Photos by George Thomas, probably taken at Ballarat, 70 miles west of Melbourne. On the State Library of Victoria website there are 21 George Thomas photos in this group and 7 are of this bike. [the 7th is a virtual duplicate of one of these] He must have been quite 'taken' by it; it was the superbike of its time. [Edit: in the first photo, in the background there is a BALLARAT BITTER sign; that brewery no longer exists]
Custom Harley Flathead motorcycle in pre-show prep stage. Chrome springer/girder front forks, hard tail and custom seatback. Hello, In one show I went to at the new Long Beach Sports Arena that had opened in 1962, the custom motorcycles were in the lower main floor. But, not on the main floor area of the hot rods and custom cars. Those were on the main floor, in the center of the sports arena. The custom motorcycles were spread all around the outside 20 feet in a circular pattern underneath the 2nd floor walkway, but taking space on the main floor. The hot rods and custom cars were the main attraction and the custom motorcycles were added for increased attendance by that portion of the customizing/ hot bike builds. It did not look different to 80% of the people looking at the custom motorcycles, but to the custom motorcycle riders, builders and owners, it was not the main floor, front in center. Jnaki As the increased population in attendance were in the motorcycle area, the promoters did increase floor space for other shows, by giving the custom motorcycles another circular floor above the main floor. So, one had to climb a set of stairs to be able to see the custom motorcycles. It was a step in the right direction as the whole walkway was filled with cool motorcycles and it looked very popular to everyone. It was not until a motorcycle industry sponsored event took up the same arena main floor, but the next outside platform area on the above circular walkway that motorcycles were the main event. It was their show. But as things go, it was an motorcycle industry show that now included all sorts of bikes, drag bikes, off road desert racing motorcycles, stock factory models and yes, custom motorcycles of all kinds. And not a custom hot rod or lowered custom car was seen, other than in the outdoor parking lot. YRMV
Great looking motorcycles! My uncle and my Dad had a 47 knucklehead when they were in high school, it was an old police bike. They rebuilt the engine one winter and couldn’t get it to start so they leaned it up against a tree in the back yard and it snowed on it all winter. Come Spring they tried to start it and it fired right up. They rode it for a while and eventually sold it to someone locally. In the interest of purchasing it I contacted the guy they sold it to and he said he had sold it to some kid who converted it to a chopper. Would love to have located it and been able to buy it back.
A custom Panhead build... Hello, It is/was getting more difficult to showcase a nice build without the background interfering with the build, itself. Despite spending time moving around to get the best photo composition and angles possible, there is still “stuff” that needs to be gone. By putting on a blank color background, then one can see the great build, color and chrome accessories that it took to finish the presentation. Bring on those shows! Jnaki This yellow panhead custom motorcycle had a difficult time with being accepted as a feature in a motorcycle magazine. Despite the great paint job, the detailed work on the paint and highlights, for a couple of editors, it was not what they were looking for a color feature. Magazines were getting a little critical as far as features and at the time, they thought the staff photographers could go out and capture the quality builds out there. But, there are/were so many being built that some great looking and sounding builds, did slip by those roving photo staff folks all over the place. YRMV Note: The above original, yellow, custom bike photo was printed in color from an Ektachrome slide and mounted on a backing board. Then I made a custom old wooden frame with an extra center piece. That piece made the color photo stick out as if it was “floating” in the air. The custom frame did not take long to make and was a “thank you” for the photo shoot.
Hello, In the early custom motorcycle days, bikes got the removal of stock fenders, modified the exhaust and got a different seat of sorts. Some had individual seats, while others had a passenger seat included. That was about the standard for motorcycles. Similar to old cars, take the fenders off, add a set of headers and low and behold, a hot rod. Then as the custom motorcycles were allowed into various custom car/hot rod car shows, the modifications continued, to include raked front ends, longer old springer forks and a set of different headlights(until the DMV put a stop to non-factory lights for normal road use.) for the shows, the custom headlights played a big part in the “look.” But, now, the builders and individuals modified the motors for more horsepower with the addition of different carbs from stock. Despite the wide Weber Carbs,+ various SU carbs, they still stuck out, but once tuned, ran well. Now, there were custom accessories from carbs, heads, to exhaust pipes and even different length passenger supports. Jnaki The red Harley was a full built up motor to include a shiny SU carb to go along with the “standard” (at the time) custom accessories, Z bars, springer extended length forks and a custom back rest for the passenger. It was one healthy sounding custom motorcycle and has entered many So Cal car shows and motorcycle shows.
The Jalopy Journal
