GET A BASKET

Ready for a trip to the grocer in town or for a picnic, an old Burlington "Hawkeye Refrigerator Basket" made by the Burlington Basket Company of Burlington, Iowa  makes a nice addition to my 1928 Indian 101 Scout (DGP147).The company has made baskets like this since 1888. In 1928, the year of my 101, the original factory burnt down. They rebuilt and continued production. This basket may even be date correct for this Scout.

It goes fishing too.

It stays in place with just two home-made buckle straps. With the straps tucked under the front and rear handle ends, the basket can not go forward or backward.

Just loosening the rear strap allows me to push the strap forward enough to open one of the basket's two lids for easy, fast access.

These baskets were lined with tinned sheet steel and insulated with  a layer of felted animal hair and asbestos. Some include a removable, lidded ice container to keep the water of melted ice from your goods.

These "refrigerator baskets" were made in a very wide range of sizes and decorations. The brown one on the back of my 101 measures 10 in. high and has a hinged double lid 20 in. in overall length and 12 in. wide. This is one of the smaller models and such seem best suited to a small Scout.

Hawkeye Refrigerator Baskets from many different years and in many different models are plentiful for sale on eBay. However, the smaller models, such as my brown one, are the hardest to find.

KANSAS CHIEF REBORN

I just finished this project last week.

BEFORE:

DURING:

Found as a Plains derelict living in a Kansas barn now recently "born again" as an American Southwest bounty hunter.

I was inspired by those eagle feathers hanging on the glass door knob shifter. So "Kansas"!

Bike now features:

Heavy black latigo leather saddle by Heather's Leathers with seven 1900-1910 extremely rare Navajo Indian conchos hand hammered & hand punched from pure silver ingot (not from coin as Navajo used later), secured against cutting with stainless steel strapping hidden behind the black leather strapping; stroked 84 in. engine with Bonneville cams by Randy Zorn; Frank Byford 4-speed tranny; Kiwi electric start for rapid pursuit (or quick escape!); 4 gallon tanks by Ironhorse Corral to cover the desert distances; rare 1940's Navajo Indian blanket from my collection, color coordinated to bike's design, wrapping over a heavy chill-proof covering for desert trail-side camping;  Packard Blue color (very close to Indian's "Police Blue") hand matched to late '30's factory Packard color sample cards; bikes' original fenders coated underside with stone & armadillo road kill guard; original-to-bike correctly operating speedometer and amp gauge.

Oops. I toasted the chrome exhaust when first dialing in the carb.  First try was too lean.

Available on eBay (when I'm dead).

AFTER:

A heavy black Latigo leather saddle skirt, the finest Latigo leather provided by me to Heather's Leathers, along with with seven 1900-1910 extremely rare solid silver Navajo Indian conchos, hand hammered & hand punched from pure silver ingot (not from coin as Navajo used later), secured against cutting with stainless steel strapping hidden behind the black leather strapping. Well that order into Heather's Leathers took about a year or more. Extreme custom takes time.

 

HOW TO GET INSANELY GREAT MOTORCYCLE VIDEO JUST LIKE ME!

Video Link:

https://youtu.be/IQtkskyof9U

UPDATE:

Since this video was made, power to the FEIYUTECH Gimbals has been changed to hard wired 3 cell Llithium RC batteries with battery voltage monitors.

Details on that later.

GENUINE CALIFORNIA "NICKEL BAGS"

I acquired a set of old leather saddle bags off a motorcycle in San Francisco, California. They were sold only as "vintage leather motorcycle saddle bags with nice patina."

But the 5 cent coins set into the leather strapping, two on each side, told me who was the maker. So did the unusually heavy leather and the zippers for detaching the bags. 

These aren't just old leather saddle bags: these have interesting motorcycle history!

It turns out, these bags were made by Phil Thacher, a Stockton, California legendary leather craftsman and a father of four, who died at age 44 in February 1999, two months after being diagnosed with leukemia.

He was a "hippie" leather craftsman from Santa Barbara.  His love of leather crafts led him to open The Leatherworks shop in Stockton in 1976, assisted by his wife Aimee.  

He initially provided custom handmade sandals, belts, wallets, purses, and other small leather items.

Then, one day in the late 1970’s, perhaps 1979, a customer asked Philip to make a set of leather saddlebags for a motorcycle. From this start, Philip soon developed standard motorcycle saddle bag product lines on specific styles beginning  just a few years later in 1982. Aimee now runs The Leatherworks company, still in Stockton, and it has become a very large supplier of various motorcycle bags.

I contacted his widow Aimee and sent her images of this bag. She was amazed to see this survivor from 35 years ago, and she dated these saddle bags to the very first run of their first standard style bag, around 1982. So 35 years ago.

Philip Thacher was easygoing, pleasant, likable, friends say. He had a knack for drawing people together from all walks: Hell's Angels, yuppie bikers, fellow merchants on the Miracle Mile.

Larry Loesch, a Harley motorcycle rider, walked into the store around 1989. He said “if you went over there on a Saturday, you'd see 20 people there just to visit, to have him sew a patch on their jacket, to shoot the bull with him."

Heavy leather was his works’ special feature and he invented the zipper-detachable bags right from the start. He used very heavy YKK zippers and the pull taps could be padlocked to a grommet in the leather as can be seen in the image of my bags below.

 Once unzipped, the bag could be carried by its heavy leather handle like a briefcase.

His inclusion of 5 cent coins, buffalo nickels, in the strapping was a distinguishing feature and allowed him to jokingly say he “only sells “nickel bags.”

The bags I have do not have the characteristic Thacher-installed buffalo nickels. Instead, they have Liberty five cent coins (note - not very valuable). One side displays two "heads" and the other side displays two "tails." 

Phil Thacher's widow could not remember him using Liberty coins but suspected this was just a custom request from the buyer.

Someone who spent many years at the time in San Fransisco told me on hearing of these bag's discovery:

 

"That is a great connection! Many of my friends in the Germanic Renaissance guild were expert leather workers and bikers. Not of the yuppie type but of the "roadhouse" type. On such character was "Red" who used to brag about his bags from Stockton... They must have been from the same place... He had custom tooled the leather and had the Ace of Spades and skulls all over them... He had mentioned that they were the only ones to have because of the thickness of the leather, which made them indestructible. 

Aimee remembered Phil made someone bags with the Ace of Spades in them, but not the skulls.

 

RESTORATION

 

The condition of these leather survivors of over 35 years tells of 35 years of use in riding wind and 35 years of exposure to the California sun. 

 

Thacher's bags were all black. These bags only displayed added black shoe polish or possibly even black paint, with a heavy accumulation of road dust; and many areas were worn to uncolored leather. That's the seller's idea of great "patina." Maybe so, but here Phil's very thick leather was very stiff - like cardboard and needed attention.

 

Before the stiff leather could be treated, this leather necessarily needed "cleaning."  What was on these bags was history for sure, but not a nice "patina." Also, they were destined for a new life on a new motorcycle and possible decades of future survival, not for a museum display.

Details later ...

 

 

 

A RIVETING VIDEO

Riveting a rear spocket.

The sprocket had been attached by someone in the past with pop rivets!!!

The holes in the brake drum and sprocket were worn to oval and so extra long rivets and heating to pink steel was needed to fill those oval holes.

Using a Hanson HRH-4X-777 Rivet Hammer.

Riveting videos do not get more boring that this!

https://youtu.be/iyMnGopUeGI

FOUND A DISPATCH TOW LOCKED UP FOR 20 YEARS
 

This 1940 Indian Dispatch-Tow was left untouched for 20 years (!) at the back of a clean and heated warehouse at the South end of my town.

Hell yes, I bought it.

Significantly, it was owned by the Ohio Indian motorcycle enthusiast and collector Ernie Hartman, Sr. who served in World War II. But before tucking it away for 20 years of safekeeping into the future, Mr Hartman, Sr. rode this Dispatch-Tow occasionally (parades) from age 74 until he was 80, during a time when his legs were no longer safe for riding his 2-wheeled Indians. It was his last Indian ride, and, I believe, the last sold from his collection. It was his "keeper." It became available for sale after his death in his 90's.

Amazingly, it started up when pulled from storage using a fresh battery and fuel. It still runs quite well and needs just a little work to operate it safely for reasonable speeds.  I am keeping its looks as it is.

There is no reason to doubt that the 45 in. Sport Scout engine (including its generator, distributor and coil) are not original to the frame (no frame number was found). There is no reason to doubt that the ammeter and switch are not originals to the dash as well -  they all look quite old - they all work. The 110 MPH Corbin speedometer works and is an old original though it may date to a start of 1941 - I can not tell. Maybe it is the original. Headlamp, brake, speedometer and fender lights all work.

The tow bar is a Fulton original in working order - will clamp to a period bumper. But its date may not be 1940.

The three tires are old and a little hardened. One is a Beck (perhaps original 1940), one a Firestone (original?), and the other is Dunlop.  All hold air like brand new.  I have an old Beck tire to use to replace the Dunlop and place the two Becks on the rear to match.

It was just incredible to find that this rare, safe-kept Indian was sitting in my town for 20 years and didn't know it.

I'll be needing a tricycle someday.

MYSTERY SCOUT

End of February 2017 and after a year of work I have the thing all mocked up with its 57 cubic inch engine which used to be a 30.50 cubic inch 741.

I'll tell you what this FrankenIndian is all about later with its final image. 

Its April 1, 2017 and all the sheet metal has been painted and pin striped, most of the polishing and plating is done (all nickel except chrome for the straight exhaust pipes) and I'm just waiting on the powder coating.

Custom Frame with 741 castings by The Gas Box of Cleveland, Ohio.
Engine by James Solberg of Middletown, Ohio.

Then it will take me a couple months to build it up and get it running. 

Yes, it will have a tank mounted GPS speedometer as mocked-up below: