My other brother, Ralph and my uncle Dik
I have known about Tote Gote off road motorcycles my whole life. My grandpa B used to have a couple in his shed. He even built a similar machine himself.
My grandpa B's homemade gote
Although I have know about these machines I never really thought about them until a few years ago when my baby brother began refurbishing them for fun. He and my uncles have started a great collection of them.
Last summer they decided to hold a 50th anniversary party for the first production model of the Tote Gote. They put out fliers and invited other collectors to the event. They even invited the inventor to come to the celebration.
This is my brother riding his restored Gote. You can also see my dad, mom , sister, uncle, nephew and other uncle's hat in this picture.
As they got talking about their Tote Gotes and sharing their finds, they noticed a guy with suspenders and a white hat who they did not recognize.
It was Ralph Bonham, the inventor of the Tote Gote. I don't claim to know the history of Ralph Bonham or of the Tote Gote but there are some interesting things I did find out.
Ralph was born in my home town of Ogden, Utah. The Bonham Factory was in my boyhood home of Provo, Utah.
Ralph is credited with creating the first off-road motorcycle. He wanted to create a motorized goat to help him carry items in the mountains of Utah. Apparently he and my brother both like to roll their pants and wear white shirts.
One of the traditions we have kept is attending the fourth of July parade in Provo every year. So this picture of a Tote Gote in the parade caught my eye.
It is taken in front of Provo High school and if you look closely you can see that they are riding the Gotes over the float as it goes down the road.
Left front Ralph Bonham & grandson, right my brother and his wife.
My uncle Dik and baby brother entered the group into the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days parade and they rode their bikes in the parade.
That's all I have for now.
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