| This is the story of the motorcycles in my garage:
(Bigger pictures
underneath the thumbnails)
I bought my first motorcycle in November 1967 - it was a 1948 Indian Chief basket case. I spent about a year collecting the parts and building the bike. It had a left hand throttle, foot clutch and right hand tank shift. First I built it, then learned how to ride a motorcycle on it.
This is the 1948 Chief I found not too much later. I am the fourth owner - the original owner had it until 1965. I rebuilt and restored the bike in the early 70's. It still had the original pistons and probably only had the 20K miles it showed on the speedometer. I still own the bike and bring it out every few years to ride and update. It still is only showing about 34K miles. I ended up trading my original Chief for a 1953
Velocette MAC 350cc, a Suzuki Olympian 150cc, and some cash.
At one point I traded off the Velo for an old Mercedes, but ended up
getting
it back eventually - in a lot better shape then when it left! Next bike I found was a 1949 Indian Vertical Scout 440 cc
twin.
It had been very original, except for a bent rod that it had developed
when someone was riding it down to Mexico from Ohio in the late
50's.
It then was chosen as a chopper project, and the owner had had the
entire
bike sprayed with green and black flake epoxy floor paint. It
looked
like a giant FROG! I did a light custom on it and still have it.
That's my Chief in the first "Seafoam Blue" repaint. It was originally
black.
BSA Motorcycles whet bankrupt about 1972. By late '72
you could
hardly find parts for them. Naturally, I got interested in them
and
found this cherry 1968 BSA Victor 441 Special for $200 - less the toe
shifter
and tool box cover that some parts needy owner had stolen off of it in
front of the apartment. I found this 1968 BSA Lightning 650 next. It had been
lightly
chopped, but it was pretty easy to find appropriate parts at the local
cycle junkard. Next, I found a 1970 BSA Rocket3. The Triumph Trident
and BSA
Rocket3 are about the same 750cc three cylinder bike, and the Rocket3
was
the fastest production motorcycle when it was first produced in
1969.
It's very original including the cream colored frame. I grabbed up a 1948 Simplex ServiCycle next. I
overhauled the
engine, and rode it on the street once, but the virtual lack of brakes
was just TOO much. It's an interesting bike though, and has the
later
model Simplex automatic transmission which uses both a centrifugal
clutch
and variable v-belt pulley. We're all the way up to 1985 now. In early 1985 the
local Honda
dealer was surplusing boxcar loads of leftover bikes, including this
1982
GoldWing Standard. I didn't get it then, but picked it up at the
end of the summer with about 4000 miles on it for $2400. How about another BSA 650cc twin? This is another
Lightning, but
a 1971 model - just about the last of the BSAs built. It
originally
had a cream colored frame too, but was repainted at the dealer as part
of BSA's "UPS! What a mistake!" retrofit. I knew the original
owner
of this bike when it was new. I was looking for bikes to ride on the ranch, and found this
1971 Greeves
Griffin 250cc and a parts bike, and a 1971 AJS Stormer 250 too!
The
Greeves runs, the Stormer had lost a box of parts somewhere and would
be
a challenge to complete. This is my 1979 Kawasaki KZ1300. Thirteen hundred c.c.'s
and six
cylinders make it a really amazing bike. '79 was the first year
for
this model, and they discontinued it in 1988. It looks like I still have every motorcycle I ever
owned? Not
by a long shot. Links: |
