Visiting Vic

Last Saturday I took a ride up to visit my friend Vic Salvador. It was about 140 mile round trip and a nice hot day. The old 39 EL ran great and spewed oil and smoke across the country side. Vic at 78 years old was his usual friendly ball busting self. He was working in his shop when I pulled up. I did a "Post" on him a while back. He was a Champion Hill Climber, Ice Racer etc. in the 50s and early 60s. He still rides the old WLA that he restored and "civilianized" and has another 45, a Norton and a bunch of cool old cars. Oh yeah he still flies his plane too!

The boyhood home of...

I don't have many pictures of stuff at my dad's house from when I was a "kid", but I came across these. These pictures were actually taken in my bed room. No wonder he was pissed. Seemed perfectly normal to me... (my brother and sister were away at tennis camp...black sheep!).

Frankie Baby!!! (More Henderson Streamliner)

Above is a before picture I took in Syracuse long ago

A more reserved Frank Westfall

Dash Cluster...






Nice rear!

Here are some additional pictures of Frank's Henderson Streamliner.

Rhinebeck 2010

A very excited Frank Westfall

Here's why! Frank's Henderson Streamliner making it's restored debut

Paul's original paint WL


Always a pleasure to see Dan's 46 Knuckle



Time Line

Hot Rods mixed in

The "Dirty Nine" alongside Mike's 1936 Original California Cut Down

Just got back from the Rhinebeck NY meet this afternoon. Had a great time. Friday's weather was great, we had some rain on Saturday and Sunday but it was not a wash out by any means. The time line was set up Saturday morning. I'm not sure how many bikes were in it this year but it is always impressive. No where else can you see that many rare and expensive bikes sitting out in the rain for hours!

I saw Billy Joel wondering around the meet. He flew in on his helicopter from Long Island (which landed in the far end of the parking area and it sat waiting there until he flew off...no shit...

One of the many highlights of the meet for me (and many others) was Frank Westfall's Henderson Steamliner. I saw this and the Enterprise (Indian Scout) come out of the wood work many years ago. Frank ended up with both bikes. Pat just finished restoring the Henderson. The previous owner had stripped the paint. Pat told me he has over 600 hours into that thing! Of course it was not there just for show. Frank could be seen riding it all weekend...and what an awesome site it was! If you know Frank you know that he does not "baby" anything, no matter how rare or expensive it is! I will post some more Streamliner pictures next time.

Daytona '83 Trip

Virginia
South Carolina

Jacksonville Fla

Barry's master cylinder took a shit

Finally made it to the Beach...Daytona!

Main st at night

Boot Hill...nice Honda Civic!

Antique Bike show

Big Daddy Rat

I found these pictures from when me and my buddy Barry took a trip from Jersey to Daytona in 1983. We were both riding shovelheads at the time. We left at 9 PM in a torrential down pour. We didn't even get past Virginia that first night. The weather was shit for most of the ride down. It rained and was cold all the way to "South of the Border" South Carolina!

We were somewhere in southern Virginia the next morning and got pulled over for reckless driving. I talked our way out of that one. When you're 19 and from Jersey and you're looking at a Virginia State Trooper with mirror shades and that wide brim hat sayin "Y'all wanna go in for reckless drivin'?" Well I didn't know where "in" was and frankly did not want to find out what happens when you "go in"!!! so I did some talkin' and we ended up with a stern warning.

Later that night we pulled into a 7/11 to get some coffee. I'm not sure what state we were in.

As I watched Barry get off his bike and head towards the door of the store in his cover alls and sky mask, I yelled "Hey..." he turned toward me.."are you really gonna walk into that store at 2AM wearing a sky mask?" "Everyone down here carries a gun you know." He thought better of it and took off the mask.

There were a shit load of stories from that trip...hell, I got hit on my shovel by an 80 plus year old guy backing down an entrance ramp and cutting right across route 1 backwards! Barry ended up on the roof of his car banging on it with his helmet! He was always a bit high strung...

On the way down Barry's master cylinder took a shit and he just about hit me. We fixed that in Jacksonville.

After one hell of time down there, we rode home straight through, no sleep till Jersey!

Me and Barry got into a fight (with each other) at a truck stop in the middle of the night in North Carolina on the ride home. When it ended we parted with a "Fuck you!" "Yeah? Fuck You too!"... I didn't see him again until I was on the side of the road taking a leak in Delaware and he just happened to ride up behind me. I'm not sure how I passed him during the night because he took off first out of the truck stop, I left about 20 Min's after him.

Well anyway...We laughed our asses off and headed back to Jersey. We were both spent! On the Jersey turnpike I noticed he wasn't next to me anymore, I looked back and no shit he fell a sleep on his bike. A tractor trailer was right on his ass and hit the air horn! I thought he was gonna dump it! We pulled over and shook it off. We were only about 50 miles from home. I got home and walked into my dad's house as he was going to work in the morning. I didn't say a word I walked right past him opened the refrigerator and chugged a beer. Then I passed out for several hours.

This was the "Readers Digest" version of that trip. Shit I didn't even mention sleepin' in the cemetery across from the Boot Hill... maybe next time.

"Inside Out" Flathead

My son took this picture of my 47 U for a high school photography class...it took me til' just now to realize it's inside out.

39 EL Trans

Shifter Gate 39 Only...12N34

Nice Complete Trans

Like a glove!

When I bought my "Dirty Nine" EL about 20 years ago I bought 2 other bikes with it. One was a 47 EL basket case and the other was a 38 UL. The 38 UL had a lot of miss matched parts but all original shit...just slightly different years.

This trans as you see it...complete with clutch, mounting plate and inner primary, was with the 38 UL. It appears to have been overhauled but not put into service.

Notice the shifter gate 12N34 (1939 only) that is bolted in place of the kicker pedal. This got me thinking. The trans case is obviously a 40 and later due to the vent plug in the trans case. The cover, however has a vent plug in it too which is 39 and earlier. I started messing with the shift lever and sure enough the guts are 12N34...39 Only. My guess is a damaged case was replaced and all the 39 parts went into this one...good enough for me! Into the other 39 EL it goes.

This is mock up stage (except for the fork that ain't comin' back off) so I will pop the trans apart and make sure everything is "Jake" inside.

PS - The Tool Box and many other parts I will be using for this 39 EL also came along when I got the "Dirty Nine" and the two other baskets way back when.