Early in the war, the combatants were using whatever they could get their hands on. Pilots especially would bring up their own civilian bikes to use as hacks at the airfields, etc. Although by the end of the war the US did not get into it until the last 1.5 years bikes were pretty robust, many of the earlier bikes were lighter. The Brits used the single cylinder Triumph H throughout with little change from the 1915 model. The Germans used the Wanderer type both as a single and a twin both civilian and a military model. Verner Voss, one of the most famous German WWI aces was photographed with his Wanderer....would make a great motorized bike project.
I have shown this pic before but here is Werner himself (actually his ghost-as he was killed in 1917 in a a 7 versus 1 dogfight) riding the faux 1909 Kingsbury Special (Voss and several of his motorcycle pilot friends were actually fired upon by sentries one day speeding back onto the post ....the Brit Triumph riders (apparently with civilian silver painted tanks) actually rode with giant wicker cages on their backs filled with pigeons. Which brings to mind the old joke, if the birds were flying in the cages this would lessen the weight, right?
I have this as a potential third project following the crowd pleasing 1909 Indian. I am thinking a worksman could be modified fairly simply and the gas tank certainly would be interesting. While we get all hooked on boardtrackers remember that cruiser style bikes were historically far more used and were quite attractive in their own right.
I also wish some of the the folks would show their bikes in action. I will be making up youtube shortly, putting the special in a vintage setting with living history clothing. Also a couple of "boardtrackers" duking it out would be awful cool. I realize that there are not many who have more than one....yet...one could have quite a collection for far less than one original.
I have shown this pic before but here is Werner himself (actually his ghost-as he was killed in 1917 in a a 7 versus 1 dogfight) riding the faux 1909 Kingsbury Special (Voss and several of his motorcycle pilot friends were actually fired upon by sentries one day speeding back onto the post ....the Brit Triumph riders (apparently with civilian silver painted tanks) actually rode with giant wicker cages on their backs filled with pigeons. Which brings to mind the old joke, if the birds were flying in the cages this would lessen the weight, right?
I have this as a potential third project following the crowd pleasing 1909 Indian. I am thinking a worksman could be modified fairly simply and the gas tank certainly would be interesting. While we get all hooked on boardtrackers remember that cruiser style bikes were historically far more used and were quite attractive in their own right.
I also wish some of the the folks would show their bikes in action. I will be making up youtube shortly, putting the special in a vintage setting with living history clothing. Also a couple of "boardtrackers" duking it out would be awful cool. I realize that there are not many who have more than one....yet...one could have quite a collection for far less than one original.
