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MURIEL BUTCH KELLY |
| | When Muriel “Butch” Kelly was 13 years old, a group of guys started a motorcycle club in a bicycle shop. She took her bicycle in, and so began her involvement with motorcycles. Friends and her father’s friends took her for rides on the back of their bikes. “It was the late 40’s and I had all the cool gear”. | | Muriel then joined the Flying Midgets who all rode 98cc motorcycles. Motorcycles started getting bigger and after a great debate the club become the Steel City Riders, which it remains today. | | In 1950, while visiting a mutual friend in the hospital who had broken 2 legs, she met her husband Jim who although interested in motorcycles did not yet own one. “I wondered who this short guy visiting the same friend was and signed the cast with a shamrock.” | | Muriel has owned two motorcycles. One was a little Royal Enfield and the other a 1952 Triumph Trophy. When she became pregnant and was not able to ride it much, Jim pounced on it and turned it into a flat tracker. | | In 1983, she went to Wales with Jim and attended her first International Six Day Enduro. She has vivid memories of the cold and damp requiring them to wear raincoats the entire trip. Since then, she has attended another 24 “Six Days” in countries around the world. A Six Day highlight occurred in New Zealand when she reviewed the results and was thrilled to see that Canada had received one gold and multiple silvers and bronzes and only 1 retiree out of 26 riders. It was a great Canadian success story. | | Her worst moment was in 1998 shortly after Jim had passed away during a race. She was determined to get Jim to Australia and arrived there to a cold, scruffy hotel room in the dead of night, alone, accompanied by a photo of Jim on the back of her shirt. That year she started a tradition of collecting a rock or two at the Six Days Enduro which she then adds to the collection of memorabilia where Jim passed away at the local track. | | Another benefit every year is seeing her son Michael and great friends Yan and Bettie who every year does an amazing job of running the pits at the Six Days. As Muriel comments, there is a new crop of riders every year to work with and she is always there seeing in which way she can help the new and experienced to enjoy the sport. | | Muriel, who will be 75, next year, is currently the Membership Secretary of the Steel City Riders, which entails maintaining all the required paperwork for a race club with hundreds of members. In 2008 she was up at the crack of dawn for 8 club races working on registration, scoring and compiling race results. She did miss 2 races while she was away the “Six Days.” The weekend following the interview, she was torn between working a club race and working at the Terra Nova Enduro. Of course, her ongoing dedication to the Steel City Riders won her attention. | | Muriel remains active in the sport “because of all the good people. You cannot go to a race without meeting someone with the same view on life.” Many great friends have been met at races over the years. | | Off road riding in Canada is a better sport for all the time, work and heart that Muriel and Jim put into it making it what it is today. | - BACK - |
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