I was sorting through a box of old correspondence and came across this photograph inside the July 1929 Harley-Davidson Enthusiast. The envelope was addressed to Harry Beanham, an Australian motorcycle and photography enthusiast - I bought out his collection of old motorcycle photos through an online books dealer; you just never know what will come your way. I'll post some of Harry's home printed photos of his Broughs, ABCs, Indians, etc, from the 1920's thru the 60's.
I love the characters in this photo, especially the inscription 'Hello, Fats!' at the bottom. They look great - every sort of riding hat, jacket, and neckwear is visible. Click on the photo for a better look.
I was sorting through a box of old correspondence and came across this photograph inside the July 1929 Harley-Davidson Enthusiast. The envelope was addressed to Harry Beanham, an Australian motorcycle and photography enthusiast - I bought out his collection of old motorcycle photos through an online books dealer; you just never know what will come your way. I'll post some of Harry's home printed photos of his Broughs, ABCs, Indians, etc, from the 1920's thru the 60's.
I love the characters in this photo, especially the inscription 'Hello, Fats!' at the bottom. They look great - every sort of riding hat, jacket, and neckwear is visible. Click on the photo for a better look.
I love coming across photographs which tell a hidden story about the motorcycle industry. I found these two photos at the Netley Marsh Autojumble a few years ago, and they tell a tale of pre-digital factory press photography and catalog production.
You might have seen this prototype B.S.A. 500cc OHC twin in Roy Bacon's 'Illustrated History of BSA Motorcycles' (1995, Ramboro)... but this photo is much better, as every published shot shows the 'after' image. This is the 'before' shot, and the hands you see on the left are using the old photographer's trick of gently shaking the large sheet behind the bike. This creates an indistinct white background, which greatly aided the re-toucher's job of making all the space surrounding the motorcycle completely white, for a catalog or for the press. As they had to paint all shadows, supports, benches, and people out of the photo, the big white backdrop saved a lot of time, especially around the spokes!
The BSA is an intriguing prototype from 1938, and was reputedly capable of 100mph, just like their Gold Star. The design is very clean, especially on the cylinder head, and reminds me of the post-war Jawa 500cc ohc twin. A pity they didn't make it, and the same goes for it's grandchild, the BSA Fury, a 350cc dohc twin from 1970. All the best designs from the big companies never made it past the 'teaser' stage (I'm thinking 4-cyl ohc Norton, Velocette model O, etc). Second photo is a bit more brutal, but it shows the conditions and environment in which motorcycles were made or repaired in England in the 1920's. The bike looks like a Levis 246cc two-stroke ca 1923 (perhaps a Model K), and is set up for some sort of publicity shot. The poor lad (lass?) holding the machine will no doubt be painted out of existence, but look at the dismal back cobblestone alley! Two tea-rooms, a curious shopkeeper, and several workshops are visible, as is the gloomy fog descending in the background (which makes very even light for photographs, by the way - no shadows). The Levis has been upgraded with what looks like a Cowie speedometer, very unusual for a lightweight machine, but Levis made a good product - they won the Lighweight TT in 1922, with a machine very similar to this one. It used a typical dummy-rim rear brake, useless stirrup brake up front, but a very nice 3-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox, which would have placed this little machine on the expensive end of the market.
I love coming across photographs which tell a hidden story about the motorcycle industry. I found these two photos at the Netley Marsh Autojumble a few years ago, and they tell a tale of pre-digital factory press photography and catalog production.
You might have seen this prototype B.S.A. 500cc OHC twin in Roy Bacon's 'Illustrated History of BSA Motorcycles' (1995, Ramboro)... but this photo is much better, as every published shot shows the 'after' image. This is the 'before' shot, and the hands you see on the left are using the old photographer's trick of gently shaking the large sheet behind the bike. This creates an indistinct white background, which greatly aided the re-toucher's job of making all the space surrounding the motorcycle completely white, for a catalog or for the press. As they had to paint all shadows, supports, benches, and people out of the photo, the big white backdrop saved a lot of time, especially around the spokes!
The BSA is an intriguing prototype from 1938, and was reputedly capable of 100mph, just like their Gold Star. The design is very clean, especially on the cylinder head, and reminds me of the post-war Jawa 500cc ohc twin. A pity they didn't make it, and the same goes for it's grandchild, the BSA Fury, a 350cc dohc twin from 1970. All the best designs from the big companies never made it past the 'teaser' stage (I'm thinking 4-cyl ohc Norton, Velocette model O, etc). Second photo is a bit more brutal, but it shows the conditions and environment in which motorcycles were made or repaired in England in the 1920's. The bike looks like a Levis 246cc two-stroke ca 1923 (perhaps a Model K), and is set up for some sort of publicity shot. The poor lad (lass?) holding the machine will no doubt be painted out of existence, but look at the dismal back cobblestone alley! Two tea-rooms, a curious shopkeeper, and several workshops are visible, as is the gloomy fog descending in the background (which makes very even light for photographs, by the way - no shadows). The Levis has been upgraded with what looks like a Cowie speedometer, very unusual for a lightweight machine, but Levis made a good product - they won the Lighweight TT in 1922, with a machine very similar to this one. It used a typical dummy-rim rear brake, useless stirrup brake up front, but a very nice 3-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox, which would have placed this little machine on the expensive end of the market.
Here's a bit of voyeuristic pleasure - a peek into the garages of some well-known collectors. These fellows have been playing with and accumulating motorcycles and parts for decades, resulting in dense and layered environments, which reward a few hours of study. Parts, tools, half-finished motorcycles, running bikes, artwork and memorabilia, and riding gear all compete for space... and sometimes there's a LOT of space to fill (and they always fill them up).
Top photo is one third of the amazing barn of the late Ken E. - there is a room to the left of this photo with running machines, and a room past the back wall which was full of parts stock, organized on industrial shelving, just like a functioning motorcycle dealership. Ken specialized in Indians, but worked on and owned all sorts of bikes; in the foreground you can see a Norton/Matchless G15, plus Indians from 1917-'47. Ken was a swell fellow, he's there on the left (to the right is Terry Wolburt).
Next pic is another Ken (B.), who had restored so many bikes over the decades that their leftovers began to encrust his little workshop with ever-thicker layers of spares and stuff. Ken worked on very interesting machines, from Pioneers to 60's bikes, and his '27 Velo KSS/TT is on the bench, along with two Ariels.
John P. has a 16th-Century barn with a thatched roof for his workshop, and you can bet he's very careful when welding in the shop. What you see here is two levels - the ground floor (which is dirt, btw), and the upstairs attic. Out of this unlikely old-world shop come some very valuable Brough-Superiors , along with Morgans, Rolls-Royces, and the occasional Renault-engine faux Indian 4. Last pic is not so much a workshop as a storage space... I never saw Mike H.'s workshop actually, just two warehouses stuffed to the gills with Italian lightweight motorcycles, jostling for space with Alfas, Jags, and the odd Maserati. I think I was negotiating a trade at the time of this pic - my Brough 11-50 for his '62 Maserati 3500. I got scared out of the trade when I found that a distributor cap for the Mas cost $800 (in '91), and a gasket set cost $3000. Too rich for my blood - but it was a beautiful car.
Next is more of a workshop than a garage; it's the private workspace of a late Velocette dealer/repairer/tuner, and shows a very nice MkVIII KTT coming together on the bench. The bike has some interesting features, including the odd transverse mounting holes for the tank, and the telescopic forks! Those shelves are lined with gold...
Last pic, well, I have to keep my secrets, for purely selfish reasons, as I want what's peeking out from under the covers... a pre-war rigid frame, racing model 30 Norton, ca 1935/6. Horribly tempting under that tarpaulin, wouldn't you say? We did manage to extract some other motorcycles from this Aladdin's cave, but the Norton wouldn't budge. There's still time...
Okay, it wouldn't be fair to show everyone else's garage without a photo of my own. Here it is, in all it's glory - riding gear hanging from the ceiling, stacks of parts boxes, alloy rims leaning on the central heating unit, bikes being built up on the workbenches, the runners are lined up on the floor. Not pretty, but functional - and the most functional item of all is that big gray chest of drawers on the right; it's an old printer's file, which held thousands of lead print type letters. Solid oak, but painted gray (as it was formerly US Navy), it holds my stash of nuts and bolts, spare levers, electrics, magnetos - everything small enough to fit inside, basically. On top is my lathe - the cabinet is that strudily built.
Here's a bit of voyeuristic pleasure - a peek into the garages of some well-known collectors. These fellows have been playing with and accumulating motorcycles and parts for decades, resulting in dense and layered environments, which reward a few hours of study. Parts, tools, half-finished motorcycles, running bikes, artwork and memorabilia, and riding gear all compete for space... and sometimes there's a LOT of space to fill (and they always fill them up).
Top photo is one third of the amazing barn of the late Ken E. - there is a room to the left of this photo with running machines, and a room past the back wall which was full of parts stock, organized on industrial shelving, just like a functioning motorcycle dealership. Ken specialized in Indians, but worked on and owned all sorts of bikes; in the foreground you can see a Norton/Matchless G15, plus Indians from 1917-'47. Ken was a swell fellow, he's there on the left (to the right is Terry Wolburt).
Next pic is another Ken (B.), who had restored so many bikes over the decades that their leftovers began to encrust his little workshop with ever-thicker layers of spares and stuff. Ken worked on very interesting machines, from Pioneers to 60's bikes, and his '27 Velo KSS/TT is on the bench, along with two Ariels.
John P. has a 16th-Century barn with a thatched roof for his workshop, and you can bet he's very careful when welding in the shop. What you see here is two levels - the ground floor (which is dirt, btw), and the upstairs attic. Out of this unlikely old-world shop come some very valuable Brough-Superiors , along with Morgans, Rolls-Royces, and the occasional Renault-engine faux Indian 4. Last pic is not so much a workshop as a storage space... I never saw Mike H.'s workshop actually, just two warehouses stuffed to the gills with Italian lightweight motorcycles, jostling for space with Alfas, Jags, and the odd Maserati. I think I was negotiating a trade at the time of this pic - my Brough 11-50 for his '62 Maserati 3500. I got scared out of the trade when I found that a distributor cap for the Mas cost $800 (in '91), and a gasket set cost $3000. Too rich for my blood - but it was a beautiful car.
Next is more of a workshop than a garage; it's the private workspace of a late Velocette dealer/repairer/tuner, and shows a very nice MkVIII KTT coming together on the bench. The bike has some interesting features, including the odd transverse mounting holes for the tank, and the telescopic forks! Those shelves are lined with gold...
Last pic, well, I have to keep my secrets, for purely selfish reasons, as I want what's peeking out from under the covers... a pre-war rigid frame, racing model 30 Norton, ca 1935/6. Horribly tempting under that tarpaulin, wouldn't you say? We did manage to extract some other motorcycles from this Aladdin's cave, but the Norton wouldn't budge. There's still time...
Okay, it wouldn't be fair to show everyone else's garage without a photo of my own. Here it is, in all it's glory - riding gear hanging from the ceiling, stacks of parts boxes, alloy rims leaning on the central heating unit, bikes being built up on the workbenches, the runners are lined up on the floor. Not pretty, but functional - and the most functional item of all is that big gray chest of drawers on the right; it's an old printer's file, which held thousands of lead print type letters. Solid oak, but painted gray (as it was formerly US Navy), it holds my stash of nuts and bolts, spare levers, electrics, magnetos - everything small enough to fit inside, basically. On top is my lathe - the cabinet is that strudily built.
I was inspired by the previous post to research the Rex-Acme marque, since Bernard Hieatt was racing such a machine at Brooklands. Rex-Acme motorcycles were renowned for a short period in the 1920's (say '24-28) for producing some of the most formidable racing motorcycles in England. Lots of success at Brooklands and in the Isle of Man (courtesy of Wal Handley) meant that this tiny manufacturer had great stature in the Vintage period, and the machines are now terribly rare and coveted.
Such was their racing pedigree, they used as their logo the Isle of Man triskelion on their logo (the Latin motto for the symbol - quocunque jeceris stabit; 'wherever you throw me, I stand' - the image is used in Sicily as well. Wiki claims a Celtic origin, but surely the invading Romans had a hand in it's design - triskelion is a Greek word anyway!). I've seen a few at events around the world (although never in the USA), and none look remotely similar, such was the bespoke nature of their build, combined with years of mechanical changes for competition.
The top two pix are from the Banbury Run in 2007; the bike is a 1927 350cc Rex-Acme with a Blackburne engine (as all the racing bikes seem to have), belonging to Christopher Pierce. I note the Velocette positive-stop shifting mechanism on the gearbox; I think this bike used to belong to Brian Wooley, former editor of the Classic Motorcycle. Brian's bike had the same scalloped Velocette front brake as well. There is an article in Classic Bike from March 1985 which shows this machine, 23 years ago, in Brian's hands, reminding us that we are only custodians of these machines. Next pic is from British Only; it's a 1928 500cc Blackburne-engined model, which was previously raced in Austria at some point; take a gander at the 'before' pic, which is pretty daunting. To be honest, the bike isn't well restored at all, and is going to need a better job done, with correct inverted levers and properly-fitting mudguards, and some decent paint and plating. The bike is too good to have a half-hearted job! The 'before' pic shows an interesting feature of the Blackburne engines - their external flywheel. I'm not certain why they used this, as there is a complete set of flywheels inside the crankcase, but I understand that these engines are exceptionally smooth running, so perhaps the outside wheel dampens vibration. Another odd detail is the use of a crowded-roller drive-side main bearing, and a plain bush on the timing-side main... not a recipe to inspire confidence, but it obviously works well here. The bottom two pix show a Rex at the Brooklands Reunion meeting in 2005, which has a similar early-style saddle tank as above. These first saddle tanks tended to be slab-sided and kind of squared-off, and were usually used for long-distance racing at Brooklands etc. You can see similar designs used by AJS and Sunbeam around this same 1926-28 period (George Cohen has such on his Norton sidecar outfit, too). It looks like this machine is ridden as well, as the owner has bothered to put a small silencer on the exhaust pipe. The carb is a later TT Amal, which I'm sure works better than the original Type 26 Amal track carb, which had no needle and was meant for full-throttle work only.
Here is a youtube video of a Rex-Acme in action! This is Martyn Adams with his 350cc ca '26 Rex.
I'm still researching Blackburne engines!
Here is a list of published articles I've found on Rex-Acme; contact me if you find more, and I'll add them to the list: Classic Bike, Mar '85 Classic Motorcycle, Aug '90 Classic Motorcycle, Nov '93 Classic Motorcycle, Nov '04 'Historic Racing Motorcycles', J Griffith, '63, Temple Press Plus, Rick Parkington has been chronicling an affair with his own Rex.
I was inspired by the previous post to research the Rex-Acme marque, since Bernard Hieatt was racing such a machine at Brooklands. Rex-Acme motorcycles were renowned for a short period in the 1920's (say '24-28) for producing some of the most formidable racing motorcycles in England. Lots of success at Brooklands and in the Isle of Man (courtesy of Wal Handley) meant that this tiny manufacturer had great stature in the Vintage period, and the machines are now terribly rare and coveted.
Such was their racing pedigree, they used as their logo the Isle of Man triskelion on their logo (the Latin motto for the symbol - quocunque jeceris stabit; 'wherever you throw me, I stand' - the image is used in Sicily as well. Wiki claims a Celtic origin, but surely the invading Romans had a hand in it's design - triskelion is a Greek word anyway!). I've seen a few at events around the world (although never in the USA), and none look remotely similar, such was the bespoke nature of their build, combined with years of mechanical changes for competition.
The top two pix are from the Banbury Run in 2007; the bike is a 1927 350cc Rex-Acme with a Blackburne engine (as all the racing bikes seem to have), belonging to Christopher Pierce. I note the Velocette positive-stop shifting mechanism on the gearbox; I think this bike used to belong to Brian Wooley, former editor of the Classic Motorcycle. Brian's bike had the same scalloped Velocette front brake as well. There is an article in Classic Bike from March 1985 which shows this machine, 23 years ago, in Brian's hands, reminding us that we are only custodians of these machines. Next pic is from British Only; it's a 1928 500cc Blackburne-engined model, which was previously raced in Austria at some point; take a gander at the 'before' pic, which is pretty daunting. To be honest, the bike isn't well restored at all, and is going to need a better job done, with correct inverted levers and properly-fitting mudguards, and some decent paint and plating. The bike is too good to have a half-hearted job! The 'before' pic shows an interesting feature of the Blackburne engines - their external flywheel. I'm not certain why they used this, as there is a complete set of flywheels inside the crankcase, but I understand that these engines are exceptionally smooth running, so perhaps the outside wheel dampens vibration. Another odd detail is the use of a crowded-roller drive-side main bearing, and a plain bush on the timing-side main... not a recipe to inspire confidence, but it obviously works well here. The bottom two pix show a Rex at the Brooklands Reunion meeting in 2005, which has a similar early-style saddle tank as above. These first saddle tanks tended to be slab-sided and kind of squared-off, and were usually used for long-distance racing at Brooklands etc. You can see similar designs used by AJS and Sunbeam around this same 1926-28 period (George Cohen has such on his Norton sidecar outfit, too). It looks like this machine is ridden as well, as the owner has bothered to put a small silencer on the exhaust pipe. The carb is a later TT Amal, which I'm sure works better than the original Type 26 Amal track carb, which had no needle and was meant for full-throttle work only.
Here is a youtube video of a Rex-Acme in action! This is Martyn Adams with his 350cc ca '26 Rex.
I'm still researching Blackburne engines!
Here is a list of published articles I've found on Rex-Acme; contact me if you find more, and I'll add them to the list: Classic Bike, Mar '85 Classic Motorcycle, Aug '90 Classic Motorcycle, Nov '93 Classic Motorcycle, Nov '04 'Historic Racing Motorcycles', J Griffith, '63, Temple Press Plus, Rick Parkington has been chronicling an affair with his own Rex.
My friend Josiah Leet sent me two pix of a motorcycle memorial he found on the internet (from Vintagebike.co.uk). 'Not to be Goth or anything..' he says. It depicts, in the manner of a classic 'Conversion of St. Paul' painting (except he's on a bike, not a horse), the assumption of a motorcyclists to heaven, presumably, and is a very nice work of Expressionist sculpture. While the figure is rendered in a stylized, post-Rodin blockiness, there is no mistaking the motorcycle - a BD from Czechoslovakia, the first series-built double-overhead-cam motorcycle, ca 1928. I don't know the identity of the sculptor, but the BD was designed by J.F. Koch, and had a unit-construction 500cc engine (ie gearbox within the crankcase). The Praga concern bought out BD in 1929, to add a line of motorcycles to the automobiles they had been making since the 'teens. This is a very rare machine (they made perhaps 2500 total), so the sculptor either had one, or the deceased did. I reckon the grave would be found in Prague?
Another incredible motorcyclist's memorial is in the middle of Reading, England, and was introduced to me by my friend Dai Gibbison (who is a Velocette web/tech guru). It depicts Bernard Hieatt, who died aged 21 years in May of 1930. Bernard packed a lot of life into those 21 years, having set two world records in a 200-mile race at Brooklands (solo and sidecar), and was an accomplished pilot with his own biplane, as well. Apparently he died while leading a race at Brooklands on his Rex-Acme sidecar outfit, after hitting the fence while dropping down from the Byfleet Banking, onto the straightaway. It was raining heavily during the race, and he complained at his last pit-stop of poor visibility on the track. I imagine his speed coming down from the steep banking must have been in the 80+mph range. His passenger wasn't seriously injured. Bernard won a Gold Star (for a 100mph lap at Brooklands during a race) on October 19th, 1929 on his Zenith-Blackburne - lapping at 104.85mph. He won another 100-mile race at the track on a 350cc Cotton-Blackburne, at over 91mph (1928). One suspects he had contacts with Blackburnes, or at least his mechanic did? Surely his Rex-Acme employed a Blackburne as well, as this was their most successful engine. (A topic for another post - there's almost nothing on the web about the Blackburne company.)
His family must have been well-off (who can afford an airplane at 20?), and the quality of the marble carving on his memorial is amazing. The top photo shows clearly the laces of his puttees, and the second pic shows the details of his double-breasted leather racing jacket; note the threads through the buttonholes! The bottom pic is a detail on the plinth, showing a motorcycle, but not as specific as the BD/Praga - it's probably the sculptor's own lowly sidevalve ride-to-work machine, not a Brooklands racer (no Brooklands 'can' - the regulation fishtail silencer required for racing at the track for both cars and motorcycles). There is a plane which looks like a Gypsy Moth carved on the other side, and each corner of the burial plot has a full size winged helmet with goggles. Note that his fingers are parted in the middle photo - the man was a smoker!
Both of these statues are private memorials, not sitting in a public park or at the side of a race track. It really begs the question - what bike on your gravestone?
My friend Josiah Leet sent me two pix of a motorcycle memorial he found on the internet (from Vintagebike.co.uk). 'Not to be Goth or anything..' he says. It depicts, in the manner of a classic 'Conversion of St. Paul' painting (except he's on a bike, not a horse), the assumption of a motorcyclists to heaven, presumably, and is a very nice work of Expressionist sculpture. While the figure is rendered in a stylized, post-Rodin blockiness, there is no mistaking the motorcycle - a BD from Czechoslovakia, the first series-built double-overhead-cam motorcycle, ca 1928. I don't know the identity of the sculptor, but the BD was designed by J.F. Koch, and had a unit-construction 500cc engine (ie gearbox within the crankcase). The Praga concern bought out BD in 1929, to add a line of motorcycles to the automobiles they had been making since the 'teens. This is a very rare machine (they made perhaps 2500 total), so the sculptor either had one, or the deceased did. I reckon the grave would be found in Prague?
Another incredible motorcyclist's memorial is in the middle of Reading, England, and was introduced to me by my friend Dai Gibbison (who is a Velocette web/tech guru). It depicts Bernard Hieatt, who died aged 21 years in May of 1930. Bernard packed a lot of life into those 21 years, having set two world records in a 200-mile race at Brooklands (solo and sidecar), and was an accomplished pilot with his own biplane, as well. Apparently he died while leading a race at Brooklands on his Rex-Acme sidecar outfit, after hitting the fence while dropping down from the Byfleet Banking, onto the straightaway. It was raining heavily during the race, and he complained at his last pit-stop of poor visibility on the track. I imagine his speed coming down from the steep banking must have been in the 80+mph range. His passenger wasn't seriously injured. Bernard won a Gold Star (for a 100mph lap at Brooklands during a race) on October 19th, 1929 on his Zenith-Blackburne - lapping at 104.85mph. He won another 100-mile race at the track on a 350cc Cotton-Blackburne, at over 91mph (1928). One suspects he had contacts with Blackburnes, or at least his mechanic did? Surely his Rex-Acme employed a Blackburne as well, as this was their most successful engine. (A topic for another post - there's almost nothing on the web about the Blackburne company.)
His family must have been well-off (who can afford an airplane at 20?), and the quality of the marble carving on his memorial is amazing. The top photo shows clearly the laces of his puttees, and the second pic shows the details of his double-breasted leather racing jacket; note the threads through the buttonholes! The bottom pic is a detail on the plinth, showing a motorcycle, but not as specific as the BD/Praga - it's probably the sculptor's own lowly sidevalve ride-to-work machine, not a Brooklands racer (no Brooklands 'can' - the regulation fishtail silencer required for racing at the track for both cars and motorcycles). There is a plane which looks like a Gypsy Moth carved on the other side, and each corner of the burial plot has a full size winged helmet with goggles. Note that his fingers are parted in the middle photo - the man was a smoker!
Both of these statues are private memorials, not sitting in a public park or at the side of a race track. It really begs the question - what bike on your gravestone?
Sometimes when you're young, you don't really think that you're part of a big cycle, a passing of history from hand to hand. At the time of these photos (1988), I was just excited to have found an unusual old motorcycle for a good price, in great running condition, and totally original. What was also happening was the seller, Hollis Button, was letting go of his lifetime collection of old motorcycles, handing the torch to younger folks to carry on where he was leaving off.
Hollis was having health issues, but had been a member of CAMA (California Antique Motorcycle Ass'n - now defunct) and the AMCA for years, and had restored many motorcycles in his day. I recall a German enthusiast several years ago sending me photos of a 'San Joe Bee', supposedly ca. 1898, and made in San Francisco. Did I know anything about it? I did a little research, and it turned out that Hollis had built the thing out of spares to look 'antique' - he clearly had a sense of humor too! The top photo tells the tale - there is Hollis looking anxiously on as I (dressed in period gear even at that tender age) acquaint myself with the hand-shift and controls on this '37 DKW 500cc twin-cylinder two-stroke. I had just purchased the machine, and was ready for the test ride. It turned out to be in perfect mechanical condition, and for the few years I owned it, remained so. We had many fun miles, the only bugbear was the prodigious smoke screen laid down whenever I opened up the throttle - I can remember one day going over the Golden Gate bridge, looking back at an enormous blue cloud behind me... not a very 'green' machine! Second pic shows me under way. The 'Deek' would do 70+ mph, and handled very well. The frame and forks are pressed steel stampings, which can be seen clearly in the bottom photo (note holes in the engine plates below the gear-drive primary cover). I think the machine had come from Verrall's in the 1970's (note tax disc on bottom pic) - it had original paint and pinstriping, although Hollis had converted the original electric start mechanism (yep, 1937 e-start) for a Honda starter/generator. It was a stylish little machine, but ultimately it went away in order to buy my first Brough-Superior, an 11-50 model from 1937. I note that DomiRacer has a similar DKW for sale, and am tempted, but I rarely go backwards...
Some notes about the DKW story; at one time (1936?) they were the largest motorcycle factory in the world, and were amalgamated into the Auto-Union umbrella, which we know now as Audi. Their RT125cc two-stroke single was a huge seller, and immediately after WW2, both the Yanks and Brits 'appropriated' the blueprints and production facilities of the DKW factory - hence we had the Harley Hummer and BSA Bantam, both of which were faithful copies of the little pre-war DKW. After the war the factory in Zschopau ended up in East Germany, and the company became MZ (Motorrad Zschopau). MZ continued to develop motorcycles for road and race through the communist era (I rode a 250cc MZ across the Eastern Bloc in '88).
Their race chief, Walter Kaaden, used mathematical formulae to perfect harmonic resonance in two-stroke exhaust systems ('expansion chambers'), and the little made-on-a-shoestring racers became world beaters. Kaaden's protege, Ernst Degner, defected to Japan and sold Kaaden's secrets to Suzuki, who then went on to world championship status . Degner later committed suicide .... Who says there isn't drama and intrigue in old motorcycle history?
Sometimes when you're young, you don't really think that you're part of a big cycle, a passing of history from hand to hand. At the time of these photos (1988), I was just excited to have found an unusual old motorcycle for a good price, in great running condition, and totally original. What was also happening was the seller, Hollis Button, was letting go of his lifetime collection of old motorcycles, handing the torch to younger folks to carry on where he was leaving off.
Hollis was having health issues, but had been a member of CAMA (California Antique Motorcycle Ass'n - now defunct) and the AMCA for years, and had restored many motorcycles in his day. I recall a German enthusiast several years ago sending me photos of a 'San Joe Bee', supposedly ca. 1898, and made in San Francisco. Did I know anything about it? I did a little research, and it turned out that Hollis had built the thing out of spares to look 'antique' - he clearly had a sense of humor too! The top photo tells the tale - there is Hollis looking anxiously on as I (dressed in period gear even at that tender age) acquaint myself with the hand-shift and controls on this '37 DKW 500cc twin-cylinder two-stroke. I had just purchased the machine, and was ready for the test ride. It turned out to be in perfect mechanical condition, and for the few years I owned it, remained so. We had many fun miles, the only bugbear was the prodigious smoke screen laid down whenever I opened up the throttle - I can remember one day going over the Golden Gate bridge, looking back at an enormous blue cloud behind me... not a very 'green' machine! Second pic shows me under way. The 'Deek' would do 70+ mph, and handled very well. The frame and forks are pressed steel stampings, which can be seen clearly in the bottom photo (note holes in the engine plates below the gear-drive primary cover). I think the machine had come from Verrall's in the 1970's (note tax disc on bottom pic) - it had original paint and pinstriping, although Hollis had converted the original electric start mechanism (yep, 1937 e-start) for a Honda starter/generator. It was a stylish little machine, but ultimately it went away in order to buy my first Brough-Superior, an 11-50 model from 1937. I note that DomiRacer has a similar DKW for sale, and am tempted, but I rarely go backwards...
Some notes about the DKW story; at one time (1936?) they were the largest motorcycle factory in the world, and were amalgamated into the Auto-Union umbrella, which we know now as Audi. Their RT125cc two-stroke single was a huge seller, and immediately after WW2, both the Yanks and Brits 'appropriated' the blueprints and production facilities of the DKW factory - hence we had the Harley Hummer and BSA Bantam, both of which were faithful copies of the little pre-war DKW. After the war the factory in Zschopau ended up in East Germany, and the company became MZ (Motorrad Zschopau). MZ continued to develop motorcycles for road and race through the communist era (I rode a 250cc MZ across the Eastern Bloc in '88).
Their race chief, Walter Kaaden, used mathematical formulae to perfect harmonic resonance in two-stroke exhaust systems ('expansion chambers'), and the little made-on-a-shoestring racers became world beaters. Kaaden's protege, Ernst Degner, defected to Japan and sold Kaaden's secrets to Suzuki, who then went on to world championship status . Degner later committed suicide .... Who says there isn't drama and intrigue in old motorcycle history?
