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Super X OHV racer

141K views 424 replies 103 participants last post by  magnum45pete 
#1 ·
Hi Everybody.
I am trying to build a OHV Super X Excelsior racer. Being from Denmark, which is completely flat, a hill climber did´nt really take my fancy. So I´m going down the well tried road of board tracking..
Things are moving ahead nicely, took a completely rotten frame apart and changed around 2/3 of the tubes. Re-jigged and re-brazed the lot with silver, so now it´s straight and strong.
21" wheels (70´ies Bultaco) are on their way, lots of necessary spares found. Internals right now leans towards Sportster, though I had 741 Indian rods mated with the original X fly-wheels,- but I don´t know..


I have been trusted with an original KOSLOW racing head on loan for measuring, to make new patterns for my castings. To the best of my knowledge, Koslow continued after Schwinn closed down his motorcycle endeavours , adapting the OHV-patterns for midget racing. So with this head and some measurements from Matt of "Wheels through Time" museum, from their collection of original Climbers, I´ve managed to reconstruct the OHV head in the computer. Found a head stock badge from a later Schwinn cycle, hence the poetic name: "American Beauty".
Update will be erratic, as there´s a lot of "how to solve.." so bear with me.

Mads
 

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#4 ·
holy shit! I love that bike!
 
#6 ·
mads, you guys simply amaze me, with a few exceptions, if we cant find a part, we piss and mone, if you guys cant find it, ya simply make it, lol, wow.
 
#11 ·
Hi again Everybody.
Yeah, I know the Landstrom Foundry site,- Lyle and I have actually mailed quite a bit over the years. Rocky of Iron Wigwam (and Dreamcatcher LSR) fame was the one that entrusted me with the Koslow head (A LOT of people had to vouch for me, as this is one the holy grails of American racing history) . He has so many fantastic and time consuming Indian projects, that I think he down prioritized the Koslow over the years. A day only has 24 hours.. So no "ready made" Excelsior factory race parts from the Iron Wigwam, I´m sorry to say.

Here´s a couple of shots of my X-frame. What a puzzle..
 

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#17 ·
I still have not found a way to get an extra hour from each day and my streamliner will be ready for BUB 2010 with an Indian uprising. As it stands now, I need to whip up a set of factory Daytona scout heads and still stir the War Path cases for a double, I feel confident I made the right choice to let Mads take some weight off my shoulders and on with Koslo heads, if I get bored I still have the Indian EXP2 engine to play with.
For those who ask about their history, they are from a dry lakes chout my father and Clem Murdaugh played with
Rocky
1957 S/VG
1959 M/BG
 
#22 ·
[QUOTE
For those who ask about their history, they are from a dry lakes chout my father and Clem Murdaugh played with
Rocky
1957 S/VG
1959 M/BG[/QUOTE]

Rocky,- You never told me the story where the OHV heads actually came from!? I allways thought that you picked them up at a swap-meet in the 70íes..
Mads
 
#23 ·
[QUOTE
For those who ask about their history, they are from a dry lakes chout my father and Clem Murdaugh played with
Rocky
1957 S/VG
1959 M/BG
Rocky,- You never told me the story where the OHV heads actually came from!? I allways thought that you picked them up at a swap-meet in the 70íes..
Mads[/QUOTE]

Mads,
I never told you the full story. In 1953, Clem Murdaugh, my father and Clay Smith made a pack to run a chout to chase Bubeck's record . Clay Smith ended up dying in an Indy car crash in 54? I think and Clem and my dad continued on with Kelly doing the driving duties at El Mirage in 55-56. Not sure why they stopped running the chout but I suspect it was too much financially for the two of them. My father sold this chout around 1959 or 60 to Teddy in order to bulld a house for his growing family. I was 9 or 10 and never thought much of it, with a shop full of odd Indian racers and other EXP stuff. Around 1969 when I bought the rest of Murdaugh's big base parts, Clem and my dad spoke of the chout and el mirage with Kelly doing the riding and I thought I saw a tear in his eye, so I vowed to track Ted down and try for the bike. It took another 4 or 5 years and actually aftyer I learned who he was, I saw him quite a bit at swaps and what not. Around 1974 Ted was ready to sell the heads to finance some thing, the bike he was keeping as a flathead.
Yes I was lucky to be able to buy them back in the 70's from the fellow that bought the chout from my father. I spent almost $4000 in 1974 for a pair of heads and ate hot dogs and beans for a year and have never seen another original pair for sale in 40 years
 
#24 ·
Fantastic story, Rocky.
Would love to see a photo of that engine! Never thought that these heads actual had been sitting on a Indian,- Interesting prospect..!!

On a lighter note; here´s a couple of shots: The finished frame and some chamber/porting test that I did, just to get a quick "visual" of the inside of the heads.

Mads
 

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