Kim & Pete Young San Francisco California

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The United States are the land of Choppers and flat trackers of course, but not only.
Apparently, there are many communities of old motorcycles fans.
San Francisco is a very good spot.

Pete Young and his wife Kim are very active. Pete despite a busy schedule between job family life, engineering, and blogging, kindly respond to our invitation.
Pete started riding bikes at age 10, Kim at 24. They Only own and ride pre WWII era bikes, with a focus on pre 1916 bikes lately.They enjoy Velocettes.
Kim rides her 1930 KSS 350 OHC, Pete on 1938 MSS, now with a sidecar They Try to use the bikes as often as possible, the way that they were made to be used. No bikes are collected for display purposes, only to be ridden.

Their kids started riding at 9 months of age in the sidecar K&P organize some rides every year: the Rigid Ride for pre WWII bikes and the SF 49 Mile ride for pre 1975 bikes.



"49 Mile" is 10th anniversary this year, expecting around 200-250 bikes.
Pete have previously been president of the Velo club of N. America, and organized the 2006 Rally.
They Attend the Velo club rallies every July, with the kids. Rallies are 1000 miles in 5 days, in a different US state or Canadian Province each year.
They are volunteer and judge at bike events like the BSA Clubman’s show, Legends, etc.



K&P restored Kim’s 1936 Ariel Red Hunter after riding it for 10 years, in time for the 2008 Legend Show.
The bike was built in 1998 from a very incomplete basket case, with 75% of the bike missing.

Pete’s 1913 Premier is ridden pretty often at Pre16 events, and won best pre1930 at legends 2007. Peter will be riding the Premier on the Cannonball Rally, 3300 miles across the USA in September.
He's currently restoring the 1916 Excelsior.they do almost all of the work on the bikes themselves, except magneto windings, chrome and some painting.Pete spend about 3 hours in the shop for every one hour on the road.


They attend about 10-15 organized rides/rallies each year, plus rides with the family around town, to coffee on Sundays, etc.

Where does the passion for old bikes come from? Hmm. The beauty and the engineering of
the early bikes is very nice, and also interesting. The simplicity, and conversely,
the complexity of some parts keeps his attention. Shop repairs and restorations are done together, as are organizing rides and attending rides, rallies, shows, etc.

Thanks to ©Craig Howell "El Caganer" for the photos.

As you can see riding, is a big part of their time thus far...

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