And $600 bucks for a late 30's model 61ci Knucklehead fully equipped was a lot of $$$ for most in those days. Even tho they road them on the paths & trails, they thought as much of them as we do our chromed out CVO's today. Well, some did. You can see that in some of the pics where they were all shined-up, even w/ the dirt roads. I see CVO's today that never get washed unless it's at a bikini bike wash or a dealership freebee. All kind of riders and some just consider their bike to be a 'tradeable' commodity (not a breathing work of art). 
spyder
It’s not like folks aren’t roughing it in modern times. The person behind Aerostitch, Andy Goldfine, rode a motorcycle across a frozen Lake Superior a couple of decades ago. Motor Cops in Milwaukee were running sidecar rigs year round in ’74; not sure exactly when they stopped running in the winter. These folks rode in some seriously nasty weather. There are a number of hard core folks up north that ride year round; although I don’t know anyone that does it out of necessity any more; there may be a few.
You really couldn’t keep an early machine very clean if you were actually going to ride it. The primary and rear drive chains were lubricated by a constant loss oiling from the engine. After the chains were lubricated, the oil ended up on the bike, ground and rider. There was no rubber or rope seal on the sprocket shaft of the crank. The crankcase vent was ported into the primary housing which was ported directly to the ground. Exotic huckumpucky sealants didn’t exist, nor did exotic hard paint finishes. The engines and transmissions all weeped, seeped and leaked. The sand cast crankcases were somewhat porous and were finished on the inside with Gasoila, a coating used to control weepage. This is the red stuff that you would find peeling off the inside of the crankcase whenever you had an engine apart.
The crankcase and other aluminum components weren’t finished on the outside in a powdercoat like they are today. The patina forming over the exposed aluminum surfaces was corrosion. In the early years they did have Gunk Degreaser, though; it was everywhere. No better aromatherapy on the planet, IMHO. My sense is that the bikes looked ridden in the early years because the ratio of hours riding to hours cleaning didn’t make sense to most. We keep them looking good today because we can and it’s easy.
....We didn't know what we didn't know - - -ie : nobody told us you weren't supposed to ride that way....
B B
The guy in the photo apparently didn’t know what he didn’t know. He most likely learned that it’s only the last half inch of this process that’s really going to hurt!
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Topic: Nostalgia Bike Pictures (Read 8089 times)