Thursday, April 30, 2009

Anyone Recognize this Bike?



One of the benefits of writing about these vintage drag bikes, is that a few people are beginning to contact me with pictures and info on early racers they know about. Recently I have had a couple of such contacts; one with the son of a famous '50s era racer, and another from a reader that owns a 50's era racer. This post is about the latter.
Ron first contacted me by phone some time ago, and told me about a Knuckle drag bike that he had acquired. Now he has sent me some pictures and agreed that it would be worth a shot for me to write about it in the hope that someone would be able to provide more info on the bike.
The info Ron has is pretty sketchy. The bike was apparently found in the back of a machine shop in West Virginia where it had languished for the last 30 years or so. As the story goes, the owner of the machine shop, someone known as "Little John", was also the owner/builder of the bike. That is about all Ron knows of its history, since the bike passed through several hands between when it was sold at auction less than a year ago, and his acquisition of it.




Let me tell you though, it is an absolute jewel (albeit a jewel in the rough)! Ron's plans are to do a mechanical restoration of it, preserving the patina. A man after my own heart.
So, if anyone out there can shed any light on this piece of history, please contact me so I can pass the info on to Ron.

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