1919 racer

[Barry Brown]

I don't personally know the man but as far as building cool looking choppers I'd say he has a vision . I love the look of that hubless bike and a lot of his other creations. I also heard he is a trained engineer. My take on his problems is that he was a young man full of piss and vinegar just as I and many of us old farts were and that it caught up with him.

[Robert Luland]

i think all of those shows are just that----shows. i mean who couldn't build a motorcycle with 4 million dollars worth of equipment???? DUH!!!! let's see what they can do with a sawzall a torch and a welder. they'd just burn themselves

Stillman they do that on OCC everytime it airs. "When we got the parts back from paint they didn't fit but Mikey just rounded out the hole with a drill bit and the customer picked it up the next morning!"

I agree with Barry. That hubless thing was cool. Even if it didn't run long. It defintly took some brain power.

[flat-happy]

it's really easy to do if you look at a cages double taper roller bearing. i used to work in the woods in maine doing maintainance on woods machinery. we had a kokums forwarder made in sweden that had half tracks on the rear and 2 front tires about 8 feet in diameter. in the middle of the machine there was about a 3 foot diameter "waist bearing". i welded a wheel rim to the outside half of the bearing and a duo-glide swing arm cut off to the inside of the bearing race. that was about 1978 or 79. i wonder when billy did his first one? i never had the budget back in those days to finish the bike but i had no problem selling it
picture this only smaller
http://fplreflib.findlay.co.uk/engap...ring_1_big.jpg

[Robert Luland]

I never thought of it that way. One big bearing and the outside race becomes the rim. I got to assume it's some kind of worm drive to the side. Must weigh a ton.