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vintage pics o' the day

506K views 1K replies 378 participants last post by  Ratso 
#1 ·
enjoy.
 

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#1,004 · (Edited)
A Henderson KJ Streamline, 1930, from a NY museum (link, below). The two-tone blue/white is another one. It reminds me of something Arlen Ness would have made. I wouldn't be surprised if he saw pics of this, and decided to do his interpretation of 1930's Art Deco style. The designer of the pre-WW II Henderson is a fellow named Courtney.

Here is a c.1953 bike Courtney designed, with more 'sharp' bodylines, being 'creased' and angular, instead of the earlier rounded, compound-curves; this bike is using an Indian Scout 45 cu. inch powerplant, in a frame and suspension of Courtney's own design. It weighs 50 lbs less than a 2020 Harley-Davidson Low Rider (580 lbs-633 lbs).

https://fristartmuseum.org/misc/1930-henderson-kj-streamline

https://www.motorcyclemojo.com/2016/04/henderson-streamline/

https://books.google.com/books?id=x...age&q=his dream motorcycle cost $5000&f=false
 

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#1,005 ·
DANG. Thanks for posting those up. Did you just say everything you know about the Hendersons, or do you (for instance) whether they were prototypes that never went into production? 'Cause the earlier model, at least, is a new one on me.

I can probly guess what engine powered the blue/white bike, but do you happen to know more or less for certain?

I can easily see myself on the '30s bike, being pursued by hot-eyed, lust-crazed women. But then I see myself wrecking the thing. So on the whole I'm glad that bike will never be mine.
 
#1,006 · (Edited)
DANG. Thanks for posting those up. Did you just say everything you know about the Hendersons, or do you (for instance) whether they were prototypes that never went into production? 'Cause the earlier model, at least, is a new one on me.

I can probly guess what engine powered the blue/white bike, but do you happen to know more or less for certain?

I can easily see myself on the '30s bike, being pursued by hot-eyed, lust-crazed women. But then I see myself wrecking the thing. So on the whole I'm glad that bike will never be mine.
Hop-onto one of these Art Deco bikes, and take a cruise on Army/Chavez through The Mission, and yes, I bet the dark-haired, dark-eyed beauties would be in-pursuit. It is a thing of beauty.

From what I read they were Henderson-4 powered, the Art Deco, curvy ones, several were built, but they were during the Depression, so who had $$$$ then? Like the story for 'bespoke' items, you have-to lure the $$$$ customers, and get them to buy enough, over-time, to keep them in series production.

The later rectilinear, 'creased' lines one from the early 1950's, was the only one built to my knowledge. He hoped to interest someone into financing production, but as it was using an Indian Scout, and Indian died at the same time/year, no-one else stepped-up to say, "here's some engines, and a bit o' capital, get to-work!" To me, it could have been a precursor to the Munch Mammut, for Floyd Clymer. Imagine what it would have been, with a Vincent Rapide, Black Shadow, or Black Lightning in it! Hell, even a Comet 500 single probably would have made it a going-concern, losing weight, and probably more HP than the 45 cu inch Scout engine.

Here's a pic of a Graham, a 1938, would you believe they nicknamed it the 'Sharknose?' I like the styling but it wasn't too-popular. Graham bought the rights to EL Cord's 810 'Coffin-nose,', and they re-named it the 'Hollywood.' I don't believe they retained it as a FWD car though. I see a similarity between the two, the Graham and the Courtney 1953 motorcycle.
 

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#1,010 · (Edited)
Isn't that a BMW design and tooling that made the Soviet bikes? Yes, you're right, it's a Dnepr, a Ural or something, but those were made from BMW tooling sent to Russia after WW II as part of reparations. Yes, this is a movie prop.

Anyway, I was just looking to put a picture into the post to spice it-up, I'm not trying to establish provenance for a fraudulent build to be sold. By the way, that's not Captain John H Miller, US Army, either.:eek:

Here's a pic that hopefully passes-muster, a 1913 NUT 1000 cc JAP OHV engine, a NUT won the 1913 IOM TT Junior race.

And because posters are cool, here are some for vintage bikes.
 

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#1,013 · (Edited)
The distributor tells me it is a chinese engine, I think they refined the ignition system when they got the design from the russians...
Otherwise almost the same design, BMW R71, Soviet m71 and CJ 750.
Interessting story. The germans gave the design to the russians as part of a tech-tranfser deal, the Moltow-Ribbentrop deal. It was BMW:s last flat head design so it was not a difficult give away. In return they got the opportunity to set up panzer and luftwaffe training facilities in the Soviet.
The Soviets in turn gave the design to China in 1977.
 
#1,014 · (Edited)
The distributor tells me it is a chinese engine, I think they refined the ignition system when they got the design from the russians...
Otherwise almost the same design, BMW R71, Soviet m71 and CJ 750.
Interessting story. The germans gave the design to the russians as part of a tech-tranfser deal, the Moltow (sic: Molotov-von Ribbentrop)-Ribbentrop deal. It was BMW:s last flat head design so it was not a difficult give away. In return they got the opportunity to set up panzer and luftwaffe training facilities in the Soviet.
The Soviets in turn gave the design to China in 1977.
I fixed it for you. The Molotov-von Ribbentrop non-aggression pact was voided by Hitler when he began Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. I read a lot of 20th century history. Yes, the name Molotov is the same Molotov associated with his famous 'cocktail.' If Hitler hadn't been so-aggressive, opening war fronts on both the east and the west, the UK probably would have had to sue for peace, as the Nazis prepared to cross the English Channel for the invasion of the UK. The American Lend-Lease agreement was the question on Final Jeopardy, 3-25-2020 under the topic, alliterative 20th century legislation. From another book on 20th century history I recently-read, Lend-Lease (informally before 1941, and under the L-L Act of 1941, later, too-late for Poland and France) gave Harley-Davidsons and Indian motorcycles to the UK, France, Poland, Australia, and Russia. H-D supplied more bikes than Indian by a 3:1 margin. As isolationist members of the Senate preached non-involvement, Roosevelt quietly began supplying our allies with goods and materials to help them prepare for war. This was an informal Lend-Lease, and it began in the mid-1930's. At the end of the decade, Hitler began his conquest of the eastern European countries, and moved west. He conquered Belgium, the Netherlands, and France by the middle of 1940. The official American Lend-Lease Agreement was signed in early 1941 at which point the UK was the only major European power against the Nazis. That's why there were significant numbers of American motorcycles in those countries after WW II. Those bikes are being 'repatriated' to the country of origin, the USA, as demand for them drives the market. I bought a bike from a retired US Army officer, here in Florida, and he had one of the Lend-Lease bikes, now a chopper, which had-been sent to Australia originally, from his research on its origins according to the WLA engine #.
 

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#1,020 ·
I used to read CREEM, it was an alternative paper published in MI and distributed around the state, usually to be found in 'head-shops,' co-operative food stores, record shops, and the like.

The focus was primarily on the music industry, but they also ran articles on social events of the day, like the ~1970 summer riots in Detroit and the suburbs. The P.D. arrested about 550 of the young citizens, the sons and daughters of auto industry executives when the police made a Tactical Squad sweep from Royal Oak into Birmingham, from maybe Ten-Mile to Fourteen-Mile, along Woodward Ave. The youth were spending their time on Woodward, and the PD decided to shut it down. There was a big stink about the number of kids (young adults, really) who were taken to jail, most of them eventually had the charges dropped.

Creem was an alternative to Rolling Stone magazine. Detroit had a great music scene. Motown was still a presence, but Barry Gordy had picked-up and moved most operations to L.A. Bob Seger, the MC5, Brownsville Station, the Sunday Funnies, Dick Wagner and the Frost, Alice Cooper, Tommy James, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Scott, Richard, Case (SRC), Rare Earth, the UP, Mighty Quick, lots of bands of the day in Michigan, and CREEM was there to do concert reviews, record reviews, and comment on social justice of the day, people like John Sinclair, who managed the MC5, and who was a social radical.

Those guys are definitely in the spirit of the times, in The Motor City.
 
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