Taft Motorcycle Club

“It is a Quonset hut on Petroleum Club Road,” Harley Dude said.  “Ok,” I replied, “where is petroleum club road and what is a Quonset hut?”  So began the first visit to the Taft Motorcycle Club.  Harley Dude and I were supposed to go together to the meeting to check out the club for some content for our podcast and I had just gotten the green light from the editor at Friction Zone magazine to do a spotlight piece on them.  Just about the time I was going to head to Taft to meet up with Harley Dude he called from school and said he was tied up.  I already had a commitment to go so we spent some time looking at maps while we talked on the phone and I got a general but vague idea where I was headed.  Hey, not big deal.  It is all part of the adventure.  So off goes Beemerman to look for a Quanset hut on Petroleum Club Road.b

Actually it was not hard to find, but I found it intriguing that there were no bikes parked around.  I walked in just as the meeting was starting and was greeted warmly as Lewis because he had made the initial contact and that is who they were expecting.  After getting that cleared up they had their meeting.The highlight of the meeting was a presentation by Michael Berg who is involved in the California Trail Users Coalitionb or CTUC who works with government agencies to preserve public lands and the rights of those who want to use them for motor-sports.The CTUC produces there own maps and puts on a number of events each year.  More information will be provided as it becomes available.  And, we got free T-Shirts.After the meeting I got to speak with several of the members.Most of the current members got involved in the club because they had always heard about it and word was getting around that is was about ready to die out.  Another reason people became interested in the club again was because Taft is an off-roaders paradise and their trails were getting shut down.  The local ranger who they were having trouble with made it clear he would deal with them but only if they were an organized club.I spoke to Darren who has been a club member for about a year and a half and he outlined some additional goals of the club.  In particular he stressed the goal of forming two divisions of the club, street and off-road.  The belief being that all riders need each other for the purposes of countering anti-motorcycle sentiment among the public, education and mutual understanding.