Aboutus

2007

In May of 2007 Bruce Eyre joined the Canadian Motorcycle Cruisers and became the first member in the Sudbury
area and the 049 chapter was formed. That same year other members who joined included Ron Gilchrist, Rolland
Brisson and Dave Adams. Dave accepted the 1st. Officers position and attempted to get the Sudbury chapter # 049
up and running, unfortunately he did not have a great deal of success.

2008

In January 2008, Mark Banfich joined the CMC and told Guy Levasseur about this all Canadian riding club. Guy
subsequently joined the CMC as did Madlyn Albert. Within a few days of joining the CMC Mark was contacted by
Matt Hajer, Provincial Officer for Ontario who asked Mark to become the first officer. Due to work and personal
constraints this was not possible at the time, however, Mark, Guy and Madlyn agreed to meet with Matt at the March
2008 motorcycle show in Toronto to discuss the future of the Sudbury chapter.

The meeting with Matt was very productive and successful, Guy, Mark and Madlyn became the 1st, 2nd and 3rd
Officers and the Sudbury chapter was up and running. Over the course of the next year the chapter started to show
a presence in the Sudbury area and the membership started to grow. The idea of no regular meetings, no politics,
no dues and nobody phoning to pressure you to come out appeared to attract new and seasoned motorcycle riders
alike. By the end of 2008 the Sudbury chapter had approx. 30 members. 2008 also saw the first visit from our
National Officer and founder Reg Green

In 2008 Guy, Mark and Madlyn met with Greater Sudbury Police service to introduce the CMC and the 049 chapter
and to let the Police service know that we are a riding club and not a motorcycle club. The Police service was very
happy to see that we use hand signals on all of our organised rides and the fact that we have zero tolerance with
respect to alcohol on organised rides was also well received.

2008 became the first time that the CMC and chapter 049 Sudbury attended the New Liskeard Bikers reunion as an
organization. Through advertising on the National forum the attendance of CMC members at the reunion was
approx. 150.
The majority of our rides during our first year in operation were day trips with a few overnighters. The winter
months consisted of an officers meeting and a Christmas party.

2009

In 2009 we started to have regular meet and greets at a local restaurant, this helped to bring out members and
some new faces. This also gave us the chance to plan rides for the upcoming weekend.

As the riding season came along, the Sudbury chapter continued to make its presence known by attending all
organised rides as well as having members from 049 sitting on the committees of many organised rides. 2009 saw
the addition of two new officers. Don “Bert” Berthiaume as 4th Officer and Richard “Hunter” Chretien as 5th Officer.

Our second appearance at the New Liskeard biker’s reunion was even better then the first, with over 300 CMC
members attending including the founder and Provincial officer for Ontario. Our hosts for the weekend John and
Rhonda of the Edgewater Motel took very good care of us and have promised us a place to hang our hats year after
year for the reunion.

Our membership continued to grow and with the growth in membership came many new ideas and areas in which to
ride. Our membership grew to 73 and our members were and are encouraged to give suggestions, plan rides and
just get involved. 2009 saw the first 049 organised trip, this trip was a seven day event which took us to Ottawa, into
the Laurentians, down into Quebec City, south through Ontario and back home.

The end of July, Guy Levasseur decided to step down as 1st. Officer of the Sudbury chapter and a week later
Madlyn Albert stepped down as 3rd. Mark Banfich 2nd. Officer was asked by Matt Hajer to take over the 1st.
Officers position, Mark accepted and quickly moved to put a new team of officers in place. Don “Bert” Berthiaume
was moved to 2nd. Officer, Richard “Hunter” Chretien moved up to 3rd. Officer and Mike “Fixit” Dupuis came on
board as 4th. Officer. Two committees were also created one for special events and one for finance. Committee
members included Rose Banfich, Jacinthe Berthiaume, Joanne Dupuis and Nicole Mercier.

2010

Our winter schedule continued and was a great success. January was a dinner, February was a family fun snow day
with a pot luck dinner, March is a Breakfast and April we returned to our Friday night meet and greets
2010 also marked the end of the longest strike in the history of Vale-Inco in July which took it's toll on our city and
our economy.
Life started to return to normal around Sudbury and our riding season was in full swing, however, no long trips
were planned for economic reasons. 2010 was also the first year we officially attended the Vale Hospice ride as an
organised group, our attendance and riding skill was noticed and we were approached by the director of the
hospice as to whether or not we would like to be the official host motorcycle club for the ride. The offer was
presented to the Officers and was differed until the 2011 season. The 2010 season saw our second purge which
consisted of removing 17 in-active members from our roster. 2010 also saw the implementation of our road
captains course with three members stepping up for the in class session which took place through the winter.

2011

The 2011 winter season continued with our very first bowling evening which turned out to be a great success for
our chapter and those who attended. We had our first female road captain this year when Cecile "M-TEE" completed
the required rides and did a very good job doing so. This year also marked the first time that 049 Sudbury
supported a charity of it's own, the Maison Vale Hospice. We became the host motorcycle club and raised over
6,600 dollars for a very worthy cause, our efforts did not go unnoticed in fact our chapter was recognised by the
Government of Canada with a parliamentary scroll for our contribution to the committee. We are not only the first
CMC chapter in Canada to receive such an honour, however, we are also the first motorcycle club in Canada to
receive such an award.

A FEW FIRST’S FOR CMC 049

A new web site owned by CMC 049 Sudbury members was designed and the catch phrase “Come as a Friend,
Treated like Family” was started. This catch phrase captures the essence of what the Sudbury members are all
about. We were looking for something unique that our chapter could share with our members and members from
other chapters who come north to ride with us. Taking the lead from 073 Saugeen-Maitland, who have their mini
handcuffs, the officers decided to go with a symbol of the Nickel capital.

We used the big nickel design and added our catch phrase, club number and location. The designs were offered to
our members to vote on and a winner was selected by a very close margin. The pins were ordered and delivered to
us on December-24.

Another first for Sudbury and the CMC across Canada was to have our gear sold in a store. Ben Guindon owner of
“Leatherworks Plus” an active CMC 049 member asked if we would be interested in having a display of CMC gear in
his store, after consulting with our national officer we agreed. This step allows our members to have access to gear
anytime they want it; this gives them a chance to see what they are buying and also encourages other patrons to
enquire about the Canadian Motorcycle Cruisers.
2009 saw the very first purge of members from our chapter, by the end of December-2009, twelve members were
removed from our roster.
2009 also became the first year that we laid a wreath on the memorial “Ride to the Wall”.
The first year that we had a winter schedule to take us through to the 2010 season.
We said goodbye to Dave Adams, our original 1st. Officer who passed away in December.

This year also marked the first time that 049 Sudbury supported a charity of it's own, the Maison Vale Hospice. We
became the host motorcycle club and raised over 7,100 dollars for a very worthy cause, our efforts did not go
unnoticed in fact our chapter was recognised by the Government of Canada with a parliamentary scroll for our
contribution to the committee. We are not only the first CMC chapter in Canada to receive such an honour,
however, we are also the first motorcycle club in Canada to receive such an award.

049 History