SIDEBURN MAGAZINE #3

The new issue of Sideburn magazine is out, and should be available shortly... if your local doesn't carry it, you can buy a copy online here at their site. They also keep a blog, which is included on my blog list on the sidebar.

Issue #3 includes is a short piece I wrote on the history of sand racing at Daytona (pictured). The layout is great, love those period shots of manly men ruining iconic motorcycles in the abrasive grit environment.... how on earth did those exposed-rocker ohc Nortons ever survive, let alone win the race time and again. I will reprint the article I wrote (not shortened for space!) with illustrations in full later, as the history of Beach Racing is worth exploring. 'The perfect race surface, renewed daily by Nature.'

QUAIL LODGE MOTORCYCLE GATHERING

The postponement of the Legend of the Motorcycle show for 2009 has left a significant void in the motorcycle calendar. In three short years, the event set a new standard for bike shows everywhere, and created something we didn't yet know we needed - a place where gearheads like us could acknowledge that yes, we've been interested in Fine Art all along, thank you.

Stepping into the date this year is the 'Quail Motorcycle Gathering', and if you're not an afficianado of rare cars 'the Quail' might not mean much... but like the Pebble Beach Concours (we'll get to that later...), ' The Quail Motorsports Gathering' is an ultra-exclusive, rare-automobile show, or as organizer Gordon McCall likes to say, what 'might happen if a car show broke out at a 4-star restaurant'. Tickets are limited to 3000 at the car show, which might sound like a lot, but given the acreage available at the Carmel Valley resort, the event is very much, as the old Brooklands axiom goes, 'the right crowd and no crowding'.
Gordon is also an avid motorcycle enthusiast, and discussed the possibility of hosting the Legends at the Quail, but some technical/financial/contractual issues made this impossible, and thus he's organized a different type of bike event in conjunction with Bonham's auction house, who also had the weekend free... in conversations with McCall he made it plain that he has the utmost respect for Jared Zaugg/Brooke Roner and the Legends, and laments greatly that the economy has scotched their event this year.

Here's the schedule; Friday May 8th, the Inaugural Quail Motorcycle Tour; 100 miles of riding through the spectacular coast highway and hills. $250, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner included. The ride is limited to 20 participants (if you'd like to go, better call fast...831/620-8887 or (toll-free) 877/734-4628), and Cycle World will be giving a prize for a motorcycle which completes the ride AND is shown Saturday.
Saturday May 9th; the Motorcycle Gathering and show - $65 including lunch, with the Bonham's auction at 3pm. The Gathering is a motorcycle show and NOT a Concours event - there will be no formal judging of the bikes, as per the Motorsports event.
Given reports from previous Quail events, the food and drink are guaranteed to be excellent.

Unfortunately, I won't be there! I'm working on a super-secret Motorcycle Television show pilot in another state that weekend; would that I could be in two places at once, as I'd dearly love to show the upstarts a clean pair of heels Friday on my Sunbeam, then show it on the Saturday, resplendent in oil mist...

ITALIAN MOTORCYCLE NIGHT AT THE CANDY STORE

And what, pray tell, is the 'Candy Store'? It's complicated; about the swankest place to park your seven-figure car, a private club, a former Packard dealership, and a warehouse shared by a bunch of gearheads, who happen to be well-heeled.

Last Saturday night was the second 'Motorcycle Night', with members and friends supplying their special two-wheelers, as there are always crossover enthusiasts who like both cars and bikes. So, with some pretty spectacular sheetmetal as a backdrop, we had a few lovely Italian bikes to discuss before an informal buffet dinner and a few guest speakers.

The top photo is the former Packard display area; Packards are fine, but Gullwings and Spyders are better! Especially in company with a nice trio of Ducatis; '78 900ss (distinguishable by the Campagnolo cast wheels and black/gold paint scheme), '74 750GT (in Sport yellow paint and pipes, plus period-trick Marzocchi remote-reservoir shocks), and a nearly-vintage 888. A couple of nice Jags (XK 150 - the thick 'waist' gives it away, and a Series 1 E-type; I used to own a '62 flat-floor Roadster) and a prewar Rolls lurk in the background as well... oh, and the '67 365 California Spyder in burgundy.

A study in contrasts; a lovely little Capriolo 175cc ohv, ca '59, standing before a 300SL convertible, also resplendant in red (but I prefer silver Mercs...).

More Italian exotica; a ca. '57 Benelli Leoncino 125cc ohc, beatifully restored, complete with period-correct cast aluminum lion on the front mudguard - a pedestrian biter! Behind in blue is the first Lamborghini production car - a 350/400 GT, sitting next to the competition, a Ferrari 250 Boano. That's 25 cylinders...

Yet more Latin lovelies; up front is a Parilla 175cc ohv Gran Sport, which was ridden in the Motogiro USA last year (see my previous post). Not a true overhead cam design, the Parilla used a very high-camshaft design with short rockers opening the valves - they are very much sought after here in the US. Behind are a couple of Alfa Romeos; a 1930 6c 1750 GS Zagato, ridden regularly, and a blue 1951 Touring-bodied 6C 2500, which was truly a luxury car in its day.

That's John Goldman, and no those aren't his toys - we'll get to those shortly. But what toys indeed; no need to be demure, that's a Fly yellow Ferrari 275 GTB in the background. The motorcycle is another
Parilla 175cc, the 'street' edition. In the far background is Ed Gilbertson, chief judge of the Pebble Beach Concours, who announced that a Motorcycle class will be added this August to the Pebble lineup. It will include only one class this year, for British bikes pre-'57, made up of 8 machines total, which doesn't sound like much, but two of the bikes will be Rollie Free's infamous Vincent record-breaker, and George Brown's 'Gunga Din'. High-caliber entries indeed. And if you hadn't heard about Bikes at Pebble, well, you read it here first again!

John Goldman brought a few of his Mondials along for show and tell, and spoke at length on the history of Mondials and his bikes in particular - which you can read here, in previous posts from the Legend of the Motorcycle Concours.


Frank Scurria, who deserves a post of his own, spoke of his history racing a Ducati 350cc ohc in California way back in 1959, before the factory offered a 350cc machine. The US importer (the Berliner Co.) was besieged with requests for 350cc machines after Frank's success with his Duc; it took a few years for the factory to take the hint and produce one themselves (as was ever the case with Ducati - always producing models people didn't want, and under-producing what they did). Here he is pictured with Steve Allen of Bevel Heaven.

That's Bruce Bern on his (real) '74 Ducati 750 Sport - after the duck-egg green 750SS, the Sport is one of my favorite Italian motorcycles of all time. I toured extensively on one years ago, and the -very- uncomfortable riding position makes sense above 70mph and above, which the bike was happy to oblige for days on end. 'Long legs' indeed, although it helps to have long arms to ride the beast!

A nice Motobi 175cc ohv ex-Giro machine sits before an interesting 1955 'Hagemann' Jaguar special with a one-off aluminum body; very Italianate!

From the header to the footer, a Bugatti always deserves two photos; a ca.1925 Type 35 Bug in French racing blue (how they always look best), with two MV Agustas old and new, and a Model T ice cream truck! An odd combo, but a lovely shot of the late afternoon sun on an unreinforced masonry wall...

NEW FALCON WEBSITE

Falcon Motorcycles have created a new mega-website, which includes guest blogs, and of course the Vintagent has a spot (focusing on the History of the Custom motorcycle, naturally). I recommend a visit, and a return, as the plan of Ian and Amaryllis is to continually update the site with new content and information.

They've announced a new series of 10 custom British motorcycles, all named after varieties of Falcon, to be based on iconic Marques; Velocette, Vincent, Ariel, BSA, Rudge, Norton, AJS, etc. Given the extraordinarily high quality of their previous efforts (including the 'Bullet' above, which won 'Best Custom' at the Legend of the Motorcycle Concours in '08), I'm excited to see the results of their vision, and lathe!

FERRARI MOTORCYCLE?

Students of history, take note. When a hot new design appears, looking 'totally unlike anything you've ever seen', undoubtedly it's been done before! The case in point this month is a design for a Ferrari motorcycle, utilizing half an 'Enzo' V-8 motor in an extended chassis with conventional-ish suspension front and rear.

The design was created by an Israeli, Amir Glinik, and his computer-generated images have been circulating the web for a couple of weeks now (nice computer work, by the way; how much did THAT software cost? Check out his website; he has made 3d models of several Vintage motorcycles). While every moto-geek blogger has been alternately enraged/enthralled by his foray into the two-wheeled Italian Stallion, nobody has pointed out that his mockup bears a striking resemblance to the French Majestic, the 'New Motorcycle', of the late 1920's.

Now, the Majestic really WAS radical, with a twin-beam chassis and hub-center steering, and was also offered as a four-cylinder model, utilizing a Cleveland inline inlet-over-exhaust 4. I don't know if any '4s' were built beyond this prototype; all the Majestics I've seen have single-cylinder engines by Chaise or JAP. The Majestic was the embodiment of Art Deco chic, and as mentioned in an earlier post, could be purchased with a hand-applied 'crackle' or 'alligator' paint job. An amazing machine for its day, and even today!

Also not mentioned in any Ferrari-related press; there have been previous attempts to produce a two-wheel Ferrari, starting in the 1950s with a lightweight model of unspectacular design and specification (although this was unrelated to Enzo's factory). Designers from Modena have also contributed to motorcycle engineering recently, as they were hired by Cagiva to create a new motor for the prototype MV Agusta in 1995/6. Cagiva went on to design their 'own' engine for the MV, but used Ferrari's system of a fully radial 4-valve cylinder head.... also an old idea, having last been used by Rudge-Whitworth on their Ulster model in 1932! But, the Rudge wasn't DOHC, so Ferrari had to sort out all the associated technical issues.

I have to say, the engine is certainly appealing in this concept bike, but the overall impact is visually heavy... Usually when an automobile/motorcycle association is formed the result is disastrous. One only has to remember how Guigiaro ruined the exquisite Ducati 'round case' 750 twins, to create the ugly 1976 860GT, to understand my point. Colin Chapman of Lotus said it best; 'Simplicate and add lightness'.

THE FAMILY '45'

My pal Dan Pereyra, whose 'almost mine' 1915 Indian was featured here last May, has an almost-one-family from new Harley '45', which has traveled a long way to be with him here in CA.
His uncle Hector (above), a Seventh Day Adventist minister in Paysandu, Uruguay, bought the 1947 Harley-Davidson with sidecar as a new machine. His vision, perhaps clouded by his desire to own a motorcycle, was to use the outfit as his church bus, ferrying parishoners from their homes to his church on Sundays. His congregation must have been small indeed! As rugged as the Harley was, it led a rough existence on the difficult terrain and and rutted dirt roads of rural Uruguay. Eight months later, after several breakdowns which stranded his flock, he thought better of his 'church bus', and sold the outfit.
The new owner was a photographer, a Sr. Marshalles in the town of Colonia Suiza, and the bike passed out of the Pereyra family. Marshalles likely needed a truck for his equipment - such was the life of the Harley - not a pleasure machine but a workhorse. Three-wheelers, while more stable than a motorcycle on lousy roads, have their handling quirks, and within a week the Harley had thrown its new owner into a ditch and overturned. While neither was badly hurt, the man decided he would never ride it again, and brought it back to the bank which financed his purchase.

It so happened that Dan's father Claudio (left), then 21 and a bachelor, had an account at the same bank, and noted the year-old Harley for sale. He decided to purchase the machine, ignorant of the fact that his own brother Hector, who lived over 100 miles away, had owned the machine originally. Apparently the outfit suited him better than the previous two owners, as he kept it for the next 15 years, becoming the 'family car' when he married and had children. It was ridden through dusty roads in the warm months and muddy tracks when it rained, through flooded streams and over the ever-present rocks and rugged terrain. Claudio had a construction business, and when not hauling children, used the Harley as his 'work truck', carrying lumber, stones, sand, tools, and cement to his job sites. While the bike was often seriously overloaded, under-maintained, and a long way from the nearest dealer, the Harley was a tough beast and kept on going. The sidecar chassis broke away from the motorcycle once, sending Dan's pregnant mother, like an errant torpedo, into a ditch! When the roads became really muddy, travel slowed to a crawl as mud had to be continually cleared from beneath the fenders, otherwise the wheels would jam up. Fording deep and fast-flowing winter streams was often necessary, sometimes with the help of a truck and a rope; Claudio 'rode' the outfit through the water while in tow, and occasionally the bike (and rider) would be completely swamped. It was a simple matter to remove the points and spark plugs to dry, kick the engine through to remove any ingested water, and be on his way. A helpful pusher was once rewarded with a muffler full of steamy water when the bike fired up after such a crossing.

The Harley was the only transport Dan knew until age 7, but the machine was sold to a laborer employed by his father, Sr. Cabeza, when the family decided to make a fresh start in the US. The fellow was loyal to the family; he locked the Harley away and promised that the father could buy it back should he return to Uruguay.
18 years later, Dan and his brother Alfredo made a trip to see their birthplace, and managed to track down the laborer in hope of returning the bike to the Pereyra family for the third time; amazingly the bike was still locked up at his home, but had suffered from 18 years on a dirt floor and partial exposure to the elements. And perhaps, Dan's rosy image of his childhood transport was given a rude dose of reality when confronted with a dirty and rusty old motorcycle! Nonetheless, Dan felt the machine was family itself, and offered the laborer $300; there had been many previous offers, but he would only sell to Dan's father!

Luckily Dan's parents made a trip to Uruguay not long afterwards, and Dan sent enough money to buy and ship the bike to California. All went according to plan, until Uruguayan Customs found that the title for the Harley was still in the photographer's name, from 1948! It took 4 1/2 years to find the widow of the man, and she willingly signed over the document; thus the bike was finally brought to the US.

Dan spent eighteen months restoring the outfit, finding that spares for the '45' were plentiful, but the sidecar was a very rare thing indeed, and worn and missing fittings were almost impossible to replace. By luck, he found everything he needed, usually from old dealer's stock, and vendors who had no idea what the parts were.

Dan's biggest problem now; he has two sons, and can't decide which one will carry on the family attachment to the old Harley.

2009 CLUBMAN'S SHOW, PART 1

What was 'The Clubman's All-British Show', held in one exhibit hall and exclusive of other Makes and Countries, began to change two years ago, as enterprenurial event producers pondered attaching barnacle-like to this long-established event. So, initially a European Vintage show appeared next to the Clubman's, and this year saw a Classic Japanese hall as well...


The San Mateo County Fairgrounds has yet more exhibit halls, and a rumor is circulating that Antique American Motorcycles will be the next addition to the weekend's events, which would encompass nearly the whole world's production, barring AustralAsia/China, from which many motorcycles sprouted and continue to be produced in huge numbers - but not much Vintage machinery from China or Australia comes to our shores. It does exist though!


Ariel being the featured marque this year, the variety of Selly Oak machinery was mind-boggling - and the array of Square Fours was a delight. I knew that the Red Hunter 500cc ohv model was a favorite of California dragsters and hot-rodders in the '40s and '50s, as there are still quite a few 'survivor' sprinters out there, including this beatiful iron-engined machine, raced in the late 40's through the 1960s. The dent in the tank is from 1952, and still says 'ouch'!


Squariels - they've been 'collector's machines' almost since the day they were produced, which is a kind of death for a motorcycle, as it means they are unlikely to be used, loved, modified, ridden. But evidence of love is found in the hand of the customizer - five amazing Period Specials were lined up, and none remotely resembled another. Most outrageous award goes to '2 by 4', which is a Rectangle 8! Two late alloy Mk2 engines linked by a belt primary, and sounding much like a v-8 with open exhaust.


Look at that tube-bending work - a bundle of snakes heading out to a seriously large drainpipe. This machine was built in 1986, using a Kawasaki front end and home-made frame.


This Healey 4 was an 'almost' production model - the Healey brothers shoehorning a late Ariel Mk2 engine into a very tidy and attractive frame, using Grimeca wheels and Ceriani forks.


Ariel never produced the Sq4 with a swingarm frame, only going as far as the Anstey Link rear suspension, which is prone to wear and wobble. I think the Healeys only made around 6 of their beautiful machines - more's the pity.


Here's a Featherbed Ariel, this time using and iron Mk1 engine, with the cylinder head reversed! The layout does make for a tidy exhaust line; no need for a talented tube-bender when a straight pipe will do.

This Bobber Sq4 was my favorite - an original Survivor, as modified in the 1940s no doubt, and exactly the sort of machine to be found in California in those early post-war days.


The bobbed rear mudguard keeps the bum off the rear wheel, holds the taillight, and little else. Note the finned timing cover - a nice period accessory.





Inside the show, the news was good for attendess, and merely so-so for vendors. Motorcycles and parts were selling briskly, although it seemed prices for the machines had dropped a bit. As an example, this amazing '61 Triumph Bonneville scrambler, in correct period livery and a good runner, took a couple of hours to sell - asking price; $3500. It went for less; amazing. I wanted it for my own Steve McQueen fantasy.

The good news; attendance was at its highest level ever, and by my reckoning the average age of attendees has dropped considerably. An amazing number of Twenty-somethings - hipsters, rockers, retro dudes - gave the hall a much-needed boost of energy. And what pray tell have they come for?


Well, judging from the cross-traffic between my website and the myriad Chopper Blogs which have sprung up like mushrooms, I'd say they were looking for Period Customs! Not only that, respect for 'stock' machines is growing as well. I had a conversation with one such fellow - he indeed has a '60s Triumph with rigid rear end and ape-hangers, but two completely stock BSAs keep it company in the garage. There Is Hope.

Among the vendors; Evan Wilcox (above), well-known here in the US for his aluminum forming skills, showed a few compounds and volutes in metal. The Ducati 'Jellymould' tank was my favorite. The wait for his services is long, but well worth it.


My personal favorite bike of the show? Kenny Egger's original BSA A7SS Daytona racer, on which he raced at that very venue! It has to be the best-looking parallel twin racer ever, and I love the crazy green color scheme. And, it won on the sand.


He brought along a couple of original posters from the race; below is a period pic of Kenny on another BSA racer. A close look at the machine is warranted; note the stacked revers-cone megaphones tucked under the right side of the machine - not siamesed. That 'toolbox' is actually the 1 gallon oil tank, and the modified alloy head has been reshaped to carry twin Amal GP carbs. Deeply sexy.

You meet the nicest people near a Triumph. Yoshi of the Garage Company was busily handing out posters for his upcoming Moto Corsa Classica races at Willow Springs.

Oldest Ariel at the show was this White and Poppe engined machine; the engine design was made under licenses and featured valves hung far away from the cylinder barrel. An early effort to keep the valves a bit cooler, as steels of the day weren't quite up to the job of keeping a poorly lubricated and very hot valve in one piece.

ROADSIDE REPAIRS

From Motorcyclist magazine, May 2009 issue (click on the photo for a larger image).



The scenario; Pre-'16 ride in Atascadero, 2007. My 1928 Sunbeam TT90 was running poorly and backfiring, not up to its usual peppy performance. On investigation, the inlet pushrod had worn through its hardened tip, and was making a shiny steel/grease grinding paste inside the rocker arm cup. Knowing the whole pushrod/rocker assembly would shortly be scrap, I swapped my inlet and exhaust pushrods to continue the ride...which went just fine, power restored, and the roads through the hills were magic in the Spring. I followed a Crocker through a few turns but got tired of watching his footboards scrape the road - the Sunbeam has no such issues, with racing footrests and 21/20" wheels.

Thanks to Jerry Kaplan for sending the scan!