Some years ago, I won't say when, I was riding on St. Joe Road north of Ft. Wayne. As usual, I was on my Matchless 500 thumper. I had on my 'Snoopy' cap and goggles to keep my eyes from watering. The morning was warm and sunny, a great day for riding.
Even though I was only putzing along at 45mph I found that I was coming up on another rider who was riding even slower. As I passed him with a wave, he motioned me to pull over. We both stopped at the side of the road ( not much traffic back then).
He was riding an Indian 74 cubic inch sidevalve, the year escapes me. We talked. Eveidently he had never seen a British bike before since he had a lot of questions about the foot shift and hand clutch. We had a great conversation as brothers on two wheels do even today. Anyway, the conversation drifted toward talk about acceleration. He asked me if we could find out what his 74 ci twin could do against my 30 ci single. I accepted his congenial challenge but thought to myself I'm going to lose.
We lined up side by side, still no traffic, To make a long story short, I beat him every time. Now this was no top speed faceoff, just a short acceleration run....... I beat him every time. The combination of the faster shifting of the Matchless coupled with a lot less weight made the difference.
We again stopped at the side of the road and compared notes. He made no excuses but made an interesting suggestion. "Let's ride back to my house in Cedarville as I want to try another bike against yours." I agreed. What the heck, why not.
We pulled into his yard, he parked the Indian, got off and walked over to his garage. Opening the garage doors, he straddled the next bike and walked it out. It was an 80 cubic inch Harley.
"Whoa" I said in my mind but I was game. He fired up that big bore HD and we took both the HD and my lowly Matchless out on the road. Again we lined up side by side. Again I pulled out in front but The 80 incher took it from there. My Flying M got its butt beat but good. We pulled over and agreed. Cubic inch displacement and a overhead valve engine will prevail.
Today, 2009, I occasionally ride past the now run down garage in Cedarville and wonder what happened to Jim, that rider of many years ago.
Here's a pic of a Matchless just like mine. Even though it was a hard tail, I wish that I had it back today. 350 pounds would've done wonders for my poor knees.
Wayne, solo1
