Preceding his involvement with the Jolly Rogers Motorcycle Club, the Great Seymour’s racing career started in ‘58 with his new BSA Goldstar scrambler. “In my 1st race, I had just enough time to sign up and start. Before I fell for the 6th time, the 1st place guy was trying to lap me. Losing his lead prompted him to speak harshly to me.” In ‘59 his racing career subsided for 11 years when he married CJ.

Buying a couple of 501 Maico motocross bikes allowed him to race in the Open class at the Jolly Rogers track against 650 British bikes and iron barrel Sportsters. The Maico was a good 100 pounds lighter and did well, securing for him the NMA Open class Championship for 1974. (See a number of old Super 8 movies of the Great Seymour and others racing at the famous Jolly Rogers Motorcycle Club race track in Kent, WA). Seymour used to break into the Jolly Rogers grounds to practice but finally joined to obtain legitimate  access. He became Secretary and finally Treasurer until the members sold the grounds to a surrounding developer.

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, the membership was down to a handful of people and the Treasury was depleted. Because of the value of its history and fame, Seymour and CJ decided to bring the Jolly Rogers Motorcycle Club back to life, investing one thousand dollars of their own money toward that end for shirts, membership certificates, etc. The Great Seymour also understood the value of the internet and attempted to create the first iteration of the Jolly Rogers Motorcycle Club website. At that time Lets-Ride.com was offering free website space to motorcycle clubs to hang their sites. Seymour not being a web developer enlisted longtime acquaintance Fingers DeHan to perform the deed in exchange for free membership to the Jollies for the service. After a little less than a year Seymour and Fingers decided that the Jollies web presence should grow and in 2003 the domain name jollyrogersmotorcycleclub.com was purchased and a new website developed. The current site at www.jollyrogersmotorcycleclub.com is still the original, official website of the Jolly Rogers Motorcycle Club with over 40,000 hits.

With the help of the famous Carmen Tom they slowly brought in new members and repaid the investment. At that time there were no dues and the club activities consisted of going to other’s events flashing our colors.

During the latter part of this period two individuals moved to dominate the club for their own agendas. The 1st name remains unspoken. He salted the membership with his supporters, tried and failed to kick member CJ out, and finally succumbed to his own clumsy maneuvers.

The 2nd successful attempt was by the current president, with better supporters and skill. Under his watch, dues were extracted, monies given to other organizations for promotion, and he regulated a cult-like atmosphere.

Having been Vice President for 2 years, Seymour’s son Dave decided to not run again. Having been Custodian for 10 years, CJ also decided to not run. Seymour did not run for his previously held offices of Secretary and Treasurer, largely avoided meetings now found painful, and was boycotted. CJ’s membership was reduced to “Honorary”. Finally, even though the Great Seymour previously was a lifetime member of the Jolly Rogers Motorcycle Club, he was voted out for “conduct contrary to the best interests of the club”. The greatest charge against him was revealing the new Treasurer’s failed duties to people other than remaining members. The club certainly is not as it used to be…

After 40 years of past membership and 73 years old, Seymour is bent by arthritis and rarely rides. With his son Dave’s help, his spare time is spent trying to keep up with the work in his back yard machine shop serving motorcycles and their riders.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 at 3:09 pm and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.