1912 HD Belt Twin (AKA EVIL TWIN)

[BigLakeBob]

https://www.mecum.com/auctions/las-v...rdella-estate/

[BigLakeBob]

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[BigLakeBob]

Back to bikes: next week's Mecum story concerns the 'Slow Joe' Gardella Collection. Joe was a Cannonball buddy we caught on MotoTintype in 2012 beside his 1914 Harley-Davidson V-twin - that's our 'Famous' header photo above. We became friends after I passed 'Slow' Joe at 70mph in a flat stretch of the Rockies, riding my 1933 Velocette KTT Mk4 (The Mule), and was very surprised minutes later to see him pull up beside me on his 100yo single-speed 1914 Harley-Davidson 10E V-twin. I hotted up the pace, he matched me, and over the next 10 days I peppered Joe with questions about his bike. "How?" Joe spent hours explaining every part he'd modified or re-engineered for better breathing and higher performance - absolutely everything inside the motor, from the bearings and crankshaft and rods to the pistons, rockers, the shape of the intake casting, the valves, etc. The engine was a visual simulacra of a 1914 Harley-Davidson, but there the resemblance ended: he'd taken the tuning secrets that made those early 'pocket valve' V-twins into 100mph board track racers, and added modern materials and a century of air flow research. The result was simply awe inspiring: if early Harleys are your bag, pay whatever you have to and buy this bike.

Copied from Paul d'Orl'eans The Vintagent