Lee Marvin

Lee Marvin was a WWII vet who was in the Marines in the South Pacific. In 1953 he played the leader of the outlaw mc group the Beetles in the film, "The Wild One's.". Motorcycle historians generally agree that he fit the outlaw biker image of the early fifties much more than the leather clad Marlon Brando, the star of the film...

Jan and Dean

"Little Old Lady From Pasadena" "Dead Mans Curve," Growing up, I listened to Jan and Dean, they were friends of the Beach Boys in L.A. and Brian Wilson wrote a few songs for the duo.
Ironically, Dean Torrance was badly hurt driving his Corvette up Sunset Blvd in an area deemed before as Dead Mans Curve. His car his the back of a parked truck stopped at an intersection. He struggled for years and actually took the stage later on. Sadly, he died a few years ago.
I've read a history, of Dead Mans Curve. There are many such curves all over the country, and more than a few in the L.A. area. Torrance's accident made the one on Sunset famous.

Ghosts and Spokes

Just a few days until the Ghosts and Spokes benefit run. It's been a long 4.5 months. Once we got a good crew in place, everything clicked. We hope to make a lot of money for Assist The Officer.
The weather looks great, and people are pumped.
Picked up the new Keith Richards book yesterday. I've been a Stones fan for forty years or more. One of my first 8-tracks for my '65 Mustang was the Rolling Stones live album, "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out." The concert tour of 1969 that eneded with the infamous Altamont tour. I saw ths Stones for the 8th time in Jan 2006 at Madison Square Garden in part because that album was recorded there.

Swiming with Harley-Davidson

Back in the day, Harley and Indian riders would go out into the woods on the weekends and throw their bikes around in what they called "Field Days." We wouldn't think of taking our chrome laden 30K bikes into the mud a sludge. Heck we take diffenrent routed if there is a cloud in the sky to avoid rain!

Honor Flight October 2010

I just returned from an experience that I will not soon forget. I was chosen to be a guardian on the Honor Flight this month. Honor Flight flies WWII veterans to the WWII Memorial in D.C.
Over forty heroes and and slightly more guardians went on this trip. We took in the WWII, Korea, and Vietnam memorials.
Walter Reed Army Hospital where the vets met with the current wounded warriors. Senetor Bob Dole was in a wheelchair just recently having knee surgery.
We saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Un known Soldier. The Air Force, Navy, and Iwo Jima memorials as well.
The guys were like kids in a candy store. I had a hard time keeping up with my two.
I'm honored that I got to go with these boys and hope to do it again sometime.
Godspeed heroes...

"Mighty 8th" Air Force veterans refused seating atop Reunion Tower

Read the DMN article about 8th AF convention "Sweinfurt" raid veterans were refused seating at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. These men were teenagers when they participated in one of the most infamous raids in WWII, the ball-bearing plants at Sweinfurt Germany. These old heroes were dressed in shorts and ball caps, many with the words "WWII veteran," and "Sweinfurt Raid 1943." The hostess sais they were not dress in "Business casual."

Why are these people laughing

Great shot of using what ya got to fix that old Harley. When all else fails, grab a two-by-four, wedge it under the frame, and do what you have to do to get it down the road. Looks like nobody in this group was worse for the wear. Including the wife or girlfriend or rider of the wrecked bike. She's not letting this little spill spoil her day. Probably from the thirties or forties.

1999 Heritage Springer

This was the last year for the hard mounted, 1340 CC EVO engine in Harley-Davidson's Softail line. It's been a great bike, went to Daytona Bike Week in 2000. Back in my DINK days, I bought a lot of retro parts from J&P's Vintage bike catalog.

I take it out on sunny days, which obviously this was one of these. Old bikes are somewhat like old friends. But this old friend has never let me down.

November 2010 Asylum Mobilitarium Part 1

November 2010 Asylum Mobilitarium

Wow, it looks like sales are improving nationwide with Harley-Davidson. That’s a good thing and makes me wonder how many brand new riders are coming into the fold.

The Harley-Davidson cult and culture is a rich one. With its All-American image, the icon status that it continues to enjoy to this day, the social lifestyle that draws riders from other brands, it has a little of everything for a lot of people.

Sometimes however, just getting into the lifestyle is well, a little daunting. There are so many models of Harley’s for one thing. It’s important to be able to talk the talk when around your best buds at the local watering hole. There may be motorcycle etiquette, words, and terms that you might later scratch your head and wonder what the heck they were talking about.

But you know, don’t let the lack of motorcycle knowledge worry you. It’s a learning experience that will come with time.  That’s a part of what Asylum Mobilitarium is. To spread the word, with tongue pressed firmly in cheek, of all things relevant in the two-wheeled world.

This will be the first of a two, or maybe three part series, the next will be in the December issue of Hogwash.  Maybe some of this information will come in handy and let you survive a dressing down at Stroker’s or some low-class bike hangout someday.

I have found that there is one basic thing one must try to avoid when buying your first Harley. Try not to kill the bike in front of a bunch of veteran riders! If you do, kinda shake your head like, “Yea, its doin’ it again,”slowly get off the bike with whatever kind of biker swagger that you can muster, knell down and start looking at the plug wires, touching this, adjusting that, like you know what you’re doing.  Then, coolly get back in the saddle, and while the bunch o’ bikers are still watchin’ ya, go over in your head “How to Start the Bike,” and crank her up. Now all the old throttle-twisters checking you out have been there-done that, but they would never admit it!

Okay, you may be new to the world of the Orange and Black. That’s okay, everyone starts somewhere. This term is “newbie,” and like I said ITS OKAY!

Ah hem, I’ll digress a little bit here .I should have pointed out at the beginning that if you are a rider who leaves your bike in the garage you months at a time, or you bought the Machine because your next door neighbor bought one and now has a much too young for him hottie (sometimes called a hanger on, not a bad thing but just another term,) riding around with him, and making his ex mad.  Well, you can probably stop reading here, because you won’t be riding enough, or be around “real bikers,” (another term you will hear forever) for it to matter.

These words are the secrets of the faithful. Some spot on serious , and all not to be taken too seriously at all because it’s all about having fun, but words you can live by. Regular readers of these pages will know the difference.

The early Flathead engine was introduced in 1928, on the Model D. This was the workhorse engine for HD until 1973 with the Servi-Car three wheeled police bike being the last Harley to have this engine between the frame rails. Arguably the most famous HD motor of all time is the “Knucklehead” that was introduced in 1936. The “Knuck” has sometimes been called the engine that saved Harley during the last years of the Depression. It was the hot Twin for the time, with the Flathead still soldiering on with that years police bikes and the WWII WLA a few years later. 

It’s interesting to point out that old timers for the most part didn’t call their mounts a “Knucklehead” back in the “Golden Age of Motorcycling.”  That term apparently became common later on after WWII. The old guys would describe their machines 61’s, 74’s, or 80’s. Later, Panhead and Shovelhead bikes were called Pans, or Shovels only after they had been Bobbed, Chopped, or bastardized into something else. Nothing wrong with those terms, but if you talk to a rider in his seventies or eighties today he will fondly remember his old Harley 74.

Next month; what is a “Hard Tail,” and what KSU really means.

Willie Hank

Panther Creek Historian

Youths gone astray since 1955

www.asylummobilitarium.blogspot.com

Honoe Flight

We met with my two veterans yesterday that I'm the guardian of during the Honor Flight to Dc this month. Great guys with good sense of humor it seems. Looking forward to it. One on the vets is Bill Mercer who used to be on KRLD and then broadcast Cowboy games.

Elvis

This famous photo shows Elvis looking down to watch a buddy of his turning on the fuel valve of Elvis' new HD Sportster. The bike would not keep running so Elvis turned to his rider friend for help.

John Lennon

John Lennon would have been 70 years old this weekend. Amazing how one's life goes in the blink of an eye. Doesn't seem possible it's been that long since that night in 1964 watching Ed Sullivan...

Captain America by way of Poland

What looks like a pretty accurate copy of Peter Fonda's "Captain America" bike. The rider finds himself in Poland of all places.

Last of the Wigwam

After losing out to Harley-Davidson in the WWII contracts to the Armed forces, well Indian did build a few, but never recovered from the Depression enough to be able to ramp up for the governments needs, the old standby finally went under in 1953.

Kick starting a bike

When all else fails, and the bike just will not kick over,drastic measures are called for.Whack him on the head and be on your way.

Road Atlanta

Corvettes have had their share of problems in the American LeMans Series this year. In the last race for this season,Ferrari ran out of gas on the last lap. The CompuserveCorvette which was a close second, stormed ahead for the win.