Above, the earliest reliably dated photo of the Laconia rally, in 1918. The rally came to be known as the New England Gypsy Tour. A Gypsy Tour was an overnight event with organized road rides and other activities of interest to motorcycle enthusiasts. THE Gypsy Tour could also refer to the whole series of these events. Gypsy Tours were held in various parts of the country, and typically occured on the same weekend every year. The exact origination of the term Gypsy Tour is unknown, but by 1918 the term was well established, as can be seen by the 1918 watch fob seen below. The National Motorcycle Gypsy Tour award was given to those with perfect attendance at all of the individual Gypsy Tours. This award was given out by the FAM (Federation of American Motorcyclists), which was organized on September 7, 1903, and disbanded in 1919.
In 1920, following the demise of the FAM, the sponsorship of the Gypsy Tours changed from the FAM to the M&ATA (the Motorcycle and Allied Trades Association), a manufacturer's group that had been formed on November 15, 1916, and which had begun organizing riders in 1919. Below is the 1923 National Motorcycle Gypsy Tour watch fob award, which was given by the M&ATA's Riders Division.
1923
On August 1, 1924, the AMA (American Motorcycle Association) was officially established. The following year, in 1925, the AMA took over from the M&ATA the sponsorship of the Gypsy Tours, and greatly expanded them, from perhaps a few events to over 200 separate ones. With the exception of the World War II period, the Gypsy Tours were yearly events that continued until the early 1960's. At that time, even though many of the gatherings that they were based on continued, the term "Gypsy Tour" fell out of favor, and was replaced by the term "Tour and Rally", as in "New England Tour & Rally".
In 1991, the term Gypsy Tour was officially revived by the AMA. However, by that time the individual events had all gone their own way in naming themselves. In 1955 Laconia first called its event " Motorcycle Week", and that term has stuck to the current day.
The various Motorcycle organizations, and vendors who came to these events, have been selling souvenirs since the very early years of the Laconia rally. A few of those souvenirs can be seen here. For a historical look at many more of these souvenirs, please click here. For more about the history of the AMA, please click here.
1929 (an AMA pin)
Before the advent of motorcycle racing at the Belknap Mountain Recreation area in Gilford in 1938, the New England Gypsy Tour officially took place in Weirs Beach. During the first four years of racing, before WWII, Weirs Beach was still the official center of the rally. After the war, from 1946-1951, official programs referred to the "Gilford" rally. Only beginning in 1952 did the rally officially become the "Laconia" rally.
The rally became tightly associated with the race because of the many non-race activities that took place at the Belknap Recreation Area in the 1950s. Now, only a very small percentage of motoryclists who visit Laconia for the rally actually attend the races in Loudon.
1940
1948 (a pin)
1949
1950
1951 (a pin)
1952
1952 (not the official guidebook but a great cover nonetheless)
1952 (a decal)
1953
1953 (a 3rd place ribbon)
1954
1954(a decal)
1955
Note: There is some disagreement between the offical program (above) and the Mayor's proclamation (below) whether the 1955 event lasted for just the three days of June 17-19, or for the whole week of June 13-19. We will go with the Mayor's proclamation! Actually, the official guidebooks tended to list only the days when actual racing was going on, even though the festivities stretched over a whole week.
1956
1957 (The 1957 program featured on its front cover a poster child for the March of Dimes charity. The charity's purpose was to raise money for polio research and to care for those suffering from the disease. Even today, many charities raise funds during Motorcycle Week.)
1957(a poster)
1958
1958(a clasp)
1959
1959(a poster)
1960 (not the official guidebook but a great cover nonetheless)
1960
1961
1961 (not the official guidebook but a great cover nonetheless)
1962
1963
Apparently, in 1964, there was no motorcycle rally, at least from an official point of view. There was definitely no motorycle race. The 1963 guide, above, was for the 43rd annual tour, while the 1965 guide, below, was for the 44th annual tour. Perhaps the reason was the lack of a race course.
Racing had begun in 1938 at the Belknap Recreation Area with a 200-mile course. From 1939-1963, a 100-mile National Championship road race was held every year at Belknap (except during the war years from 1942-1945, when racing was suspended.) In 1965, the first motorcycle race at the Bryar Motorsports Park in Loudon, NH took place. Racing has continued at this location until the present day. In 1990, when the old Bryar racetrack was replaced by the New Hampshire International Speedway, the first professional race held at the newly opened facility was the 67th Annual Loudon Classic, held on June 17 of that year. On November 2, 2007 the track was purchased by Speedway Motorsports Inc. and renamed the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Little did the rally organizers know what was in store for them during 1965, the year of the infamous Weirs Beach riot. Or perhaps they did. Anticipating trouble that year, a week before the rally, two state laws were enacted. One allowed police to arrest riders loitering in groups of 3 or more, while another provided for fines up to $1000 and imprisonment up to 3 years for persons who led a disturbance or caused property damage during a riot. Also, a contingent of 200 National Guardsmen were stationed nearby the downtown Weirs Beach area. This set the stage for such a tinderbox atmosphere that perhaps the 1965 riot was inevitable.
In the UPI file photo below, dated 6/20/1965, "Laconia Police and NH State Troopers, wearing steel riot helmets and gas masks, escort arrested rioters to trucks as some 2,000 motorcycle drag race fans threw rocks, burned cars and damaged buildings during night of rioting in this resort area 6/19. More than 100 persons were arrested and more than 60 persons were treated at hospitals."
The year following the riot, in 1966, the webmaster remembers there were so many National Guardsmen and so much military equipment concentrated in Weirs Beach that the area seemed like a closed military zone. Predictably, this killed the celebratory atmosphere that year, and the rally began a long, slow decline. In 1975, a law banned camping along Route 106, the highway which led to the Loudon race track, and racing was cancelled that year. In 1981, a "mini-riot" occurred, led entirely by local youths, which was handled easily by the local police.
1965
Bumper sticker (year unknown) for a "Laconia 100 Mile National" race at Bryar Motorsport Park.
1969 (an article from Motorcyclist magazine - not from the official guidebook)
This collection of old race tickets shows that from 1947 through June 1952 the Gypsy Tour races were billed as taking place at the Belknap Recreation Area in Gilford, but from September 1952 through 1957 the races were billed as taking place at the Recreation Area in Laconia. Apparently, for bikers, the Gypsy Tour took place in Laconia, so the race organizers decided for marketing purposes to associate the race with Laconia, even though the race actually took place in Gilford.
After reaching a low point in the mid 1970's, the rally gradually rebounded in the 1980's as memories of the earlier troubles began to fade and the economy turned upward. But the rally was nowhere near its potential, perhaps due to the lack of an official organizer. In 1991, a new organized effort began, spearheaded by Charlie St. Clair, currently executive director of the Laconia Motorycycle Week Association.
The effort included several bold moves. Among them were restricting parking on Lakeside Avenue to Motorcycles only; new traffic patterns to smooth the traffic flow; lengthening the rally from a weekend-only event back to a full week (the length the rally had been in the late 1950's); scheduling many new events; and reviving the publication of an official guidebook and widely increasing its distribution. The bold moves paid off, increasing rally attendance from around 50,000 Motorcyclists in 1990 to over 350,000 today.
Below is a partial list of Gypsy Tours, based on available information.
|
|
OFFICIAL
DATES |
|
LENGTH
IN DAYS |
DAY
SPAN |
| 1916 | 1st | |||
| 1917 | 2nd | |||
| 1918 | June 16-17 | 3rd | 2 | Fri&Sat |
| 1919-1929 | 4th-14th | |||
| 1930 | Great Depression Begins; No Rally | |||
| 1931-1937 | 15th-21st | 2 | Sat&Sun | |
| 1938* | Sep 8-11 | 22nd | 4 | Thurs-Sun |
| *The 1938 rally was the only year the rally was not officially held in June. This was a result of the National Championship race being moved from Old Orchard Beach, where it had taken place in September the previous year. | ||||
| 1939 | June 22-25 | 23rd | 4 | Thurs-Sun |
| 1940 | June 29-30 | 24th | 2 | Sat&Sun |
| 1941 | 25th | |||
| 1942-1945 | World War II, No Rallies | |||
| 1946 | 26th | |||
| 1947 | June 21-22 | 27th | 2 | Sat&Sun |
| 1948 | June 19-20 | 28th | 2 | Sat&Sun |
| 1949 | June 18-19 | 29th | 2 | Sat&Sun |
| 1950 | June 17-18 | 30th | 2 | Sat&Sun |
| 1951 | June 15-17 | 31st | 3 | Fri-Sun |
| 1952 | June 13-15 | 32nd | 3 | Fri-Sun |
| 1953 | June 19-21 | 33rd | 3 | Fri-Sun |
| 1954 | June 18-20 | 34th | 3 | Fri-Sun |
| 1955 | June 13-19 | 35th | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1956 | June 11-17 | 36th | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1957 | June 17-23 | 37th | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1958 | June 16-22 | 38th | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1959 | June 15-21 | 39th | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1960 | June 13-19 | 40th | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1961 | June 15-18 | 41st | 4 | Thurs-Sun |
| 1962 | June 12-17 | 42nd | 6 | Tues-Sun |
| 1963 | June 18-23 | 43rd | 6 | Tues-Sun |
| 1964 | No Race at Belknap; No Official Rally | |||
| 1965 | June 16-20 | 44th | 5 | Wed-Sun |
| 1966 | Aftermath of Riot; No Official Rally | |||
| 1967-1974 | 45th-52nd | 2 | Sat&Sun | |
| 1975 | No Race at Loudon; No Official Rally | |||
| 1976-1988 | 53rd-65th | 2 | Sat&Sun | |
| 1989 | June 16-18 | 66th | 3 | Fri-Sun |
| 1990 | June 15-17 | 67th | 3 | Fri-Sun |
| 1991 | June 10-16 | 68th | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1992 | June 15-21 | 69th | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1993 | June 14-20 | 70th | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1994 | June 13-19 | 71st | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1995 | June 12-18 | 72nd | 7 | Mon-Sun |
| 1996 | June 9-16 | 73rd | 8 | Sun-Sun |
| 1997 | June 8-15 | 74th | 8 | Sun-Sun |
| 1998 | June 14-21 | 75th | 8 | Sun-Sun |
| 1999 | June 13-20 | 76th | 8 | Sun-Sun |
| 2000 | June 11-18 | 77th | 8 | Sun-Sun |
| 2001 | June 9-17 | 78th | 9 | Sat-Sun |
| 2002 | June 8-16 | 79th | 9 | Sat-Sun |
| 2003 | June 7-15 | 80th | 9 | Sat-Sun |
| 2004 | June 12-20 | 81st | 9 | Sat-Sun |
| 2005 | June 11-19 | 82nd | 9 | Sat-Sun |
| 2006 | June 10-18 | 83rd | 9 | Sat-Sun |
| 2007 | June 9-17 | 84th | 9 | Sat-Sun |
| 2008 | June 14-22 | 85th | 9 | Sat-Sun |
1950's (a patch)
1997 (National Gypsy Tours)
