. His detailed directions and descriptions of each trip include points of interest along the way and black-and-white photographs, most of which he took himself.

As he explains in the preface of Motorcycling Across Ohio, “I’ve intended this book to be more than a typical tour guide that simply provides routes and destinations or a bit about how to keep the kids amused and where to eat once you arrive at a destination. In this book it’s all about the journey, not the destination. I want to tell you about Ohio at the same time.”

A former Marine who served in Vietnam, Mr. Murphy said that over the years, he has ridden all the routes described in the book. He said he has two favorites: “From a pure motorcycling perspective, for fabulous, fun roads, it would be the Hocking Hills tour,” he said (the 242-mile route starts and ends in Somerset, Ohio). “From the perspective of a history buff, it would be the ‘Frontier Forts’ in the western part of the state.” (That’s a 217-mile loop that starts and ends in Spencerville.)

“Each ride has a certain theme or a certain story to tell,” said Mr. Murphy.
Among them are trips titled “Of Castles and Caverns,” “Connecticut Yankees in Ohio,” “The Firelands,” “The Serpent,” “The Great River Road,” and “Cuyahoga Valley Canals.”

One mapped route covering 256 miles in northwest Ohio is called “On the Trail of Mad Anthony.” The tour starts in Maumee, with the first stop a few miles down U.S. 24 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers Monument. The trip continues south on U.S. 24, through Waterville, where the author mentions the Blue Bird passenger train, and west to Providence Metropark, where he notes the canal boat pulled by mules, and the water-powered mill. Later on, he points out the Old State Line Road — the once-disputed boundary between Ohio and Michigan.

Other points of interest along the route, or just a short jog away, include the Jacob Young log house east of Kunkle, the Nettle Lake Hopewell Indian Mounds, the Canal Commission Museum in Delphos, Auglaize Village west of Defiance, and Fort Meigs in Perrysburg.

Some of the rides may take two to three days to complete, depending on how much time the traveler spends exploring sites along the way.

Mr. Murphy also has a section on shorter excursions that he labels “fun local rides,” plus lists of Web sites of interest to motorcyclists, emergency telephone numbers, state motorcycling regulations, and addresses and telephone numbers for motorcycle dealers and repair facilities.

The book is available at Borders Books and Barnes & Noble, and online through Amazon.com and at www.Arbutuspress.com.

Author Bill Murphy will be at Signature Harley-Davidson, 1176 Professional Dr., Perrysburg, from noon until 4 p.m. today to sign and discuss his book, “Motorcycling Across Ohio” (Arbutus Press, $17.95). Information: 419-873-2453. He will be at Harley-Davidson Sales & Service, 862 American Rd., Napoleon, from noon to 2 p.m. Dec. 9. Information: 419-592-7123

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