Ride, Captain Ride!-How many bikers?

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 13 Dec 2005 5:18 pm

Jim,

That one is a 1949, I think it was the last year for the rubber band front suspension. After that they went to a Hydra-Glide type setup.

They also dropped the Bosch electrics around this time. My 57 was Delco, also 6V. All of the Hummers used the German Bing carburetors.

I remember my 1968 Sportster had a Bosch regulator, but a delco generator, and a Fairbanks-Morse magneto, no battery.

Sitting at a light at night we had to keep them revved to around a thousand RPM's to keep from getting hit in the ass by a cager.

The regulators would go bad after a couple dozen trips through the two bit car wash. After forking over $65- a couple times at the H-D shop I wised up and went to a V-W dealership and got the same thing for about eight dollars. A mag could be had off of a Wisconsin V-Twin for about thirty bucks, and the Tillotson carb rebuild kits could be bought at any snowmobile dealership for a few dollars.

As far as the Sportster tank...........well, now you know the rest of the story.

BTW, the first year of the Sportster was 1957, the year after the last K Model wich was the same thing only a 750cc flathead.

A photo of me and my 68 PaintShaker.

[This message was edited by John Drury on 13 December 2005 at 06:00 PM.]

B. Greg Jones · Post by **B. Greg Jones** » 13 Dec 2005 8:09 pm

Good lookin' piece of Iron there John!!!!!

Greg

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 13 Dec 2005 8:28 pm

Greg,

Thanks man, I put a lot of work in that bike!

H-D chrome back then was pretty sorry so I had all chrome stripped and replated.

I then chromed a lot of additional pieces, oil tank, rocker boxes, headlight and taillight housing, voltage regulator cover, kick stand, and spokes, with nickel plated spoke nipples, along with every bolt head and nut on the bike.

The paint was the Royal Maroon from the 1969 Lincoln Mark III. It was truly a beautiful bike!

I had a ton of money in that one!

------------------
John Drury
NTSGA #3

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 14 Dec 2005 5:25 am

I luv those pristine Harleys. Greaaat looking Sportster John....you can plant your feet flat on the ground with that one!

Here's another one of my favorite bikes, my 1982 FXB (all belt) Sturgis Shovel, (me and the wife rode it to the 1982 Sturgis Rally where it drew lots of attention)!

www.genejones.com [This message was edited by Gene Jones on 17 December 2005 at 12:06 PM.]

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 14 Dec 2005 6:26 am

Gene,

I remember those bikes, very smooth running machines!

------------------
John Drury
NTSGA #3

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 15 Dec 2005 5:52 pm

For you steelers that are into old Brit bikes, here is an oldie that I happened onto at a vintage meet up in MI a while back. I thought it was a Brough Superior at first but upon closer inspection it turned out to be a BSA, I think the guy said it was a 1929. The mill looks just like a J.A.P., except for the single pushrod tubes, all the J.A.P.'s I have ever seen have 2 tubes per cylinder.

I will be glad when it warms up a bit so I can get back to riding them instead of looking at pictures of them!

------------------
John Drury
NTSGA #3

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 16 Dec 2005 1:11 pm

I am astounded at the number of Nashville steel players that ride "them cycles". Many more than I thought.
Weldon Myrick have spent may an hour riding in the past, along with many many studio players. If I started naming them all, it would go on forever.
This makes me realize that there must be, as this thread shows, thousands of steel players that love to feel the wind in their hair in the daytime as much as they like the smoke in the clubs at night.
I just love the soul and charictor, the nuts and bolts, the great sounds and smells that these silly machines emanate, wow,this sounds like I'm describing a steel guitar, huh?

Bobbe "PuttPutt" Seymour

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 16 Dec 2005 2:40 pm

Bobbe,

Now that you mention it, there are a lot of paralells between the two activities, for instance a motorcycle has handle bars / most steels get played in bars! A motorcycle has spokes / most players in Nashville have played at the Broken Spoke! A bike has a gas tank / steel amps have a reverb tank! I could go on and on! As Jay Leno would say, there are a lot of eerie similarities here LMAO!

------------------
John Drury
NTSGA #3

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 16 Dec 2005 6:54 pm

Pedals, gotta' use both hands, "Pick" your way through traffic, Both make GREAT sounds, both have Pac-a-seats, working either one of them gets you the same money, unless you are a lucky ole' pro! Your wife gripes when you bring either one of them in the house. Both need tune-ups once a year! Ha!
Both weigh the same! Yea, lotta' sims here!

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 17 Dec 2005 6:07 am

Another shot of an old BSA V-Twin found on the net. This one must be in a museum or in someones collection. They were very cool looking old bikes!

------------------
John Drury
NTSGA #3

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 17 Dec 2005 12:03 pm

Wow! No fiberglass or ABS plastic on that one. My kinda bike.... well, except that I couldn't afford to buy one in a million years and even if I could, it's too antique to ride... but I love it.

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 17 Dec 2005 6:16 pm

Jim,

Not the average Beezer for sure. I have always been a proponent of the V-Twin motorcycles.

My other bike is this Ace1100, one of Hondas finer efforts. Can't imagine why they dropped the bike from their line up after only 5 years.

------------------
John Drury
NTSGA #3

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 21 Dec 2005 6:47 am

It appears as though they are bringing back another of the great British marques!

And they upped the displacement to 962cc's!

Check it out at www.nortonmotorcycles.com

------------------
John Drury
NTSGA #3

jim milewski · Post by **jim milewski** » 21 Dec 2005 8:49 am

John, I remember the first Kawasaki 650 twins back in the sixties, they were a copy of the BSA A10 (I think), air cooled pre unit. I used to ride with a guy who had a 66 Harley CH like yours, spark advance/retard on left grip, he would go down the road, hold down the kill button, retard the timing, keep the clutch engaged, suck in a ton of unignited raw fuel, then release the kill button, KAPOW!!! sounded like a shotgun with loooong flames, he was a one man light show, drag his cleats on the road with sparks like rooster tails than a big backfire

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 21 Dec 2005 9:18 am

Motorcycles are death machines. Its not a matter of IF you will get in an accident, only WHEN. I know a steel guitar player that had the lower right half of his bottom leg taken off two years ago. I am getting ready right now to go see my former girlfriend in the long term care ward of the local county hospital. She went off the back of a Harley at sixty miles per hour after they hit a deer. That was five months ago. She is in persistent vegetative state. I have to go up there every day and see her in diapers clutching little stuffed toys with her body weight down to 90 lbs. Take it from me folks. I've seen it over and over. Do NOT get on a motorcycle.[This message was edited by Kevin Hatton on 21 December 2005 at 09:25 AM.]

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 21 Dec 2005 10:44 am

My son-in-law was killed on his bike. The grief he left behind is immeasurable. There's no turning back. We will never really recover.

When I want something shiny that makes a loud noise, I play my pedal steel. When I need to get somewhere, I drive a car.

Sorry for the dampening sidebar, but I know one little girl whose Christmas would be a whole lot better if her Daddy was still here with her. Think about it next time you ride. He was the best driver I've ever known. In the end, that made no difference at all.

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b2005.gif" width="78 height="78">Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6) My Blog

John Drury · Post by **John Drury** » 21 Dec 2005 12:26 pm

Bobby Lee,

My extreme condolences on the loss of your son-in-law.

My heart also goes out to Kevin Hatton for what he is going through. I sent him a seperate e-mail to that effect.

I would also like to express my condolences to the family of Mike Hailwood, for those of you that aren't familiar with the name, googol him.

Mike was the most successful motorcycle racer of all time. I believe he won the Isle of Mann TT in Great Britain a record six or seven times. Mike rode motorcycles on the road and race track for many years without a serious incident. He was known by all in the motorcycling world as "Mike the Bike".

He was killed in a car wreck in his mid size Beemer in his late forties.

Bob, I started this thread in fun but it will no longer amuse me to post here, so I would consider it a personal favor if you would close it for me.

Thanks for the use of your forum and Happy Holidays.

------------------
John Drury
NTSGA #3