Motor Classic: June 2009

First Farmer's boogie party Bretagne France

A couple of decades ago (or more) I picked up this interesting little bike. It is made up of mostly 20s Indian parts. I thought it was mostly 101 Scout parts but looking at the frame a friend thought the frame might be a four cylinder. The engine is from a 20's Prince. The trans is a Power Plus. The tanks are unknown to me but Indian and very cool. I'll bet there's a racer that would like 'em. I believe the front hub is HD.

Obviously everything is cut down and miniaturized. The story goes that a monkey rode it in the circus (believe it or not!) maybe not, I don't know. The old fellow that owned it began restoration at one time and the bike was all apart. I stuck it together to wheel it around and had it in the basement for many years.

In 2005 I decided to put it together. The motor was apart, the trans was apart and a million and one little home made "One Off" parts filled several boxes. Well I spread everything out on an old door and began the puzzle. What an interesting job it was trying to figure out what fit what! I would go out to the garage from time to time and try a few things to see if they worked then try them again when they didn't. I would pick up parts that I was convinced were thrown in by mistake only to find that combined with another weird part it fit some purpose on the little freak! The shifter and clutch linkage were a real challenge!

This was one of the best "therapy" projects I have worked on...no pressure just put it together like a (not so) big toy. Of course when all was said and done I had a box of left overs...just like Christmas morning. I believe it had a sidecar at one time based on some of the spare parts I have!

Well then came the task of figuring out what to do with it. I took it out to an AMCA meet in Jefferson PA where it met its bigger cousin (Frank Westfall's) Super X Mini circus bike.

After that outing my sons and I hoisted it onto the kitchen table and into the perfect opening in the wall! It probably still has a little scalp and hair on the floor board..Oops careful kids!

MN Supreme Court: "Election Fraud OK with Us"

In a not unexpected result to the contested election between Senator Norm Coleman and comedian Al Franken, the Minnesota Supreme Court today declared Franken the victor.

Minnesota has a history of making elections into a big joke, the last memorable example being the election of Professional Wrestler Jesse "the Body" Ventura as Governor. However, even in practical joke loving Minnesota, a healthy dose of election fraud was required to give Franken enough votes to carry the day.

In the days following the election, which originally showed Norm Coleman as having won a narrow victory, extra votes for Al Franken showed up in the most unlikely places. Nearly everyone I know has a story of finding at least a few Franken ballots. I even found a dozen myself, when I disassembled our snow blower to replace the belt.

Those of us who find ourselves to the political right of Joseph Stalin, and so did not vote for Franken, can take solace in the fact that we have not lost a conservative in Norm Coleman. In reality we have only traded in a liberal Senator for an extremely liberal Senator.

The Phantom Manufacturing

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We met the Phantom team at the last Norton Festival in Donington and took pictures of this amazing bike made in U.K
Those guys are cool and rad and their work is simply impressive
Take a look at their website and dont forget the Gallery at the end of this post.
The Southsiders wish them a good and straight road to success.

The roots of The Phantom Manufacturing Company run deep. The cogs of the four founders, Erasmus Thump, Titus Bottomly, Enoch Podsnap and Mrs. Mabel Ramsbottom meshed in the late Spring of 1919 on the banks of the Cam river and the company was born shortly thereafter. Responsibilities were distributed as such – Erasmus was responsible for invention and exploration, Titus was the team spanner man and basher of hard things, Enoch was responsible for testing and helping Erasmus raise funds when sales were not quite to plan, and Mrs. Ramsbottom, as company secretary, made all things run smoothly. Over time they acquired a staff of skilled individuals to help in all aspects of manufacture of some of the finest sporting vintage motrobikes the world has ever seen.

History of the Phantom EG

" We build the Phantom EG the way we have always built motorbikes -- by the hands of skilled artisans. Our lads specify or form every piece of the machine. Of course, no two clients are the exact same shape, or have the exact same taste. As a result, every Phantom is unique, 'commissioned' as would a piece of fine art. The EG was designed from the start as an homage to those amazing machines that spunky gentlemen (and ladies) used to set speed records at Brooklands and board track racer circuits back in the 1920s.

The Phantom EG is not for everyone. There are other motorbikes that are faster, and still others more comfortable. What sets the Phantom EG apart from all others, is the abundance of soul. The spirits of The Phantom's founders, along with those legendary riders of the day such as Harry and Charlie Collier, W. D. Chitty, Bert Le Vack, Jake De Rosier, Jack Emerson, "Barry" Baragwanath, Gwenda Stewart, and scores of others both famous and not, run through every part of a Phantom EG. All these riders may have passed into history, but their presence is felt every time you sit astride a Phantom EG ".

The GALLERY

The Phantom Manufacturing

47 Knuckle Assembly from 2008

I came across some pictures of the final assembly of my 47 Knuckle from March 2008 when I re-did the bike for the umpteenth time since I was a teenager. The paint is still the same from 1990 or 1991. The motor got a rebuild and the frame and fork a fresh powder coating. Oh yeah and an NOS Superior exhaust system.