Ace-Hy Motorcycle Club · Calgary, Est. 1939

Our Heritage

An Ace-Hy rider powers his motorcycle up the hill climb as the crowd looks on — A rider attacks the hill climb as the crowd looks on, the sport the Ace-Hy was built around.

Born from the dust of a Calgary hillclimb.

In April 1939, a handful of riders broke away from the Calgary Motorcycle Club to form something of their own, a club built around sport, speed, and the simple pleasure of a machine running well on an open road. They called it the Ace-Hy.

Among the original members was Walt Healy, already a fixture of Calgary motorcycling. He'd helped found the Calgary Motorcycle Club in 1926 on a 350cc Douglas twin, and in 1931 bought out a local dealer's entire stock of Indians for one hundred dollars, becoming the Indian man of southern Alberta. Where Walt went, riders followed.

"It didn't matter what make or model of bike you rode, you'd be welcome."

Though many Ace-Hy men rode Indians out of loyalty to Walt, the club was never a one-marque affair. Ariels, Triumphs, Harley-Davidsons and even the mighty Vincent all turned up at the start line. What mattered was the riding.

Ninety Years on Two Wheels

A Timeline

1926

The Calgary Motorcycle Club forms

A young Walt Healy helps found the CMC, riding a 350cc Douglas twin. The seeds of the Ace-Hy are sown in the city's earliest riding culture.

1931

Walt buys the Indians

Healy purchases a local dealer's complete stock of Indian motorcycles for $100 and runs sales and repair from a rented garage, later "Walt's Service" in Kensington on 10th Street.

1939

The Ace-Hy is founded

In April, Walt and fellow Calgary Motorcycle Club members break off to form the Ace-Hy Motorcycle Club, devoted to racing and to the fellowship of the ride.

1940s–50s

The golden years

Hillclimbs at Cochrane and Bragg Creek, flat track and ice racing, 100-mile endurance runs, and the legendary Christmas Turkey Run. Club dances fill Calgary halls, and more than one marriage begins on the dance floor.

Mid-1960s

The club winds down

As the postwar riding scene changed, the original Ace-Hy quietly disbanded, but its name and its photographs were never forgotten.

2018

The name rides again

The Ace-Hy is resurrected as the Alberta chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, carrying the old creed (any make, any model) into a new generation.

2021

The archive comes home

Jack Leong's ~500 club photographs are scanned and shared with the world, reconnecting today's riders with the men and machines of the 1940s and '50s.

Sport & Competition

The Ace-Hy raced everything, everywhere.

Walt Healy carried CMA plate No. 38, 38T south of the border. The club he helped build put that competitive spirit to work in every discipline the prairie and the foothills could offer, from summer dust to mid-winter snow.

No. 01

Hillclimbs

Wide-open assaults up the slopes near Cochrane, Bragg Creek, and Tom Campbell's Hill in Calgary.

No. 02

Flat Track

Broadside through the corners on dirt ovals across Alberta and down into Montana.

No. 03

Ice Racing

Studded tires and nerve on frozen prairie lakes through the long Alberta winter.

No. 04

Hare Scrambles

Cross-country blasts over whatever terrain lay between the flags: grass, gravel, and gumbo.

No. 05

Endurance Runs

100-mile road and grass-track runs that tested rider and machine alike.

No. 06

The Turkey Run

The club's beloved annual Christmas cross-country race through the snow, a bird for the winner.

All Makes Welcome

The machines of the Ace-Hy

You brought what you rode, and you were judged by how you rode it.

Indian Harley-Davidson Triumph Ariel Vincent AJS JAWA CZ

The Riders

The men and women who made the club.

WH

Founder · Est. 1939

Walt Healy

Founder & Indian Dealer

Born in Calgary in 1913. Founded the CMC at thirteen, bought out an Indian dealer at eighteen, and raced under CMA plate No. 38. The gravitational centre the Ace-Hy formed around.

JL

1923 – 2015

Jack Leong

Rider & Club Photographer

RCAF veteran and pilot who rode a 1947 Indian Chief and raced a Scout. A self-taught photographer, his darkroom preserved ~500 images that are the club's living memory.

JT

1950s

Jean Tewsley

Rider & Trailblazer

Rode her own motorcycle year-round when few women did. Met Jack at an Ace-Hy dance; they married in 1955. "A bit of a trailblazer," by every account.

AG

Joined 1957

Art Gavel

Mechanic & Member

Arrived in Calgary in 1957, wrenched for Walt, and joined the club. Kept the "any make welcome" creed alive, and met his wife Joan through the Ace-Hy.

ML

1950s

Maurice Lapensee

Rider

Rode a 1941 Indian Chief with a sidecar through the club's 1950s heyday and, the story goes, sold it for $50 in 1956 when he got married.

♠

Today

You?

The Next Generation

The Ace-Hy rides again as the Alberta chapter of the AMCA. Old iron, new hands. If you keep vintage motorcycling alive, there's a place for you here.

The Photographic Archive

Over five hundred photographs, and a whole world in them.

For years, club members pointed their cameras at the Ace-Hy: riders at the start line, machines in the snow, dances and hillclimbs, and quiet moments between races. Then they developed and printed every frame by hand.

Those negatives and prints were rediscovered, scanned frame by frame, and shared so today's riders can look the 1940s and '50s in the eye. What survives is drawn chiefly from the Jack Leong and Lorraine Nilsen collections.

It's the reason the Ace-Hy story can still be told, not from a paragraph in a book, but from the faces of the people who lived it.

Browse the Full Archive → On Instagram

Stories

Tales from the Ace-Hy

The archive is full of them: races won, rules bent, and the odd bit of beautiful nonsense. A few worth passing on.

Calgary · November 1956

No Unescorted Ladies

"No Unescorted Ladies Will Be Served." The sign hung in bar after Calgary bar, propped up by a law that had kept men and women from drinking in the same room since 1928. The official reasoning was that the atmosphere was simply too boisterous for a lady to bear.

The women of the Ace-Hy took a dimmer view of the whole idea. They tucked their hair up under a cap, pulled on a baggy jacket, and walked straight in, the same riders who had spent the day on the same hills and the same start lines as the men. Within the year, the law caught up to them: Alberta's 1957 Liquor Plebiscite struck down the mixed-drinking ban for good.

A Club Tradition

The Boot Run

Picture a Le Mans start: riders sprinting flat-out to their machines the instant the flag drops. Now add one cruel twist. Before the off, every last boot is pulled from every last foot and knotted together into one enormous tangled heap.

When the flag fell, the race began not with an engine but with a scramble: find your own boots, wrestle them free of the knot, and get them laced before you could so much as look at your bike. It was chaos, it was hilarious, and it was pure Ace-Hy. (With thanks to Lorraine for the photographs.)

Ride With Us

Join the Ace-Hy

Whether you keep a barn-find Indian breathing or you're just starting down the vintage road, the door is open. Old motorcycles are best enjoyed in good company. Drop us a line and we'll be in touch about runs, meets, and membership.