Two Stroke Rescue

Flathead Rob & I noticed a fellow motorcyclist on the shoulder of the road last night as we were headed home from the VME meeting. We circled back and discovered he was in route for his Kawasaki KH400's maiden trip to a VME meeting when an intermittent magneto problem left him stranded. Needless to say I have been there before. We offered to loop back and pick him up. When I arrived with my truck a Jolly Roger stopped to help us load up Kim's bike and I ran him home. I later received the following email from Kim:

Hi John, (and Rob?)
Wanted to thank you again for stopping for a stranded biker.. and
especially for the rescue afterwards!
Long live the 2 strokes  :)
-kim

I genuinely didn't see the whole thing as a very big deal but Kim was very grateful.

I've mentioned it several times before but but the social component of old motorcycles was a perk I never even imagined when I first got involved in vintage bikes. It's my favorite part now. The friends I've made are nothing short of amazing. I have received countless bailouts, helping hands and acts of astounding kindness and generosity. When I saw Kim's email my first thought was picking him up didn't even make a dent in repaying the acts of motorcycle related kindness I had been a recipient of JUST THIS WEEK. So, another thanks is warranted. Rob, Lynn, Justin and Tom. You all offered a helping hand this week for which I am extremely grateful. Thank you.

World Crusier

Flathead Rob took made a welcomed diversion on the way to the VME meeting. We stopped by to look at the Douglas World Cruiser a friend of his is restoring.

Next time you start to feel sorry for yourself because your project is moving slowly remember that compared to the scale of this project your little motorcycle project is a cake walk.

1946 Velocette GTP

A good friend of mine let me ride his '46 Velocette GTP 250 some time ago. What a mistake. Assume original paint, girder fork, two stroke. All the things I love in a bike.

He just told me he almost traded for a Panther trials bike. He didn't even ask me first... JK The damn thing has to follow me home someday, right?

Cossacks Practice

I took Vaughn to watch the Cossacks practice. He was more impressed than I expected. He really enjoyed the drill and precision stuff. I would have guess he'd be more excited by the stunts. He powered through several doughnuts while we were there too.

Vaughn was super impressed with the miniature Cossacks bike currently on display at Downtown Harley too. He wanted to sit on that thing so damn bad...

 

The detail an workmanship on that bike is pretty amazing. It's powered by a Harley Davidson (well HD branded Aermacchi) M50 engine. If you happen to have a lead on an inexpensive M50 engine let me know.

 

Ran When Parked

1937 BSA 500 Sports - Empire Star I'm generally not a huge BSA fan but I'd take this one home in a heart beat.

Ran When Parked

1962 Triumph Pre unit - Pretty cool rescue-able bike. Not a bad price either.

"Original untouched engine, runs great! Fresh oil, new battery, new cloth wiring , new coil, ignition switch, head light. New clutch Amal monoblock carb has been just rebuilt. Engine is strong an sounds great, does not smoke. I have some other parts that come with it, original Lucas headlight lense, spare wiring. Triumph is does not have a title. I will gladly give a notorized bill of sale. Will trade for a iron head or early evo $3000 obo"

Green Day

Thanks to Vorhese to pointing this one out.

Knuclehead

Should I ever own a Knucklehead I hope it looks like this one.

Gypsy Tour Photo

A few of months ago Flathead Rob and I were at a VME meeting where we first saw the most amazing photo from an AMA Gypsy Tour. The VME folks were selling copies to raise money for the Pacific Northwest Museum of Motorcycling. I think the second we saw it Rob & I both thought our favorite motorcycle historian and vintage photograph fan Lurker Tom had to have a copy. We bought him one but I have been feeling a little guilty about the framing liability we were passing along in the process.

It sounds like it was indeed a serious effort but I was thrilled to hear Lurker Tom had finally successfully framed it. It might sound like I'm being melodramatic but the photo is probably 12" tall. You aren't gonna find that frame down at Michaels or Hobby Lobby...

Tom, we miss you and the countless hours of discussion about everything old motorcycle. You've been a major influence in my evolution as a vintage motorcycle consumed crackpot. If you ever find yourself in our neck of the woods be sure to look us up. I'll make certain you have something interesting to ride.

Dealer Decals

If you've followed some of the crap I post closely enough (Hi Mom) you'd know the effort I put into chasing down the art to reproduce a dealer decal for the Albuquerque Triumph dealer in the early 50's. Since I am consistently lame, I have been hunting for the art to replicate a Dewey's Cycle decal since before the move to Seattle. Until last night I have had zero luck. That's better than 6 months of hunting. I now think I might have a lead on an original 50's-60's waterslide decal. I am SO damn stoked.

Shoe Box

I have a bit of a weakness for 49-50 Fords. My family had one when I was born (I'm not THAT old it was an old car by then). Most of the ones you still see running around are ratty. This one I found on the Low Tech blog is very nicely done.

Parking Lot

I'm developing a theory that you can gauge a hardware store by it's parking lot. I found this Model A outside the McLendon's in Kent last weekend. It was a really nicely done car but appeared to be driven pretty regularly.

Flathead Rob and I made the trek to McLendon's in Renton to buy a replacement leather seal for his WWII Jeep air pump (find one of those at Home Depot) and stumbled across this Model A. We ended up chatting with it's owner Frank for about 20 minutes. Nice guy and the truck sounded really good. Frank was coming home from the Duvall Days car show. I had planned to go but got caught up in home tasks and didn't make it. He said there were about 200 cars there...

Incidentally the McLendon's in Renton is the store with the killer TopPot Vagabond trailer out front.

I hadn't been in the Renton McLendon's for a long time and had forgotten all the historical family stuff in there. McLendon's started in Renton in the late 1920's as a business called US Junk. Something tells me "Pop" Mclendon would be just fine with a 75+ year old vehicles in his parking lot if he was still around.