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This Old Bike

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thencamedonson

thencamedonson

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Jan 16, 2012
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Location
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First Name
Don
Last Name
Collins
Several years ago,I decided to get into the collector car thing....
It took Me about one purchase to decide that that gig was out of My financial bounds.
The one car that I bought lasted about a month before i was itching for it to go away. Every single person that came over wanted to lean on it, smear the glass with fingerprints and set their Big Gulp ( I will slap You) on the T-Tops. I fielded potential buyers from Canada to South America, and discovered a lot of those Car Guys are royal ******** to deal with.
Finally, a Guy came along with an interesting offer, and after some dickering and screaming, He left me with three bikes, and the car on a trailer. Man, was I glad to see that thing go. It had too many wheels!
This bike was the one that clinched the deal, 1946 Chief.

DH000442.jpg


DH000443-1.jpg
 
The cheesy skull shift knob is gone now. I did not restore this bike, just ended up with it in a trade, and feel kind of guilty, I dont think I really deserve to own a bike like this. I just tell Myself that I am it's Keeper, until the next Guy comes along to take care of it. I really hope someone is enjoying it a hundred years from now. And yes, it rides REALLY nice......:rider:
 
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Lovely bike, I would like to restore an old bike like that, but it seems everyone has the same idea so prices seem to be very high for potential starter machines.. Thanks for sharing the pictures..

Gary
 
I know nothing about Indians. Why three filler caps on the tank?
 
RedPill said:
I know nothing about Indians. Why three filler caps on the tank?
Click to expand...

The tank is a two-piece. On the left side , it is all gas. On the right side that tank is divided into a fore and aft section. The fwd cap/section is for oil. The aft cap/section carries gas. Upon start-up, You immediately open the (front) oil cap and look inside, to verify that oil is returning to the tank. I have to admit, I owned the bike for 3 years before I worked up the courage to ride it......The left grip is the throttle. Right grip is spark advance . Rocker clutch is on the left floorboard. Rear brake on Right floorboard. Three speed gearshift on right side of tank. I own several bikes and could not get used to the left hand throttle, so I converted it back to a right hand throttle. I plan to move the shift lever to the left side of the tank, also, to make shifting easier. The reason for the left hand throttle was , so the story goes, that gave military or police riders the ability to pull a handgun out of its holster and fire it while riding, while still having throttle control......I am a pretty good rider, and a pretty good shot, but I dont plan to try it, Myself....
 
That is a beautiful Indian, very well taken care of. The left hand throttle tells me it was used as a police bike at sometime. The reason for the left hand throttle is "back in the day" all cops fired their pistol with the right hand. Bet she is a joy to ride. Guess I should have read all the posts, you answered both questions LOL
Tom
 
Meriden said:
LOL Thanks for the tip. Where are you sourcing your parts?
Click to expand...

Parts? For the Indian? KIWI.:rider:
For the other bikes, just depends on whether its a Yamaha, Honda, Triumph, Kawasaki, Harley or.....:trust:
 
That is a cool bike! I am not of a heavy cruiser type but would still love to have something like that.

When I was a kid, a local grease monkey had a 46 that he put together out of parts he scrounged. Even had a Mercury piston in one of the jugs. He had it bobbed and striped of everything it didn't need to be a motorcycle.

One day he asked if I wanted to ride it, being an enduro rider, I couldn't pass up a chance to run this monster down the trail to a friends cabin, just to see if I could. It was a real hand full but the feel, sound and smell of that old machine going down the trail burned a deep memory in my mind.

Every time I see one, I think back on that day and think how much I want one someday.
 
DaveC said:
The story said THREE bikes, showing three pictures of the same bike does not count.:-P
Click to expand...

I had to go back and re-read My original post.....
the other two bikes were a Super Glide, 82 model, and a Buell Cyclone.:mrgreen:
 
No Tom, I havent even started it. It is not a high priority , but I do plan to. All I need to do is move shifter from right side to left side. I did the throttle, spark advance swap some time back. It is not really hard to ride as is, but will be a little more user-friendly after the swap.
 
That is a truly awesome cycle. What did you have to trade? It must have been pretty impressive. I used to trade VW's like baseball cards, and one day I realized 1 VW took up the same space as 8 motorcycles. I sold my last one, a 61 sunroof in 1995 and bought a 75 Norton to restore. I have hardly turned a wrench on a car since.

thencamedonson said:
The cheesy skull shift knob is gone now. I did not restore this bike, just ended up with it in a trade, and feel kind of guilty, I dont think I really deserve to own a bike like this. I just tell Myself that I am it's Keeper, until the next Guy comes along to take care of it. I really hope someone is enjoying it a hundred years from now. And yes, it rides REALLY nice......:rider:
Click to expand...
 
Sadly, I lost the files with the pics of the car. It is near-by, and I need to go take some pics of it.
It was a 78 Corvette Pace Car. It had 10 miles on it, and had never been tagged or stickered. It still had the Price sheet on the pass window, carboard screwed to the floor, plastic wrap on the steering wheel and plastic seat cover. The interior was a sliver leather called SilverSmoke and mirror T-tops. Spanky Assiter, the Auctioneer is a Neighbor, and appraised it for Me. I did pretty good on the trade.:rider: I also decided that water is too deep for Me!:eek2: The car is now in a Private Collection.
 
Yeah. Luckily, the cheesy Pace Car decals were still in the box, never applied.
It ended up in a private car collection in Amarillo. I had actually started out to buy a Shelby Cobra, and in a strange twist ,ended up in Mississippi, dragging this car home...
 
A friend in Midland has one just like it with th pace car decals. He collects GTOs , too. Nice looking, but if I recall not that great a year for Corvettes.
 
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