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Motorcyclist enthusiasts pour into Valley for annual rally
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
Rudy Copeland had a big smile as he hugged Linda English. “We were friends in different parts of the state” for years, English joked.
The two are among about 300 motorcycle enthusiasts who began a three-day rally at the Canfield Fairgrounds on Thursday.
The event is the Gold Wing Road Riders Association’s annual Buckeye Rally, which continues today and Saturday.
Copeland is the district director for Ohio for the GWRRA and said the event has been in Xenia, Wooster and Tiffin, among other parts of the state.
“We’ve been trying to get it here [Mahoning County] for years,” said English, of Austintown. “You could ride a lot of places around here.”
Becky Jones of New Springfield, assistant Northeast Ohio district director of GWRRA with her husband, Roy, said, “It’s never been in the Northeast [Ohio region] before. It is such a joy to me for it to be here” in the Valley.
The Joneses direct the local Chapter M Buckeye Travelers of the GWRRA, which meets at 5 p.m. on the fourth Saturday of the month at the Yankee Kitchen restaurant, 6635 Market St., Boardman.
GWRRA has more than 72,000 members in more than 800 chapters worldwide and is a 38-year-old, nonprofit social organization for owners and riders of Honda Gold Wing and Valkyrie motorcycles. All motorcycles are welcomed at the event.
Copeland said about 200 patrons had arrived Thursday and 310 people had pre-registered for the event. Thursday’s activities featured registration, some seminars and ended with a ride into western Pennsylvania.
GWRRA members are either staying in area hotels or are among more than a dozen campers scattered across the fairgrounds.
Vendors are selling items such as LED lights for bikes as well as T-shirts. Patrons come from New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan and Indiana, Copeland said. In that way, it’s like a reunion every year at the annual rally.
Mike Lamborne had space set up for his Mountain Man Art. Lamborne, known as the Mountain Man, paints murals on motorcycles for those seeking to add something to their bike.
Lamborne said it began when he was driving dump trucks in Virginia, and each truck had to be marked. “I painted my truck up and next thing I knew I was painting trucks all over,” he said. Lamborne said people frequently ask for Christian murals, art involving wildlife, particularly eagles and wolves, Native American-themed art and patriotic murals.
Lamborne goes across the country working on murals but said he “doesn’t go out west much anymore” except for a few times a year on the other side of the Mississippi River. He has spent 26 years painting on the road and usually does eight to 10 murals a day at events such as the GWRRA Buckeye Rally.
Copeland said GWRRA members are having a canned-food drive to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley. There also is a raffle with local nonprofit Noah’s Lost Ark Exotic Animal Rescue Center of Berlin Center. Copeland said that structure allows 50 percent of the proceeds to stay with Noah’s Lost Ark while two GWRRA members can win prizes of 35 percent and 15 percent of money collected.