Posted on 05/02/2002 6:25:32 AM PDT by WaterDragon
OMED: We were reading a Greg Stiles piece about ancient motorbikes in the Medford Mail Tribune, and ran across this paragraph. "Norton is no slouch, but its not as fast as they are now," Glenn says. "The new ones are like an appliance - you turn the key and go. With Norton and Triumph, you have to mess with them regularly, give them tune-ups and preventative maintenance. But I like the feeling of the older bikes and their character."
We used to call them 'Snortin' Nortons." (Shown, a '37)
The article brought up memoories of an Indian brand bike I bought for $25. It was a '37 model with a suicide clutch if memory nearly fifty years old serves. You can see it at the bottom of this page. And the Harley. It was a '42, like the one in the photo, just below. Nor the song of Larks at eventide, yea even the lonely piper on the moor, can sing the like of the song of the Harley, which is the symphony of an American man's heart. Though the exquisitely smooth twin glasspaks of the '51 Ford flathead V-8 are, like James Dean, heard no more in the land, yet still the Harley thrills the air with music made of glory. Freedom isn't just another word for nothing left to lose. It's straddling a machine, twisting the throttle and feeling the bugs slamming into your teeth as you grin down the highway. Now to the article by Mr. Stevens.
Motorcycling is about more than loud and over-priced Harley-Davidsons manned by weekend warriors garbed in two thousand bucks worth of custom-fitted leathers. It is about more than the chainsaw scream of moto-cross or enduro two-strokes. While these are fun for many, there's a branch of the addiction that comes with a sweet nostalgia -- vintage motorcycles.
Any bike older than 20 years is classed as "vintage." This classification now includes Japanese marques that are gaining in popularity because reasonably-priced, and available, parts make restoration projects much easier. Still, the genuine article remains the British, European and certain American-made motorcycles of the 1970s and earlier.
Some of the manufacturer's names are familiar, many more likely not so. The most popular, currently, are the British bikes such as BSA, Norton, and Triumph. (They were good sellers int he 50s and 60s, so more of them have survived.) But, do a little research and you come up with names unfamiliar to most people -- names like Matchless, DKW, Brough Superior, and much sought-after Vincent Black Shadow. (photo) Even lesser known and certainly more rare are the long-extinct machines made by Henderson, Scott, Excelsior, New Imperial, Nimbus and Rudge, among literally hundreds of others.
Motorcycles made their first appearance in the very late 1800s (Shown, 1914 Cyclone) The industry has evolved in a dozen different directions since then. What's constant about it seems to be change. Bianchi and Raleigh were former manufacturers of motorcycles, though both now make bicycles. BMW made aircraft engines during wartime, though most people familiar with their beautiful, smooth machines don't know it. Royal Enfield motorcycles, the bikes you see in any film about 20th Century England, were originally made in Britain, but are now manufactured exclusively in India. (The Raj on two wheels). In the sixties, Harley-Davidson contracted the Italian company Aermacchi to build smaller enduro and street scooters for them. It was an attempt to compete with Honda's near takeover of the market.
There is a rich and colorful lore to vintage motorcycles. Speak to anyone who's been around these bikes for any length of time, and you'll hear stories and learn technical information not available in any book.....(snip) [click on link for complete article and photos]
"Hard Tail" ( solid rear "suspension" )
"Bob-Job" ( trim the fenders )
"Suicide Shift" ( foot clutch with shift lever on the gas tank )
"Tailgunner" ( last guy in a line of bikers goin' down the road.... )
Did you see the photos of all those bikes in the article?
Don't forget girders, springers, sliders, knuckleheads and fatbobs.
I can just barely stand to type the word "highside" without gritting my teeth.
AKA "cage".
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