'Motorcycles at a race meeting' - Charles Daniel Pratt photo; State Library of Victoria; this Velocette, possibly a 250, appears to have the same engine as the Velocette race bike 31 I posted previously. The box sidecar (it appears to carry an AJS logo) belongs to the bike on the other side; front forks are taped up - it almost looks like carbon fibre or some other modern material ... [Edit: the big Zenith V-twin from several posts ago is in the background directly above this Velocette.]
Love it! See it all. Bobbed fenders, polka dots, scallops, coffin nails hanging from their lips, attitude. Note the swamp cooler hanging on the house. Thought they were usually on the roof.
Love the straights with the fish fins but, oh crap! Those aren't one-piece extended fork tubes. Those are long slugs on top screwed into the original tubes. Not cool at all.
Yep, when I started riding in '66 we certainly did some weird stuff to be sure. It's a wonder we're not all in the happy hunting ground.
My 1927 j project. The stuff I'm missing can all be made . I have the 1000 cc f head engine too in reasonable condition . If you have parts and can save me working for 2 dollars an hour building brackets? Message me
Absolutely true! I had 13" over 'Glide forks on one with no rake. Sitting on that little spring solo seat, I could look straight ahead over the upper triple tree. With no rake, the bike stood so tall that I had to make an adapter for the carburetor and rotate it forward to get it level. Otherwise, all the gas in the float bowl would run into the rear cylinder. Engineering 101, do what you must to make it work.
DKW action ... first is from 'Bonnie Vale Miniature Time Trial' - 24 March, 1946; next two from 'Ballarat Time Trial' - 7 April, 1947; all George Thomas pics, State Library of Victoria - edit: two different DKW's: the Ballarat bike has a rigid rear end whereas the Bonnie Vale bike has a plunger swinging arm.
'Provost lineup in the MidEast' - 1942 [Australian Army Military Police] The first few bikes are Nortons; maybe they all are.
This was my old 1940 Indian 30:50 Jr. Scout as I first bought it: And what condition it was in when I sold it to a friend 5 years later: He blew it apart, painted it, and sold it at Mecum a few years later:
I also bought a 1940 Indian Scout 45 in a pile from a guy in Kansas. I picked it up at the Davenport swap meet. It was a military bike, but I preferred the civilian look. Here is it loosely assembled with a repop rear '39 - 39 style fender: I found an NOS 741 trans and bought a epop front fender and new tanks from Iron Horse Corral, and continued to build it up: I sold it in early 2019. I miss that bike
'This motor cyclist has broadsided his bike and uses it for cover as he brings his automatic rifle into action.' circa 1942 State Library of Victoria
Custom car show Long Beach Sports Arena Hello, A wide variety of choices for all sorts of custom motorcycles. Paint and color designs being the most different in creativity. Scallops to pure black with pinstripes to flames… all are part of the mystique of custom bikes. Tastes run from rear suspension to rigid frames, from rigid front forks to girder suspension and “springer” front forks. The whole idea is a smaller version of creating a hot rod with different tastes and styles. Jnaki Shows that have motorcycles and hot rods are usually a big draw. But, when together, the custom motorcycles take a back seat to the high dollar hot rods. In photography, color sells and the size of the color in custom motorcycles is limited. Whereas, the hot rod is a larger palette of color areas. So, emphasizing the “color” the other “in focus bikes”(of the original photo) are now, not the center of attention. (Shallow depth of field) YRMV
A. J. Pratt, probably in Geelong, Victoria, Oz. Photos by Charles Daniel Pratt; State Library of Victoria
The Jalopy Journal
