Florida Motorcycle Dealers Association

The Tampa Tribune

As Scottie Cameron positioned a 1951 Triumph in his Iron Horse motorcycle showroom, the roar of an engine outside momentarily reduced the heavy metal on his radio to white noise.

Cameron popped the kickstand and stood back, examining the Triumph in a sleeveless denim shirt. Toward the cut engine, he lifted an eyebrow.

At his shop near Blanton and Trilby roads, Cameron, 43, services all motorcycles - and other contraptions, such as a pair of eight-wheel amphibious vehicles he stores out back - so the bike in the driveway probably meant business.

But vintage British and European motorcycles, like the '51 Triumph, are his passion.

When he eyeballs the gleaming metal in his showroom, the 1953 Ariel, the 1964 Norton Atlas, the 1949 Matchless, a 1946 Triumph - aging and appreciating testaments to overseas engineering - Cameron sees a potential museum, replete with wooden floors made from the planks of an old carriage house.

In a down economy, preventive maintenance work outweighs the more lucrative restoration and rebuilding jobs Cameron loves, so the museum is little more than an ambitious fantasy.

But Cameron's love for motorcycles is as obvious as the wild, flowing mutton chop sideburns that frame his typically smiling face. The museum, he says, will someday be as real as the pair of choppers awaiting his expertise in a nearby workroom.

"We're going to keep it rustic," he said. "I want it to be as old and country store-looking as possible. I want to display memorabilia from the eras these bikes were made. I want it to be a place where people can come just to have something to see.

"A lot of old-timers who can't ride anymore like to come in and talk about all the rides they used to have."

Jeff Hinton, a Lakeland customer who rides a 1971 BSA, doesn't qualify as an old-timer yet. A retired 55-year-old, he said he has come to Cameron's shop for years; Iron Horse moved to its current location a couple of years ago from Oldsmar.

"There are other shops, but not like this," Hinton said. "These aren't have-to-have items. Every bike in here has a kick start. You can't buy a new bike with a kick start today.

"In this day and age, you can go on the Internet for parts, but I don't do that. He's extremely competent and knows is equipment.

"His forte is his knowledge and experience with older motorcycles."

Born biker

You could probably take one look at Cameron, and his trademark biker's limp, and guess that he was all but born on a motorcycle.

His father, Alex Cameron, ran motorcycle shops in the family's native Michigan, and Scottie Cameron was riding before he started school. Alex Cameron had named his shop Iron Horse - like his father before him; the family moved to Town 'N Country in 1978.

"My great-grandfather was a logger" in Michigan, Scottie Cameron said. "They used Clydesdale horses and had horse pulls on the weekends to keep the horses loose. They called it the Iron Horse Pulling Team. My dad started working on bikes in the tack room. I just grew up in it.

"When I was a teenager, I started working on bikes around the neighborhood, then my dad rented me a storage unit where I set up my own little shop, and it just exploded. Through the years, I've done other things to make ends meet, but I've always had my shop."

The shop's unofficial mascot and assistant is Amelia, Cameron's 8-year-old daughter with wife Sherry. Although he sometimes gets help from another mechanic, Cameron is basically the shop's only employee.

He likes it that way.

He has meticulously catalogued all of the parts for British and European motorcycles from the 1930s to the '90s, and knows what his customers need. They come from all over the Suncoast, he said, from as far away as Sarasota and Bradenton.

"They'll make the drive if it's something they need," he said.

When he isn't busy with a wrench or ordering parts from across the globe, Cameron said he still rides when he can.

Asked about his limp, he answered with a grin.

"I got run over five times in three years in Tampa," he said.

Laughing, he recalled another accident from long ago when he tried to show off for a busload of girls.

"Luckily, I knew what to do when the (back) end came out in front," he said.

People who don't ride motorcycles might not understand why someone would keep riding after so many falls and potentially life-threatening events.

The answer may lie in Cameron's own self-appraisal.

"I'm not of the norm," he said. "I don't want to fit in."

'It's a passion'

After shutting off the motorcycle in the driveway, Tampa native Robert Erwin walked into the showroom wearing a black leather vest decorated by patches from Sturgis, the famous annual motorcycle rally in South Dakota.

Although he pulled up on a Harley, Erwin said he'll ride "anything I can get my leg over." He said he has known Cameron and his father for years.

"I like that it's a British-oriented shop," he said. "There isn't anything else like this. The Cameron shop has always been exclusive unto itself. Here, you can get fixed up if you break down. Triumph, BSA, Motoguzzi - he'll work on 'em."

Cameron's knowledge of each model's history is practically encyclopedic. His stockroom is piled high with carefully warehoused parts from around the world.

"I can get parts for a 1956 model easier than I can for an '06, because they were so mass-produced in Europe, where lots of people used them as regular, everyday transportation," he said. "They were a luxury item over here.

"In a way it is a niche market, but there are over 250 suppliers for British parts because these things were so mass-produced."

Besides the future museum, where Cameron envisions motorcycles mounted prominently on the walls, next to photographs, patches, signs and other memorabilia, he wants to sponsor poker runs and other benefit rides, and eventually host swap meets at the shop.

"It's a passion," he said. "There's no money in it, but it's something I like to do. It's a labor of love. Hell, I spent 10 hours on the computer last week trying to find one part.

"Found it, too."

For information about Iron Horse motorcycles, call 352-567-6000 or visit www.ironhorse.net>.