Pennington

[c.o.]

Man, this is interesting stuff!!!! Got any pics of that gas powered baby buggy Herb?

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by c.o.
Man, this is interesting stuff!!!! Got any pics of that gas powered baby buggy Herb?

I don't think I've ever seen photos of the gas baby buggy. And I don't believe it was covered by his patents either. If I recall correctly, the gas baby buggy was mentioned rather late in his career when he was trying to restore the old Pennington Mystique and excite people with more wild claims. Sometime after 1900 at the Cincinnati Auto Show if I remember rightly.

If we could find a photo of the gas baby buggy, maybe Pete would re-create it for us!

Pennington also tried to sue Indian for patent infringement of The Motor Cycle. I imagine that Harley-Davidson, etc. would have been next.

I wish I knew more about that last gasp phase of Pennington's career as that was the grand finale to an amazing life.

[Earl]

Originally posted by HarleyCreation


And now that we know what the first Harley single and twin looked like.....

Hi Herbert,

I didn't respond to this earlier because I had a little scare last Friday...... I was away from home last Friday, and I needed to load something into my little hatchback. In order to load it in, I had to put the seats down, and move my toolbox from the back into the front. Well, I must have twisted funny or something (not funny really) and when I went back to pick up what I had bought, my legs got all rubbery and I almost fell down. My arms got real heavy and I felt exhausted. I took my coat off and grabbed a bottle of water from the car and tried to get back to pick up what I had bought. Well, my legs went south again, and I couldn't hold on to the water. It was all I could do, to flag somebody down, and get some help. EMS showed up, then the trip to the emergency room,.....tests later showed everything normal. Bloodwork came back normal, EKG normal, they even did a CATscan to check for a stroke. Everything came back normal. After a few hours, I was ok enough to drive home. My first call on Monday was to my chiropractor. Ahh that felt good. Another visit to him on Wednesday. By Friday, I could use my right hand again and could almost walk without dragging my foot. This last week has really made me think a lot. A few more visits to Dr. Bob should get me back to normal..............

DON'T PUT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW WHAT YOU WANT TO GET ACCOMPLISHED TODAY, BECAUSE TOMORROW MAY NOT BE YOURS TO DECIDE WHAT YOU CAN EVEN DO.

Before you ask me what my heavy toolbox was doing in the back of my hatchback, instead of in my garage,....let me remind you I have 4 stepsons. That used to be the only way I'd know where my tools were.

I have since decided that a toolbox lock is much better insurance, and much cheaper than chiropractor visits.

If you will excuse me,........

I have to get back out into the garage......

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by Earl


Hi Herbert,

I didn't respond to this earlier because I had a little scare last Friday...... I was away from home last Friday, and I needed to load something into my little hatchback. In order to load it in, I had to put the seats down, and move my toolbox from the back into the front. Well, I must have twisted funny or something (not funny really) and when I went back to pick up what I had bought, my legs got all rubbery and I almost fell down. My arms got real heavy and I felt exhausted. I took my coat off and grabbed a bottle of water from the car and tried to get back to pick up what I had bought. Well, my legs went south again, and I couldn't hold on to the water. It was all I could do, to flag somebody down, and get some help. EMS showed up, then the trip to the emergency room,.....tests later showed everything normal. Bloodwork came back normal, EKG normal, they even did a CATscan to check for a stroke. Everything came back normal. After a few hours, I was ok enough to drive home. My first call on Monday was to my chiropractor. Ahh that felt good. Another visit to him on Wednesday. By Friday, I could use my right hand again and could almost walk without dragging my foot. This last week has really made me think a lot. A few more visits to Dr. Bob should get me back to normal..............

DON'T PUT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW WHAT YOU WANT TO GET ACCOMPLISHED TODAY, BECAUSE TOMORROW MAY NOT BE YOURS TO DECIDE WHAT YOU CAN EVEN DO.

Before you ask me what my heavy toolbox was doing in the back of my hatchback, instead of in my garage,....let me remind you I have 4 stepsons. That used to be the only way I'd know where my tools were.

I have since decided that a toolbox lock is much better insurance, and much cheaper than chiropractor visits.

If you will excuse me,........

I have to get back out into the garage......

Earl,

I just read about your "experience."

Very scary stuff! I'm glad it turned out to be nothing serious (?)

You are right about not putting things off.

Once you pass 50 you are more or less living on borrowed time IMHO. I know that I find myself becoming more cautious and careful and not pressing my luck.

I remember asking Wm. H. Davidson why he stopped riding motorcycles and not "pressing his luck" was the answer. At the time I didn't understand. After missing a fallen ladder at Spaghetti Junction in MPLS by inches I now do understand.

I'm glad if this gets you out in the garage more often to speed things up a little with baby Earl and Walter.

Don't you mean that you have SIX stepsons?

I hope to have a couple more book projects in my future -- so long as it lasts.

PS: that new supposed original H-D guy turned out to be nothing it seems. The guy involved did take out some patents but I can't see any Harley influence either way. The grandson claims to have visited the Factory in 1944 and Arty said that "they couldn't have done it" without Rasmus Jensen.

I think you can look these up online if you're interested.

Rasmus Jensen (b.1847-d.1917)

Patents:
69,472 (1903)
741,138 (1903)
1,208,973 (1916)
1,235,806 (1917)
1,343,455 (1920)

[AdminGuy]

Sorry to hear of your back troubles. Gagan wrenched his back also. He's better now.

Here's an updated photo showing the progress. Gotta get back on track here.
You can see it's been painted and has some gas lines installed etc. Pete?

I got a chance to talk to Pete and he explained the mingling spark system to me. So roughly -it works like this. The coil is hooked up to a plunger in the bottom or back end of the barrel. As the piston makes contact with the plunger it opens the contact. Ka-boom and so on. The plunger has a spring inside of the combustion chamber. It would get real hot and fail. Modern stainless springs will correct this old problem. Pete can give you more details and info.

I may have been the first guy to ride the Pennington! I was helping Pete load up because he had wrenched his back and was in an incredible amount of pain. You know that look - when a guys face winces up in pain and he's not saying a damn thing. Just s uckin air through his clenched teeth. Ouch.... He's better now.

So with Petes permission I hoped on the Pennington (no brakes) and coasted it down the grass hill, maybe a 150 feet. Felt pretty solid. Can't wait for him to fire it up! I kinda got the impression that it may be a jerky, shuddering start with the direct drive - until it gets up to speed. Well..... I guess we'll soon see!

[AdminGuy]

OK, a better photo from Pete -shows more progress. It's getting close!

[HarleyCreation]

Good grief!

That thing looks like the images from 1895-96!

What are you talking about Admin? It's got a brake. Isn't that the rubby thing over the front tire?

Sure looks like the real thing!

Incidently, part of the old factory where Pennington was headquartered in Racine in 1895 still stands. Or at least it still stood a couple of years ago. I never got inside, but I did walk around it and looked for parts. Didn't find anything....

[Earl]

That old building would be the ideal backdrop for a photo shoot of the reproduction Pennington machine for an article for the club magazine.

Hopefully that would be a possibility...........

Can't wait for Daveport , to see it, hear it, in person !!!!

By the way, 4 visits to the chiropractor got my back straightened out. All other tests came back normal. Thanks for everyone's comments.

[Earl]

Hi Herbert,

From your posting on the German category, glad to see you've got super reliable transportation.

Now the next question is.......

Will you be making the trip to Davenport this year?

We're expecting the repro Pennington to be fired up, which I'm sure you'd like to witness. I'm wondering if that will be complete with a little bit of Pennington style crowd gathering,....

"Step right up folks and witness the transportation that will replace the horse,....."

And as the crowd gathers,....picture young Bill Harley and Arthur Davidson pushing forward to get a better view,.......

Then Pennington remarks in a W.C.Fields manner,...

"Stand back boys, ya bother me......"

I can hardly wait. !!!!