Old Motorcycles

A natural relationship to my fondness of old cars and boats, is old motorcycles. Especially the pre WW1 era bikes of board track and dirt track racing. Those were real grass roots companies and the riders were the bravest racers to ever live, ranking in my book with the unlimited hydroplane racers.

Anyway, I have this cool photo of my Grandpa Edward Sewall (standing) and his soon-to-be-brother in law Harry Reeves with a 1917 Harley Davidson. They had many bikes, and one thing he did was to build a sled using the engine and a few parts from a 19teens Cyclone motorcycle. Thought you guys might think these are neat.

a motorized sled??

awesome!

I bet it was a monster, and I bet his neighbors were not big fans of it. No mufflers.
This was way before any snowmobile patents were issued.

Nice pictures.

so he kinda had my mentality.....

lucky for you "crazy" skipped a generation

Dad and I just went out to see a few old Cyclones and other bikes. Grandpa was the draftsman for the Cyclone company. Here is one, fully restored and looking great. They made around 300, 12 are know to exist today, some in the race version, some in the street version. And yes, it is in the guy's dining room.

Also an old pic from the track, and one of the road bikes.

This engine was cutting edge in the teens, it was the pioneer in overhead cam cycle engines. Driveshafts and bevel gears are in the tubes to run the cams where other bikes had pushrods and rocker arms in the same locations. Cyclones kicked a** on board and dirt tracks.

now thats old school!!
love the exhaust

I'd love to get a vintage bike and attempt a restoration! dirt/flat track bikes are my favorite!

Yeah, me too. I'm writing a book about them, it has been an interesting journey so far.

Amazing pics and history Bill, thank you for sharing.

Current Hot Bike Magazine (Sept 2010) covered one of our mission trips about Cyclones. Here is the story:

cool story

Jeff's Cyclone in the article just got stolen from him during a home invasion.

Be on the lookout for any suspicious parts out there, and help spread the word to your motorcycle friends. Engine serial Number 1040 A.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/02/04/home-invasion-robb...

That seriously sucks! Glad they are OK. Hopefully the police find the guys behind this.

Gee, wonder how the crooks found out that he had one of these in his house?

That is a valid point about sharing like he does. The article was his idea, but he takes that bike to all kinds of meets and shows, it was even on display at the Guggenheim Museum. To bad someone took such brash advantage of his generosity. Most people have never seen a Cyclone, now I suspect the last few will become even more reclusive.

People suck. That's why I love my dog so much.

This is one reason why I repeatily ask people not to tell other about my cars and where I live. That and a robber would think I got raluables in the home, only to be rather pissed after they break in...a pissed off robber in ur home thinking uve got hidden goods is not my idea of fun

Rot row Raggy, hide the raluables and Scooby Snacks!

Lol, shut it

Only thing I have of value is expensive smelly hockey goalie gear and model cars....and hockey jerseys

I kinda like this yard sign. Might look really nice beside my alarm company sign.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/02/18/one-of-six-rem...

Bump for the old Cyclone story, since Steve Mcqueen's old bike is up for auction in March at Mecum Las Vegas. Expected to set a $ record for auctioned motorcycles.

Is the motorcycle collection still at Comlux out at the airport?

That was an interesting tour.

Not sure, David E who was the GM there and has the bikes was promoted to Pres and CEO of Comlux USA and is in Dallas now, so I don't know if he moved the collection. That was a cool tour.

BMW R71 replica from the 1940's.
Bought it in Shanghai and it is now in Indiana.
Cheers,
Greg