Another season getting closer to an end

Oh my, its for sure god to get back shore. When even weather gods are playing on your team, your life is likely good. This was my initial thoughts when I watched the weather forecasts earlier this week, still on the rig.
For how long was Adam in Paradise? I got the flu yesterday but heck I am giving a shit, I wanna drive my motorcycle!

Time to get some dust on my 39 W, I always tend to forget how well a old hog running on them 18" ballon tires handles compared to the later 16" wheels & tires.

My route for todays drive took me trough sceneric countryside where colours have changed from the green colour of summer to autumn`s brown, yellow and orange. Winding roads where pure joy from riding brings a huge smile on my face.
Drove by my friend Villys place. His Motorcycle garage is way above what most can ever dream of and he is wrenching all sorts of old bikes including a skirted Indian Chief.

Pointing my nose towards the valleys again, spending another couple of hours riding single lane roads. oops, saw this road from passing by a junction. Where might that road lead to?
Turning back to investigate further, you never know what is hidden in the unknown.
Well, this road didnt bring any since long forgotten dumpster place, it finally went into a lake next to a place wich would be an ideal location for a camp fire next summer.

American Motorcycles

Another way cool image from one of the Danish beach racing events held at the Fanø beach. Spoke of this before in my post on Chr. Bohnstedt Pedersen the guy with an Militoir inline 4, if you remember (if not click on the Chr. B P name and you will be brought there to refresh your memory).

Picture from the 1923 Fanø races, from right to left; an Indian bigvalve Power Plus racer, a OHV FN, then a unbelivable beatiful Excelsior racer (that bike is for sure a story in itself)and finally a Harley racer with an interesting setup. The Harley engine is an early banjo case two cam engine, the frame is a factory keystone.

Oh boy, wouldn we have loved to be at the scene?

Steves Super X

Got this cool photo a while back from my Super X friend Steve living in Indiana.
We have been fortunate enough to meet at a couple of occasions, Wauseon last where I checked out his great original looking Super X low frame 45".
here is a pic of Steves X (to the right) and a friend of his bike, both X`s are in time capsules rather than gloss and shiny nickle plating.
I love them bikes and having seen John R. beating his X on the Wauseon track I look forward to try mine, eventually!

Hornsbergs Velodromen Sweden

Long time ago when I wrote a post on my facination for the US boardtrack racing I came to mention we had one track for motorcycle racing with banked curves in Scandinavia too. This was named "Hornsbergs velodromen".The Swedes Paul & Ruben Ljungberg built this concrete race track with a huge bank loan back in 1922-23. It was fisrt opened for the 1923 season and was really busy for a couple of years to come. To provide additional income boxing matches where held inside the track when not used for racing.

The track was located on a beautiful spot at the country side by Kungsholmen, this a part of the capitol Stockholm.
Next to the track where on one side a huge allotment for Stockholm citizens, on the other a huge victorian building where a children orphans home where housed.
The track was used for bicycles and motorcycles, even a car was once tried but as the track was as short as 333 1/2 meters it became to narrow.
Luck didnt follow the Ljungberg brothers, the track didnt get approval for racing in 1927 and they soon faced bankruptcy.
In 1931 this great innovative track was torn down in favour for an ordinary sports ground, sigh!

This post is to share a link with an actual film from a race at the velodrom found in a Swedish film arcive where in the middle there is a sequence with real motorcycle racing. Click on; Hornsbergs velodromen Motorcycle racing 1925

Imagine when Master Erik Westerberg, "Kjøttbullen" Liljekvist and invited race heroes from Norway, Denmark and Finland roared their bikes around the concrete wall.
Wonder if Master Erik ever used his open port 8 valve two cam Harley here??

Some stills from the movie to give you an idea what this was all about.

Allans Indian Bobber

Couple of days ago I got an e-mail from the most friendly Dane ever Allan, a proud member of the Killer Bobbers located in the Danish capitol Copenhagen.
Since I first met Allan at A-bombers I know him from riding his lowrider skirted Indian Chief. Not anymore, check out his new Indian toy.
What a gem this bike is.

American Motorcycles Norway

Argh!!!, what a picture this is. There you have Herman Oppen to the left in the picture, well seated on his Henderson De-luxe C-1118. Herman is a guy filled with determination. Just look at him, no kidding this is a go fast guy with an "eat my dust attitude" written in his face.

Then there is the still unknown dandy on his ACE A-1507, looking as cool as a James Dean loong before James was ever born.
Mr. Cools`s ACE is a sport model, look at them wide handlebars they will get your body down when needed.

Whilst Herman have ripped off all parts on his bike causing excess weight Mr. Cool have kept his bike as clean as if it had just left the factory in Philadelphia. Just as clean as his white collared racing jersey.
No grease or oil on this gentleman, girlies watch out your harts will get lost with this fella.

Stay tuned, you will get better known to Herman and C-1118.

27.01.2012:
Digging further into the history of the persons and bikes in this picture reveals I was wrong when naming the Henderson owner in my initial post. This Henderson used to be owned and ridden in road trials such as the Trondhjemsridtet 1921 by Johan Hellum. Hellum a former Norwegian athletics champion would by 1922 or 23 become the Norwegian Henderson general agent for a number of years, an interesting person whom is to be further investegated.
Herman Oppen is the new owner of Henderson De-luxe C-1118, and boy is this Henderson getting a tough life in mr. Oppen`s hands. More to come on Mr. Oppen and C-1118.

06.03.2012: As the amount of information is growing on this spesific picture I now know Mr. cools name is Alf Granheim. Alf competed in many early Norwegian motorcycle races. His favourite bike was the ACE brand. Those magnificent, though fragile fours where sold by Gresvig in Oslo. Hopefully we will get to know more on Mr. Granheim and his ACE`s.

American Motorcycles oddball

Much to my despair, I can not manage to figure out what brand this bike is. Any ideas, suggestions will be truly apprechiated.

This bike once belonged to a lucky Swede, one can just wonder if it ever survived?

Motorcycle racing in the "Korketrekkeren"

As mentioned in a previous post Korketrekkeren (corkscrew) was a very popular uphill race both for motorcycles and cars trough out twenties and well into the thirties.
The motorcycle races held by NMK and KNA at this location drew speed dare-devils from all over Europe to compete on achieving the shortest time up the hill.
Dangerous curves where banked by wooden planks to prevent the competitors from hitting the audience when they lost control of their bikes.

In this picture from an album discovered in my last search for "pics from yesterdaze" a couple of visitiors from Sweden is captured at full speed up Korketrekkeren, though not fast enough as they are still far from climbing on the wooden planks as I have seen from my pics some did.

Trough the years of competition taking place in the Korketrekkeren, race speeds where significantly increased. As stated in my first post covering the 1921 Korketrekkeren event, Macke Nicolaysen won by riding his Reading Standard at a time 2 minutes 59 1/2 seconds. If we jump to 4 of June 1928 an international race was held in Korketrekkeren where "master" Erik Westerberg set a new record of 2 minutes 4,8 seconds and Norwegian Harley ace Ernst Vaumund clocked in at 2 minutes, 5 seconds. This is close to a minute less, whow!
Its great fun to know the two Harley dare devils Erik and Ernst rode 10 sec faster up the hill than the Bugatti winning the race car class.

INDIAN Motocycles, the Decker collection

Spoke with Thomas Bund today, his last book will be ready in October. For sure I look forward to own the "Indian Motocycles" with pics from the Michael Decker collection.
This is one "must have", you find Thomas Bund by clicking his name.

American Motorcycles

Z 80, a 1917ìsh Harley once ridden at Swedish country roads. Would rather not have catched to much speed with this bike as long as them old clinchers have next to none air pressure in them.

I couldnt resist posting the picture where the old Ford A is working as a ice cutter. That is some HOT-ROD for sure, imagine!

Agder Motorhistoriske Klubb Swap meet 2011

Some weeks ago I realised I was able to join the annual Swap meet of AMK for the first time in several years.
Its OK with those local swaps as you never really know what will surface as well as I`m pretty much having the scene by myself for what I`m looking for (hey that showed up to be wrong this time).

Got up 0600 Saturday morning, just a couple of degrees outside.
Primed the old Henderson wich started easily in the crisp air.
This would be my first ride since having installed spacers to get the inlet manifoild further out from the exhaust system, this to lower the carb temperature.

The swap, like 1/2 a hours drive from my home was allready crowded when I arrived, to find Tor Anders a major pack rat for any thing related to old American Motorcycles was allready there with a big grin on his face. Hey this swap is far off from your territories I tried, in vain.

High lights to be mentioned,
Tor Anders finds ehrrm and his Iver Johnson motor, meeting all local lunatics in one place rather than seek for them, getting voted as best motorcycle attending the meet/swap, spending quite a few bucks on stuff I easily could have lived without and finally a great drive trough winding country roads on my way home with a purring four.

American Motorcycles Norway

Whow!!

From my last weeks journey in digging for "pics from yesterdaze" I am totally surprised by the amount of "un-discovered" photos from the Norwegian hey-days of motorcycling that are actually waiting to be found. I consider pics from the years around 1915 to the early thirties, a period when our motorcycle scene was dominated by US made motors as Thor, Excelsior, Henderson, Indian and Harleys as well as Reading Standards, Popes and even oddballs like the Iver Johnsons to be of great interest to preserve (uh you might allready have guessed that?).

Those pics are all in danger from getting extinct, this as the childs of those who actually rode those years are now all in their late seventies to early nineties. The next generations might even not have ever meet their grand or grand grands, hence their interest in keeping this material in the family is less important.

Another important fact is that in todays homes where tidiness and minimalism is the general rule, there are no lofts or stalls where stuff can be hidden away till "you never know when"!

Shit, I will vote for 36 hour days if or when ever that is an option, I need more time.

American Motorcycles Norway

It is September, this summer is officially over and we have entered the autumn season, that is for sure. It is rain, rain and more of the same, flooding rivers and my cicles are parked, hopefully not for the rest of the year.
Well, if this amount of rainfall is to be continued when the temperature gets lower we will get a lot of snow.

A lot of snow, maybe I will put snow chains on my Henderson, drive to a nearby lake and play with the old four. The guy in this picture I think for quite sure is Mr. Halvor Lofthus, once a Norwegian race ace!!

I have just been fortunate enough to be able to scan the motorcycle photos that once belonged to Christinus Vaumund, one of our since long forgotten motorcycle heroes. Wow, those guys lived exciting motorcycle lives.


This is going to be an exciting week, two more scan sessions coming up visiting the families of our since long passed motorcycle race heroes.