Thursday, December 30, 2010

Enterprise Streamliner Complete Article





Thanks again to Sampo from Finland for sending me the rest of the article regarding The Enterprise! This machine currently in the Frank Westfall stable.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Frosty Balls 2010 update (see previous post)


At least Seven Crashes (that I've heard of). Nothing too serious... some folks made it back to the shop for an After Party...trucks and trailers were utilized.

The authorities at the seen questioned sanity (are you guys fuckin' crazy????) Apparently...


Reports are still coming in...

Four is More...

I wish these were bigger.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Frosty Balls Ride 2010 (Went Horribly Wrong)

























Well every year my buddy Mike has a run on the Sunday after Christmas to celebrate his birthday. It has been dubbed "The Frosty Balls Ride".
The run goes from his shop (Mike Well's Motor Works) to Big Daddy's Wagon Wheel Tavern. A whopping 15 miles. Last year there was over 150 bikes. Today was the 10th annual... Forecast - Nor' Easter heading in this afternoon...Fuck it... I'm going. I haven’t started the '50 Pan since I rolled in from Brookfield NY in August, but it was my only bike with new tires, so I oiled it, gassed it, batteried it and fired it... up. I put the buddy seat on for Kelly who has gone on this ride with me for the past few years and we headed to the shop for the 1 PM meet time. Now it just started lightly snowing as we pulled away from the house. I figured maybe a half dozen hearty souls would show up. To my surprise there was about 20 bikes there already! A few more showed up as we bull shitted in and around the shop. Probably thirty bikes in all. Well the snow was really starting to come down and the topic of "What are we gonna do?" started to bubble up. People looked at Mike... Mike looked across the crowd at me...I said "I don't know what the rest of you are doing but I'm going to the fuckin' Wagon Wheel!" With that it was on! Mike took the lead as usual and me and another guy right behind him. We pulled out and headed down the road...not too bad... at first. Now I've been riding in the snow since I was 17 years old but I'm guessin' a lot of the others have not. The first half of the ride was a little dicey but doable. When we hit Route 313 it all turned to shit!
Route 313 is a 55 mile an hour two lane country road with long hills and valleys. It was a sheet of ice covered in fresh powder! We made our way about a mile and I saw Mike's feet go down ski style...oh shit. He managed to get off the road into a small lot. The other guy missed it. I said fuck it and kept going down one hill and up the next. Cars were sliding everywhere. It was brutal. As I came to the bottom of one hill a buddy of mine Danny came by and tried going up the next hill. The shovelhead ended up facing me and on its side! The other guy that missed the turn pulled off and I stopped to check things out and take a leak. It was fuckin' mayhem, cars sliding everywhere and no other bikes were coming down the hill. Danny called his son to come get him in the pick up. I looked at Kelly and said, "Oh well I guess we'll try to head back. I don't think anybody's goin' to the Wagon Wheel now". The weather was getting worse by the minute...I've never seen conditions change this fast. Brave soul that she is, Kelly jumped back on the buddy seat and up the hill (that we just slid down) we went. By the way, all on a hand shift with a (now do to ice) "suicidal" foot clutch...As we crept up the hill, hoping the sliding cars wouldn't hit us or stop in front of us, we started to see bikes, here and there off the sides of the road. In driveways, or lots or wherever they ended up. Then the flashing lights of the cop cars. A group had made the stop where Mike turned off and they were standing there looking at the road and all the utter mayhem going on. I looked over at Mike as I motored by and flipped him a Peace sign and kept going! He nodded. I then realized this was probably all my doing, "...I'm going to the fuckin' Wagon Wheel", started going through my head... another group of bikes was off to the right, they waved and "Bug Man" who had been riding his trike yelled something encouraging...I think!
I'm not sure if anyone else rode away from that mess. I saw some pick ups with trailers heading in their direction as I rode along (with one foot down the whole way). I asked Kelly if I should drop her at a store and come back to get her on four wheels...she declined...like I said...brave. We made it to the Cross Roads Tavern pulled in and had a beer to celebrate, just her and I. (Happy Birthday Mike!) She admitted that she was more cold then scared.
We ended up gettin' home just fine...I guess I'll hear about the rest of 'em later...shit...I guess they all got back eventually.

Can't wait 'til next year!





Merry Bunch

They are a Merry Bunch ain't they!
I actually got all four kids to stand still in the same state this Christmas.

Day After


Saturday, December 25, 2010

Streamliner - Enterprise article 1953!!

Thanks to Sampo from Finland for this article and pictures of The Enterprise Streamliner!
Great stuff!
Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

"Period Modified" 1994 (or 1995) Harmony NJ


Thanks to Rick for the picture! This is the Colonial Chapter AMCA meet in Harmony NJ in I think 1994 or possibly 1995. It was the first year the AMCA recognized "Period Modified" bikes. A rare shot of my 47 Knuckle along side Dan's 47 Flathead!
Yet another incarnation of my 47 FL... this time with a 19 in Grasshopper up front and a single slash cut high pipe.
Come to think of it...I have a plaque from this event somewhere and will verify the date.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Full Page B&H Ad - October 1947


Riverside TT 1947 - Firestone Ad

Cropped

Entire Ad (no pun intended)
From my collection of old American Motorcycling magazines. I have been scanning the shit outta these lately. Every page of these mags is filled with great stuff!
I always loved this Firestone ad! A TT knuckle with the front wheel off the ground! What more could you ask for!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Friday, December 17, 2010

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

George Miller Collection - Racing 1946


A great action shot of Billy Huber and Jimmie Chann in 1946.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Karl Duffner - RIP

Karl Duffner's Incredible Head Stone


On Thanksgiving Day we lost Karl Duffner after a long, tough bout with cancer. He was 70 Years old and a member of several chapters of the AMCA in and around Eastern Pennsylvania.
I attended a benefit ride for him last year (I think it was last year).
Karl rode the shit out of his motorcycles...BMW, 1959 H-D Panhead (Red White and Blue), 1960 BSA Gold Star, etc. Karl was an interesting character to say the least. He came to the US from Germany in the 1950's and has always been a serious motorcycle enthusiast. I didn't know Karl well, I would see him at the AMCA Meets with his jet black hair and wild bikes.

Karl is immortalized in the form of an unbelievable headstone. I have never seen anything like this before.... RIP Karl...



Thanks to Dave Minerva for letting me know.
I have been doing too many of these in the last couple of years...

Monday, December 13, 2010

Great Add too!


I stole this from Nostalgia on Wheels Blog. It is an ad from a Beck catalog and No Shit it shows the whole bike from the Competition Pipe ad I posted a while back! I've had the magazine for 25 years and always loved that knuckle in that ad, but I never thought I'd get to see the entire machine until now!
And fuck... look at the one beneath it with the twin stacks!

41 FLTT (a little more)






Chippin' away at it. FINALLY finished installing the tank emblems and trim on both tanks. I still can't get used to handling nicely painted sheet metal!
I also finished up installing the top motor mount, brake cross over and some other little stuff.
Carb, sprocket, primary chain and clutch are next.
I really need to get to the handle bar internals and get the Flanders tree plated so I can get the cabling run. I still need one short Flanders spiral.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

1918 Harley Davidson Accessories


Wild envelope design for 1918! (Almost looks more 60's then teens)

Promoting new color?









As promised here are a few images of the 1918 Harley Accessory Catalog. This catalog is 115 plus pages of everything from touch up paint to sidecar trunks!. I am guessing by the envelope art and the color of the cover that they were promoting the new O.D. color. I'm not sure if this is the year they changed from Silent "Gray" Fellow to Olive Drab.

The envelope also indicates 2-18 (guessing February) and the recipients cycle, an 18 J (S for side car??).

This piece is in new condition. I don't know how this stuff made it this far!






Saturday, December 11, 2010

Flying Merkel 1909-1910-1911 Parts Book



Twenty Five or more years ago I found a great stash of original pre-1920 motorcycle literature in New condition. I sold some of the pieces over the years but held on to a few that were really cool. This is a 1909-1910-1911 Flying Merkel parts book. It is 36 pages of every part for singles and twins. It has incredible detailed pictures and exploded views. Above is an example of what is inside. I'm afraid of scanning too much and damaging it so I just did the center page that could open up enough to lay on the scanner.
Shit... I guess this thing is 100 years old now!
I also have a "New" 1918 Harley Accessory Catalog with the original envelop it was mailed in. I will post some images of that as well.

Hill Top Bob Job


Friday, December 10, 2010

Dan's Flathead...GKM Preview

Dan "tweaking" something on the UL

As I posted last month, I went up and did a photo shoot of Dan's incredible Flathead "Bob Job". I promised a shot of his hand made exhaust. Here is an outtake and you can get an idea of how the exhaust looks. See the whole layout coming to an issue of Greasy Kulture in the near future.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Strike a Pose...

Pose - intransitive verb: to assume a posture or attitude usually for artistic purposes

Nice 47 Knuckle


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

"A List to End All Lists"

I originally scanned this page of the December 1947 American Motorcycling Magazine for the Knucklehead in the Duckworth Chain advertisement. When I was getting ready to crop it I noticed the article above it "The List to End All Lists" which is a compilation of 112 American made motorcycles (as of 1947). One that I noticed that was missing is the Crouch.

Pearl Harbor (Yester)Day

Couldn't get to the blog yesterday. I usually take my Military U model out to for a spin on December 7th but I haven't stuck it back together yet...

Monday, December 6, 2010

41 Hydra

I need to get this one back on the road... fucked up something in the rear head at the drags the summer before last. I can't believe I haven't fixed it yet!

Picture of the Month - cropped



Picture of the Month - December 1947