American Motorcyclist January 2018
About Bob Ham
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Bob Ham’s first motorcycle was a Kawasaki 175 Enduro. He also rode a Honda GL500 Silver Wing road bike back in the early 1980s. Off-roading has been a part of his life for more than 50 years.
“After graduating from high school in the early 1960s, I started going out to the desert on hunting trips with friends,” he said. “Gradually, my choice of daily driver evolved into a 4-wheel-drive Bronco, and my trips to the desert were more about four-wheeling than chasing doves or quail. I guess I realized I was hooked when I had that Bronco and also owned an old Karmann Ghia that I decided might make a great dune buggy, and I proceeded to make that happen.”
Since those days, Ham has piloted “five four-wheel-drive cars, half a dozen buggies, three or four motorcycles and a couple of ATVs.”
Ham raced in a few Baja 1000 events in a sportsman class in the mid- to late 1980s.
Any wins?
“Let’s just say I always managed to finish every race within the allotted time,” he said.
At 74, Ham keeps a motorcycle endorsement on his driver’s license, but he says, “It has probably been 20 years since the last time I sat on a bike.”
The Oceanside, Calif., resident retired in 2014 as the Director of Intergovernmental Relations for Imperial County, Calif.
For the past 30 years, he also has kept a home in San Felipe, Baja, Mexico.
“I now serve on the board of directors for three nonprofits: CORVA, American Sand Association, and Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame,” Ham said. “And I am also a member of the Checkers Off Road Racing team, which has earned the nickname of “the winningest team in off-road racing.”
Ham says he still enters an occasional off road poker run, works the pits with the Checkers Off Road club at Baja races, and takes off-road trips all over Baja.
