Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Motorcyclist Magazine, June 1940
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Cristine Somer-Simmons. The American Motorcycle Girls:1900-1950. Parker House, 2009 |
A little cheesecake for the vintage motorcyclist... reused as the frontispiece of the book The American Motorcycle Girls:1900-1950.
Monday, March 27, 2023
Sunday, March 26, 2023
Sidecar Sunday
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MotorCycle Illustrated Nov 4 1915 |
Effie and her mother made the cross country trip in two months in the rig, becoming the first female motorcyclists to do so.
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Dome P2
Minoru Hayashi founded the Dome company in 1975, his intent being to design and build both road and racing cars. Hayashi already ran Hayashi Racing in Osaka which was a prosperous aftermarket supplier for street and competition cars. The company decided that they should do a showcase concept car, and the Dome Zero was the result, shown at Geneva in 1978. This car was the successor- P2, shown at the Auto Expo Los Angeles.
Trying to describe it, it definitely shows signs of being derived from the sharp-angled show cars of a decade earlier, ie Lancia Stratos 0, Maserati Boomerang or Ferrari Modulo, the windshield could be left over from a Lancia Stratos. But still a sharp=looking car that probably wouldn't be out of place at a car show today.
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Road and Track, Sept.1979 |
Friday, March 24, 2023
Lang Lathe/ 9.2 shell rabbithole
thanks, Gary! |
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Royal Garrison Artillery David Gibbons |

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Alamy |
Velocette KTT exploded view
The Velocette KTT was introduced in 1929 as a production racer version of the OHC KSS. The small oil line to the head is the oil feed to the cam and rockers, the large ones are the return drains.
The KTT was the first motorcycle to be fitted with a positive stop foot shift, the industry standard ever since.
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Triumph Trackmaster frame
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Lindsay Brooke, Triumph Racing Motorcycles in America, Motorbooks 1996 |
This Trackmaster frame was commissioned by Triumph in 1967 as an official Triumph replacement for a stock Triumph frame, it was constructed from chrome moly tubing by Ray Hensley of SonicWeld frame fame. They were stamped with a Triumph part number to allow it to be used as a "factory frame" as the rules then specified. Compare to a Harley XR750 frame below, these frames, unlike roadracing frames, were intended to flex.
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Maybe your great-grandfather's Oldsmobile...
Discontinuing the Curved Dash runabout at the end of 1907, Oldsmobile had been starting to build larger, more modern vehicles the year before. Powered by four cylinder engines of 30-40 horsepower, the more expensive models got a 450 cu in. 6 cylinder engine of about 50 hp.
For comparison, the Model T in its first year sold for $950. a Packard Model 30 was around $4000. The average wage for a male was about $11 per week.
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Ford Pinto Pangra
Oil glasscutter TC600
Here's a nice Japanese-made Toyo glass cutter, the handle is a reservoir for lubricating oil. It looks well made.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
US Army's first airplane
Signal Corps Specification Number 486 was issued December 23 1907 to provide the US Army with its first heavier-than-air aircraft. Requirements were as follows:
It must be easily assembled and disassembled so that an army wagon could transport it. that it be able to carry two people with a combined weight of 350 lbs, and must carry sufficient fuel for 125 miles, it be able to reach a speed of at least 40 mph which would be calculated during a two lap test flight over a 5 mile course, that it would be able to demonstrate that it could remain in the air for at least 1 hour.
The Wright brothers provided a wooden framed aircraft with a 25 hp engine driving two propellers, landing gear was two skids. it actually doesn't appear much different than the original 1903 model.
The aircraft was demonstrated in September 1908. On one flight a propeller split, the airplane glided down to a height of 75 feet and then crashed to the ground, killing passenger Thomas Selfridge.
The Wrights returned with a new plane in June 1909 and over the next two months it was demonstrated adequately and accepted. New army pilots were trained during the course of the next few months.
Ford Model A, 1928
Here's another ad for the new Model A; again directed at women, the selling points being safety, comfort and ease of handling. This was a complete opposite approach to the Jordan Playboy ad campaign of a few years earlier. And the production numbers were a bit different, from December 2 1927 to Feb 4, 1929, one million Model A's were sold.
Monday, March 20, 2023
Monday Mystery, INDEX 24mm wrench
Not really a big mystery, but I can't find a manufacturer named Index, so it might actually be a tool for "indexing"? Thoughts?
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Kent Moore wrench
Here's a nice water or fuel pump wrench, special tool J-4242. I can't find much info on the origins of Kent Moore, but for years they produced specialized service tools, equipment, and diagnostic instrumentation for the most of the major players in the American automotive industry,
In early 1982, Sealed Power, a engine component manufacturer acquired the company in a cash and stock transaction valued at $70 million. An important step in Sealed Power’s campaign to diversify its product line, the acquisition of Kent-Moore provided a new direction for Sealed Power’s relationship with the auto industry. Although Kent-Moore dealt directly with the same automakers that Sealed Power had supplied since its beginnings in 1911, the specialty tools that it produced relied on the introduction of new automotive models rather than on the volume of production. Each new car model requires a set of specialized tools with which dealers can service the vehicles, and the Kent-Moore division works directly with manufacturers before new vehicles are introduced. Kent-Moore also had significant overseas operations, including a partnership in Japan, that allowed Sealed Power to expand its foreign presence. Encyclopedia.com
In 2013 SPX was acquired by Bosch but I believe the tools are still being manufactured.
Norton Commando, 1969
Norton advertising before the Norton Girl campaign. Incidentally, it was BSA that has the inside cover cheesecake shot that issue.
Friday, March 17, 2023
FIM roadracing,1950
Three four cylinder 500cc Gilera racers cornering together in this 1950 shot. Straight pipes at 10,000 rpm, imagine the sound...
Geoff Duke finished second in the championship on his Norton Manx single.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Yamaha RD60
While Quebec got the FS1E Quebecois moped, the rest of the country got a real motorcycle, the 55cc 5 speed RD-60.
Broken axle
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Ron Ziel and George Foster, Steel rails to the sunrise, Hawthorne Books, 1965 |
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Convair 880
This 110 seat airliner was Convair's entry in competition to the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC8. Its main selling point was to be its superior speed- over 600 mph. The 880 was originally named the Convair 600, both names referring to its top speed of 600 mph or less obvious, 880 ft/sec.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Firestone, 1925
Good political statement from Harvey up top, some two-country advertising and a note at the bottom that mentions the new-in-1922 Canadian branch.
The illustration is nicely done, with some squiggles in the lower left that could almost be a signature...