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AEE Choppers

87K views 151 replies 43 participants last post by  Just Passin' Thru... 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Im an ex-employee of AEE and am interested in any pictures or stories anyone might have of our golden years back in the day.

I also might be able to help idientify any suspected AEE parts. I was the guy that pulled every part that went out the door for a couple years. I had to know most of the stuff on sight. Now my memory ain't what it once was but I'd be willing to help out.


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#95 ·
Appleknocker is right. Know of no problem at all with the square springer other than people losing the damn top plate! I have one like that in my collection, got to make a top plate for it. The square glide has only one leg and all the impact that the springs in the legs don't absorb gets sent right to the top plate. Reason is the square holes in the lower tree don't clamp much at all....literally only clamps on the 4 corners unlike a round tube that clams all the way around.
By the way I need some AEE rockers like yours. somehow the square springer I have has AEE fishtail rockers which is incorrect. Square springers got crescents and rounds got fishtails (you could buy the fishtails and crescents as a part).
 
#97 · (Edited)
Thats them. I'll tell you the paint on them was incredible...perfect 7UP metallic candy green....
Look closely at the front ends, that is the AEE girder front end. It's an interesting girder made differently from many others, designed by Dave Brackett. Bikes were literally built with off the shelf parts from us.

I have attempted to find these bikes but no luck. I wrote to 7UP bottling of LA who actually was the folks these went to and they didn't bother to reply. But I'm like the black knight in Monty Python so I'm a wee bit tenacious. If this stuff is out there we will find it. Thanks for the post.
 
#99 ·
I have been searching for it. It was shown on TV outlets in the New York area supposedly in 73 I think. I have the name of the agency that made the commercial but they no longer exist. They would be the only one's that might have a copy. The TV stations typically back then didn't hang on to this stuff. All of the AEE archives are long gone so I'm not sure where to turn at this point. there was an article in one of the magazines about it back in the day.
 
#104 ·
well that made at least one as it was in one of the final catalogs...however don't know that any have ever been authenticated. I do know some other springer company did that at one time as I have seen them but don' tknow who they were.
I do know that if you have one produced this late in AEE's life it would be marked with the stamped logo.
 
#112 ·
Didnt see this post before now....if the AEE logo is on there and etched then its real. However the number on there is a component number and has nothing to do with the actual springer part number and they had no serial numbers. The 15" on the bottom of the legs could indicate 15" over but I do not remember that being done. You have to remember everything was cut and machined in a multitude of phases then assembled and welded together then sent to chrome. So the parts had identifiers on them
Its funny but I don't ever remember selling a 15" over springer...lots of 18 and 12's.
 
#114 ·
I bought my '62 pan from the Honolulu PD in '68 or '69, and proceeded to chop it
per the style at the time. I don't know exactly when I ran across AEE, but I know I bought a lot of parts from them, and was actually a dealer for a short while, as there was nobody else here on Maui doing anything like that at the time.

Ran across these in the back of my shop, they were on the '62 chop, but could not tell you when I put them on. I'm positive I got them from AEE. Late 60's or early 70's. I rode that bike until '92, when I parked it and bought a '91 FXDB. Pulled that '62 out of my storage shed recently, and it is slowly getting a complete rebuild.

Have been trying to decide how to do these covers, I've pressure washed them so a lot of the loose chrome has already come off. Have been considering just using a high quality satin clear coat to keep the "original patina" look. Or removing all the chrome and just polishing the aluminum. Nobody in Hawaii does chrome work anymore, I'd have to send them off to the mainland to get them rechromed. No matter, they will look great on my refurbished '62 chop after all these years, however I do them....
Aloha,
Willy

There's just one pair here, two different views:
 
#115 ·
Here's another pix of those pan covers on the motor when I started tearing it down:

Can you confirm that those are actually AEE covers?
Willy
 
#121 ·
Actually AEE got sued way in the very beginning as infringing on some other guys design (can't remember his name). In the end he got nothing and AEE modified the design enough to make it their own. This goes way back to 67-68 when AEE just was beginning to build parts and most of their stuff was sourced. Not sure where the sourced the covers in the beginning but once they had them made for themselves the design was changed.
 
#122 ·
No marks at all inside these covers. But I'm 99.9% sure I got them from AEE sometime plus or minus around 1970. My company back then was Motorcycle Engineering Maui, or MEMCO, but it didn't last long. Business of this sort was very, very slow on Maui. Most guys preferred to do their own wrenching. I sold some parts, did a few bikes, but not much really, so went out and found a "real job".....

Things have sure changed over the last 50 years....
 
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