History of Friday 13th, Port Dover

When I turned sixteen in 1965, I told my parents that I had to have a Sportster to keep up with the guys going to Port Dover. They believed me. Maybe that was the first lie on the subject of motorcycles but I doubt it. Percy Poole of Pooles Harley-Davidson sold me a used 1958 Sportster H. I loved that bike and it made me look like an advanced child. How many kids can say they went to high school on a Harley in the 60’s?

Now it wasn’t all pleasure. That bike near killed me a half dozen times. Sometimes when I was kick starting it, it would kick back and throw me over the handlebars and I’d land in the rock garden! Those were hard times! You had to kick start the bike. Now at sixteen I figure I weighed about a hundred and fifty pounds soaking wet. So I couldn’t just throw a leg over, jump once and bingo she was running. I had to stand on one side, put my knee on the seat, put my right foot in the stirrup and then jump up in the air with all my strength and then come down on my right leg as hard as I could. She may or may not start. I’d do that over and over again until it started. For years my right leg was twice the size of my left. Sometimes I would wind up, throw all my weight into it, and the pedal would go all the way through with no back pressure and I would dislocate my knee. But like you, in those days I was a real man! I would hop around in the yard until the knee went back in and would have another go at it. Now a days I go to a chiropractor just to handle all the abuse that old girl gave me.

In November 1981 the first bike night at Port Dover was celebrated and the following video will give you a view of the resort town in it's natural habitat and then show you what happens to this sleepy port on Friday the 13th.