Two Wheel Sunday

Story by Don Morberg// Photos by Don Morberg
February 13 2019

What started out as just an idea at a motorcycle show has become an important date on the calendar for Calgary motorcycle riders of all stripes

In Calgary, Two Wheel Sunday (2WS) is quietly becoming the largest one-day outdoor motorcycle event in Western Canada. Held the first Sunday in June, the gathering of all things motorcycle has grown in five years from an idea to an event with 9,000 participants, mostly riders.

“It started from a conversation over coffee at the Calgary Motorcycle Show in January 2014,” says Bobby Baum, one of the event’s founders and site coordinator. “Someone said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to bring the entire Calgary motorcycling community together in one place at one time?’”

Calgary has an extremely active bike community with more than 40,000 registered motorcycles, but it is highly segmented, as evidenced by the staunchly independent Harley groups, a Victory club, Gold Wing riders, a Women in the Wind chapter, a strong BMW community, Star Riders, sportbike groups crossing manufacturer lines, dirtbike riders, trikes, customizers, veterans and religious clubs, garage builders and racers of all stripes. Rarely, however, would these riders be seen together beyond the season-
starting Awareness Ride or season-ending Christmas toy runs.

Grassroots Beginnings

DSCN0673The little organizing group quickly became a committee and began talking it up. The idea of a family-friendly, one-day street festival for motorcycles turned into a snowball rolling downhill. Soon clubs, dealers, rider-training schools, vendors, charities, veterans’ groups and individual riders started getting involved. For a site, organizers picked a two-block-long side road in an industrial area of northeast Calgary that was close to several of the major motorcycle dealers and shops.

Within a few months, the 2WS Motorcycle Association was formed and the first Sunday in June 2014 was set as the date for the inaugural event. A website and social media presence soon followed. Becoming an association was a legal necessity to apply to the City of Calgary to close the road for the day. The plan was to only allow motorcycle traffic on the street once the vendor tents and other displays were set up.

Unanimous Support

000- Two Wheel SundayBecause the event was on a Sunday, most companies along the street were to be closed. They were asked to let the event take over their parking lots, and although it meant moving vehicles and finding parking elsewhere, all agreed to support it. One hitch was the only business on the street that normally stayed open on Sunday, a bottle recycling depot right in the middle of the block. Cycle Works Calgary came up with an ingenious motorized solution. It donated the use of a quad to pick up the bottles and cans from people at the end of the block and transport them to the depot.

The site plan called for tents and displays to be in the parking lots with both sides of the street reserved for motorcycle parking. Doing it all by the book, 2WS followed the city permit to the letter, arranging for porta-potties, garbage cans, cleanup and event insurance. Blue Circle Insurance, a local company known for its work with motorcycle riders, stepped up to handle that requirement, while Lucid Moto provided graphics and signage for the 2WS kickoff.

Victory Riders Calgary (VRC) volunteered to put together a people’s choice show and shine with the public voting on the best customs, cruisers, baggers, vintage, sport bikes and scooters. James Hamling of the VRC executive led the organizing. “[VRC] saw right away the value of getting the entire motorcycle community together, so we were 100 per cent behind it from the beginning.”

006 - UmmmmmOrganizers seeking community support soon found widespread acceptance of the idea and applications for display space at the event started coming in. The cost for a display booth was set at a modest $50, with vendors providing their own tents and tables. The price was reduced if the organization promised to send two volunteers to help out with the event. Those volunteers would join the small army of volunteers who made sure the event ran smoothly. (Most wore bright orange T-shirts with “Voluntold” stencilled on the back.)

Inaugural Year

When 2WS opened the gates on a sunny morning on June 1, 2014, there were 33 vendors and displays lining 3A Street Northeast. Even before the 10 a.m. scheduled opening, motorcycles began rolling in.

Bikes of every description soon lined 3A Street. A veterans’ riding club, 3 CAV Ypres (Calgary), organized a barbecue at the event with all proceeds going to support the Veterans Food Bank, which is 2WS’ designated charity.

That first year, 2WS was expecting 500 visitors; when it was over at 3 p.m., 3,000 visitors, most having arrived on bikes, had attended. Organizers declared the event an unqualified success, with a promise to do it again next year.

In 2015, the number of visitors hit 4,500, and continued to grow each year: 5,000 in 2016, and then 6,500 in 2017. The number of vendors and displays also grew to 57. After the 2017 event, it was obvious 2WS had outgrown its 3A Street location. It needed more room to accommodate the increasing number of displays and visitors.

New Location

Organizers turned their attention to a five-block-long strip of city-owned green space along 5th Street NE, a few blocks from the old site, where nearby sat a series of industrial warehouses with large parking lots. Negotiations began with the city and Pockar Management, owner of the industrial properties. Pockar is well known for its support of motorcycling in Calgary and came on board immediately. Because 2WS had built a good relationship with the City of Calgary, it received the green light, albeit with a few extra stipulations about protecting the greenbelt.

With almost triple the space available, 2WS increased the number of vendors to 85, with room for more, and brought in some additional attractions, including food trucks. At the 2018 Calgary Motorcycle Show, Harley-Davidson Canada approached 2WS about the possibility of opening its 2018 demo ride season at the event. With Honda and Yamaha also coming forward, demo rides became part of the event for the first time.

When the day wound down at 3 p.m. on June 3, 2018, an estimated 9,000 people (most on motorcycles) had wandered through the vendor exhibits or simply enjoyed a food truck snack while ogling the amazingly diverse range of bikes packed in along the route. Before taking the summer off to go riding, the organizers scheduled the sixth annual 2WS for June 2, 2019.

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