President's Corner, October 2011

This past weekend (Oct 8 & 9) I went to the 7^th Annual Barber Vintage Festival at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.  I know some of you have been to one or more of these festivals and most of you have been to the museum.  Most of the attention is focused on the racing, the swap meet, and the auction.  I’ve watched a good number of AHRMA races, been to many swap meets, and attended more than a few auctions.  The races main appeal for me in the racing is the sight and sound of the old bikes of the sixties but I’ve heard them before.  The swap meets, while interesting, aren’t a place for me since I’m not looking for parts to restore anything.  The auctions feature stuff I can’t afford to buy.  Usually I try to spend time at these three events but this time I decided to take a different approach.

I read the program and decided to focus on the events unique to this festival.  To me the most interesting was the “Race of the Century”.  This race featured motorcycles one hundred years old or older.  The speed wasn’t fantastic but it was amazing to see these bikes going full blast.  The Harley fans had to be pleased since the HD was the winner.  The other events I attended were seminars offered by highly respected experts in their field.

Don Hutchinson has been restoring motorcycles for 45 years.  He’s an expert in all aspects of motorcycle restoration but his specialty is paintwork.  If you’re restoring a Brit bike and want the proper paint he’s the man to contact.  I have a copy of his handout on Bonneville paint schemes from 1959 on.   To quote briefly he says “It is important to remember that these (tank) pin stripes were applied by hand with a striping brush.  The exact width would vary with the time of day, amount of paint picked up from the pallet, age and condition of the brush and yes, the amount of beer consumed the previous evening”.  I’ll be glad to run a copy if anyone’s interested. 

John Healy shared the program with Don.  John is known for his technical seminars across the country.  He is another restoration expert.  He supplies Hepolite, Lucas, Amal parts and sources parts worldwide to keep Brit bikes running.  I have a copy of his handout on Amal Carburetor Information.  It includes extremely detailed instructions for tuning your carburetor.  There are plenty of illustrations including all part numbers.  Again I’ll be glad to run copies.

Leo Goff is expert in many areas but he focused cylinder head design.  He told us all you would ever want to know about air flow through intake and exhaust ports.  I thought I’d be overwhelmed with this topic but this guy is a great teacher and by the end of the session I was asking questions about the head angles approaching and following the valve seats and what effect they had on air flow.  I felt a little proud of myself that I could actually ask an intelligent question.  Leo didn’t have a handout but I took pictures of the screen where he projected the information.  I can make you copies of the pictures if they would be of interest. 

Max Nightingale was a different story.  He was like Kevin Cameron on steroids.  There were just six guys at this session and they were all on the same knowledge level as Max.  To try and follow that seminar you needed advanced degrees in metallurgy and physics and the vocabulary to go with them.  I quietly snuck out of that session.

I’ve saved the best for last.  Steve Hall is a panel fabricator.  He learned his craft working for Rolls Royce in their five year apprenticeship program.  This guy was fantastic.  He didn’t give handouts or use on screen projections.  What he did was make a Velocette gas tank, an Indian Chief front fender, a Lotus hood panel, and a Ferrari trunk lid.  He did several sessions during the festival and at each he worked a little on each of those projects.  My Dad was a sheet metal worker, who was an artist in his own right, so I knew something about the type of work he was doing.  He tacked, hammered, welded, and finished these welds lighting fast on a wheeling machine while talking all the time about flux, solder, annealing and on an on.  As soon as he finished a piece he passed it around and what had been two are three separate flat pieces of 16 gauge pure aluminum were now perfectly formed and joined.  The guys at that session were taking notes like mad.  I wish I had had a camcorder for this session so you could all have seen this guy in action.  If you ever get a chance to see Steve work his magic take advantage of the opportunity.

The whole time I was there I looked for Euro Motor Union members but the only one I saw was Gary Hollowich.  I did get to see and talk to Brian Slark.  Most of you remember Brian from his days in St. Louis.  Brian is now a technical consultant at the Barber Motorcycle Museum.  He told me to be sure and see the latest addition to the museum.  That addition is the freshly restored Hildebrand and Wolfmuller bike that was the world’s first mass produced motorcycle (see photo elsewhere in the newsletter).  It is a horizontal twin cylinder 4 stroke engine.  It produces 2 and one half horse power and @ 240 rpm.  The displacement is 1,500 cc.  The brakes are wood blocks acting on the front tire and there is no suspension.  Now get this - the con rods connect to the rear wheel which acts as the crank shaft and you could vary the speed by changing the size of the rear wheel.

As you can tell, I was really excited about getting to see these guys.  I didn’t mean to go on so long.  Please remember the Fall ride October 22.  Meet at 9:00 am at the McDonalds to your left as you cross the Lewis and Clark bridge coming into Illinois.  We’ll leave at 9:30.  There will be two pit stops and lunch at Mel’s Riverdock restaurant in Hardin.  Also remember that Joe Brinkman has made arrangements for a tour of the Commemorative Air Force hangar at Smart Field at the conclusion of our ride.  Hope to see you on the 22^nd.

Ride safe,

Harlan Hock, President Euro Motor Union