In History

Land speed record holder Marty Dickerson riding his Vincent in the '50s.The rarest of rare vintage motorcycles, these decades-old machines are challenging to start and difficult to ride. Yet they are becoming more expensive to purchase despite — and some say because of — the down economy.For years, ultra-obscure bikes such as a 1936 Crocker

  In the early years of motorcycle manufacturing, many manufacturers used bought-in engines for their motorcycles as the cost of developing engines was beyond the means of many of them. Of all the manufacturers of proprietary engines, possibly the most famous was J.A. Prestwich, otherwise known as J.A.P.             Without

  Values for motorcycles, like those for cars (and myriad other kinds of collectibles), have enjoyed a wild ride upward during the pandemic. Yet two-wheeled classics exist in a market distinct from that for cars, impacted by different forces. Good thing there’s a Hagerty Motorcycle Price Guide. It uses thousands of transactions to track values

  George A. Wyman made a name for himself as a bicycle racer, but he reached legendary status when, 119 years ago, he rode a motorized two-wheeler from San Francisco to New York to become the first person to cross the North American continent aboard an engine-powered vehicle. Wait, you might ask. Doesn’t that distinction

The Jefferson motorcycle was only made for one year–1913!–St. Francis Motorcycle Museum This is a strange one. I was also told that only one twin OHV Jefferson exists. As the years pass the stories fade and alter. This particular machine has been a treasured piece on display in the secret Don Whalen/Richard Bunch Collection. I

Mike Egan recently passed away. I worked with Mike and his wife Patty for about 40 years covering his restorations, working with him on project bikes such as the Dicey Knucklehead which I still have. Hell, I made a deal to retrieve a Panhead from a brother partially because it held a Linkert Carb rebuilt

  I do not claim to be an expert on any historical MC stuff, but I have always found it fascinating. Being a guy who tries to emulate what others have done in the past, I have always found it to be important and respectful to learn the history of the source of my passion.

  With custom bike culture exploding in recent years, the history and importance of the two-wheeled machines that first rolled off of the production line are often overlooked. Stock Stories tells the tales of these motorcycles. In 1957, the USSR launched both the first intercontinental ballistic missile and the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. These

With global sales getting affected due to pandemic and closure of business operations in emerging markets such as India, the American manufacturer has not had a pleasant 2020. However, the brand has a very rich legacy over many years and it is confident about its resurgence in future. A couple of months ago the 338R

Beginning Thursday, May 6, new days and hours of operation come to the Harley-Davidson Museum And May 15 sees the return of Saturday demo rides!   MILWAUKEE, USA (May 4, 2021) – As a part of the Harley-Davidson Museum’s phased reopening, the H-D Museum will soon expand its hours of operation. Beginning Thursday, May 6,

  What do Henry Winkler, Paul Newman, and Peter Fonda have in common—besides the fact that they’re all entertainment icons? Here’s a not-so-obvious answer: motorcycles. Although the three weren’t all motorcycle enthusiasts—Winkler couldn’t even ride when he scored the part of Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli in Happy Days—they each portrayed a motorcycle-riding character in the movies

Riding a powerful and dangerous machine is, let’s face it, in many ways a young person’s game. That, along with the fact that bikes are generally more attainable than cars and are relatively easy to store, makes them very popular among millennials. Yet misconceptions about young motorcycle collectors persist. As a millennial collector myself, I’ve

You won’t find a longer unfaired race bike in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame museum than the BSA that carried Earl Bowlby to national hillclimb fame. When he retired from competition after the 1990 season, Bowlby had captured 10 AMA Hillclimb national championships, plus six Canadian titles. He was inducted to the AMA Motorcycle

Up until the early 1960s, BSA was the largest producer of motorcycles in the world. The 1950s had been a good decade for the marque, with the success of the Gold Star as well as the development of two well-respected pre-unit (separate gearbox and engine), vertical twin-engine series: the A7 and A10. Not only was

Editor’s Note: Recently one of our esteemed Bikernet™ contributors sent me a batch of historic Motordrome shots, then a pile of great shots of classic racing bikes from that era. I recently wrote a screenplay, called Splintered Road, about this era around WWI and it’s being looked at in Hollywood. This year one of the

“Wild Bill” Hickok, one of the greatest gunfighters of the American West, was murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota. Born in Illinois in 1837, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok first gained notoriety as a gunfighter in 1861 when he coolly shot three men who were trying to kill him. A highly sensationalized account of the gunfight

We don’t generally cover motorcycles, but we’re going to make an exception for these bikes since they feature car engines. Not powerplants that are cut-down or derived from an automotive application—no, these are quite literally car engines shoehorned into motorcycle frames with varying degrees of success and ergonomics. To make this list, the resulting car-hearted

Editor’s Note: Bikernet got ahold of an historic home in Deadwood in the Presidential area. We decided on a Chinese whorehouse theme. We discovered this 110 year-old home was built over the original cemetery where Wild Bill was buried. Someone got the bright idea to dig up the bodies and move them up above Lincoln

We’ve all heard the stories of how Harley-Davidson began life in 1903 in a Milwaukee woodshed on the site of what is now the headquarters of Miller Brewing Company. But with motorcycle production set to jump from around 1000 units in 1909 to nearly 30,000 by 1920, the Motor Company’s industrial digs had to change,

    On 4th September 1969, a film was released in the United Kingdom that would have more effect on our little world of custom motorcycling than any other. It was, of course, Easy Rider.   Almost exactly fifty years later, it still resonates with us, although its language and ethos may have dated over

    Services for Bonnie Truett, 83, of Vian were held Monday, August 20, 2018 at 2 p.m. at Vian Baptist Church with Reverend Mike Martin officiating. Burial will follow with a “Final Ride” to Garden of Memories Cemetery in Vian. Services are entrusted to Forever Memories Funeral Services of Sallisaw.      Mr. Truett

When I first went to work for Easyriders on the third issue out of college and Vietnam, it was a rare time in Biker history. For some reason extreme talents emerged to support the biker movement, such as David Mann, Lou Kimzey, JJ Solari and Hal Robinson. To say Hal Robinson hit the nail on

Editor’s Note: This kicks off with a letter from a reader to the Editor of “Choppers Mag” in 1969, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. –Bandit Big Daddy, I have just seen a photo of the bike Peter Fonda rides in his new Movie “Easy Rider.” It is a really boss street machine, which is what I