Cool Stuff

Posts of things laying around that we find interesting.

Some photos of a valve job being done on a JD cylinder.

We have been working on Gov’s Drake Engine for about a year now.  It is finally complete.  You can see the initial run-stand video below.  As an added bonus we were fortunate enough to be able to interview Buzz Rose.  He is a former Drake engine-powered race car driver from the 50’s.  Enjoy!

To see the rest of Gov’s Drake engine rebuild story, click here.

 

Here is Scott’s completed “old school” chopper project.  He has owned this bike for many years and wanted it restored to its original look.  It is the same color as it was in the ’70s and has all its original parts.  To see the initial engine run click here.

This one of our customer’s bikes.  He is a WWII veteran who went to the Normandy Beach reunion this year and ran in the marathon.  While there, he found a M1-A1 NOS gun scabbard and brought it back to the States with him to complete his project. He loves riding this bike; he’s the “real deal.”  We just love caring for and maintaining this bike for him and we thought we would share it with you.

We are continuing to work on Ron’s 1936 VLH and we now have the engine completed.  The pictures and video below are from the first new engine start-up on our engine stand.

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The carburetor has been nickel-plated and reassembled as per original.

You can see the first part of Ron’s story here.

Ron bought this 1936 VLH at the Steve McQueen auction in Las Vegas and has been trying to put it together.  He brought it to us to finish a few things, and we found some problems with the motor.  So, we pulled the engine out and found that it needed to be rebuilt completely.  These are some of the process pictures up to this point.  It is currently on the bench for final assembly.

 

Mr. Ken Smith and his wife, owners of S&S Cycle, were in Phoenix and stopped by the shop for a visit.  We had a great time visiting and they enjoyed a tour of our shop.  Hope to see them again in the future.

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We did some searching around our shop and ran across these uncirculated, early ’80s, S&S brochures and catalog.  It was a great find!

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We have a special guest writer for this newest post.  We met Tandy approximately 15 years ago when she came in for some help with her Knucklehead, and she has been a faithful customer and friend ever since.  Enjoy.

I bought my bike in 1981.  It was love at first sight and I bought her before I could even kick-start her.  The current owner started her and despite the suicide/jockey shift, I rode off as if she had been mine for years.   

The first few years I lived on her but then life happened ….. my family all sold their bikes but I kept her and rode alone.  

I made seat, fender, and paint changes to her over the years but could never find anyone that really seemed to understand her until I met the guys at HWC.  They kept her running well for years then one day I had the money and they had the know-how to rebuild the engine and transmission, as well as make some chassie modifications.   

Thanks to the guys at Highway Choppers I will be riding my scooter for as long as I possibly can.  And yes, a ridge frame at 50 is not as easy as it was at 20 but it is still just as much fun!

Tandy