2 weeks Ago By Greg Williams
Article content In August 2023, British Columbia motorcyclist Cam Moody was in an eerily familiar situation. For the fifth time in 25-plus years, the West Kelowna riding enthusiast faced evacuation from his home due to wildfire. At the time, he had a collection of modern and vintage machines and a life’s worth of accumulated tools, including a metal lathe and welder, and hundreds of motorcycle-specific manuals and reference books.
“When the fire broke out it was miles away from my house,” Moody recalls. The McDougall Creek Wildfire ignited on August 15 some 10 kilometres away from West Kelowna, just before Moody and a friend left on a three-day motorcycle trip. “When we got back, it was still burning and the wind came up and (the fire) changed direction, at first blowing it away from the house but then it did a complete about face and it came roaring towards the house,” he explains.
On August 19 Moody’s home, shop, tools and books were all consumed. He’d managed to evacuate with a suitcase of clothes, a few family photographs and a fully restored 1947 Indian, a 1962 BMW R50 and his personalized 1995 Harley-Davidson Softail. Also saved were several totes of parts acquired for the machines he rescued.
He recalls, “On August 19 I spent time loading the Indian and the BMW and was just kicking around the garage to see what I had room for and what I could live without. I left behind a 2021 BMW R1250GS, a 1947 Harley-Davidson 45 and a rare Bultaco.” These machines were also lost to the fire.
Moody was born and raised in Regina. After riding a friend’s Honda Z50 minibike, he pestered his dad to buy him a motorcycle. What he got was a 90cc Harley-Davidson purchased new from Prairie Harley-Davidson in Regina.
“I lived eight houses down the street from the edge of the city,” Moody recalls. “I just had to get across one major collector road and I was out in the country.” He was stopped by the police two or three times on these adventures but wasn’t never given too much trouble for riding when and where he shouldn’t have been.
From that point on, Moody was hooked on bikes. He’s 63 now and says he has ridden every year since, both dirt bikes and street bikes. Moody left school in the 11th grade and went to work as a mechanic in a local garage.
He told his boss he was looking for an older Harley-Davidson and in 1979 that led to the purchase of a 1936 Knucklehead. These are rare and valuable bikes today, but at the time it had been customized with a different fork and gas tank. “I bought it off of him for $1,500 with savings and as yet unpaid wages,” Moody says.
“I rebuilt it to my tastes and rode it hard and rode it fast until 1986 when I sold it and got a Shovelhead. The Shovelhead was current and more practical, but selling the Knucklehead was a huge mistake.” Moody became a journeyman millwright and worked at Regina’s water treatment plant.
He focused on water quality and specifically, backflow preventers. In 2000, he got a job in Kelowna and relocated to B.C.
, hauling out a 1947 Whizzer Model H and a project Harley-Davidson 45 and many tools. “I just like old stuff, and the collection is always changing and evolving,” he says. “I ride them when they run and ride and work on them when they don’t.
But for me it’s all about the riding; from spring to fall, it’s all about tires and gasoline.” Prior to the 2023 fire, he’d sold three Bultacos and a 1947 Indian Chief basket-case project. He felt good about that, as they were not lost in the flames.
“The first time we were threatened by wildfire 25 years ago I loaded up a 16-foot trailer with stuff, and two days later it was being unloaded again,” Moody says. “The more it happened, the less sensitive I became to it. I was calm about it this time, the house and what I had in it wasn’t all that important, but I regret not taking my book collection because some of those, like J.
B. Nicholson’s Modern Motorcycle Mechanics series, have been hard to replace.” Now living in a rented basement suite, Moody has the bikes and parts he saved in storage units.
He’s currently rebuilding with new plans on the site of the old house, and this time his workshop will be 1,100 sq. ft. with 9-foot ceilings in one part, and 12-foot ceilings in another.
“I just love bikes,” he says, and concludes, “every time I swing a leg over a machine, I still feel as excited as I did when I was 10 years old.” Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or gregwilliams@shaw.
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