Wauseon Racing! A wild scene in the HandShift Class!

What excitement at the races this year! We were lined up for the main event it was Hotter then Hell out there. We were all at the starting line ready for the starter to hit the green light, out of the corner of my eye I noticed something was not right. The Indian a couple bikes over to my left burst into flame! Now I have seen bikes catch fire. It's happened to me at least three times. But not like this. That thing was engulfed with the rider still on board! Finally he jumped off and let the bike drop. His arm was on fire too but he got his leather off and turned out to be OK. I think he did a stop drop and roll...

A group of us at the starting line took off around the track to get out of the way. We came around slow to see the bike still blazing! Water is NO GOOD for a gas fire! We went by and came around again on I think the third pass the flames were out but there was cops dragging a guy off the track from what I could see and some kind of melee going on. I couldn't tell what was happening.

After another lap they set us up on the starting line and we raced while folks frantically covered the wet mess were the Indian was with dirt. Man what a night!

My son Jesse got these pictures.

But that was not all. Apparently the announcer (who was from ESPN 2 and first time at Wauseon) decided to poke some fun at the situation and say to a grandstand full of bikers..."You are really getting your $15 worth tonight aren't you?" (something like that). What a Smacked Ass he was!!!

Well my son said the crowd went berserk and started booing the announcer throwing stuff and several guys jumped the wall and went after the guy! That is what I saw when I came around and saw the cop dragging a guy off the track! Apparently one of the guys that made it over was the builder of the bike!

Nice way to enrage a crowd of Antique Motorcycle people!

I have a bunch more pictures of the races and the meet with a ton of cool bikes I will post later.

I wonder if that announcer will be back next year?

Off to the Scrap yard...

I wonder what kind of tractor parts these are?

B&D Artifact

Digging around in some boxes I came across this Andrews Cam that was purchased from B&D in Rahway NJ back in '84. I might have to finally use it...

Breaking Brakes

The last time I rode my 47 FL the brakes felt like they needed some adjustment (pedal hitting the floor board).

I was heading out for a ride the other night and thought I would adjust up the rear brake rod. I threw the bike up on a stand and adjusted the brakes so that I had plenty of pedal. Then for the heck of it I decided to wipe the rim down. I noticed that two of my lugs were missing and the other three were loose. I grabbed the allen wrench but couldn't get past my exhaust that runs across where my axle is. I was dangerously close to missing Happy Hour so I said "fuck it" and grabbed a different bike. A couple of days later when I finally went back to see what was up with the lugs I noticed the two that were missing had snapped off. I took off the drum and there was no fuckin' lining left on the rear brake shoe! Gone! WTF... I don't know if the snapped and loose lugs had anything to do with the missing brake lining (I know it was there when I put it together!) or was it just a coincidence. Who knows how long the lining was gone... But the brake drum wasn't scored or anything...

Cool Hats

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!).