Doc's Bikes of the past!
"I started VERY YOUNG!"
It's all my Dad's fault! He was a motorcycle nut too.
I can remember when I was about 3 years old (in 1947). My dad had a beautiful full dressed Indian Chief.
Even though it had side bags and lots of lights, that was before windshields.. so you got lots of bugs!
One day he took me to some motorcycle races about an hour or so from home. Of course I was so small
then that I had to ride on the gas tank, in front of him. On the way home, after he stopped to gas up. The
tank was too full and over-spilled as we rode home. There I was, getting a crotch full of gas. Well, you
know what that started to feel like shortly. By the time we got home, I was in tears! (Remember, I was
only 3.) But that certainly left a lasting impression on me, in more ways than one.
My First Bike #1
My very first motorcycle was a belt driven contraption that I never did know the name of. It had a
centrifical clutch on a one lung upright motor that I never got running. The v-belt went around the
entire circumference of the rear tire and had something like a Springer front end on it. It was my
first bike, even though I never got to ride it... it was a real learning experience mechanically! I was
only 8 years old. And I LOVED IT!
My Bike #2
1948/9 Indian Model 249
This was my first REAL motorcycle. An Indian Model 249. I never did know what that stood for
and I can't remember what year it was (probably about a 1948 or 9). I was too busy trying to get
it to run. I loved this bike when I finally got it started but I can't tell you how many MILES I pushed
this bike. It was 1958 and not too many people had motorcycles back then. (I guess I was kinda
the young "Evel Kneval" of my town Ridgecrest, California. I just didn't know it.)
I was 14 at the time and my parents left to go on a weekend trip to Las Vegas leaving me at home.
Of course, their last words when leaving were, "Now don't you ride that bike while we're gone!"
RIGHT MOM!
I don't think they had hardly gotten past the city limits before I was on it. I rode over to see some
of my buddies to maybe get a chance to show off a little. I found them in a friends back yard which
backed up to the open desert, where I arrived from. I chatted with my friends awhile and they kept
asking me to show them how it would go. Naturally I was eager to oblige. I took off across the desert.
(NOTICE if you will, this is NOT a dirt bike! As you can see form the photo above, shock travel was
VERY short. It wasn't even smooth on GOOD roads. In 1958 Honda hadn't even been thought of yet,
let alone dirt bikes!)
Keep in mind, I am only 14. I had been working on it earlier in the day and had taken the air cleaner
off and hadn't put it back on yet. WHY I don't know. Don't ask!
There I was, screaming across the desert as fast as I could manage. I wanted to give my buddies a
lasting impression, of course. And then it happened. The throttle stuck wide open! I'm trying to see
where I'm going, and beating on the side of the carburetor with my fist, while trying to hang on with
one hand. Up comes a BUMP right in front of me. I grab the handle bars with both hands and try to
give them a YANK UP...but it was too late!
The Indian hits the bump WE become air-born. It lands on the front tire, with the tail end still up in
the air. At this point I am doing a hand-stand, straight up on the handlebars and the bike keeps going!
Meanwhile, back in my buddies back yard, my friends are watching me. One says, "Hey, look at Hall,
he is doing a hand-stand!" WOW!
Seconds later, the front wheel finally hits some VERY SOFT sand and twists sideways. All my friends
can see is... Hall & Bike... Hall & Bike, a big cloud of dust and then nothing! No movement!
My friends jump in a car and come after me. When they arrive, I am standing there with my license
plate in one hand and the seat in the other. I look like I had just gotten in a fight with a mountain lion,
with my clothes ripped off me in numerous spots. (Oh, I might add, this was also before helmets were fashionable as well.)
The bike had gone through the middle of several very large sage brush bushes with me trying to hang
onto it. The bushes won! I lost!
The front tire looked like a porcupine with spokes sticking out of the tire all around it. The tire and
rim were VERY LONG and rather OVAL. There were miscellaneous parts and pieces scattered
everywhere. And I just stood there bleeding and looking at it, as they drove up.
After my friends help me haul the remains home in the back of my dad's pickup and parked it in the
driveway. I spent the rest of the weekend trying to recover by laying on the couch, without moving
too much and watched TV. I hurt ALL over! And I had destroyed my bike. But....the worst was yet
to come.
My parents came home and saw the bike in the back of the pickup. I'll leave the rest of the story
to your own imagination.
I was 20 years old and in the Air Force before I got my next bike!
Go HERE for MY GOLD WING riding days!
My Dirt Bikes My more recent Bikes
NEW Just ADDED!
My "CARS" from day one! Lot's of PHOTOS and more stories. INDEX of Cars I've owned.
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