Is that Obama's dad on the back of the roster?

I can't tell you how surprised I was to see such a great picture. What's the story ? Talk about THE quintessential rides of the late 40's! Brampton forked touring "B" Rap with high bars and a perfectly bobbed knuck Crocker tail light and unusual Flanders risers etc.

[Barry Brown]

for those of you too cheap to buy the roster here's the photo, anyone got a nice series "B" touring rapide for sale?

[jww]

Looked at that photo for several days.....decided it deserves no comment.

[silentgreyfello]

Those two guys had good taste in bikes!

[Robert Luland]

Guys take a good long look at that picture. The author got ya. First off the photo of the pikes is super imposed to the forties background. Second check out them dungarees. They are brand new with the rolled up cuffs being identical. I can’t tell whether the author painted them in or they where part of the scene. The shots phony but is pretty cool the way he did it. Bob

[exeric]

I've worked with Photoshop quite a bit and I would be very surprised and impressed if that picture is a fake.

[Barry Brown]

Its NOT a fake. The caption on the inside cover of the roster reads "Lucius Dawkinson on his 1948 Vincent HRD touring Rapide with a friend on a period modified harley knucklehead from the Sid Chantland collection. " I'm going to contact Sid and ask him what else he knows.

[HarleyCreation]

Interesting seeing the Knucklehead and Vincent side-by-side like that. I'm not a big fan of the Vincent fork; no offence, but it looks like a tinker toy. But that raises an idea. We know that there was an experimental job with a Vincent motor put into a stock Indian Chief chassis. But has anybody ever installed a Vincent powerplant into a stock Harley Big Twin chassis?

[Barry Brown]

That would be the ultimate insult to the whole concept of a Vincent which was light weight high power and dispense with the frame. Phil Irving ( THE designer of the Vin) commented after riding the Vindian that it was akin to piloting the Queen Mary into harbour.
Not to hurt your Harley feelings too much I will tell you that John "JD 2 Cameron" told me when he stuffed his 90 inch hemi Crocker engine into a JD chassis it handled so much better than the Crocker chassis that he could slide it through the corners, both feet up on the boards in the many outlaw races he participated in. The only snag was that the seat post tube kept breaking not doubt due to the increased power and weight. The reason he did the engine swap was that he had exhausted Al's supply of shifter forks , one of the Crocker's weaknesses, the improved handling was an unforeseen outcome.

[Robert Luland]

Barry I don’t care where the photo came from. Just scroll up so your eye is level with the Harley rider’s knee and stare straight across and stay there for a minute. The butt of his dungarees is not part of the original shot. I got at least another ten items I spotted. The Harley just stands on its own as he stares into the future. Get real. Peoples names and the way they hose people don’t me squat to me. Bob

[Matthew N. Olse]

the down low

I talked to Rick Schunk about this picture, and he told me that it was in an old family album that came from a storage garage by the twin cities. Some of the pictures went back to the turn of the century. The only information that they have besides the guy's name is that he was in the navy. It is kind of a sad story that somebody didn't care enough about the stuff to pay their storage bill. It makes you wonder what else gets sold out of the storage bins.

[HarleyCreation]

That would be the ultimate insult to the whole concept of a Vincent which was light weight high power and dispense with the frame. Phil Irving ( THE designer of the Vin) commented after riding the Vindian that it was akin to piloting the Queen Mary into harbour.

Irving was probably right -- mostly -- but then the Brits always like to lord it over us Americans given the chance. Phil Vincent, however, liked the Vincent-Chief and said it was good machine.

Applying vintage Bill Harley & crew engineering and styling to a Vincent engine would be a great project. I'll have to put it on my list after the KL replica.

I wonder what the finished motorcycle would weigh if we used a modern lightweight replica knucklehead frame (I would never advocate cutting into an original knuck frame and would drink used crankcase oil first!), and then we styled it as a 1936-39 EL using 4:00X18 rims, tanks, spring-fork, etc.

We would also have to adapt the 1941 Big Twin clutch to the Vincent powerplant to effectively use the 54 or so horsepower at hand and give it Milwaukee reliability. The finished product would probably look pretty cool and be a great conversation piece at any AMCA meet. Brit die-hards would probably despise this Knucklehead-Vincent out loud but secretly lust for it in their hearts.

If I knew PhotoShop better I'd brew one up and put Phil Irving on it and claim it was his personal ride when he visited the USA and the Dominion of Canada.

[CT Riley]

See the notes on page 2 of the roster... for all the info we have.

Rick

[Smarty]

Harley Creation although I've read your excellent book, be careful slandering the Brits, some of us read and post on this multi national forum !!

Regards,

Martin in the UK

[HarleyCreation]

Harley Creation although I've read your excellent book, be careful slandering the Brits, some of us read and post on this multi national forum !!

Regards,

Martin in the UK

Slander the Brits? Heaven forbid. You guys are the Mother Country! I would even use one of your excellent (mostly) Vincent twins in my Knuckle-Vincent project, which would be a really nice road burner in my opinion.

Okay, I'll take Phil Irving off the PhotoShop picture. Instead I'll use Arthur Davidson's face and say that was HIS favorite bike when he visited Great Britain.

Is that better?