MY NEW HOBBY

I know a lot of you have been wondering why my posts have been sparse these last few weeks, and now I can reveal the answer; I've taken up a new hobby! The Vintagent will become bigger and better, and the biggest expansion of content will be in the field of crochet. :0

Crochet is the perfect complement to Motorcycling, and it's really much safer than riding. My first project was simply a petrol tank cozy, but once I got the hang of the technique, there seemed no reason to stop.

The engine cozy was the most fun. My only regret, and I'm being vulnerable here, is I was too scared to make my first crochet project on my Sunbeam. Now that I've done the work, it's a little disappointing that I used my wife's Yamaha Radian. :(

But don't worry! The Brough Superior cozy is next! And I'm going to use black! That should be smart... ;)

HOW YOU FIND THEM #13: VELO VENOM

Dai spotted this circa 1962 Velocette Venom at the Kempton Park Autojumble last weekend; asking price £700. This is the 'Special' model, meaning cheaper! The Venom Special was sold between 1962-69, as a more economical version of the evergreen Venom; Veloce were canny about their expense-paring, and managed to make a bike which was significantly less expensive than the standard Venom. The crankcases, timing, and gearbox covers were unpolished, and the fiberglass covers over the power unit, made in conjunction with Mitchenall fiberglass (friends of the Goodman family), were cheaper than polishing up the raw aluminum castings. The hubs are cleverly disguised to appear as full-width alloy items, but have painted steel, ribbed covers over the single-sided, obsolete hubs, of which Veloce had many in stock. The petrol tank also is the 'old' 3.5 gal model (the larger 'breadloaf' 4.5g tank was introduced in '60), and ribbed aluminum strips were screwed to the sides as an alternative to chroming the whole tank. All this saved about £15 over the standard Venom (which sold for £285 in '62) - which might have been a few week's wages for the average yobbo.

The Specials were painted pale blue (see pic from the '62 Earl's Court Show, with a Viceroy scooter - the real nail in the coffin for Veloce, in back), which although very pretty, was like a blue flag indicating you'd bought the 'cheap' model. Performance (except for braking!) was identical to the more expensive model. As an indicator of how dire the economic situation had become for the British motorcycle industry after the drastic fall-off in sales post-1958 (the peak year for all Brit sales), Veloce sold only 20 Venom Specials in 1963, and 34 350cc Viper Specials.

The story of the Kempton bike is priceless though; it was recently discovered in a hedge! As evidenced by the foliage still attached to the bike, grass and bushes had overgrown and hidden the Velo for nearly 30 years. It's in surprisingly good shape for living outdoors for so long - it's possible that is was under a bit of overhead cover. The new owner has a lot of work ahead - best of luck!

Statistics taken from Dave Masters' 'Velocette: An Illustrated Profile of Models 1905-1971' (DMD, 2004), which is still available and a very useful book indeed.

WORLD'S OLDEST VELOCETTE FOR SALE

While Veloce Ltd. made a few iterations of motorcycle before creating their own engine around 1910 (as explored in an earlier post), very few of these earliest 'Veloce' models have survived. A few engines are laying in warehouses waiting for frames, but to my knowledge there are less than half a dozen of the earliest machines left intact.

It was a surprise to see this 1911 3 1/2hp 'Standard' Veloce, which recently sold on ebay for A$50,000, and it is entirely possible that this is the oldest intact Velo in the world. The engine number (#X129 - frame is A13744) is lower than the previous claimant to the title (#154), although there is some question whether the engine alone was supplied by Veloce to a dealer in Australia, to install in their own chassis, as was common in the day.

The first owner of the bike is documented as a resident of Benalla, Victoria, in 1911, who purchased the machine for 40 Guineas. It's truly a 'standard' product from the day, with direct belt drive and little braking power, the front having nothing at all to retard progress; the rear has a typical 'spoon' pressing on the dummy rim for the drive belt. Starting is push-and-bonk, and as basic as these machines were, they would have been very reliable in the day, with a decent Bosch magneto, and little else to go wrong!

These early Veloce sidevalvers were based on a Belgian Kelecom engine, installed in a chassis which is either Triumph made or on their pattern, as they are identical. Ironically, Triumph themselves made a machine which is the spitting image of this Velo, but with their logo cast into the crankcases. One could order engines thus from Kelecom's concern, or make them to pattern yourself while paying a licensing fee for the privelege.

There are a few suspect details on the machine, which could be rectified with a little research and effort - most glaring is the transfer, which is a shortened version of a later 'Velocette' logo, introduced with their later two-strokes; the Veloce should be in blocky, Wild-West lettering - examples of the original paint still exist (see pic below)!

If you have a hankering for the 'Oldest' of a major motorcycle manufacturer, here's your chance - it will be tremendously cheaper than the Oldest Harley, Indian, or Norton!

'SCORPIO RISING', 1963 - KENNETH ANGER

Unless you're a serious film buff, you probably haven't seen the work of. Kenneth Anger (below), whose short films have profoundly impacted cinema, advertising, and pop culture. Since 1947, when he was 17, he has been experimenting with difficult and obscure subject matter, using his own milieu as his inspiration, and his cast. I first saw Scorpio Rising almost 30 years ago at the behest of my pal Madeleine Leskin, who went on to work at the Berlin Film Festival; she urged me into a late-night screening... I've never forgotten the disturbing/alluring quality of the film.
I was prompted to track down a copy after Amaryllis saw Anger speak at a recent Hammer Museum lecture.



You'll see Anger's visual influence on later movies like Easy Rider (1969), The Loveless (1981), George Lucas' American Graffiti (1973) and Martin Scorcese's Mean Streets (1973). Specifically, his camera gazes adoringly at material objects, weighting them with an iconic, erotic power. Although never discussed as such, this camera work probably had it's greatest impact on TV advertising! His films remain almost unknown to a broader audience, and ironically his book 'Hollwood Babylon' (1974), detailing the sordid underbelly of the movie industry, is his most famous work.

Thanks to Google Films, we can now watch a Kenneth Anger film any time.



His movies are difficult, non-narrative, and certainly non-literal, almost dream-like (in fact the soundtrack of his ode to SoCal automotive culture, Kustom Kar Kommandos, is the Paris Sisters' 'Dream Lover').



Scorpio Rising was completed in 1963, and its central character, Scorpio (Bruce Byron), is symbolic of the mythos of post-Wild One American Bikers. It's hardly flattering, as he projects a homoerotic, sadomasochistic aura, snorting methamphetamines from a salt shaker, humiliating a man at a party, and defiling a church. Through jump shots to clips of other films (including The Wild One and a very bad black and white Jesus biopic), comic strips, and nazi imagery, Scorpio is alternately compared to Jesus, Hitler, and the Devil. Pop culture icons like James Dean and Lucky Strike cigarettes wallpaper the scenery.

It was considered obscene in the day, but now we're all horribly jaded, and it merely seems shocking! Try to put yourself in the mindset of 1963 - Anger is a sly one and it's difficult to tell if he's celebrating Scorpio, or if he considers Scorpio a figment of a frightened citizenry's imagination - everyone's fantasy of what Bikers are Really Like. Using such imagery doesn't constitute an endorsement!

Scorpio Rising is 28 minutes long, and requires a bit of patience; its an avante-garde piece by a filmmaker who is way out on a limb. It still has the best 'title sequence' of any biker film, hands down. With its great period soundtrack (referencing the action of course), it's really the very first Music Video, predating the genre by a full 15 years, although no Music Video was ever quite like this again...

If you click on the 'expand screen' box on the lower right corner you'll get a better view; this is a hi-res video, not the usual Youtube horror. You can also watch it on the Google Film page.

BURT MUNRO VELOCETTE UNDER THE HAMMER

Yesterday Webb's in New Zealand auctioned off a rare piece of history; Burt Munro, builder of the 'World's Fastest Indian' and several other Very Fast motorcycles, was also known to build engines for a few friends. As far as I know, these were all Velocette MSS-based sprinters, as another machine came up for auction a few years ago, in very similar spec. The Munro bikes proper are simply unavailable, and living in New Zealand, but a few of his other projects pop up occasionally, and are certainly worth the attention. This sprinter is beautifully crafted by Duncan Meikle, lifelong friend of Munro's; he lived within walking distance and they developed their Velocette sprinters in tandem, sharing tuning secrets and parts, and competing against each other at various sand and road sprints. Together, they developed the most effective Velo sprinters in the world.

One great story from their days sprinting at Invarcargill beach from 1959:
"Meikle and Munro were practicing quarter-mile starts. Munro decided to give a couple of young fellows a good head start and an even better beating, screaming past the surprised young men and giving them a wave bye-bye to boot. Unfortunately, this sent the Velo into a nasty tank-slap and, within a fraction, Munro had bailed and the Velo was twisted metal, 30 feet in the air and rising. As the machine churned down the beach, so did Munro.

Meikle [informed] Munro's mother of the unfortunate accident. [He said], 'I have come to report on Burt, he had a bit of an accident yesterday.' 'Oh', she said, 'Serious?' 'Well no', said Meikle, 'a few pounds of meat were ground off and a broken arm.' The next query from Mrs. Munro was 'I suppose it was on that motorcycle.' 'Yes.' 'That foolish Herbert, when will he ever give up those motorcycles!?!'. Mrs Munro was 84 years old, and her son Bert was 60!"
By the way, the bike went for NZ$71,000... that's over double the estimate.

(Information taken from the Webb's auction site.)

BEN HARDY - CREATOR OF 'CAPTAIN AMERICA'

My recent visit to the 'Black Chrome' show in LA exposed an emotionally charged, ragged hole in the history of motorcycling. The discreet mention that Ben Hardy had created the 'Captain America' and 'Billy' choppers for the film Easy Rider blew my mind - Why didn't I know this? Why isn't this part of the folklore surrounding this epochal film? The reasons are myriad, but the effect is the same - this man is nearly invisible on the Motorcycle Culture radar.















A little digging on the web revealed some photos of Hardy and his shop, and some details on the 'build' of the Captain America bike. Ben Hardy's Motorcycle Service was located at 1168 E. Florence in Los Angeles, which is now an auto repair shop. As Hardy looks to be in his late 40s in the photographs, I would presume he is dead now, but I'll be on the hunt for more info and family photographs - trust The Vintagent; this story is going to come out.

The story thus far: Peter Fonda, the producer of Easy Rider, hired Cliff Vaughs to coordinate the motorcycles for the film, and Cliff tapped Ben Hardy for the actual construction of the machines. I've heard a rumor that 3 'Captain America' replicas were built, but I'll fact check that (I do know that none of the originals exist, the principal bike having been stolen from the props warehouse after the movie was completed).

Ben Hardy used standard H-D frames, ca. '48-'56, and used Buchanan's frame shop to alter the steering head angle to 45 degrees. The steering head was cut off and repositioned, and the resultant extreme rake required a 12" extension to the telescopic forks. A set of A.E.E. fork clamps are used, with extended handlebar clamps ('dog bones'); the handlebars have a rise of 13" - not yet in 'ape hanger' territory.

Cliff Vaughns hired Dean Lanza to paint the bikes, and Peter Fonda specified the tank on one to resemble the sheild of comic-book character 'Captain America' - hence the name of the motorcycle.

I've long argued that the 'Captain America' bike is one of the top 3 most famous motorcycles in the world. I'm in disbelief that I never knew the story behind the machine. More to come.

Check out this youtube video on the subject; kudos to Jesse James for his research, and finding Cliff Vaughs:


Many thanks and an apology to Fritz Simmerlein of Harleysons.de for the original photos of Ben Hardy and the information about the 'Captain America' details. I found my info at random on the web, but it was Fritz' research. I'm hoping we find more original photos of Hardy, and will explore the subject further. Thanks Fritz!

'BLACK CHROME'

The California African American Museum in LA hosts 'Black Chrome', an exhibit featuring black motorcyclists, their bikes, and a bit of history (through April 12th, 2009).

I managed to catch it last weekend - the show is poorly advertised in the motorcycle community, and only a chance google result raised the website of the museum, which sits next to the LA Coliseum (and its stunning Robert Graham headless nude man/woman statues, which caused such controversy at the 1984 LA Olympics). The museum complex also includes an Aerospace Hall, with an SR-71 'Blackbird' plane outside - amazing.

'Black Chrome' (gotta love the name) is a mixed bag of a show - a superlative and long overdue concept, with a few real gems, but on the whole it lacks the depth needed to make a statement about motorcyclists 'of color'. The gems; I never knew that the builder of those seminal choppers in Easy Rider, Ben Hardy, is black! A claim is made that the whole extended fork style of custom motorcycle was created by Black rider/artisans - take that, nazi bikers! It all makes sense of course - who invented the 'look' and sound of Rock music, who created Jazz and Blues, who started the trend for outrageous stage outfits/antics which were parroted and expropriated by everyone else? Okay, I'm done.

But, this tidbit of information is presented on a 8" square card, between two 'Easy Rider' posters. I'm not sure if the curators really appreciate the significance of this nugget of information, and the exhibit strikes me as curious for its lack of a catalog or much background information at all. Someone is either completely unfunded, or isn't really savvy to the impact a show such as this could/should have on popular culture. They are aware, however, of the popularity of the Chopper craze, as quite a few bikes on display are new OCC-style bikes.


A Discovery Channel video on the History of the Chopper (a Jesse James project), on continuous loop, does explore the exclusion of Black riders from Chopper magazines In The Day. The video also allows 'Sugar Bear' to explain his own history of building custom bikes since the 1960's, and most significantly, mention is made of photographs of Black choppers dating back to the 1950s... and you can bet The Vintagent will pay this man a visit!

The period photos in 'Black Chrome' poorly reproduced, displayed, and explained - they speak volumes, but I truly wish the curators had spent more time exploring a world most of us don't know. Where's the sholarship on the subject? I guess it's here - hire me folks, I write cheap.

The photo above is Esvan Mosky, with his dog Koo Koo Man, on their modified BMW /2 tourer - Esvan was in show business somehow, but I'd like to learn more about this intriguing fellow.

Images of women riders are included, with a brief mention of Bessie Stringfield, founder of the Motor Maids, and a few words that women had their own motorcycles within the riding clubs, then and now. More please.

Gang and Club 'colors' are prominently displayed, including the East Bay Dragons, a still-active group I see on the road at times.

Their Drag Bike (see photos) is perhaps only intact as it had a rather serious 'issue' with the crankcases during a sprint. Oops. I love that it is presented 'as is'! Unfortunately, a 1960s Sportster is also presented thus (ie, incomplete) with no good reason other than to fill space. A nice orange metalflake Panhead makes sense, as does a beautifully pinstriped Sportster named 'My Man', owned by a woman.

My favorite Club jacket - the 'California Blazers M/C' (above); aesthetically uninspired, barring the late-model Velocette Scrambler used as their logo...cool.

In an adjacent gallery, a photographic collection of Black Panther history from 1968, shot by Howard L. Bingham for Life magazine, had these images which I thought relevant; 'The Man' on his Harley Police Special, looking rather unhappily at the photographer! The lower pic shows the Panthers miming a firing squad at the cop - ouch. These photos inadvertently give a hint of the relationship which must have existed between the East Bay Dragons and the Oakland P.D.

I'm also curious about the Dragon's relationship with the Hell's Angels chapter in Oakland, founded by the notorious Sonny Barger; arguably their home base during the 60s and certainly the Angel's most significant locale at the time, especially with Hunter S. Thompson's book exploring his 'difficult' time investigating the club for the book 'Hell's Angels'.


If you get a chance to see the exhibit, let me know what you think.

The black&white period photographs from the 'Black Chrome' exhibit are used here by kind permission of Na'il 'Shayk' Karim, publisher of The Black Biker magazine and Breezin on Two Wheels. Shayk painstakingly collected these photographs from family members of the subjects, and the photos were licensed exclusively to Shayk.

PALADIN - 'NOBODY IS BORN A BIKER'

Paladin was a friend of mine from Berkeley CA, a fixture of the burgeoning Old Motorcycle scene in the late 70s/80s, where he could often be seen hanging around T.T. Motors on Ashby Avenue, giving unsolicited advice and a disposition on just about any subject, to anyone who was nearby. Often, that was me, and I rode whatever machine was running, from S.F. to the East Bay to check out the bikes for sale at T.T., visit my friends, and have a chat with Paladin.

He was a devoted Triumph man, and I owned several of his 'hardtail' Triumph conversions over the years, each honed closer to the 'bobber' ideal than anything made today - they were fast, light, and no-frills. He could appreciate other Marques though, and enjoyed discussing their relative merits. As mentioned in my 'tattoo post', he had amazing self-inflicted Triumph tats on his body, and donated his skin to a Japanese tattoo museum on his death.

John Galivan, owner of T.T. Motors (see period photo of John below), has this to say; "I liked and respected him a great deal; I sold him that bike [Triumph TR6] for $49.00 and he stayed. His writing in Iron Horse magazine and others are classics. He coined the word 'unobtanium' referring to rare British parts. The centerfold of this mag w/ the girl and real rats crawling all over is a classic." (Iron Horse cover photo below).

As John mentions, Paladin died twenty years ago in his sleep; nobody knows exactly how old he was, but 50ish would be my guess. He had suffered a mighty knock to the head a few years prior, which definitely altered his personality. Still, an amazing soul - when I bought my first Velocette in 1985 from Munroe Motors, Paladin brought out a bucket of water and sponge and washed it! "Such a finely made motorcycle as this should NEVER be dirty!"

The following is an excerpt of an interview with Paladin, from the book, 'Berkeley U.S.A.' (Anne Moose, Alternative Press, 1981):

"Essentially, everything that I do relates at one level or another to motorcycling. I make my living by writing for motorcycling journals and doing illustrations for them... I'm into motorcycle paint work and uh, you know, it's kind of dull if you ain't into bikes, but I'm into bikes so I find it all quite fascinating....Twenty years ago, it didn't matter if you rode a Harley, or if you rode a Triumph, or if you rode a BSA. If you rode, you rode. You were committed. The other people who rode were your brothers, except you didn't use the word brother because you didn't have to. This was all just, you know, understood at almost a back brain level.

Now then, when the Japanese started bringing their bikes in, what they brought was nothing new in the sense of engineering. What they did was... a publicity campaign. They brought in a form of advertising to make the motorcycle, shall I say, socially acceptable. Well, people that are stone bikers, as opposed to motorcycle operators, don't really care much about social acceptability... But what this did, brought a whole new kind of person into the riding scene, and it brought in a lot of divisionism. In 1963, you break down on your bike on the side of the highway, you know that the next guy who comes by is going to stop and help. And it don't matter what brand of bike you're riding, or if his bike is chopped or not, or who's in a club and who isn't - that's jive. You're a biker or you're not. Since the Japanese bike has become popular...it's brought this new element ...this whole concept of antagonism and divisionism which we've had to deal with for about the past twelve to fifteen years.

Personally, I can't stand Japanese bikes. I don't care how fast they are, or how many camshafts they have, or if they win races. I just don't like the aesthetics of the damn things. But at the same time, it doesn't matter what kind of sled you've got under your ass - when you're in the wind, it's like, the same wind, and that's the policy we're pushing.

As far as I'm concerned, the only group that really matters in this country, per se, is the bikers. And this may sound like an off-the-wall statement, but I think if you'll check back you'll find that during that whole big so-called cultural revolution of the sixties, language, style, and everything was copied from the bikers. Our influence is a lot more subtle than many people would imagine. We're simply living our own lives, and in living our own lives we're setting such a rare example in modern times...

The thing is, you're born black, you're born Chicano, you're born Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, Jewish, Polynesian, whatever. Nobody is born a biker. It's something you do by choice. A biker is under a complete psychic necesssity, right, in that he is one half of a symbiotic organism of which the other half is a motorcycle. And if you wish to make any value judgements on that, go ask your mother how she likes her valium.

One of the things that a lot of people that I'm close to are into, is trying to get more women into riding. I guess you could say it's part of our highway beautification project. I personally think that women and men both - and everyone - should know how to handle machines... that, to me, is the only way we're ever going to have what I'd consider to be a sane and healthy culture... If people are going to band together, it must be through recognition and respect of their own strength, and of the strength of those about them. It always starts at the inside and works out."

B/W photos of Paladin are from 'Berkeley USA'. Other photos were sourced from Facebook!