Where did you ride your Super X today?

[ChadeArndt]

Greg your X photos are my new spank candy

[Donkey Hotey]

More spank candy then...

Four weeks ago, yesterday, Beulah set her wheels down in California. The next day, I had her running again. She was showing some bumps and bruises from people who didn't covet her as she deserved.

She went from being the "bike in the bubble", eight short years ago...



To being a Craigslist refugee, with deep gouges in her tank, peeling clear coat and a couple of dings.

She spent sundown on the end of her fourth Sunday in California, running free on southern California roads. She has covered 990 miles in four short weeks, despite not even being taken for a formal "ride" anywhere (I said I ride these things to death). With her odometer not even 100 miles into 6K, I'm riding her 38 times as much as she's been ridden in all the rest of her years.

Her fuel tank leaks no more (repaired last night). Her scratches have been filled in, sanded and faired into the rest of the paint. The peeled clear coat from the fuel leak, got painted-in today. The dent in the rear fender was repaired yesterday. In a week or two, she'll get a fresh coat of clear over the tank and the paint restoration will be complete.

Happy one month Beulah. Glad to have you in the stable. Here she is descending from the top of Mount Wilson, in the mountains above Pasadena, CA this afternoon.

[Jumper]

Sniff sniff  I get so misty eyed over such a heart warming X story!!
Jumper

[Donkey Hotey]

Beulah (333) is getting all the attention lately. I pulled Molly (1525) out of the garage a couple of days ago and started on my way to work. I finally decided that the jingling coming from the front fork is obviously not a poor fitting headlight reflector and more likely something loose on the fork. Upon closer inspection, it looks like the damper is unscrewing itself from the right lower leg. Yeah, back in the garage until I can tear into it and fix whatever is making the noise.

So Beulah got another fall ride in the Angeles National Forest. Two days ago was her turn atop the Los Angeles County Firefighter's Camp 9 helipad, above the San Fernando Valley.

[Jumper]

Check the strut cover and tighten it with a leather strap...

 
Jumper

[Donkey Hotey]

Yeah, it's obviously one of those parts ringing around. How thin-walled is the strut cover? I'll take it apart if there's any chance at all of bending or pinching the wall.

[Jumper]

Plenty thick enough to tighten. It's really bad when they loosen up and come off. That'll make a racket. A dab of blue locktite does wonders..
Jumper
 

[Donkey Hotey]

Thanks for the tip, Jumper! That's exactly what it was. I unscrewed it the rest of the way, put some blue loctite on the threads, then screwed it back down with a couple of wraps of a strap wrench.

[Donkey Hotey]

In three short weeks since being put back on the road, Molly (1525) has accumulated over 500 miles. Three hundred of those miles were today.

Today was the annual Norton Owner's Club Hansen Dam gathering and ride. It's open to all British brands but, the parking lot attracts all kinds of exotic and vintage bikes. There were a couple of CBXs, old CB750s, /2 BMWs, Airheads and more. Some guy named Jay brought out one of his Brough Superiors--just because he can. The guy is an ambassador and true to himself and the hobby of cars and motorcycles. If I were filthy rich, I'd live exactly like him.
 
 The weather was absolutely flawless. I'm sorry in advance for the people who already have winter upon them. It was 70F by 8:00 AM and the skies were crystal clear. Many hundreds of bikes turned out and Molly was there. I figured the engine was developed by Weslake and the electrics are the same as modern Triumphs so that makes it kind of British, right?
 
 
 
 There were plenty of people who knew what it was and she got her share of attention. At 10:00 AM, the ride departed. I didn't follow. It was a short ride and not everybody joined in. To be judged and ranked, the bikes had to complete the ride. By the lingering bikes in the parking lot, many were perfectly content to kick tires and look at everybody else's stuff.
 
 There was also an Italian and French car show and swap meet going on about 15 miles away. Many of the people who showed up for the Norton gathering, diverted to the second event for the afternoon. Before heading over, I took Molly up Little Tujunga Canyon Road. She took her turn on the helipad at LA County Fire Camp 9. This was about noon over the San Fernando Valley.
 
 
 
 No pictures from the car show. I got there about 1:30 and the cars were already thinning out. I made my way through what was left, checking out all kinds of exotic and unusual cars. There were also pockets of motorcycles and scooters. It was an event in its own right.
 
 When I got back to Molly, there was a note from somebody asking me to contact them. Apparently, the owner of 1526 (one serial number apart from Molly) was at the car show and randomly spotted her in the parking lot. I'd have paid money to see the look on his face when he discovered the serial number on Molly.
 
 I was supposed to meet a friend at the car show but, he was nowhere to be found. Thinking he could have taken the riding opportunity to go to the Santa Monica Mountains, I took a quick loop up to the Rock Store and the Snake. Nope, no Joe. 3:30 PM on a Sunday and there are still a few stragglers. Two different guys thought it was a brand new motorcycle and one asked me where the nearest dealer was (not joking).
 
 
 
 At that time of day, my return route home is either via a clogged 101 freeway, or the coast and sneak around the whole mess. And that's just what I did. With the sun rapidly setting, I got this shot from Deer Creek Road, just past the Ventura County line, looking south-east toward Malibu.
 

 
 And a sunset shot from Pacific Coast Highway, looking down the same stretch of coastline.
 

[wytfut]

LOL.....
I get that "its not new?" question every once in a while....    it elates me...    As most of us owners know, the looks of our X's is pretty much timeless so far....   and its easy to see....    Look at any other 1999 breed of bike out there, and quite frankly most of the time they look their age/era. ...

My Nephew Devin Nielsen, wants to print up a tshirt that says "its not a harley"....   as that is usually the most typical question we get asked at shows, etc. ...   

Still amazes me how many folks don't know or have ever heard of them and are in motorcycle world.... and then the next time, everyone has to tell me about their test ride at Sturgis back then....       can't ever out guess the mode...

[Donkey Hotey]

One guy at the Norton gathering was an early investor and was telling his GF the story of the company when I walked up. Plenty of people at those kinds of events know what it is. Then again, those events bring out the really rabid motorcyclists. There were few casual enthusiasts there. Most were heavily invested into some niche or another.

My favorite comment overheard recently (different place) was a know-it-all telling somebody it was a Kawasaki. He talked like he really knew something about it. He was critical as hell and wearing a Harley shirt. I smiled to myself and kept walking.

You did nail it, though. Our bikes are still very contemporary. Except for the displacement being relatively mid-sized after the cubic inch wars of the last ten years, the bike could still go into a showroom today. With a displacement bump, ABS tucked into the electrical box and maybe a counterbalancer (there's room for it), this motorcycle could still compete. I demo rode a $40K CVO Harley two years ago and it didn't leave me any more impressed than my own EH.

I honestly wonder sometimes, what it would take to bump start the EH supply chain after 15 years.

[Berlin Bob]

I often thought about the possible restart myself...could get the community to buy out Dan,hehehehe ...like the employees of harley did back then ?   what a thought that would be !!!!   if I hit the power ball...I would honestly try it ....more of these bikes should be on the road and seen,instead of being thrown into history  books ...as many of us have about three or more of these machines ...we sucked them up hoping to be an investment later ...but we fell in love with them instead and kept them...you can only ride one at a time...as the others sit in a garage waiting to be rode...how lonely that must be...but I am glad to be a human though....just my 2 cents

[Donkey Hotey]

Maybe some bought them as investments. I buy my bikes to own and ride. If they depreciate, that's the cost of enjoying them. If they go up in value, that's just a bonus.

I was posting the story of buying 1525 on another forum. I bought it in July 2000. A guy I know jumped in and accused me of "Buying a boat as it was sinking" and accused me of not considering the resale value or anything else.

My reply was that--no--of course I didn't. I wanted my choice of color and accessories. I had zero intentions of selling it, then or now. I bought that bike to stay with me forever--death. I took it out of the crate, I did all the recent engine work, it's MY motorcycle, more than any other bike, ever.

I bought my Jennie because it's what I originally pined for all those years ago. And I still wanted it. That was all the reason needed.

I bought 333 because I made the mistake of linking some pictures of a black one on another forum. By the time I was done explaining the exceptional paint finish on the bikes, I was in love with the black paint and decided I needed one of those too.

"Investment" implies that one would sell a bike. I haven't sold a bike in 13 years.

[Donkey Hotey]

Last night I totally forgot to address the idea of relaunching the brand. Here are some things to toy around with in your heads. The company, the brand and the motorcycle didn't disappear. The only thing that disappeared was the final assembly plant.

• The motorcycle still exists. It's done. We all have them. Originating, developing and formalizing that design was an expensive endeavor. It's done and exists. I suspect that the engineering still exists somewhere. Perhaps Dan has it or knows where it is. Even if he doesn't, reverse engineering is not nearly as expensive as an original design.

• Even though the final assembly plant isn't intact anymore, that doesn't matter. Cars and motorcycles are not manufactured where they are assembled. Their pieces and parts are manufactured by hundreds of companies and come together for final finishing and assembly. Most, if not all of the companies that created original parts for our motorcycles still exist. There is a fair possibility that much of the tooling may still exist. Getting more parts might be as simple as having the cash-flow to purchase them in quantities again. Yeah, lots of them may have been owed money when the company shut down. That was 15 years ago. They can cry tears onto their unused tooling or they could put that tooling to use and make money with it again.
• The remaining costs would be in the form of committing to enough parts to build a batch of bikes and putting together a final assembly plant again. With all the other costs sunk already, it might be possible this time, to put it together scaled for 1000-2000 unit per year production.
• The additional, never-introduced models, shown here, would be a cinch to develop to round out the brand into an entire line.

The most controversial piece--and one that I don't have firm ideas on--would be how to market them. Would boutique dealers be interested in picking up the brand again? There ARE plenty of dealers who deal in odd brands like Moto Guzzi, Royal Enfield, ATK and Ural. Maybe even the dealers who sell Triumphs. I always believed the untapped market for these bikes was the guy who wanted a really nice cruiser but, wouldn't be caught dead on a Harley.
The bike would need to be different from what we currently own. Nobody is going to buy a new one when new bikes are still languishing with MSO tags and no miles. It would need a few updates:

• Bigger displacement: this isn't an easy one. The bores are where they are. The cam drives aren't just going to magically move themselves. Widening the bore also eats up the very small edge margin on the lower cases. This would require a redesign of the main engine cases, possibly the cam lengths, the heads, the whole shebang. It would be more evolutionary than revolutionary but, it also opens up the possibility for...
• A counterbalancer: Yeah, when these were designed, the market demanded a little vibration at idle. We now know the market is full of crap. Our bikes ride quite nicely with the rubber mounting but, the counterbalancer could take more of that edge off. As long as the main engine castings are on the drawing board, it would be easy to add the real estate below the starter, driven off the primary output gear
• ABS: a catalog item these days (for a manufacturer).
• Electronic cruise control: also a catalog item. The fuel injection would probably adopt the latest engine controls and that would likely include throttle-by-wire. A cruise control is simply a switch on the handlebars at that point.

It would represent redesign but, nowhere near the cost of a clean sheet offering. It would follow the idea that Dan had back in the beginning: what would it look like if the company had never gone out of business and continued to evolve? This would simply be another 15 year leap.

I dropped into a local Indian dealer last night. I am in love with both the new Scout and the Chief. I took a demo ride on the Chief two years ago at the Long Beach Motorcycle Show. It's a great motorcycle. It really is. They even came out with some metallic paint offerings for 2016 and that fixed one of my biggest disappointments with them.


It's 15 years newer, created by a very mature Polaris Industries, with all the experience of Victory behind them. I'm still not entirely sold on the totally enclosed, plasticky look of the back half of the Chief. I'm not sure what I'd have done with that part of the bike but, aesthetically, what they did doesn't quite work for my eye.


Aesthetically, I still like my Excelsior Hendersons better. Yeah, they have a deep valenced fender. I still think our front fenders are far more attractive. Ditto for our forks. This honestly isn't me trying to justify what I have over what I might supposedly want. In a way, it's a little disappointing to not have anything out there that makes me want to trade up. These Excelsior Hendersons still--in many ways--are ahead of their time.



End of my rant and hijack. 

[2CoolWheels]

Greg,
  Love your comments, many of the same thoughts have crossed my mind. All the new Victorys and Indians are throttle by wire, and cruise control is standard. Easy upgrades for our bikes, since they've already got EFI. A stepper motor on the throttle plates would be the only additional hardware in addition to a newer ECU.
  I suggested to Dan some time ago that we might bring the brand back incrementally.....starting with just the engine. Our engine was way ahead if it's time, and could compete today on the aftermarket engine market for custom bikes (like S&S). It wouldn't take as much reverse engineering to get it to market, and a far smaller facility to produce. Once it started making money, then the business could expand to the rest of the bike frame.