History is what the winners say happened. In this case, the winner was Harley-Davidson. The Milwaukee Marvel alone survived the Hundred Years War, a century of innovation and most often extinction. Scattered across the scrap yard battlefields of the first few decades of the 20th Century you could count the rusting steel bones of around 300 different American motorcycle manufacturers. Well, let’s call them motorcycle builders since some only built a handful, literally. So where have they all gone?
We gave these machines names, and so personified them, glamorized them… colorful, even memorable names like Argyle, Apache, Black Diamond, Buckeye, Comet, Crouch, Duck (put the latter two together, and it described what pedestrians found themselves doing when the spindly things came blatting around the corner on a muddy dirt road). Then there was the Dusenberg, Elk, Hemingway, Herring, Kokomo, Mack, Marvel, Flying Merkel, Nelk (an Elk relative?), Pansy (don’t go there), Pirate, P-T (don’t pity it’s passing), Ruggles, Schickel (not the gruber model), Thiem (remember them?), Thor, Torpedo (yep, it sank from sight), and you certainly can’t forget (or pronounce) the Portland, Maine-built Twombly. Built from the late 1890’s to roughly 1915, they were all brilliant glints in the eyes of their creators and if found today regarded still as brilliant, and valuable, jewels. And they do occupy a special niche in a Bro’s left ventricle, because it’s part of the family, the lineage, the bloodline that holds it all together.
It was the best of times and the worst of times, technological speaking, these early spawning years when bicycles met the internal combustion machine and evolved literally overnight into moto-cycles. The early motorcycle gene pool was afroth with great experimentation and mutation, a time when blacksmiths and shade tree mechanics and teen-age tinkerers conjured op chimeras of two-wheeled locomotion, often as not H.G. Wells chitty-chitty-bang-bangs that ran on a wild assortment of fuels: kerosene, steam, gasoline, moonshine, you name it. No multi-million dollar R&D facilities, required, no patents, no DMV rulebooks, no smog certificates, and no limits. It was a wild open time when inventors and dreamers harkened to the Gold Rush Fever of motorcycling.
Here are a few of the “luminaries” now since extinguished by time except in the minds and hearts of those who still love, and pine for, vintage iron:
The Exceptional Excelsior
While many of the early bikes bore the name of their builders such as Harley-Davidson, Curtis, Merkel, Henderson, others have a less egocentric origin. The Excelsior got its name from the Latin “excellus” roughly translating to “higher and superior.” It also came to mean the curled wood shavings used in packing fragile items. The 1913 racer fits into both meanings, exceptional quality in a delicate assemblage. During its heyday it battled its major competitors Harley-Davidson and Indian for boardtrack glory, and often as not garnering splinters for the rider, the racecourses fashioned from wooden planks.
Born in 1907 in Chicago, the American Excelsior (the Germans and English had their own Excelsior’s) was a subsidiary of no less a legend that Schwinn bicycles dynasty (and eventually the equally legendary Henderson four-cylinder machines). Eventually Ignaz Schwinn would shoehorn 30-cubic-inch single and 45- and 61-cubic inch V-Twins into his beefed up bicycle frames. The first models, 499cc two-stroke powered, when sent to Europe were labeled American-X, then Super-X so as not to confuse them with the Continental manufacturers using the same name.
Weighing only 265 pounds, the bikes blasted around the 25 to 38 degree bank 1/3 and ¼ mile tracks, reaching almost a hundred miles an hour, all without benefit of brakes or a transmission. The resulting injuries and fatalities of boardtrack racing eventually ended that form of racing, but you could rightly call the Excelsior racers the first “X-Men,” superheroes of a bygone era.
In the Eye of the Storm: The Cyclone
The following words were in the October 5, 1914 edition of the Omaha World Herald: “The mile ridden by J.A. McNeal in 32.5 seconds shatters the previous world’s record, made a year ago at Los Angeles by Lee Humiston, who covered the distance on an Excelsior at the remarkable time of 36 seconds flat. McNeal was riding a Cyclone yesterday.”
The Overhead Cam Cyclone was conjured up by Joerns Manufacturing, the same Minnesota firm that had built the long- forgotten Thiem motorcycles. While the Cyclone’s glory lasted only four years, it burned bright, a darling of the public’s eye not only because of its screaming yellow paint job, but because for its time it was hi-tech. Introduced in 1913, the 1000cc V- twin engine featured a roller bearing crankshaft and connecting rods, a bevel-driven single overhead cam and valve arrangement plus forged steel flywheels, good for producing seven solid horses. Because it incorporated “ported” cylinders, basically direct exhaust vents, riders following in the wake of a Cyclone literally were buffeted by intense amounts of noise and a pall of oil smoke since the engine consumed one quart every five miles. At night, an extra-added attraction was the blue flames licking around the engine and the rider’s legs.
An odd feature, and vexing to the riders, was a lack of a throttle. You were always on “fast” the fuel/air mixture was beyond controls thanks to the “open port” design that required a rich fuel loads, the correct proportion reached only at the top of the power-band. The pilot had to manipulate a push-button kill switch to interrupt ignition and control the bike. As a result, the 250-lb. machine lurched and leapt back and forth as its supply of spark interrupted, supplied, and interrupted over and over again. And all this with a spindly machine that hit 111 miles an hour.
Crocker – Lost American Super Bike Some 50 years ago, a Crocker was supposedly the victim of a Kamikaze attack, and sent to Davie Jones Locker while aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier sunk during the ferocious World War II Battle of the Coral Sea. Now that same Crocker may have surfaced since a Crocker was reportedly spotted years later in New Guinea, its serial numbers purportedly those of the missing bike. Only the continuing squabbling between the indigenous people and their government has prevented an expedition to retrieve it. Such is the attraction of the legendary Crocker, perhaps the ultimate American classic.
The Crocker, built in a small Los Angeles shop on Pico Boulevard from 1936-42, was, and is, considered by many to be “The Dusenberg of American Motorcycles.” Featuring an advanced engine design, agile handling, and enduring styling, the Crocker V-Twin provided unsurpassed performance in excess of its rivals; a limited production machine, each was individually handmade to customer specifications.
Chuck Vernon who owned what is thought to be the 1-X or very first Crocker ever built, was a recognized expert on the subject. “For more than twenty years, we’ve compared records of the serial numbers we received from the fellow who originally stamped those numbers, Gene Rhyne,” recounted Chuck. “Our current tally tells us that only 64 V-twin Crockers were built, and we believe 30 complete bikes are still around today. Of those, perhaps only 20 are running.”
What set the Crocker apart from all others? Chuck replied, “There’s nothing new about a rigid frame or sprung front girder forks. But Crocker did incorporate more aluminum for lightness, including the front and rear backing plates. The gas tanks were cast aluminum, and of course they wouldn’t bend. If Al Crocker had a secret, it was his wonderful combination of cam action and breathing. With the same bore and stroke of the Harley 671, the Crocker produced at least 30% more horsepower.”
The small shop took on the likes of Harley-Davidson and Indian. Contributing to the Crocker’s high desirability today is its level of ridability. Said Chuck, “You wouldn’t want to ride a Pierce-4 or a Cyclone any distance, but with a Crocker you could. Properly set up they could run all day at 80-90 mph with a top speeding exceeding 110. They also had better breaker since they employed India Chief brake shoes.
With Crocker customers had a choice of engine sizes, from 61 to 90 cubic inches. While most were 61-inches, the strokers were usually 80 inches. The largest motor Al built was 86 inches, featuring his hemi-head design, and it went into the 1-X prototype. Al test the motor in an Indian Chief frame, then re-fitted into a Crocker frame, stamped with “1-X.”
The first Crocker, built in 1936, evolved from successful 500cc single cylinder speedway machines. Al had worked at the Thor motorcycle Co., and was an Indian dealer from 1928-34 on Venice Blvd. in L.A. While Al was a visionary engineer, his foreman Paul A. Bigsby possessed the practical talent. At age 53, Al had a dream… to build the fastest street machine in American, the world. In his 1200 sq. ft. shop he built his own foundry and machine shop and began building his dream. Its most dramatic feature was its hemispherical combustion chambers with domed pistons.
In a 1948 interview, Al replied to the question why he ended production on such an incredible machine. “The war. We had the last 85 machines three-quarter completed, but could not get the government authorization for the critical materials to finish them. We broke them up, got $75 for the junk, and an adjustment from the government to make up for the losses.”
The real loss was to motorcycling history. Crocker enthusiasts still search for bits and pieces and lost New Guinea Crockers, in their dedicated efforts to keep the Crocker up and running.
Imports vs. Home Grown: The British Invasion
1947 was the year of the Roswell UFO’s and alien invaders, but the Harley factory had to contend with a vexing problem of its own. Imports. Dockworkers had already unloaded 15,073 machines, mostly ex-War Department British bikes… Ariel, Royal Enfield, BSA and Triumph, mostly in 350cc or small displacement. Norton, another famous English bike builder, began shipping over 500cc sidevalve bikes, the likes of which had seen action against Rommel’s Afrika Corp. The price tag, an attractive $585. They were nimble and easy to ride with hand controls and foot-shifted gearboxes, quite in contrast to the 700 lb. U.S. built big twins. American riders bought’em and would buy lots more, especially Triumphs and Nortons in the next two decades. Add to the brew a low 8% duty for the Brit imports as compared to a crushing 33-50% import duty levied against American big twins. In other words, the first onslaught from abroad came across the Atlantic Ocean from Merry Old England, a mere shadow of the two-wheeled invasion that would later storm across the Pacific from the Land of the Rising Sun. (There was some exciting news from Milwaukee for the in Fall of 1947, after a very hot summer in more ways than one, H-D announced its new Panhead engine design with its aluminum alloy cylinder head and hydraulically-controlled lifters.)
The factory also introduced a new model, designated the “S” and called somewhat affectionately the “Hummer.” Whether the two-stroke 125cc single hummed along is a moot point. How it came about is another story. Seems the Germans, as part of their war reparations to help make up for devastating most of Europe, forked over a bunch of pre-war DKW motorcycles. We got some, the Brits and Russians, too. The Brits stuck them in “Bantams,” and we put them in bikes badged with the Harley name. A lot of dealers refused to sell them. They were definitely not American in pedigree or performance. But they sold fairly well, for ten years in fact.
The British Empire and the Limey Bro’s
While Harleys dominated the American scene during the 1950s as the major US-built motorcycles (Indian expiring in 1953, then reborn more or less in 1990s), they had plenty of stiff upper lip competition, both on the street and track, in the form of excellent motorcycles of British manufacture. Many of the “nicest people” (and not a few 1%ers) rode English machines, although they were of a more sportier plumage and personality that Harleys of the era which were more cruiser in character. However, Limey bikes often rode alongside Milwaukee iron in complete harmony. Let’s not forget Johnny/Marlon Brando in the 1954 film “The Wild One” was riding a Triumph (a Thunderbird model) and not a Harley although people seem to get that confused.
So what’s the story behind some of the best-known UK machines? Today we’ve seen a rebirth of perhaps the most famous of the Brit bikes, the Triumph, and you can buy Royal Enfield 350cc singles banged together in India that look (and ride) exactly the way they appeared 50 years ago, but other famous marques such as BSA, Vincent, Ariel, Norton, Brough Superior, AJS, and Matchless have faded away although Norton made several gasps as a comeback, notably its Wankel rotary- engined efforts. So let’s make a detour to that island nation and have a look in its garage of goldy oldie.
It all started in the late 1940s when the lighter, faster, cheaper Brit bikes literally started to swamp the U.S. market, much to the chagrin of Milwaukee. Later, from 1959 on, it would be Japan’s turn to hammer the H-D homegrown market. But for the ‘50s, the Brit motorcycle industry held the high ground, producing over 70,000 bikes a year during the ‘60s, until it lost grip and self-imploded during the early ‘70s.
The English pounded out motorized two-wheelers since 1896, and like in the U.S., they sprang out of bicycle builder workshops. Case in point, Triumph. Think Triumph, think British. Except the company was founded by two Germans, Siegfried Bettman and Mauritz Schulte, no, not the guys with the white tigers in Vegas. In 1902, after building bicycles for five years, they launched their first mc, inching out H-D by a year. Then in 1936 they were acquired by Ariel and handed over to the brilliant and innovative engineer Edward Turner. He came up with the famous 498, say 500cc Speed Twin, a vertical twin design, that would be the ancestor of all the big Trumpets to come. It pumped out 20 hp and could hit 70 mph, a show winner back in 1937 when it wowed the world of motorcycling. The most famous Triumph was no doubt the Bonneville, unleashed in 1959, and named after the famous Salt Flats in Utah where land speed records are made to be broken. Affectionately called the Bonnie, the classic beauty was equipped with a 649cc, call it 650, engine good enough for 46 hp and a top speed of 110 mph.
Following several years’ dormancy after the mid-1970s, Triumph was reborn in 1992 with a totally redesigned line of fine machines that earned itself commendation and sales success. As of the 2001 model range, you had your choice of 13, different models, including the top of the line Trophy 1200 for about $12K and yes, not one, but two variations of a retro- Bonneville running $7-8K, testimony to the Bonnie’s magic. As a pre-pubescent kid, this author’s first indelible impression was of a ‘60s Triumph Bonneville with TT pipes blasting by his mother’s Oldsmobile. That one image set him down the motorcycle path and resulted in the ownership of several Triumphs with a special warm spot reserved for the 1966-1970 Bonnevilles, true beauty in motion. Blimey, they are great bikes.
Taking a look at the snortin’ Nortons, you quickly see they ate up the race track record books for decades, in fact winning the first of the famous British TT races at the Isle of Man in 1907. Named after its founder, chain-maker James Landsdowne Norton, the company first opened in 1901 eventually creating several milestone machines, notably the venerable line of 350cc and 500cc single cylinder “Manx” racers, first introduced in 1927 that would remain in production, and winning races into the early 1960s and beyond.
The beautiful beasts could clock 140 mph and later models featured the famous Norton Featherbed frame still acknowledged for its fine handling. In 1948 they produced their first vertical twin that eventually evolved into the history making Norton Commando in 1969. Featuring a potent 750, then 850cc engine, the bike stood out thanks to its innovative “isolastic” vibration dampening frame design. So excellent was the fine- handling, 115-mph machine that the Commando was voted “Machine of the Year” five years straight by Britain’s Motor Cycle News magazine. A factory racer, despite a 25-hp disadvantage to the competition, won the 1973 Formula 750 TT championship with Peter Williams aboard.
Norton joined AJS and Matchless under the Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) group in 1953 which was swallowed up by Manganese Bronze Holdings in 1966, and then Norton formed up with the Villiers and Triumph group as part of NVT at which point things went from bad to worse, bankruptcy diminishing the famous name in 1997. In the early 1980s, an effort to build a new generation of “modern” Wankel rotary engined bikes gasped and sputtered itself to oblivion.
(This author has had the pleasure of experiencing a dozen Nortons over the years, his favorite being the 1969 Fast back Norton Commando. Slip on a pair of Dunstall exhausts and just listen to the music.)
Of that notable trio of BSA, Triumph and Norton, the Birmingham Small Arms lineage of motorcycles was third in line of introduction, the year being 1906, but eventually would become the largest producer of motorcycles in Britain. Along with Norton, it became extinct in 1973. Noted for their rugged and dependable simplicity, they also brought us some hot dogs that still set the back of neck all-goose pimply.
Considered the best of the Brit single-cylindered machines, the 110-mph BSA Gold Star rightly earned its name as a competition machine throughout the 1950s, the most famous being the DBD34. In 1962, BSA brought out their A65 Lightning, a vertical twin that though relatively popular paled in the shadow of its rivals, the Triumphs and Norton twins. Friends and fans of the BSA prefer to call them Beezers. This writer’s favorite was the mid-60s 650cc Spitfire, fast, light and agile, and with a growl close to Beeeeezzzzer! Many think BSA also had the best tank emblem going.
We can speak of AJS and Matchless in one breath, though not to diminish the shining pedigree of both, the two merging in 1931 under the aegis of Associate Motor Cycles (AMC). AJS created some serious monsters, like the 1939 Supercharge V- Four, a Grand Prix racer and the first to do the ton (100 mph) on a GP track. During WWI, alongside H-D WLAs, more than 80,000 steadfast Matchless 350cc GL thumpers served in the British armed forces. It went on to civilian use in the 1950s and was the Brit bike to sport telescopic forks.
AJS’s most famous racer, and highly coveted today, was the 350cc single, 110-mph 7R, often called the “Boy Racer.” Built from ’48 to ’62, they feature gold painted mag alloy engine components that complemented by the black paint jobs make for a most handsome set of wheels. AJS and Matchless expired in 1966 although their fans still keep the marque alive and well.
When a biker in the know here’s the word Vincent, he knows they’re not talking DiCaprio or Price or Van Gogh for that matter, although you could say there’s a little of all three in the all-vanquishing Vincent. Dramatic, scary and masterfully artful in execution and performance, the HRD/Vincent occupies a special seat in the pantheon of motorcycle deities. Of mythological proportions, the machines were brought to fruition by Phillip Vincent who acquired the rights to the HRD name in 1928. By 1934, in conjunction with Phil Irving, Phillip debuted their first new engine, a 500cc single. Two years later they would plug two of the singles together and unleash the Series A Rapide, capable of 110 mph. We’re talking 1936, and good enough to be called the fastest production vehicle, not just bike, on the road. However it leaked oil like a sieve, but that was cured by the Series B, the 50 degree V-twin becoming a stressed member of the frame. It ran effortlessly at 100 mph and did well in the handling and braking department as well.
In 1949, the Series C took on advanced telescopic forks. But if you say Vincent, say Black Shadow, the T Rex of vintage super bikes. Right out of the box, the big stand up Smith’s speedometer could peg 120 mph plus. Rollie Free in 1948 took a Black Shadow to 150 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats wearing only a bathing suit in one of the most famous motorcycle photo of all times. The costly and beastly beautiful Vincents growled their last in 1955.
Although they went out of product during WWII as the company switched to aircraft production, the incredible Brough Superior machines still boggle the mind, and the pocket book. Bearing the name of its creator, W.E. Brough, the bikes first appeared in 1908. Heralded as the “Rolls Royce” of motorcycles, the awesome big V-twins were a class act every inch of the way. The most famous owner of a Brough (“bruff”) was T.E. Lawrence, of Lawrence of Arabia fame. He owned several Broughs including an SS100 that he called “George” named in honor of his friend, writer George Bernard Shaw. The “100” referred to its guaranteed ability to do a hundred miles an hour… all day long. Unfortunately, Brough Superiors are forever linked to Lawrence’s death as he took his last ride on his SS100 in 1935. In this guy’s opinion, perhaps the most elegant yet purposeful motorcycle ever made.
While it kinda sounds French or Italian, the company was born in 1904 as Veloce; the first two-stroke “Velocettes” actually built in 1913. The name Velocette itself inspires the sense of speed. They stopped making 2-stroke early on and focused on 4-stroke engine designs, the most famous examples being the 350cc overhead cam models beginning in 1925 and build until 1950. Freddie Frith (say that five times fast) was the 1949 350cc World Championship on a Velocette. About the most famous of the line was the revered KTT Mark 8. About 20 years later people were raving over the Velocette Thruxton Venom.
The name itself said it all. Actually named after an English racetrack, the powerful single won the 1967 500cc Production TT, testimony to its prowess. Velocette did themselves in when they brought out a radical new bike, the LE a 192cc side-valve flat-twin with a fully enclosed bodywork. Anticipated sales appeal met disaster although the Bobbies liked its silent runny stealth for police work. Velocette switched off its lights in 1971 as the sun set on the Golden Age of British motorcycle manufacture, taking with it several other notable efforts including Rudge, Scott, Sunbeam, Greeves, Panther, and Douglas, examples of which still ply the roads thanks to dedicated enthusiasts.
Well, that’s it for now. If you’re feeling nostalgic, the best cure is buying a piece of history for yourself. Call it a time machine. Call it a truth machine…vintage iron can transport you to a different time and a different state of mind.
