Saturday evening post

[BNSONS]

brookfield bags



Dave

[Slojo]

What year is that 58 Duo Glide on the post card?
Joe

[Barry Brown]

Wow! Talk about good timing. I just picked up this seat and was trying to identify it! This IS the best forum!

[c.o.]

This thread has wandered off a bit as so many do but that's what I like about his forum! There's a lot to be learned here for sure. Herb, I can imagine that losing that bag was a kick in the guts. That's the kind of stuff that one always seems to refect back to. Did you say you still have that Pan?

Barry....... very cool scoop! That seat is a gem!!!

[HarleyCreation]

Dave

That looks like they could be the short fringe set of bags I have. Very similar to my seat too. This is probably the firm.

Great info on that postcard. I have never heard of Joseph Otrusina before, but now have a card on him. That is some Old World sounding name and maybe he brought some skills over with him. Gotta be a good story there.

Notice both the name and address change on the postcard. Either he moved and changed names, or sold out. Apparently Otrusina Leather Works predated 1958, but how much older?

[/QUOTE]

[HarleyCreation]

What year is that 58 Duo Glide on the post card?
Joe

Joe,

You need more sleep and no mistake!

:-)

[HarleyCreation]

Wow! Talk about good timing. I just picked up this seat and was trying to identify it! This IS the best forum!

Your saddle looks very close to mine with the same long fringes and short curlies. Probably same Brookfield make. Mine only white, now silent gray.

Your leather is in good shape. Mine was more cracked and I later covered it with a piece of split leather dyed brown.

[HarleyCreation]

This thread has wandered off a bit as so many do but that's what I like about his forum! There's a lot to be learned here for sure. Herb, I can imagine that losing that bag was a kick in the guts. That's the kind of stuff that one always seems to refect back to. Did you say you still have that Pan?

Yes, the thread has deviated, but it is still about leather-dressed (pre-fiberglass) Panheads, which is what the Tex bike was about and nothing more.

Kick in the gut was right. I haven't thought about losing that saddlebag for years, which being weathered and sagging to match its mate was unique.

A few days after losing it a pal of mine, Jeffery, and I rode back up there to look some more. I had a wild notion it could be in the ditch hidden in the weeds. It wasn't.

Jeffery had a stock 1968 FLH just bought because he liked my stock Panhead. Not many did as those were still Limey and chopper daze. We rode up from Racine to NW of Milwaukee where I lost it and cruised up and down the road. No luck. But it was a fine summer day and a good ride.

We stopped and ate our provisions and drank apple wine (he was on a "Boonesfarm" kick) in a cool old German pioneer graveyard on top of a commanding hill. In the hazy distance of that beautiful rolling moraine countryside we could see the fairytale like church & monastery on Holy Hill a few miles away. I mention that because it fit my own sad tragic mood about losing that precious saddlebag because I knew it could never be replaced. A true lost love.

That took place in 1975, I think.

Jeffery soon sold his 68FLH (electric-start only) for a 67FLH with electric AND kickstart. That was a hot setup. But it brought him no luck. Jeffery crashed it on a gravel road in northern Wisconsin the next summer and in crutches with a broken leg started prescribing his own painkillers. You can guess the rest. Jeffery was a good pal. He liked to ride. At his funeral I pinned a little Panhead badge to his collar. He still has it.

[T. Cotten]

Gasp!

A Chummee skirt on a Buddy seat?

How AMCA "incorrect" can you get!

All such history must be destroyed before someone realizes it was real.

...Cotten

[c.o.]

Herb, sorry to here such a story about your friend.

Glad to hear you still have the Pan! Tell me do you plan on resurrecting the old girl?

[c.o.]

Gasp!

A Chummee skirt on a Buddy seat?

How AMCA "incorrect" can you get!

All such history must be destroyed before someone realizes it was real.

...Cotten

Quick let's get the photo evidence off of here before it becomes part of the gospel!!

[HarleyCreation]

What are you guys talking about?

Don't these fringed & skirted Brookfield ("Otrusina") Buddy Seats officially exist?

I have one. Barry has another.

Do we have a 3rd in the house?

Here we go:

Here's a nice 1951 article reprinted from "Buzzzz mag" about Joe Otrusina (Brookfield) leather works. Says he came from the Old Country and started his business around 1948. Began by making bags and seat for his JD.

From the sound of it, Otrusina invented the FAT (thick) Buddy Seat.

Shows inside and outside views of his shop. Made bags in all shapes and sizes. Says Joe was a friendly guy. Stop and visit him.

Another unsung hero many of us have never heard of before. At least I never heard of him. And on my bike there's a matching set of his Buddy Seat and long fringed saddlebags (lost one).

http://books.google.com/books?id=6hf...+leather+works

http://books.google.com/books?id=6hf...ed=0CAkQ6AEwAA

[T. Cotten]

I was merely poking fun at how austere AMCA restoration requirements have destroyed so much priceless history.


....Cotten

[Barry Brown]

Speaking of cool period accessories how about Earl Flander's handlebars ? Have you seen what they are paying for those things these days? Jim Dennie just got $1200 for a bent set , off to Japan. Trivia fact , Earl was from Saskatchewan but he wasn't a "Saskatchewhiner" ( Steven Colbert) , got smart and moved to Los Angeles in the 40's.

[T. Cotten]

Every time I thought I found a set of Flanders bars on a machine, they turned out to be Hellings. I still don't know the difference.

Lots of wonderful Flanders risers out there, though!

....Cotten