Guys, this is terrific stuff! I can't wait to read the next installment. The fact that you don't agree a hundred percent on everything just serves as a great starting point for some great conversations. I thought I knew a good bit about Harleys, having rode, sold, and wrenched on them over the last thirty-eight years, but I'm truly humbled.

I'm with Patrick, Pinion, spin a few more tales of the early days. I'm hanging on every word.

How'd you get started racing? What was the first bike your raced? The events? (I could on). Tell us about the KRs.

 

Hi Moon Wolf,

Hum, well past your bedtime, innit???????

Problem is, all the old timers are leaving us pretty fast these days... My friend Jim, who worked in the race shop in the early 70's and was on 1st name relations with William and Willie G. Davidson, was in Milwaukee just before Chritsmas and he learned there of yet another passing, Roy Bokelman, who was race shopforeman for most of Dick O'Brien time... Some more memories lost forever...

Clyde Denzer is still around, but was so distraught by the way H-D treated him after Dick's retirement that he don't want to talk about it, too painful...

Can't help to post this photo, it's Dick aboardSprinsteen's "Lucifer Hammer" XR 1000 BOTT racer, testing it at Talladega in early 83 and that's Caroll Reswebber on the tail piece!!! Talk about testing your own products!!!

Patrick

 

Thanks for posting the great photo, Patrick. I don't really have a bedtime, a bit of an insomniac, I'm afraid.

Pinion, I'm still waiting for more stories.

 

[color="#0000ff"][size="3"][font="microsoft sans serif"]The problems with me and my stories are that I have but a few to tell. People read them and must say, 'There's that old guy repeating himself again.'
One of my biggest regrets is that I have very few photos of my racing days.
My personal story goes like this.....
At 11½ years old I talked my father (who always hated motorcycles) into taking a girls bicycle frame I had to a welder where he worked. The welder welded a steel plate onto the downtubes of the bicycle. My dad brought it home and I bolted a Briggs & Stratton 3½ hp engine onto the plate.

I needed a large pulley for the rear wheel and thought, where can I get this? Not knowing any better, a friend and I caught a bus downtown (Houston) to the Harley Shop at 1515 Dallas St. I walked into that magic place and asked a fellow at the counter (Jack K. Heller)for a pulley.
He asked me what I wanted to do with this, and I explained. He told me to go just down the street to Houston Safe and Lock and that they would have what I wanted.
There were a lot of people in the shop at the time. Everyone of the grown ups was wearing a 50 missions cap. I remember walking out to go to the Safe & Lock shop and hearing a lot of laughter and comments. Little did I know at the time, but it would be only a few short years before these customers and shop personel and I would know each other very well.

I got the pulley and put it on. The bike had no brakes, so I had friends on bicycles wait at the intersections ahead of me to wave me through or warn me of coming cars.
The maiden flight was to be a distance of about 1½ miles. All went well until I made the last left hand turn, running through a stop sign with a Houston Police car (1954 Ford) waiting at his stop sign to the right. I then got my first tickets. Three of them. No license plate, no drivers license, and running a stop sign. Dad was not a happy man!

When I was 12 years old I bought a brand new 1957 Cushman Eagle motor scooter, paid for by my paper route.
At 13 I bought my first real motorcycle, a 1949 BSA Shooting Star Twin. It was a 500cc twin with the old plunger frame rear suspension, and 4 inch megaphones on each pipe.
At 14 a car made a left turn in front of me and I plowed into it, bending the forks of the Shooting Star back into the frame.

The car's driver was covered with insurance and they paid me $250 for the Shooting Star, and the insurance let me keep the damaged bike. That would be unheard of today.

I sold the Star for $100 and found a used 1954 650cc BSA Road Rocket. Now I was getting somewhere! I had a very good friend who was as interested as me in motorcycles. That is all we did. Dennis was a Triumph man, after starting out with a scooter we always called a Wistang. This was a Mustang frame and 3 speed transmission that Dennis had installed a Wisconsin engine into. Quite a feat for a 12 year old! But that is the kind of stuff we did as kids.

We both began to skip school by the time we were 16 years old. There was a local motorcycle race track being developed close by. On skip school days we would go practice riding around the track all day. We were trying to teach ourselves how to broad slide like the grown ups did when they raced each weekend.

Dennis got it down before I did. One day he tells me he has entered the next race coming up. The racing is a Sportsman Scrambles event. I am in awe of that. Dennis wins 3rd place.
Next week I enter as a racer, and I am as nervous as I have ever been.
I finished in frist place! For the remaining racing activity, that was pretty much the way it went with Dennis and I.
The next bike I bought was a brand new 1961 BSA Spitfire Scrambler. I was working for the local BSA dealer (Bruce Bristol) in Houston by this time, and well into racing every weekend, except in

 

Thanks, Pionion. Don't know about anybody else, but I'm ready for the other two stories and as many pictures as you have--I can't get enough of this stuff.

I"m assuming that's a picture of you with the Wistang--where was that and the race pictures published? Actually, the Wistang's a pretty good looking bike.

How did the switch to KRs come about? How long did you race them?

By the way, if you ever run across one of the Wico mags they ran on some of the KRs, Patrick is looking for one.

 

Hi Pinion,

Thanks for the stories, nothing boring there, how many guys do you know that have raced a KR in anger??? Or built their own bike early in their teens???

Can I post the 55 KR photo on my site? It looks just right, 21" on the front an'all...

Patrick

 

Patrick.....
Feel free to post it if you like. The shot was made with a B&W Polaroid camera. Then wrinkled and torn over the years. It is the only pic I have of the dirt track KR.
The only other pic is of me falling off the road race KR on Lap 7 of the 1963 Amatuer Race at Daytona, as shown in my brother's book.. That shot was captured by the local Daytona newspaper photographer who happened to be right there when I ran my front wheel in between the riders rear number plate and the right shock.
He rode on. I went down hard at 80 mph.
My first year at Daytona ended quickly, as the race was 100 miles long.
The following year was much, much better as an Expert running in the 200 Mile National, but it too ended with great disappointment 8 laps before the finish. Running in 6th place and the rear chain broke...........pg

 

You don't have to apologize for anything Pinion.Ever.You can rant and throw a hisadema fit if you want.You are a blessing and we appreciate you and your generosity.Thanks

 

[color="#0000ff"][size="3"][font="microsoft sans serif"]OK Moon Wolf.......
Here is some more of the tale.
The guy with the Wistang is Dennis Schoenfeldt. He is the builder and rider. Dennis was 6ft tall as a 13 year old and must have weighed 165 lbs or more. But pretty fit as you can see.
I was a smaller guy and weighed only 118 lbs when I was 18. I always thought that gave me an advantage over Dennis in riding. Maybe, maybe not. I always felt that I was a win or go through the fence trying type of rider and Dennis was a bit more conservative, but he was a very good rider.

My Novice year was spent riding a BSA Gold Star on flat tracks. Some backgroung on the BSA:
This machine belonged to a local rider (Jesse Horlika) who once was a rider himself. Jesse was riding his Gold Star at Daytona as an amatuer back in 1957 in the Daytona Amatuer event. At this time, they held the race on the beach (front straight) and the long downhill asphalt road (back straight).
The entire course was nothing but a sand and asphalt long oval track.
Going down the beach straightaway, Jesse ran through a water/sand pothole and sand covered up his goggles. Trying to clear them so he could see, he fell. He was down and not hurt until another rider ( a fellow named Siebert from Connecuit) came by Jesse
and caught him in the forehead with a foot rest.
The brain injury caused Jesse to become paralyzed on the right side of his body. Jesse was employed by the railroad at the time and they took good care of him with the disability business. If that had happened today, Jess would have been S--t outa luck!

Anyway, when he got out of the hospital after a long stay, he tried to regain his ability to walk. He hung around the motorcycle shops around town. Almost every morning he came in the BSA shop where I worked and we got to know each other. Jess was a great fan of racing, and followed the events both here in the states and in Europe. He had been watching the scrambles races around the area, and of course by this time Dennis and I were well into the middle of that scene.
When I got my license as a Novice, I had no motorcycle to ride. My motorcycle at the time was the 650cc BSA Spitfire twin.
An overhead valve engine had to be a 30.50 cu inch (500cc) machine to meet the Class C rules. Those rules by the way, were set by the Harley-Davidson's meddling in the AMA office. The rules said you can run a 500cc ohv or a 750cc flathead bike. Guess which one of those was the KR?

Jesse asked me if I wanted to ride his old 1957 BSA at the first Waco TX track race coming up. I jumped at that offer! We worked quite a few nights to get the Gold Star ready as it had not been ridden since 1957 and this was 1962. Jesse told me what he wanted me to take apart so that he could inspect it. I was the wrench spinner because he could not use tools, but he was the doctor in charge.
Legend had it that Jesse had been a real competitive rider and tuner and that this BSA was an exceptionally fast machine. Working on it under his direction I soon discovered his 'tuning secrets'. His secret was to follow the BSA handbook and set everything exactly as stated in the book. Timing of the valves, ignition, tappets....everything.by the book.

When we finished the bike all was ready except that we had no number plates yet. These had to be made out of aluminum and made to a certain size. In addition, there had to be a rolled edge put on them, I suppose the purpose being to stiffen the plate. Anyway, those were the rules. I remember I was pretty exhausted at the time from so much work on the bike and Jess told me not to worry about the plates, he would get them made at a local metal shop and painted.

Jess had an MG at the time that he was able to drive. Well, sort of drive it I should say. He turned using his left hand, and had to shift the floor shift w

 

Thanks Pinion for the adds on...

I've posted the KR photo, scroll down to 1963 and click on thumb..

http://www.harleykrxlrtt.com/1_gallery_kr_xlr.htm

Patrick