My Early Riding Days With Dayton Motorcycle Club

By Norm Kern

I began riding in 1965 around Dayton, Ohio. That summer, I went to my first professional half-mile dirt track race at Lebanon, Ohio.

I was mesmerized by the crowd, riders, and excitement. Afterward, when I looked through a discarded program, I wanted to know who had put on this fantastic event, and was surprised to find that the race had been promoted by a club – the Dayton Motorcycle Club (DMC).

There were many motorcycle clubs around at the time. The Cardinals was a traditional road riding club that rode together to events and hosted several poker runs each season. They met at a lodge on North Dixie Drive in Dayton.

The Miamisburg Mound Riders met at the old firemen’s hut across the Miami River from Miamisburg, Ohio. They rented property off Union Road south of town where they held “scrambles” races, which were a popular style of amateur dirt track racing of the time. I attended their meetings and got to know some members, but I remained curious about the Dayton Motorcycle Club.

One evening, I was going through the motorcycle section of the Yellow Pages in the phone directory and found a listing for the Dayton Motorcycle Club, with its phone number and address. Later, I rode there, going up a steep and rough gravel driveway to get to the clubhouse. It was a block building with no windows, surrounded by a gravel parking lot and a wooded area with dirt trails. No one was around.

I called the phone number a few times with no answer, until one evening, someone picked up and said, “Dayton Motorcycle Club!” I stammered and asked when they had meetings and was told, “We meet every Wednesday, all year round. Come any time,” so the next week I went. It was February, with the temperature around freezing. I didn’t want to be laughed at, so I rode my bike to the meeting. The members must have heard me pull up outside, as when I came in the door, all conversation stopped. I was the only one there who had ridden their bike on that awful night; they probably thought I was crazy. Nevertheless, I was welcomed.

There were around fifteen people at the meeting. I quickly learned that DMC, which was founded in 1908, was unlike any club I had ever known. At that time, they had a closed membership with a limit of forty members. If they were at the limit, you had to wait for an opening to join. (Today, membership is open and the club has around sixty-five members.)

Other clubs had pressured me to join, but the DMC guys made it clear that I was welcome as a guest forever and should only join if I wanted to make “the commitment,” which is to attend a large percentage of meetings and work at the work parties and club events.

The membership process is lengthy. It takes about seven months, but once you are a permanent member, the cost is minimal- DMC wants your labor, not your money- dues are only $11 per year, same as when I joined in 1967. Why so little? DMC is a promoting club that pays its expenses by charging admission for events.

The biggest event of the season is the Devil’s Staircase Pro Hillclimb at Oregonia, Ohio. 2023 will the 74th running of the event, which draws over 7,000 fans on the second Sunday of October each year.   

DMC has about eight open practice and beginner/old timer events on the MX track each season as well. 

Once you have been a DMC member for twenty years, you become a life member; you no longer pay dues and have no minimum requirement for attendance or working events. DMC currently has about twenty-five life members, including some of the most active. That speaks volumes about the value of DMC membership.

I learned all about enduro riding from fellow members and attended events with them. Other members rode touring bikes and I rode with and took trips with them. When I retired from enduro riding, there were dual-sport riders to ride events with.

When I transitioned to sport touring in 2001 and joined Motorcycle Sport Touring Association (MSTA), I picked up a couple of new DMC members that I am still friends and riding with. (I’m still active in DMC, attending most of the meetings and events.)

DMC had a great run through the early 2000s, with as many as ninety members in 2004.

However, like most membership organizations, the club had challenges getting new members in the past ten years. The younger generation are not “joiners,” nor are as many interested in motorcycles. Combine that with the loss of older members who aged out, and they had a shrinking membership.

Fortunately, the club recognized the value of its motocross track as a member benefit; members can come up at any time and ride, which attracts younger people and families who learned about the club by attending DMC’s ” beginner/old timer track days.” These events provide an opportunity for kids, older and casual riders to ride the motocross track without being run over by racers. It turned out that many of these riders had a good time and liked the club enough to join.

Other Benefits of Membership

DMC has quite a few member benefits.  In addition to the MX track, there is the 4000 square foot clubhouse with paved parking that members can use for parties and other gatherings. The clubhouse/MX track property is conveniently located not far from US-35 and I-75 within the city limits of Dayton, Ohio.

The club also has a shooting range and hunting available for members on its 64 acre Devil’s Staircase Hillclimb property just south of Oregonia. This facility includes a camping area along the Little Miami river.

If you’d like to see what DMC is all about, feel free to attend a meeting any Wednesday night at 8 PM. DMC is located at 3515 Stony Hollow Road, Dayton, Ohio. For more information, visit the website at www.daytonmc.com.

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Connect with local Ohio MSTA riders at these monthly breakfasts:

Southwest Ohio Breakfast, 9AM April 15
Village Family Restaurant
144 S. Main St.
Waynesville, OH 45068

Central Ohio Breakfast Meet – Sunday May 7.
Arrive at 8 am to eat, 9AM to ride if weather permits.
Portside Cafe
6515 S High St
Lockbourne, OH 43137