Arm chair rider from Maryland

[Tmate]

Hello!
My riding days are over at age 83, but my experiences with motorbikes, scooters, and motorcycles are still firm in my memory. I acquired a Cushman Pacemaker scooter when I was 13 years old. At age 14 I retrieved a discarded Harley (Wall of Death) barrel racer from a creek behind a carnival. At 16 got an Indian Brave 250, and kept going. I've owned Triumphs, BSAs, a Vincent Black Shadow, Harleys, Matchless and AJS singles and twins, a 1,200 cc turbo Kawasaki Z1, and too many others to list.

As a kid, I had a friend who had a 1948 Whizzer when I had only a bicycle. When I got my Cushman, he had a Harley 125. When I got my Indian flathead 250, he was riding Triumphs. Over time I lost touch with him, but I think I eventually caught up.

My purpose in joining the forum is to try to keep up with current trends, and possibly share some of my experiences and current interests with younger enthusiasts.

 

[Greg58]

Welcome to the forum, I too owned and rode motorcycles. There's a lot of good people here, several are near your age, I'm not too far behind you. Knowledge should be shared so feel free to chime in on threads that you have interest in.

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Tmate, Transparency is valued here. I am Tom Peterson and I Live in Rubicon,WI.
You will be one if not the oldest members of this forum. It sounds like you are the most experienced motorcyclist in this motley crew. Looking forward to your posts.
My stable is just a 1950 HD, 1979 BMW R80/7 and 2016 Huffy Davidson and Sportsman Flyer which is my avatar.

Tom

 

[Mossy]

Mossy chiming in... I started early... 8-9 I was fixing lawnmowers that I found for free on the side of the road... By 10-12 my aunt gave me a Kawasaki G4 trail bike I took apart and restored like new.. at 15 I was into Mopar and a few other '66-69 cars a few trucks from the 80's and John Deere twins from the 50's... I always loved early motorcycles and the gas motorized bicycle fits that bill for me... I haven't built anything in a while but I've spent the last few years gathering up just about everything I think I might want for the future... I've been remodeling my place and just recently been moving everything out of here into a storage unit sort of kinda organizing ...
If you have an idea of what you're thinking about building I can find just about anything on the web... I read up on the forums to get caught up on the latest stuff.... The one thing that I think is important to know is everything is different and the quality is low ... Whatever direction you go try to stick with everything from the same place then you'll have some consistency get a few spares at same time so when you figure it out you won't have start over with something else slightly different that will drive you nuts... A welder is helpful and steel frames and a good set of steel wheels 12ga spokes like wheel master or worksman... And go through everything use quality grease and Kevlar tires thick tubes... Do some reading up on it... 99% of the problems come from putting something together right out of the box assuming the Chinese sweatshop has done it right...

 

[Tmate]

I sold my last bike, a 1,200 cc Harley Sportster, two years ago. Now I try to keep my hand in the game by cutting out 19" long miniature motorcycles on my small home made CNC plasma table. So far I've done about 30 different models. I have no interest in trying to sell them. It's just for fun!

 

[Mossy]

I sold my last bike, a 1,200 cc Harley Sportster, two years ago. Now I try to keep my hand in the game by cutting out 19" long miniature motorcycles on my small home made CNC plasma table. So far I've done about 30 different models. I have no interest in trying to sell them. It's just for fun!

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I spent some time looking around the Harley Davidson museum in Milwaukee especially the early stuff there...

 

[Mossy]

Brian Keating: It is an oddity for sure, and one that doesn’t jump out at you right away. It sneaks up on you. At first, it looks like a crusty FX Shovelhead. It’s like a queen or king in a peasant’s clothing perhaps. It started out as a 1982 Harley-Davidson FXE model. But with the additional cylinder, the machine work that needed to be done, and removal of the original serial and VIN number, it is considered a custom – a creation by the late, great Bobby Labrie.

Who was Bobby Labrie?

Bobby was a trained Harley mechanic. He went to the service school in Milwaukee in 1949. After his schooling, he worked for his father for many years at the Concord, NH, Harley-Davidson dealership. Around 1973, Bobby decided to go off on his own. He set up shop in Concord, calling himself Bob’s Cycle Repair. It was a small shop pretty much run out of a two-car garage. He was a man of character, always knee-deep in building and repairing motorcycles and other shenanigans.
Copy and pasted from the web...