New Antiques

[Kojack]

Just stumbled across this. Anyone know anything about them?
http://www.timelessmotorcompany.com/vintage/index.html

[bobdo]

Hello Kojack,
It's new to me. Thanks for bringing it up.
The name is clever & appropriate.
Bob

[AdminGuy]

It was covered in the magazine in the "Mile Markers" section a couple issues back.

I feel the creation of this product was eventual. It may be a good starting point or introduction for some people.

[LouieMCman]

Latest eBay 1903 HD ........
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...2131560&rd=1,1

[INLINE4NUT]

Iagree it was going to happen sooner or later!!! (wish it would have been much later!) Next some poor unsuspecting person will pay BIG time for an MC not worth half of what they payed...soooo sad!

[AdminGuy]

Some guys honestly just want a conversation piece to stick in the living room. This would fit the bill.

Well, you can ride it. THat's a plus.

[c.o.]

It's funny how that e-bay bike could be advertised as an '03. Most of us here know by now that an '03 didn't exist. It's also noted that it's a handbuilt machine. So I guess the '03 title was just to get attention. I'm O.K. with new reproductions as long as their represented as such....... But you can't beat the real thing.........unfortunately the real thing has become unaffordable for a lot of us.........

[HarleyCreation]

The ad for this latest "1903" Harley-D states: "We all know that the chance of finding a real 1903 is slim to none..."

Chances being "none" is the correct term there as like c.o. stated H-D didn't build anything in 1903 that looked like that, let alone sell any!

At least with this thing we'll always know it's a fake. It will be the replicas of later vintage bike that really did exist that in time may blend into the population of original machines and fool all but the best experts.

[D.Mac]

Interesting that you mention replicas "blending in" with the real stuff. I know a guy that is nuts about using all OEM stuff only, he'll use a roached-out OEM piece over a re-pop (I know, sometimes you're better off!) Anyway we got into a friendly argument over whether or not you could tell if some parts were OEM or not, especially if you are just looking at e-bay photos, and could not handle the parts. (sure you can ask the seller, but many don't have a clue although they may think they do, many sellers I see on e-bay and other places don't even understand what NOS means). I started fooling with Harleys in the late '60s, and you could get some re-pop stuff back then, so that stuff has been kicking around 40 years, and at least at a glance certainly looks like vintage stuff. Actually it is vintage stuff, just not OEM. If it was a good re-pop you may not be able to tell, and maybe it then it doesn't matter? Some of the re-pop stuff looks real good, and you can't tell it's crap untill you try to bolt it up. Maybe in another 40 years there will be so much old Asian re-pop stuff around, that guys will not know the difference, and they will just assume that old bikes never did fit together well.
Doug

[LouieMCman]

Good point. I was working on a friends '55 Pan the other day and pulled off the kicker cover and it was stamped JAMMER inside. He didn't have a clue that it wasn't stock. I'm sure we'll be seeing these NEW 1903's and other replicas for sale on eBay in 20 years and being called original, like the Easyrider bike on eBay now.
Change of subjuct.........Was surfing on the tube the other day and caught some show talking about Harley's and they stated that the first HD was made in 1901..........

[Kojack]

Anyone ever come across a NOS part that's not quite right? In fooling around with old cars I've come across a few. Guys have told me that parts rejected for the assembly line were often packaged for sale as replacement parts.

[schmittm]

I guess that in this forum most of us are just "preaching to the choir" and restating the obvious but I have to agree with all the comments so far.

I just wanted to mention my most recent experience with repop stuff that will eventually blend in with any OEM parts left on the same bike. Case in point; the Harley 45 cylinders coming out of India. The casting patterns were obviously made from a set of originals because they are almost dead clones, right down to the casting numbers and Motor Casting Company logo on the cylinder base (is that legal?). The trained eye can see the differnece because the repops have a slight core shift in the castings, the seams don't line up perfectly and part of the MCC symbol and casting number has been milled off during machining. A little time with a good set of pattern files and a Dremel tool will hide most of that.

I put a set on the wife's servi after cleaning them up, as mentioned earlier you could not tell the difference in an ePay photo. The valves lapped in perfectly, the cylinders snap guaged to spec and everything else went together by the book, but I question the metalurgy, we'll just have to see how good they wear.

just my $0.02

mike

[schmittm]

Kojack,

Funny you should metion that, I have suspected that for years.

I have been playing with old Studebakers since they quit building them, they were cheap and available back in the 60's, orphans on the back row of the dealer lots and I just sort of started accumulating them. When the factory closed in Dec '63 one of the big dealers in South Bend bought everything they could get their hands on and started a company called Standard Surplus selling NOS Studebaker parts. At one time, even as late as the 80's, you could build an entire vehicle with parts off the shelf in their warehouse. Over the years I have purchased lots of NOS stuff from them to keep my daily drivers on the road. Just like you said, some of the parts are not quite up to acceptable "new car" standards. My experience has been that the "fit" is usually ok but the "finish" is a little off; a blemish in the paint or a thin spot in the plating.

I've never experienced that with any of the NOS WL parts that were produced for the military, I'm sure that mil-spec standards were very strict for all those parts that were part of the U.S. Ordnance inventory and eventually found their way to surplus vendors.

mike

[elt]

Hi guys
This thing kind of drifted off what the replica early belt bike is about.The last several years I have ben into the Whizzer thing with a bunch in the northwest.For about 3K one can be on a rider.We usally do a 50 mile ride and make several stops where we always draw a croud of gray head guys.Most of us who went to school in the 40s had one.Ya just cant ride one without a smile.There might be one or two repops show up out of 15 or 20 and dont get the attention the old bikes get.Most dont run as good either.Haveing said that I could see how rideing a 1905 stile single cam battery bike would be a blast from the past.And how else can one justify anything but a repop.And a bunch of them to ride with would be great.
Elton
47Whizzer,56Eagle,58FLH,74R90

[Kojack]

Good comparison Elt. The situation is similar between the Whizzers and early Harleys. Whizzer repops came to be when the popularity and price of originals got high enough to justify production of new ones. The same thing is happening with these early Harleys. Even if everyone who wanted one could afford one, there are only so many out there. The reproduction Whizzers varied in quality. I guess what I really want to know is what these reproduction Harleys are like. I don't think a real enthusiast will ever be fooled by them and that's not their point anyway but it's hard to say how their availablitiy will affect the value of the originals. If they get more people interested in antique motorcycle it won't hurt anything.