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The Riding Into History (RIH) Motorcycle Concours is held annually at the World Golf Village (WGV), located in Florida between Jacksonville and St. Augustine. 2021 was the 20th year for RIH. All proceeds benefit the K9's For Warriors (KFW) non-profit, service-dog training facility located not far from WGV. K9's For Warriors trains service dogs that are given to military Veterans needing assistance & companionship to help overcome service-related wounds, both physical and mental. To date, RIH has generated close to $250,000.00 (!) in donations to to benefit K9's For Warriors.

The RIH show is a juried event, meaning invited bikes must be accepted by a panel of judges to be eligible for entry into the concours show. Bikes must be at least 30 yrs. old to be eligible. We had been invited, and one of our '73 (late '72) Z1's had been accepted for the 2020 show but, it was cancelled due to COVID. We reapplied for this year's show and the same bike was accepted once again.

A charity ride/kinetic concours to the K9's For Warriors facility was on Friday morning. Limited to 50 bikes, it was sold out weeks before the event. A very nicely restored 1950's Matchelss thumper was selected as the winning bike in the kinetic concours.
Pic courtesy of Dohms Creative Photography.


In addition to having our Z1 entered in the next day's concours show, we two-upped on it for the 60 mile ride to the clean, modern K9's For Warriors training facility, where we met the staff and some of the dogs. Pic courtesy of Dohms Creative Photography.


These canines are trained to the nth degree for obedience, alert companionship and, physical assistance (retrieving a dropped object for instance), to prepare them for their new homes with wounded Veterans. It was a revelation how finely tuned the dogs were to spoken commands and hand signals, and even seemingly-subtle body language. We had to leave our dogs at home in the care of our housesitter while on this trip, and we were very happy to get a dog fix & sloppy kisses after a dog-less week. To the amusement of all, it seems that at least one of the dogs likes bikes too. Pic courtesy of Dohms Creative Photography.


A group lunch stop at a seaside fish restaurant on the way back to the WGV campus satisfied the munchies.
Our Z1 turned over 500 miles since it's completion in 2017 during the KFW ride. Time for it's second break-in oil & filter change...

This is us on the way back from the lunch stop. Pic courtesy of Dohms Creative Photography.



www.dohmscreativephotography.com/index

A very good banquet dinner was held at the World Golf Hall of Fame banquet hall Friday night. It was hosted by Wayne Carini of Chasing Classic Cars fame. There was also a silent auction of bike memorabilia, services, and a BMW R90(?) airhead, plus a new custom mini bike, all shown in the dining hall. Mr. Carini entertained after dinner, speaking of of his background and history in the vintage motor vehicle world and associated television series experiences.

The bikes in the concours show are arranged on the wide brick promenade surrounding a lake that covers about fifteen acres. The main feature on the lakefront is the World Golf Hall of Fame and Golf Museum. A row of shops & eateries rings the outer perimeter of the promenade. Gazebos built into the promenade every few hundred feet offered seating and shelter from the sun. VJMC is deeply involved in the RIH event, and set up it's welcome table in the gazebo centered in the Japanese show. A spit of land cuts the lake almost in half. slmjim walked out to the center & took ten photos to create a 360 deg. panorama to try to give the reader a sense of the scale of the place. The World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum is in the tower building at the far left.


Bike placement on the promenade began Saturday morning at 07:00. The theme of Saturday's concours show this year was British. Out of a total of 330 bikes of all makes and origins, our rough count was there were 80 or so British bikes ranging from 1920's to late (30 yrs.+) vintage. Other bikes present covered the gamut of American, European and Asian manufacturers, ages ranging from 1910's to recent (30 yrs.+) vintage. We estimate there were only ~60 or so Japanese bikes there, ranging from some very nicely restored 50cc. tiddlers to an original 1975 Gold Wing.

Concours judging began at 10:00. A large golf cart (surprised?) full of guys with clipboards & reference materials were seen for the next four hours slowly working their way around the lake promenade, poring over the bikes top to bottom, talking among themselves & pointing at certain features on the bikes. We wandered the show & manned the VJMC display for a while, and didn't interact with the judges at all.

A smattering of alternate modes of transportation was present. Like an antique pedal trike. Note the 'wheelie bar'.


And a bicycle built for four. Huge turning radius and flexi-flyer frame would make for some umm... 'interesting' handling behavior.


A guy was wandering the promenade with two of his pet Macaws.


The blue one was quite tame, and would willingly allow a stranger to hold it. The guy said the red one was pretty much a one-man bird, and could put a stranger in the hospital in an instant if riled. Many people took the opportunity to hold the tame one, including slmijm.


We hung mostly in the Japanese show area & VJMC gazebo once we had completed our third walk around the lake looking at everything. Ate lunch (a very good brisket sandwich from a food truck in the parking lot) in one of the gazebos. Judging had been completed by the time we returned to the VJMC gazebo. A handful of pristine sandcast CB750's were clustered in the Japanese show, along with a few smaller Hondas. A couple nice Suzuki's. The Yamaha area boasted one of each (vintage) year of FJ's and FJR's. Lots of tiddlers of all brands.

Kawasakis were fairly sparse. There were a few fine H1's and H2's, most showing only a few tenths mile on the odometers..

A nice GPZ1100.


A clean Zephyr 750.


750 Turbo. Quite rare.


We entered our late '72 Z1. It's the one that came to us as a total basket case in 2010. It was the project (and bike) we named 'The Seven Year _itch', 'cause that's how long we worked on it to reassemble & restore and, it was a royal _itch at times.  A reasonably brief synopsis of the project is here:
kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/603883-euro-lookalike-basket-case
There were no other Z1's in the show!


Overall, a nice showing of Japanese bikes, and fierce show competition. Would not have wanted to be in the judges' shoes!

Wandering the parking lot looking at spectators' bikes was entertaining too. Mostly modern bikes. Two vintage bikes stood out though:
A frankenbike Z,


And a KZ1100P 'prototype' that appeared to be an unrestored original daily rider. Would like to have talked to the owner!


Back at the show, the winners were to be announced @ 4PM in the area of the Golf Hall of Fame courtyard, where Barber Motorsports had set up a fine display of a half-dozen pristine & very rare Brit bikes. An entertaining and welcome feature was a guy who rode in on a fine old Indian sidehack that had been converted into an ice cream distribution conveyance. Not exactly the ice cream truck of our childhood.


The freezer was powered by a very quiet, small inverter generator. The typical ice cream truck 'music' torture was missing, but the exhaust note of the Indian would make most anyone take notice.


We had gone to the event & chosen to enter our Z1 for fun, not expecting anything in the way of awards. We're not trophy hounds anyway. We just like the people & the bikes & the ambiance at events like this. The opportunity to participate and support K9's For Warriors, to see old friends from VJMC along with so many fine old & rare bikes is always satisfaction enough. When the award for best Japanese bike in show was to be announced, we fully expected that a particularly fine, early sandcast CB750 K0 we looked at would be the winner. Instead, we heard “Best Japanese bike in show - 1973 Z1” and our names! Stunned, we joined Mr. Carini in front of the Golf Hall of Fame Museum to accept what turned out to be a very large wood plaque. The award plaques were produced locally by a shop that was in attendance in the vendor area. The pic below is in our driveway after we arrived home.


There's no way to put into words our full experience at the RIH event. Perhaps a contingent from KZRider could participate next year?

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

Congrats on the win, cool pictures too, I especially like that Matchless, and your Kawasaki of course.   I have that exact same Kawasaki shirt..!!

Congratulations slmjim & Mrs. Z1BEBE! Quite the accomplishment! Always wanted to go to this event.  It is about two and half hours away from me. An online Cafe Moto group I am a part of has a few members who take the ride up there every year. I hear its a beautiful venue. Looks like it was a nice vacation for the two of you as well. The Z looks spectacular as well!

Wonderful post !!!
I really enjoyed  reading it and looking at the pictures.
Congratulations  on the  well deserved  win .
Trophies are nice , But the biggest kick  of showing off a bike is all the interaction with the  folks in attendance .
Thanks for sharing 
Dave

Nice,great write up!
Good on you guys for showing that Honda what's what!

Excellent Story and write up Jim!!
Thank You for sharing!
Great stuff!
We have a Western New York Heroes Orginization for Veterans that I donate food to locally. And they have a "Pawsitive For Heroes" program also. They train and give Service Dogs to Veterans. Good Stuff!
wnyheroes.org/grants-programs/pawsitive-for-heroes/
But good for you and your wife! Had to be a Proud and Cool moment for sure!
I loved all of Wayne Carini's shows! I seen them all! Pretty Classy Guy.
Take Care! Stay Safe!
Marty in Buffalo

Wonderfully written article with great pictures of the bikes and the people.   A great representation of this event.   Thanks for posting.

Congratulations on winning as well.   Seven years of investment.   Must be love.   

Nice write-up and a very nice bike. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with us.

Very cool. I bet very satisfying. Thank you for another good read. Congratulations 

Congratulations slmjim+Z1BEBE!

Thanks for sharing as well.
Great to have been able to see a bit of it.