Congratulations Toddy


Deserved and popular winner of the GKM trophy at the Hot Rod Hayride: his Triumph blew minds!

What a great weekend. More photos soon.
Big George manning the grill






Adult beverage break during the road ride



Jason and his...VL



Let's take a better look...new addition...Sprint tank




A tradition on every ride...George's Indian requires adjustment



Headed to Big George's house in Jersey yesterday on my '50 Pan to meet him and ride to the Colonial Chapter Picnic and Ride. Way up in North Jersey. We met up with Kenny along the way and were an hour or so late as usual. The rest of the guys (and gal) were waiting impatiently for us to begin the road run. Jason led the ride on his Crazy VL which runs great. Amy was riding her "Smokin'" rigid 59 Triumph (valve guides would be nice). We had about 14 bikes and did about 50 miles or so through lake towns and into NY State and back. We stopped for an adult beverage or two and headed back to base camp. Many more members showed up while we were gone and were on round two of the food (which was great). We ate drank and were merry...

Me, Kenny, Bob, Doug and Paula headed out to hit the Mountain Rest Inn on the way home.

Georges 41 Indian was doing the "Crab Walk" on the way out. Apparently his Indian was conflicted...His back wheel decided to make a left turn while the rest of the bike wanted to go straight. We pulled into the Mountain Rest parking lot and got to work.

With Doug and Kenny's help (me, Bob and Paula pretty much just watched and busted George's balls) the Indian was tracking properly again. We celebrated by letting George buy us all a round.

Kenny and I split off and headed back across Jersey. I left Kenny around 8 PM and headed back toward PA. My 50 Pan was pissing oil out of the distributor gasket and onto the pipe which made for a smokin' good time while waiting for lights to change.

I almost made it back to PA (15 miles from the border!) when some of my old friends in New Jersey law enforcement decided it had been too long since we chatted...(riding an HD in Jersey back in the early 80's this was an almost daily occurrence).

It turns out the officer couldn't tell what state my Antique PA plate was from, so he decided to pull me over, detain me on the road side and run my paper work just for old times sake...all was in order and I was released. GOD I MISS LIVING IN JERSEY!

All in all I put about 250 miles on the Pan and hit three states.


I shoulda took more pictures...


Honour amongst bike riders?

Someone stole the 'Chop it, ride it' GKM banner off the veranda of the Pavilion at the Hayride.

If you hear a whisper, please email me at choppers@greasykulture.com in confidence. This is money taken directly from my pocket, presumably by another bike rider... Pretty sad.

Other than that, it's been a blinding weekend; look for photos and winner of The GKM trophy tomorrow.....


- Posted on the move

....wirst du denn nie erwachsen?!".......nö...... mehr davon....
Unser Enkel Adrian (10) verbringt wieder einige Tage seiner Ferien bei uns. Das ist für mich die Gelegenheit, den Racer - Virus bei ihm weiter zu pflegen. Für eine Thüringer Bratwurst musste er mir ein Bild von meinem Lieblingsracer malen. Es gefiel mir so gut, dass er auch den Senf noch dazu bekam.

Time to finance the next Build send me a mail HERE

A Hill Climber's History - Franz Racing Jersey Collection

From left to right: Jerry Franz Number 82 Racing Jersey, Larry Franz Sr. H-D Racing Jersey, Larry Franz Sr. Number 88 Racing Jersey, Larry Franz Jr. H-D Racing Jersey, Larry Franz Sr. Number 88 Racing Jersey.
The two on the left I just acquired from Jerry Franz. The other three I have had for many years and acquired from Larry Franz Jr.
Having known Jeff aka Knucklebuster from the blogspot sphere for quite a while and since long enjoyed his blog I had looked forward to meet this guy celebrating christmas with knuck engines under the the green tree.
Its always great meeting others more old bike crazy than one self :-)

We ran into each other early Thursday evening and I was able to check out Jeffs latest purchase, a totally crazy HD 45" hillclimber and a truck load of race memories like race scrap books and other from the bikes previous owner. What a score, and what luck this is all now beeing seriously taken care of for the future in Jeffs collection.

At Fridays race we stayed in the pits and there is nothing like it.
Some pics off Jeff and 33A in action at the Fulton county race track


































Ok, I`m sure there are some that Øyunn didnt catch with her camera (like Rob Mr. Henderson Olsen and Girard) but she really tried to get ya all.
Bill & me, Jeff aka Knucklebuster and John the X man & me, Easy Russ & Bill, Steve the ace Super X restorer, Tom & Lori from Faber cycle, Roadweasel, Ron that have helped me with many Panhead parts, our German friends Paul and Fritz with race legend Al Knapp, Mr. crazy Henderson Frank, Cyclone Bob w. sons Paul Fritz Zdenek and Øyunn, Dave Molnar ace Henderson mechanic , Gary the "hanson sports shield" man, Mike when getting a parcel from overseas, Panhead Paul the tailgunner man, the Walkslers, Napariala aka speedo-rat, Dave explaining his plans for an Anzani powered motorbike, Roscoe the race man , Sheila with her beloved Beemer and finally Big Jesus w. team mates.




























































Finally back home from the US having been overseas for almost two weeks. What a great time we had at Wauseon thanks to a well organised meet at a great location and the bunch of friendly guys and girls we spent our time with whilst there.
Some friends whom we knew from before, some we knew from the internet and many new we learned to know trough the weekend.

I brought a long list of names whom I where to meet at various locations to shake hands and / or get parts, I managed to see everyone on that list.
Arriving Thursday early afternoon was great, lots of vendors, bikes and campers allready on the scene.
We soon found our friends from the Roadweasels, those guys and girls are the nicest people.
Running into Fritz and Paul Thursday evening was great too, we always appreciate their company.
Getting together with the Henderson owners was another great experience that started Thursday and kept on trough the entire weekend. It`s great talking to all those experienced guys working with Hendersons, next time I need to bring a tape recorder to be able to memorise it all.

Friday was race day, we spent that in the pits with our new friend Jeff aka "Mr. Knucklebuster". We did our best in transfering our positive vibrations for Jeff to gain success when racing his 45" HD in the handshifter class. He is the one to tell if we succeeded.

Beeing able to take Dave`s super hot 28 Henderson De-luxe for a spin needs to be mentioned, what a bike and this is getting used, for real. I normally dont borrow a bike, this one I could not resist.


Saturday was swapmeet day and more talk, talk, talk. To become familiar with Al Knapp at age 88, a true American Racer and a legend from the fourties and fifities when roaring the tracks with his WR`s was unforgettable. Listening to his tales from inside the factory race department was like a travel in time, for real.
Thanks a lot to Fritz for letting me come along.

The swapmeet was huge, more than 500 vendors its amazing. As a positive change from our local swapmeets there are none of the baloon & candy sellers, not a single one. Motorcycle parts or related only. I had no chance ever in getting trough the vast number of stuff for sale, running into far to much peoples to catch up with.

Sunday was some more swapmeet, you never know do you? Then time to say god bye and we allready started looking forward to next time, maybe Oley in Pa?

Øyunn beeing the AMcN photographer took such a huge number of great photos its hard to pick the best ones for my blog. I will at least give it a try.
My guess is that anyone who grew up attending any kind of Church/Sunday School would recognize a children's song that goes like this: "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down."

Joshua 6:1-5 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

The children of Israel, after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, had recently crossed the Jordan River into the land that God had promised to Abraham over 700 years earlier. Now it was time for them to occupy the country as God commanded them. But the first obstacle in their way was the city of Jericho and its walls. The inhabitants of Jericho had decided to trust in their walls to keep the Israelites and their God out, rather than to come out and fight or to negotiate.

What about these walls? Earlier Moses had sent scouts into the land and they had brought back word that "the cities are great and walled up to heaven". Now, obviously this was a bit of an exaggeration, however, the fact that they used such a description gives us a pretty good indication that these were very formidable walls. Certainly the inhabitants of Jericho felt that their walls were impregnable. With that in mind, what do you think the natural reaction of the Israelites to the method that was presented to them for overcoming the city of Jericho would have been? It just does not seem reasonable. Bringing the walls of a city down by marching around it, and then blowing horns and shouting just doesn't seem to make sense. No ladders, no ropes, no battering rams. Just horns and shouting.

Why would anyone believe that would work? Only because God said it would and they believed God

Joshua 6: 15-16, 20 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city....So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

The children of Israel were obedient in following God's instructions as to how they were to take the city of Jericho, and God fulfilled his promise to them. Despite how impossible it seemed, how miraculous, it all played out exactly as God had said.

Clear at the other end of the Bible it says this: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days." (Hebrews 11:30)

The bringing down of the walls of Jericho was an act of God, but it was also an act of faith. Had the Israelites refused to follow the Lord's directions for overcoming the city, the walls would not have come down. That's what it teaches us in Hebrews 11: by faith the walls of Jericho fell down. It was required of them that they believed God would do what he said he would.

The same it also true of salvation. In fact, you might look at sin as a towering wall that separates you from God.

John 3:14-18 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

The question then is, do you have faith? Do you believe what God said in these verses? Do you believe that whosoever believes in Jesus will not perish, but will have eternal life? Do you believe that God sent his Son into the world that through him you can be saved?

If you have a biblical understanding of your own sin, then you will see salvation from that sin, and gaining eternal life, to be as monumental a task as bringing down those towering walls of Jericho. And God's plan for how to rid yourself of that sin may seem just as unlikely as the method he gave the Israelites to bring down those walls. Man's natural inclination is to try to make up for sin by doing right; to try to earn eternal life by doing good. But what does the Bible say?

Romans 4:2-5 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

In the Bible, God makes it clear we are not to follow our natural inclinations to try to earn our way to heaven, but rather that the only way is by faith in the fact that Jesus Christ paid for our sins.

A little further in the same chapter and still speaking of Abraham we read this:

Romans 4:20-25 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Faith is the simple answer to that towering mountain of sin that is on our shoulders. It doesn't seem to make any more sense than God's method of bringing down the walls of Jericho does it? But God has promised it, and if you believe, he will deliver forgiveness of sins and eternal life just as he delivered the city of Jericho to the Israelites.
Larry Franz Sr. in 1941 check out the pants

also you get a good look at the air intake on the Schebler that I got in the pile
Larry Sr.'s Racing Apparel... yes those are the same pants from the picture above!



Larry Sr.'s Racing Jersey



The pants he wore since the 1930's. They are in great condition!



"Fliers Cap" he had since the 1930's


In addition to the bike, parts and literature; I also acquired some great racing apparel from Jerry Franz. Racing Jersey's, Flier's Cap and check out those racing pants from the 1930's. They are in amazing condition. I picked up a bunch of this type of stuff many years ago from Jerry's brother Larry Jr. these make a great addition!

It was really cool finding the picture of Larry Sr. wearing those pants in action back in 1941! (that's my white framed hill climber prior to being painted white)



top