Replica Early Harleys

[exeric]

If you want to talk Fake then take a look at just about every knucklehead and post war Indian Chief at an AMCA event. The early bikes of pre 1920 vintage certainly have their reproduction parts but that was done to get them ridable again. I don't think anyone would argue that making a Yale run after 75 years of silence, is not a noble accomplishment and a benefit to all of the members that want to see, hear, and smell a motorcycle of historic signifigance. The people that are addicticted to the early motorcycles know what they are looking at and know what parts are rare, what parts are usually missing, and who's making the reproduction. If there is monkey business going on in the world of collectible motorcycles, look at the bikes with recirculating oil systems, i.e. Knuckleheads. There are masters at work making "barn fresh" Knuckleheads. I wouldn't buy a Knucklehead these days, unless I could afford to pay Chris Haynes fee to appraise it.

[pem]

"Posterity will mistake it for the real thing, because we said so."

I believe Mr. Cotten has hit it on the perverbial head. Let the repops/recreations be judged
at the AMCA meets in a special category. You guys decide on the name. If a repop bike is judged, stamp or inscribe the frame with a special number to identify it as a "fake". Most frames in these type of bikes are recreations but so are some motors. Maybe the motors will have to be stamped too. I also realize that there are some very good machinist that would laugh at this as removing stamps from cases and frames can be done.

If you want your repop bike judged you will have to have it stamped. Our club would be the logical authority to verify and enforce this new ploicy.

If nothing is done to identify these bikes, in 50 years when most of us are dead you know somebody will be selling them as originals. I can see it now, a row of 15 1903 Harley's infront
of a row of 25 eight-valves.

Dick

[T. Cotten]

"Posterity will mistake it for the real thing, because we said so."

I believe Mr. Cotten has hit it on the perverbial head. Let the repops/recreations be judged
at the AMCA meets in a special category.
Dick

Oh, Sweet Cheeses.

What's next: A "Replica" Easy Rider Captain America Chopper Class?

My firm position is that even the super-silly un-judgeable Period Modified Class should be abolished post-haste!

I stand with our Founders that the purpose of the judging system is to keep History as pure as possible.

Myself, I was never lucky enough to inherit or afford a judgeable machine, and most likely never shall.
None the less, it would only compromise the history that I do treasure, if the only legitmate sanctioning organization threw the doors wide open.
Pandering to egos, and glorifying counterfeits only opens opportunities for misrepresentation,
fraud, self-serving revisionism, and at the very least, hurt egos and malice toward the AMCA itself.

Enough good-ol'-boy cronyism and politicks has compromised the reputation of judging already!

Isn't there already an enormous industry of magazines, tribal websites, and cable channel pseudo-documentaries fostering new creations?
Does the AMCA really need to tap into that chaos?

Everyone has the right to play with their own toys any way they wish to do so.
And to re-create history to preserve history can be commended by all of us.
But to enfranchise fraud queers the intent of those who laid the very foundations of this time-honored organization.

....Cotten
AMCA #776

[exeric]

I think the original intent of the founders was to get people to bring their bikes out and judging was an incentive to get the compulsive over achievers, and (dare I say) snobs with great collections to do just that. It worked way beyond anyone's expectations and we are the beneficiaries of seeing beautifully restored bikes and super rare machines that would have returned to the earth. They would have returned to the earth without the dedication of those compulsive nuts and the REPRODUCTION parts that we are incredibly blessed with. Not much escapes the AMCA judging system and downright copies are pretty easy to spot. I suspect the outrage is comming from myopic paranoia.

[jurassic]

the new timeless creation

well there goes the nieghborhood,god help us all.

[Greg H]

Not even street legal!

But hey, for the same $ you could own this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Antiq...=p4506.c0.m245

[William McClean]

Replica Class

When the Replica is 35 Years old it will be eligible

Patina Masters, get to work !

[flat-happy]

looks like someone got a deal---bet it will be in the coast to coast race next year

[kval]

[QUOTE=William McClean;84848]When the Replica is 35 Years old it will be eligible

Bill
the answer is NO!!!! reproduction motors are an instant DQ
and if they try to enter it as a motorcycle made in 2009, it must be a mass produced with its own running gear(motor and trans) to be eligible for judging

[c.o.]

If you want to talk Fake then take a look at just about every knucklehead and post war Indian Chief at an AMCA event. The early bikes of pre 1920 vintage certainly have their reproduction parts but that was done to get them ridable again. I don't think anyone would argue that making a Yale run after 75 years of silence, is not a noble accomplishment and a benefit to all of the members that want to see, hear, and smell a motorcycle of historic signifigance. The people that are addicticted to the early motorcycles know what they are looking at and know what parts are rare, what parts are usually missing, and who's making the reproduction. If there is monkey business going on in the world of collectible motorcycles, look at the bikes with recirculating oil systems, i.e. Knuckleheads. There are masters at work making "barn fresh" Knuckleheads. I wouldn't buy a Knucklehead these days, unless I could afford to pay Chris Haynes fee to appraise it.

Wow! There are definitely opinions on this subject aren't there? I could write up another opinion but exeric already summed up my thoughts.

[T. Cotten]

The way I see it folks,

The whole problem is that we have lost our collective sense of humor.

Motorcycles used to be fun toys, that you could play with any way you wished.

But somehow, they became significantly valuable.
Now folks carry their egos in their wallets.

The playfull innocence of our predecessors is lost forever.
Creativity is now often only a matter of finding the right catalog.
The more skillful the repair, the more deceitful it is considered.

The game is now "fool the judges".
Add un-judgeable classes, and its a free-for-all.

...Cotten

[exeric]

You're absolutely right Cotten. When I first got interested in old motorcycles, they belonged to outlaw bikers and some of them were pretty scarey. Now, old motorcycles belong to nerds with poison pens and judging sheets and they're scarey too. I think the fun of old motorcycles is doing your own work, but if you're not doing that and are just chasing the perfect score Knucklehead then you're missing the point. However, people enjoy life in many different ways.

[bmh]

the answer is NO!!!! reproduction motors are an instant DQ
and if they try to enter it as a motorcycle made in 2009, it must be a mass produced with its own running gear(motor and trans) to be eligible for judging

That may well be , but it doesn't seem to prevent their display in amongst the real motorcycles at the museum in Hershey.





Note that we don't even mention that this machine is a reproduction on the display heading.



You must read all the way to the last little paragraph to ascertain that fun fact. Yet here is a reproduction proudly displayed one bike or so away from Smokin Joes's Big Bertha Excelsior. As it was put so eloquently a while ago "fake is fake". While I mean absolutely no disrespect to the talented and driven individuals that create these things, I must question why we would display a machine that was ineligible for judging at the museum? I'm fairly certain you won't find any Cobra kit cars upstairs in the racing auto display, only the real deal.

[silentgreyfello]

1919 Excelsior

Good golly, that Excelsior has to be the ugliest recreation ever. The shoe box made into a gas tank is not even close to what the real deal would have been. And look at that paint job.... sheesh that is the ugliest green I have seen since the Hodaka Road Toad. It looks like a combo between lime and puke. They even got overspray on the handlebars! Now it is in the museum that the club's brass (including the owner of the bike) voted to spend OUR money on. Then they rub our nose in it with THAT thing.

Sorry, my wife is in a bad mood today.

[pete reeves]

Silentgreyfello.

I get the impression that you don’t like this Bike?

Pete Reeves 860