onsdag 27. mars 2013

Hungry`s Cutdown

There are hardly words to describe such a cool bike!








































mandag 25. mars 2013

AmericanMotorcyclesNorway

 
The Norwegian company Colbjørnsen & co are most known for their snowmobile sales. They where in charge of selling the Canadian Bombardiers products in Norway up to 1994. They did allso sell Kawasaki motorbikes in addition to a bunch of other products.
 
Here is the first snowmobile owned by the Colbjørnsen`s, father at the back and son in charge of the controls.
Poor Indian loosing its engine for this experimental snowmobile, wonder if they ever sold any?
 
27.03.2013;
What was a blog with no feedbacks from its followers?
One of those who often comment on my posts is Charlie from north Sweden. He informs me this is an Eliason toboggan and the engine was bought directly from Springfield, not picked from a motorcycle. Another who commented by an e-mail is Cory in the US that I have known trough the www for many years now. He shared with us the link to Eliasons web site, thanks a lot. When looking at their picture site I recognised a Super X engines toboggan. I posted a pic of one Super X Eliason a couple of years back, didnt know what it was then. What is even more interesting is the amount of henderson engined toboggans made by Eliason. Fan cooled engine with no protection, obviously that is for pussies.
We can only imagine how the hearing of early Eliason riders suffered from the pretty much open exhaust ports!!
Again, for sure Eliasons where not for pussies.
 
I gently stole a few piscs from the Eliason web page, enjoy;


 
 
If ever anyone had the slightest doubt an Indian powered Eliason did work, Cory sent a link to prove it does, just hit the image below;
 
 

 
 
Wonder if anyone of those toboggans have survived in Norway??? 
 

 
 



søndag 24. mars 2013

AmericanMotorcyclesNorway


Simon Nielsen from Skien bought himself an Indian Motocycle in 1916.
Working as a traveling salesman the motorbike was an excelent form for transportation on narrow roads in rural parts of Telemark.
Thanks to the Indian motocycle sales profit increased a lot.
Road conditions is clearly shown in the background, narrow and gravel, nails from horseshoes spread all over, we can only imagine how often early motorcycle riders had a puncture.  

Spring is there, why not here?

 
 
Uffe is kind enough to share a pic from his first ride this year.
 
I`m ready to, it is the weather that is not ready yet, to let motorbikes and their riders out and loose.
Be damned!

fredag 22. mars 2013

American Motorcycles Norway

I need to post more of them historical photos from the yesterdaze Norwegian bike scene on the blog. The old photos was the spark that got the AMcN blog`s engine to start spinning.

4 years have passed by since the first post, more than 200k pageviews and we have learned to know a bunch of great folks from all over the world.

No regrets on the blogging till now!

Enjoy some Norwegian bike riders from when a reliable motorbike was synonyme with a US made bike from factories in cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Springfield and more.

 
Here`s an unknown rider from the Fagernes Area posing on his early Indian Scout.
 

 
Who said female motorcycle riders is a modern thing? This young lady from Ringerike is most likely heading for one of the reliability runs held by the Ringerike NMK branch in 1921.
 
 

 
Trygve Skinstad and family on their Harley outfit ride local roads near Grø back in 1938.

Leaving traces

I truly enjoy when sending the AMcN stickers to whoever ask for it.

I enjoy even more when I all of a sudden get an e-mail showing where those stickers ends up.
I find leaving traces in a more physical matter than on the www is soo good.

After all, the www is a vulnerable place, just pop Googles socket and all our blogging efforts are long gone, have you ever considered the thought?

Here is a couple of stickers that ended up with Robert and his cool Injuns. For those keeping an eye on what is between the Greasy Kulture magazine binders you will remember Roberts Indian bob job.



onsdag 20. mars 2013

Ticket`s to ride.

 
 
In the meantime, just dreamin!

tirsdag 19. mars 2013

Advertising the 1934 Harley Davidson

 
 
 
 


The following statement is from AS Sørensen & Balchen`s 1934 summer advertising campaign; 


Norway get a small country when you buy a 1934 Harley Davidson. It will carry you wherever you want to go. No road is to small, it will climb any steep hills with ease due to the powerfull engine.
Get our 1934 catalogue, our prices and our down payment terms. We will take your old motorcycle in exchange.


lørdag 16. mars 2013

AmericanMotorcyclesNorway

It have been a quiet day at work. Long story short, upgrading a drilling rig in storms in the North sea don't necessarily work out according to plans worked out by engineers in an office!

I`m still kind of in the aftermath of having given ol Bessie back her breath. Still unsure what next project will be, my witt and common sence tells me I should focus on completing one of my since long started and ongoing projects, there are several.
Then there is the itch, you know, for something new, more thrilling, arghh this motorcycle addiction.

Before leaving offshore I finally got the Simms C4 Magneto out of my Henderson, its heading for a full treat at Floberghagens Electromechanic services. I`m really looking forward to ride the old Hen with a bad ass kicking spark, not a dull candle in the combustion after Thomas have had his magic hands on the mag.

On top of this I managed to stay true to a promise I made to my Henderson mentor Rob at O4-Motors, I`m making another windshield bag as I made for Bessie.
I had never been able to fulfill my De-luxe if I didnt get all that free supportive technical assistance from guys with a wealth of knowledge as Rob have.



My plan is to play some more with the ZenithTx4 jetting when the spark is OK and get some more power out of the old four, then hopefully get more miles and do at least one rally this year. I am curios about the advertised NVMC rally, Ørneridtet av 1915 (the rally is in english named the eagle (ørn) rally from the name of an early bicycle club carrying the same name).
The Ørn bicycle club, as other bicycle clubs at the turn of the last century would be the natural clubs to join by the early motorcycle riders, as early motorcycle racers mostly had a previous career in bicycle races.
This rally will be held partially on gravel roads normally not open for traffic, roads that have stayed the same since the days when they where used by Hendersons, Injuns and alike.
Will try to post more info on this whenever this gets available.

I have previously tried to write some historical information on the early years of NMK (Norsk Motorcycle club) that was founded in 1916.
There is little motorcycle history known from Norway prior to the NMK foundation, other than the Ørneridtet in 1915, a race held at a horce track in Drammen the same year, an accident at the same track took place in 1915 too. Then of course there is Macke Nicolaysen`s (well known from this blog in previous posts) and his mate Ragnvald Gundersen`s "world famous" crossing the Krokkleiven pass. The Krokkleiven crossing I`m quite sure took place in early 1916 prior to the NMK foundation.
Krokkleiven is a pass on a road as old as from the time when pilgrims walked from our capitol Oslo to the Nidaros dome in Trondheim.
No motorised vehicle had managed to cross here before Macke on his Indian Power Plus and Ragnvald on his Harley did so, congratulations to the two brave men from me, nearly a century later.

 
Hesselberg-Meyer at the start line in Ørns ridt in 1916 on his brand new Indian C-185.

 
Ragnvald Gundersen at rest with his Harley 1916 on his way trough the Kroksgogen (Krok woods) soon to enter the Krokkleivene pass. Next to Gundersens Harley is Macke`s Indian 1916 that he got as a gift from his mother (more on that later).
Whatever is placed in the middle of the road I`m not sure??
Note, back in 1915/16 motorcycles had only front mounted reg plates in Norway, a bunh of speed riding complaints in a short time soon gave reg plates at both front and rear. Reg plates at rear makes the process of taking a note of reg number far easier when a bike passes at speeds above 30 miles pr hour!
 

onsdag 13. mars 2013

She`s ALIVE, she`s ALIVE!

Bessie is done, born again, she is a runner not a heap of parts.
What a relief, started easily even if carb was just roughly set, oil pressure OK and charging 100%.
Ol Bessies engine hums and puffs soft and gently, not as a rattle, a coke box filled with nuts and bolts getting a roundabout in the centrifuge.

WHY is there still half a meter snow outside, I am ready for spring, summer or whatever as long as I can ride ol Bessie around and learn her to know.

For those who bothered to come by this blog and follow this build, thanks a lot for your patience, those who commented along the way, many many thanks.
For those other blog owners who inspired me with their creativity, thanks a lot!!

Hopefully we meet during summer.










tirsdag 5. mars 2013

Soooo close now!!

Another late (night) update from my Panhead project that have been pushed hard forward for a week or so now.

Finally I got every small part to be parkerized done, replaced the footboard rubber mats by a pair of aluminum De-Luxe mats that I got from Mr. e-bay.

Had to take a couple of deep breaths before I drilled holes in my original oil tank to mount one of them nifty little sight gauges, a very cool accessory from back in the days.

Had to fight some to get a proper fit on an oilfilter arrangement, according to the literature a 48 didnt have a mounting bracket on the oil filter, I rather want it stable than shaking.

When time was there to get clutch and front primary sprocket mounted, SURPRISE SURPRISE!
Whoever made the front sprocket did it on a blue Monday morning, no way would I dare to use that sprocket. Its cone did not fit the Jim`s shaft, not even close to.
I got another that did fit from W&W in south Germany, delivered on my door 25 hours after calling them, OK not for free, I was in a state of "be damned" and didnt worry to much on cost.

Getting the primary completed was great, I could step on the kicker pedal, not to start still but anyhow a great Win!

Now I just need to get my rear chain from Regina fitted. I do recommend the Regina Grand Prix, what a chain, just the looks off it tells quality. Rather have a chain three times more expensive than to have to replace the rear sprocket.

Oh I am sooo close to get the old girl off the bench now!!!