Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993                   TAG: 9309140095
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AND THEY'RE STILL ON THE ROAD...

The Retread Club's members, who must be 40 years old or older, rolled into the Salem Civic Center parking lot over the weekend for their annual rally.

In all, nearly 1,000 people signed up, which translates to about 500 motorcycles.

The ride up to Mill Mountain, in time to see the star light up, is one of the daily side trips the motorcyclists take. But the real purpose of the annual rallies may have been best summed up by Bob Cumin:

"You just get together and kick tires and tell lies and hope nobody fell off their bike since the last time you seen 'em."

Cumin and five other Ontario, Canada, club members left their homes at 7 a.m. Saturday to come to the rally. They drove for two days and almost 700 miles before they pulled into Salem on Sunday night.

Among those riders were 79-year-old Gordon Hayhurst, 73-year-old Gordon Oxborough and 72-year-old Pete Korolovski. The tales among these men fly freely. Hayhurst remembered one story, which began like a lot of stories from You just get together and kick tires and tell lies and hope nobody fell off their bike since the last time you seen 'em. Bob Cumin other motorcyclists at the rally: "I remember one time, it was quite a few years ago . . . "

Hayhurst drove a Honda Nighthawk from Ontario, but his first motorcycle was a 1930 Harley Davidson. He bought it used, for $50, in 1934. Some of the new Harley Davidsons at the rally cost $20,000 or more.

Hayhurst crashed his first motorcycle into a turning car and broke his leg, but that was nothing compared to the accident 80-year-old Chester Seig had out in Utah a few years back. "A deer hopped on my motorcycle," Seig said. That was 1979, and Seig was in the hospital more than a month.

Monday, Seig rode about 350 miles from Lancaster, Pa., for the rally. Seig's longtime riding partner got too old to ride, but Seig still prefers his motorcycle to his Ford Escort.

"Some of these fellas are ageless," Elwell said. "Chester's been following me down the road today, and he gets down the road pretty well."