My Motorcycle History, Part 1

It all started in Elk Creek, CA. in the summer of 1951. I was seven years old and in the first grade. This gang of bikers came to town, bought some beer at the store and proceeded to climb the hill across the street. I don’t remember the exact number but it was four or five guys, more motorcycles than I had ever seen at once, and the townsfolk’s population (50) were in an uproar - someone call the sheriff! Well the sheriff was in Willows 20 miles away and when he arrived the bikes were long gone. That was the slickest thing I had ever seen. The bikes were probably Indians, H-Ds, and maybe a Triumph or BSA in the mix, whatever they were they put on a show for an hour. Climbing that hill (looking back the hill is fairly steep but a good run out on the bottom, but only about 50 feet high) blew my mind, never saw any thing like it before. I was hooked, and never forgot that day.

While Hillclimb was a huge spectator sport after the death of the Board Tracks in the 1920s, and became a very specialized sport with freak racing machines, ordinary riders liked testing themselves against the local hills too. [The Vintagent Archive]
Fast forward to 1956, I’m now in the sixth grade still looking at every bike I come across and dreaming of the day. By now I had moved to Willows (population 2000, huge town!) and a local was selling his 1940 Powell scooter for $35.00. I bought it! What a day! Anyway there were some problems with the thing, it seems the crankshaft keyway was wallowed out so bad that after about 50 feet the centrifical clutch would fly off, jam the chain, and come to a screeching halt. After weeks of trial and error I found that if I pounded a piece of a toothpaste tube (they were made from lead, remember?) into the keyway, then pounded the key in that and then pounded on the clutch it would last almost a whole day, if I took it easy.

A 1949 Powell P81: the Powell Manufacturing Co. was based in Compton CA, founded by Hayward and Channing Powell in 1926 to manufacture battery eliminators and table radios. They quit the radio business in 1932 to build scooters during an American scooter boom. After WW2 they built models C-47, P-47, and P-49 step-through designs, named to sound like the military designations for aircraft. Powell built their first lightweight motorcycle, the 1949 P-81, using a 393cc engine of their own design, with cool disc wheels and great styling. [Mecum]
I made a trailer to tow behind the Powell and spent the next two years, in the summer and after school, collecting scrap iron, working on the Powell and saving my money.  In 1958, there was a boat dealer in Orland where my step-father bought a boat. The guy was also a dealer for Cushman scooters and had a brand new Cushman Eagle on the showroom floor. That was it! I had to have it, but $525.00 was a huge sum of money. I begged, I made huge promises, and I had $280.00 saved. My folks gave in (from exhaustion) and I had a brand new 1958 Cushman Eagle. Two speeds, tank shift, badass ride. I was in heaven. I worked on it constantly, dual exhaust, chain drive from clutch to tranny, new paint job. It would lay rubber (about 12” on slick pavement), and I worked on it so much that when I had finished it was F.U.B.A.R. I sold it soon after I found out girls would rather ride in a car, and bought a 1953 Ford in 1959 for $300.00. Life was good!

The Cushman brothers – Everett and Clinton – started their company in 1903, and by 1922 produced their single-cylinder sidevalve Husky engine.  Their Auto-Glide scooter was built from 1936 as a platform for their Husky engine, and it proved a profitable sideline. Cushman’s small motorcycles were used by the US military during WW2, and their specialized Model 53 Airborne model was so good it was civilianized after the war as the Model 53A. More conventional designs followed in the late 1940s, with simple sheet metal shrouds, including the ‘turtleback’ models that evolved  into the famous Cushman Eagle of the 1950s and ‘60s, with a centrifugal clutch and a two-speed gearbox, welded-on footboards, and the fan-cooled Husky motor that produced 4hp, made 40mph, and gave 75miles per gallon of gas. [Mecum]
After I was 'asked' to leave high school in my senior year (1961) I joined the Air Force and spent two years at Lakenheath AFB, near Cambridge England where I honed my interest in British bikes. After my return from the USAF (1965) I started racing scrambles, TT, and flat track on BSA and Triumph 650s. I was 21 years old and lookin’ for a woman to marry and a good motorcycle to race (young and dumb). I found the woman and still got her (Mardelle Peck - read her story here). The bike was a 650 BSA Spitfire Hornet, and that was 40+ motorcycles ago. We started a club called the Willows Scramblers; most of the guys had Honda Scrambler 250s and 305s, and started putting on races around Willows and up at Stoney George Lake (as in Hall’s customer appreciation ride/camp out spot). In 1968 Mardelle, Kim and I moved to Chico and I went to work for Bill Brownell Honda-Triumph as a salesman, and later a parts manager and general manager, which brings us to the point of all this B.S. so far and why I enjoy being the “Historian”.

Ron getting a peck from the trophy girl aboard his 1965 BSA A65 Hornet Scrambler. [Ron Peck]
You see, Brownell knows about everyone on the planet who ever had a motorcycle, a least back in the 40s, 50s and 60s. He is from L.A. and hung with the bikers there. He worked for and raced for Hap Jones in San Francisco before he bought the shop in Chico in 1947. He raced at Hollister on July 4, 1947, was friends with Wino Willy and John Cameron - founders of the Booze Fighters MC (more about this later). Evel Knievel used to stop by the shop and work on his motorcycles on the way thru here. He jumped at Orland Fair Grounds (more about this later). The list goes on and on. I was there during a time (1968 – 1975) when a lot went down in the motorcycle sport. When I moved to Chico I also joined the Chico Motorcycle Club, and we put on a few races and field meets at Black Butte and Cycleland Speedway.

One of Bill Brownell's extraordinary photos from the notorious July 4 1947 Hollister rally. Brownell was friends with John Cameron and Wino Willie of the Boozefighters MC: note their club trailer in this photo - BYO! [Bill Brownell]
The thing that has always been slick about our sport is the diversity of the people it attracts. From Malcom Forbes to Wino Willy and from Dykes on Bikes to Bikers for Christ and 1%ers to Wall Street Brokers. Plus the machines themselves from a belt drive bicycle with an engine, to a Twin Cam 88 B Duce.  It all leaves endless topics in both current events as well as historic, like the events in Hollister July 4, 1947, which led to the LIFE magazine July 21 issue about biker gangs taking over a whole town. Which led to the movie in 1952 “The Wild One” a story about the 1947 Hollister Gypsy Tour race put on by the Salinas Ramblers. Then there's the July 1969 release of the film Easy Rider (powerful stuff).  And in 1990s we had the onslaught of “RUBS” “SEWERS” “RIOTS” “AHABS” “BASTARDS” “IGLOOS” and “HOOTS”. More about all of this later.

Ron Peck is a former motorcycle dealer and restorer, with a lot of great stories to tell. He's now retired, so can hone his stories!  See all of Ron's stories for The Vintagent here. 

by Ron Peck