Motorcycle brigade for cancer rolls on

As I’ve said many times, we bikers are a community of giving, charitable folks. Here is just another example in this event from builder Tony Cenzi. We wish them all the best.

Spencerport, N.Y. -
Tony Cenzi is known for producing gleaming, custom-built motorcycles that collectors prize and many admire. The award-winning machines that roll out of Cenzi Custom Cycles, his Spencerport shop, are exotic combinations of sinuous tube steel, deep, gleaming paint and chrome-plated horsepower that sell for as much as $50,000.

On June 1, Cenzi hopes to produce something else — money for the fight against cancer.

That Sunday, the motorcycle craftsman will hold the 2008 Cenzi Ride for Cancer, a 70-mile “poker run” that will be followed by the raffling of a motorcycle Cenzi custom-made for the fundraiser. Painted in candy-apple red metal flake and powered by a 120-cubic-inch engine, the machine looks as if it was made for show and speed.

A “poker run” is a motorcycle ride in which the riders periodically stop to play a hand of poker for prizes.

Cenzi has used his skills as a motorcycle craftsman to raise money for a good cause in Tampa, Fla., for four years.

“I build them a motorcycle and they sell raffle tickets for it and they have a run,” he said.
Bikers on the run pay to ride their cycles to about five different stops, where they throw dice for prizes. The fundraiser has brought in as much as $50,000 annually for childrens’ hospitals in the Tampa area.

Cenzi held his first local fundraiser last year, a poker run and raffle for the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Kimberly Ziegler, the Cancer Center’s assistant director for development, said the 2007 Ride raised about $10,000 to fund cancer treatment and research at the center, which treats about 10,000 patients a year.

“We are the region’s only comprehensive cancer care facility,” Ziegler said.

Cenzi said this year’s goal is to raise $50,000 for the Wilmot Cancer Center.

The 2008 Run won’t be all royal flushes and vrooming motorcycles;  there will also be a motorcycle show and the drawing for the custom-built motorcycle. Who knows? Join up and you could thunder off on Cenzi’s creation.

If you go:
The 2008 Cenzi Ride for Cancer will take place Sunday, June 1. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. There will be a motorcycle show from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., followed by the drawing for Cenzi’s custom-built motorcycle. The event takes place at Pineapple Jacks Bar and Grill, 485 Spencerport Road.

Tickets are $15 for the motorcycle rider, $5 for a passenger. Raffle tickets are available for $10 a piece, and motorcycle show entries are $10 per bike. The motorcycle show is free for the public. For tickets/information visit www.cenzimotorcycles.com, or call (585) 349-1020.