A Christmas motorcycle story of 1947

Every Christmas I look back to my beginnings as a rider. My family was not rich. I wasn't either. Just a young kid happy to get what I could afford. Setting my sights on a much lower( smaller) target was the theme of the day. As we all know, happiness is easier to achieve if you have modest expectations.

Since I no longer ride, past memories of riding become more prominent.

This will probably be my last thread before Christmas so I thought I'd try to make one appropriate to the Christmas Season (At least, for me) Here it is.

Christmas and my Harley Davidson

It was close to the Christmas of 1947. I was helping to support the family, a Mom and Dad that didn’t work, and two sisters who did.
. I was working part time for my brother-in-law in his body shop in Ohio City,
Ohio. I commuted back and forth from Ft. Wayne by bus on the cold days. The distance was only 40 miles but took an hour by bus and a lot longer when I rode the Whizzer motorbike.

. In my group, I was the only one that didn't have a motorcycle. However, there was a motorcycle for sale that cold day in Ohio. It was a 1935 Harley 45 cubic inch side valve with a ‘state of the Art suicide clutch’ and hand shift It was in bad shape but it ran. Kinda like a pickup truck previously owned by about 10 guys. "Rode Hard and Put away Wet" It ran despite the years of neglect. I figured that I could afford to give myself a Christmas present.

In my youthful ignorance, it looked great.

The shifting gate had been removed because the shift linkage
AND the tranny were worn out and more room was needed for finding and moving the tired old gears... This missing gate left the linkage with more room in getting the flat head HD into 2nd and third gear with an occasional shift to first, the lost gear, depending on the random workings of the shifting rods to “find” 1st gear at the time.. No front brake was on this bike, probably was an option, the knob on the ignition switch was long gone and someone had stuck a hairpin (ladies bobby pin) through the hole in the switches post.. Whatever, it worked.

A lot of other things were wrong with the Harley, the chain was rusted, the lights didn't work, the frame was as rigid as a tired noodle, but, what the hey, it looked good to this 19 year
old. I bought it on the spot for $75.00. All Right! I now had to figure out how to get it home, heck, I’ll ride it of course!

It was snowing when I left with a temperature of about 28 degrees. I put on jeans, winter underwear complete with trapdoor, arctic four buckle boots. work gloves, an old LL Bean jacket, and a wool watch cap. I counted on the old Harley's windscreen to break the wind.. I figured that this would keep me warm on that 40 mile trip back to Ft.Wayne on the Lincoln Highway.

So after checking the oil (had to add two quarts of 70 weight into the tank) I was READY and WILLIN”.
After having some trouble with the shifting and that @#$A&* clutch, I was off.

The ten mile ride from Ohio City to Van Wert was COLD. There were a few places on the road where the snow had started to drift and that tightened up my young butt but all in all, not too bad.
Arriving in downtown Van Wert, I hung a left onto Lincoln Highway and stumbled and rattled my
way through town. Not too bad, I thought. Nothing to it! I thought that I had it made.

However, once I got out of town, the wind was fierce from the southwest and I was riding into it. The snow hadn't fully covered the road yet but going past the windbreaks like barns, trees, and such, it was a different matter. The lack of wind started piling up the white stuff on the now becoming slippery ans snow covered road.

The Harley was perfectly content to cruise at a stately indicated 45 miles per hour (the speedometer worked!)with an occasional arse puckering drop to 30 to get through the snow. It was a good thing that it liked this speed since both rods were loose and they seemed the quietest at this pace.
The windshield helped some but still it was cold. My gloves became soaked from wiping my dribbling nose. My knees took a permanent set at about a 90 degree angle. I
know, since I looked down at them regularly to see if they were still there since I couldn't
feel them. My face was numb, my hands were past that even though I had heavy gloves on. I kept
talking to myself, asking why I was doing this.. I was not getting satisfactory answers.

One thing that I'll say for that Harley. It never missed a beat, just kept rattling along except for
the one instance when I put my hand down on the cylinder to warm up and touched the spark
plug. Did you know that Harleys fire both plugs at the same time, no matter whether the cylinder is on the powerstroke or exhaust?? I found that out. The double whammy from that weak ignition was enough to bring me back to full alert.!

Except for being cold, the ride was good. The potato sound of that rusted exhaust made me feel like I was on top of the world (the North Pole) with an honest to God Real Motorcycle under me! Much better than my Whizzer motorbike and almost as fast!

Now it's snowing harder as I hit the city limits of Ft. Wayne. I still have to maneuver down about
ten different city streets on the east side before I get home to Mom and Dad. The streets are
covered in snow. It's getting dicey some sliding but no big deal, not enough power to slide her sideways if I gunned it. I had some misgivings about the steel street car tracks but I stayed 'betwen the line" ok. I arrived home with my butt puckered up so far that it was all I could do to unfold my
stiff knees. I had trouble putting down the kickstand since my knees didn't want to bend enough but I managed it. When I got off the bike, I did a fair imitation of Groucho Mark's duckwalk but I was
HOME.

That old Harley got me home in time for Christmas. That was many, many, years ago but I still remember it. Looking back, it was a Norman Rockwell Christmas or at least it seemed like one.

A simpler life with simpler goals.in a simpler world. It was a Great Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUT THERE!

Wayne, solo1

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