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Charles Goman from Winder, Georgia, is at a disadvantage in the all-Ossa exhibition race in the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association program.

Goman and fellow competitor Dal Smilie are sitting at the outer-most gates of the starting line on 1967 four-speed Ossas.

"These are the older bikes," Goman says. "These other guys are on the newer stuff. They are a bit more modern and plus they have another gear than we do."

The "newer stuff" in this case are bikes like Curtis Leaverton’s 1974 Ossa Phantom.

Leaverton, from Des Moines, Iowa, runs Ossa World, which sells reproduction and competition parts for classic Ossa motorcycles, and his bike has all the trick stuff to show it.

"I'm running a plastic fuel tank so I don’t bang up the nice pretty stock metal one, as well as billet triple clamps with rubber bar mounts, which takes care of some of the vibration from these old bikes," says Leaverton, who adds that one of the reasons he rides Ossa is for the camaraderie.

"We're a small group of people, and with minorities, you get a lot of bonding," Leaverton says. "We're just a bunch of good friends out there having a good time. That's what it's about."