Funny Things Overheard

[sludge]

A nicely-dressed middle-aged couple just walked into my shop and asked if it was a restaurant.

too funny, but if your shop has a microwave and some chicken pot pies in a fridge, your shop would probably qualify as a restaurant judging from the meals i have gotten at some of those joints.

[Sargehere]

I put the 37LEC sidecar back on Ol' Tex yesterday. Thought I had stashed all the hardware and the two big intake manifold wrenches in the car when I parked it, but couldn't find the 1/2"x20 NF castle nut for the front upper connector anyplace.
Hmm. Eye put everything else together, including the front upper, held in place by the pinch bolts on the sidecar frame tube, and drove carefully the four blocks to Ace Hardware carrying the spring and an open end wrench in my pocket. I love having a three-quarter-century-old ride you can buy parts for at the hardware store!
Never one to miss the opportunity to use reverse, we backed into the parking spot. One of the first comments out of the crowd (Tex allus attracts a crowd) from some modern rider trying to sound knowledgeable, I guess, was: "Gee, that has starter-reverse!'
It took a minute to remember what he was talking about. Then I said, "No, just an old fashioned gearbox like a car. Same box as the four-speeds with different gears inside."
A certain person trading as Watertowngirl sells all the special Harley sidecar hardware on Ebay; correct in shapes and finishes. But the hardware store nut will serve for a while.

[partshunt]

Regarding wild and funney statements toward our vintage bikes reminds of one of my funney ones. Some years back I had my 28JD on display at a local burger stand encased in glass. I came in to check the bike and grab a coffee. While in there a crowd of young fellas were done and started leaving but one of em stopped to look over the 28. One of the other fellas leaving at the door called back to the one guy at the bike and hollered "Cmon, lets go, stop yer gawking at that steam engine"....Joe AMCA 3435

[38 el]

Want a good laugh? Walk into your local "Harley Boutique" (shop) go over to the parts counter and ask for a quart of "105"......

[Erdos]

Some years back I applied to work at the local HD dealer's parts counter. While being interviewed I discovered the manager didn't know that the number after the dash represented the first year that part was manufactured. He hired a pretty girl instead of me. I would have done the same.

[stagelines]

My most memorable- a nimrod in action.

I had my !923 JA on display where I work. Fresh paint, some chrome (yeah, I know), just needed some minor details, linkage and carburetor work, etc. But overall clean and shiny. I had made up an info sheet that I set up next to the bike; the year, model, horsepower, explanation of the spark advance, the primers,etc., and a list price of $305, if I remember right. I had left for a bit, and upon my return, as I am approaching the display, I notice a guy working the spark advance for all that it was worth (in spite of the do not touch sign). By the time that I arrived he had stopped, so I did not say anything. By then he was scrutinizing the info sheet. Next, he examined the bike, and then back to the info sheet, and so on, for about twenty minutes. I was just sitting there watching him. You always wonder what they are thinking. Then he comes over to me, asks if I know who the bike belongs to. I told him it was mine. He starts asking questions, slightly unusual questions for the situation, but I didn't think too much of it at the time. Does it run? Where did you get it? Do you have the paperwork for it? How long have you had it? When did it last run? and so on. Then the question that put it all in perspective- Why are you selling it?

He saw the $305 dollar list price on the info sheet, and thought that the bike was for sale and that was the asking price. Took him all of that time to contemplate, and then he still wasn't sure he was getting a good deal when I told him it did not run.

[Ohio-Rider]

Now that is funny, and welcome to the forum.

[stagelines]

Yes sir, I thought so too. It just made my day.

On the subject of the "Harley Indian", somebody in my area has produced a postcard from a period photograph. Cool old photograph, but I don't know who the authority was that wrote his caption.

[Matt McManus]

The best story I have happened a few years ago.... My father and I rode his 1937 ULH and his 1940 EL (both winners circle restored bikes) to a local Harley dealer to look around one boring afternoon. We pulled up and parked out front, there were a few customers outside and a young salesman probably in his late 20's but still older than me. ha. They all proceeded to walk over to look at the 2 old bikes when the salesman asked "what are those? Ridleys?" I replied with " No! those are real Harleys" as me and my father laughed loudly as we walked into the dealer ship. I couldnt help but to make him feel like an idiot after that question.

I think it is pathetic that a harley salesman cant even recognize an antique harley especially when they both said harley on the tanks.

[Bob Kelley]

My next door neighbor is an older man who rode a foot-clutch Pan when he was younger. He stored it for the winter in the basement of his mother's rowhouse and then had to RIDE it back up the stairs using the motor. He also once almost got sideways in the Baltimore harbor tunnel with a passenger on the back because with the lanes being so constricted underground, he was riding right in the middle of his lane on the oil trail. So he knows his way around bikes.

When I got my 1928 Indian 101 Scout, I left it parked on the street in front of our houses.

He asked about it later, and I told him what it was.

He told me:

"I thought it was a new bike that was made to look old."

C'mon, man -- a hardtail with no speedo or mirrors and a gigantic leaf spring over the front wheel?

[D.Mac]

"Suicide Shift"
By far the most common comment I hear (or overhear some expert telling someone else), when I'm riding the 'ol Pan (with stock tankshift and rocker clutch) is, "thats a suicide shift". The other day in a gas station someone pointed to the shifter told me "thats dangerous". I had to laugh as I left to thread my way through all the idiots in cars to get across town.
Doug.