The Big Bang

Anyone who's been into the custom H-D scene for a long of time will certainly know the name Gary Bang. As a matter of fact, there was a time (in SoCal), if you walked into any Harley dealer or custom bike shop, practically the only aftermarket parts you'd see on the walls were Gary's in their familar orange and yellow packaging.

Stumbling upon this box in my garage prompted this post. It's from a FL rear wheel brake cylinder purchased at Motorcycles Only in 1992. Remember them? That's where I bought my '70. I kept the box since I thought the graphic was cool. The good old days. Not only made in USA but California to boot!

The Bang family has been into motorcycles as long as long as motorcycles themselves have existed. I believe Gary's grandfather tinkered with building a motorcycle even before Mr. Harley and the Davidson brothers came up with their own first motobike.

An ad from Street Chopper circa 1972.

For many years you'd still see Gary at swapmeets (like Long Beach), selling parts from his big yellow delivery truck. Then one day I realised, you don't see him there anymore. So, about a year ago, I Googled his name and found that not only is he still around but, he and his family have operated an H-D dealer in Atascadero, CA for the last 20 or so years.

The 3 images below are enhanced photos from his website that are no longer posted.

Here's an old picture of Gary. I believe he was a distributor of these popular sissybars. I had one on my first Sportster and bought another one at the swap meet a few years back.

Some of Gary's old pals.

Some of you might recongnize this trike. It's the trike from the cover of the 2nd issue of Big Bike magazine.

Ridondo Beach

That's Joe's Hustler. It says any extension to 15", but many of them (including on Loco-Motion), were longer. I'm guessing it was a higher price point from 15" up. From the Dec.69 Choppers Magazine.

LLL 4 LV2

Here's another one from Hurst Airheart featuring Linda Vaughn.

This Season's Header L.L.L.#3

Since the beginning of the year, I decided I'd change the header every season instead of every month. I may go back to every month but this will do for now.

Linda Vaughn (Miss Hurst), from an old Hurst Airheart ad. I never thought I'd post a Kawasaki, but I dig the composition and thought it would make a great header. Linda ain't bad either.

What to do with a '79 up Ironhead

When the 1979 Sportster came out very early in '78, I like many tradition Harley fans hated it. It's new frame may have done things better, but it was a lousy platform for a custom. The first thing that struck many was the triangle section under the seat making it now look like every other (mostly from Japan), motorcycle . The seat was too flat across it's top, and then there was those pipes! Sure almost everyone replaced pipes on a new Harley, but this one proved difficult due to the location of the rear brake reservoir. Soon custom catalogs advertising pipes had the now famous disclaimer, fits all years except '79.

Perhaps ugly ages more gracefully with time... or maybe it's just the slick studio photography? Later, I sort of liked this look. Even the weird pipes kind of grew on me. This two page center spread ad is from the May 1978 Street Chopper.

The brake reservoir location, pipes, and this style of battery/oil tank cover only lasted a year. It seemed like each following year, Harley would slightly modify the Sportster to try and make it once again more appealing to the traditional Harley buyer.

The once unpopular 1977-'78 XLCR. Harley recycles everything. If I'm not mistaken, the fiberglass front fender is the same one that was advertised in the parts and accessories catalogs many years before this model was offered.

As time passed and XLCR's became collectible (nobody liked them at first either), I thought these later Ironheads would be good raw material for XLCR type bikes. One big plus, you could do them up anyway you wanted without messing up a collectors item. (My personal idea/concept was always to be more like a XR750 with no fairing and traditional spoke wheels). I wasn't the only one. A few years ago at El Camino, I saw XLCR clones made from '79 and later XL's.


This bike (from last week's Long Beach Swap), prompted this post and is fairly close to my vision of what a cool street tracker would look like. It turned out to built by the guy that does the CR clones and was done up from some of his parts wheeling and dealing. It would be really cool to use a pre-cone motor with magneto in one of these frames for an even more authentic look.

Maybe Harley is smarter than we think. It's history seems to be littered with models that were not first liked or didn't sell well, that later become very sought out. 1971 Boat tails and 1983 XR's come to mind.

The story of the first FXR's is pretty similar, and I didn't like them at first too.

L.L.L. #2

Long yes, but square?

S.I.E. Sissy Bar

Vilmino of LoserRules posted a S.I.E. ad with this sissy bar in it.

This is likely the same as the one in the Dick Allen photo. I'm still not 100% sure they made mine. This one has flat fender mounts like the one Mark sent in. Mine has side mounting holes, is taller, and a license plate/taillight mount.

Puzzle Solved

This ad always puzzled me. I remember seeing it and wondering, could this possibly be White Bear repainted with some minor cosmetic changes or just a very similar machine? It seemed too soon to be the same bike but, at the same time, too similar.

Full page ad from the back cover of the Nov. '73 Custom Chopper. White Bear was in the Aug. '73 Street Chopper, not much time had passed between seeing both bikes published.

Same stance, mags, forks, bars, magneto, and tank with indents. Some other things while similar, are a bit it off? Sportster headlight wasn't chrome, exhaust are slightly different, the engine was not bead blasted but polished in places and sporting a SU carb. But, there was a small nagging similarity. It had exactly the same Harley-Davidson decal on the top edge of the oil tank.

37 years later, puzzle solved. I showed Joe the ad and finally got the answer. He sold white Bear for $1800 as a rolling chassis to Bob Olsen, owner of E.M.E so he could buy a Porsche 911. Pretty decent money for a roller back then.

Final Notes: Joe did later run a SU on White Bear. He knew and still knows the girl (Cindy). in the ad. He never saw the photo of her that they mention in the ad. The wheels advertised (U.S. Mag Corp.), aren't the same as the ones on the bike. They are the original American Racing Wheels.

Gift Ideas?

H-D T-shirts sure have changed. I like these better than the shirts today (especially the psychedelic trademark and XLCH), albeit not so tight fitting.

Credit Where It's Due

It figures. Irish Rich's blog was the place I saw the ad. I had a sneaking suspicion it might be there... and it was only posted last January. Should have double checked. The ol brains going to mush.

The Buzzard Mann Connection

Laid Back Jammin. Roth's pal Buzzard was featured in one of his "The Country's Grooviest Bike People" Posters. Note the antique bulb horn on the left side pullbacks. Was he the first to build six-bends? This bike is Bitchin! and there's a good reason this shot looks like a David Mann painting.


Buzzard in a early Choppers Magazine Wheelie Prones ad. It's a somewhat confusing ad for risers and slugs. Extending and trimming wide glide trees and legs seemed to be his specialty. He had also placed a few ads in the Beg Borrow and Steal classified section promoting these services. Buzzard later wrote an article on the subject for the Nov. '68 issue.


David Mann circa 1969. I remember seeing one of those ads stating that Buzzard was selling his bike since he was off to the "Joint", but can't find it. I also read somewhere that David Mann was the guy that bought it. For the longest time I didn't put the two together. Dave lost the front brake.


Dave and the bike in 1970. Now painted black featuring an SU carb, drag pipes, longer forks, and Finned Dish Pans.


Here you can clearly see a large brass horn mounted on the bars.


Art imitates life. Dave even used the bike as inspiration for this later Easyriders center spread art. The six-bend pullbacks, unique high pipes, and fork boots give it away. Note the entry info taped to pillar.


Later, when it was featured in Choppers Magazine Aug. '73 it sported a 20" over D&D springer and frame. This article never mentions that the bike was once owned by Buzzard. It does mention him as his friend and the builder of the Ankh sissy bar and pullbacks. I believe this sissy bar was on the bike when Buzzard owned it, but the additional side supports are not in the top photo. The article states the brass horn as being from a Bombay Taxi and questions how Dave acquired it. It also states that since the shoot, Dave had gone back to the original H-D frame and wide glide. What really puzzles me, I don't recall Easyriders ever doing a feature on Dave's bike?

Update

This familiar shot was recently posted on The Shame of it All blog. It shows a different horn on the bars. The top Buzzard photos look to be the larger Bombay Taxi horn.

Ed Newton, Art Hero 3

Here's an old AEE/ Ed Newton ad I kept from a 1969 Cycle Guide.


Ed Newton had been doing all kinds of cool art and designs for Roth. Since Roth and Tom Mc Mullen were friends, I guess it was natural for Newton to design the Big Twin. During this period, nobody was doing cooler stuff than Newton.

Ads '69

Forty Freakin Years Ago.

I saved this page from what I think was a 1969 Cycle Guide

The ads (below), are on the back



You don't see the H-D Outperformer art as often as the others.

1972 Chop Shop Ad

Kind of a cool shirt but the ol'lady ain't exactly doing it for me. Maybe because back then, my mom and all my aunts wore their hair like that!

Big Daddy Roth Fan Club

Two Heroes for the price of one

Ed Roth by Pete Millar, Drag Cartoons 12/64

More Williams via Roth

From March 68

Millar, Roth, and Robert Williams Patches

Stuff like this was "kick starting" my interest.

As stated in an earlier post, Pete Millar was a hero of mine. Since Pete and Ed were friends there was always something in Drag Cartoons about Ed, and many issues featured his ads. As Roth's ads began to increase their emphasis on choppers, so did my interest.


SHOCKING!?... more like WOW! At age 12, This was my only glimpse of the art and lifestyle. A Williams' biker holds a David Mann poster.

I had no idea who was drawing this stuff but I knew I liked it. At some point I learned of Ed Newton and David Mann. Many moons passed until I realized Robert Williams was another important Roth Studios artist.

The DC Roth ads from Jan. 68 and 67. I'd peer at these little images with awe and wonder. For many years, I only saw this stuff at this scale.


A whimsical Williams character pitches his patches. Only Robert could come up with such fun weirdness.


Robert aboard Roth's evolving "Oink", the coolest swing arm of them all!


Once familiar with his style, there's no doubt Robert's the artist.


The effect on my small brain. The influence of Williams' Devil's Chopper patch (above), and Newton's art (below), is evident. At that time I had no real knowledge of a Harley's workings. Note... push rods on left side. Most clues were gleaned from ads or the drawings by a school chum.

Ed Newton's art, also helped me get my head straight

Ed Newton, Art Hero 2

We're on a black and white art roll.

Another by Newt. In my book, he's The King of Line Art! I love that the whole ad was hand drawn with only the photos of parts and body copy dropped in. Even the name of the shop is hand lettered. You'll never see an ad done that way today.

Chopper Emergency?

Who ya gon'na call?...

24 hour service! This guy must have been a plumber.

Jim Phillips

All you Thrashers know him. Even if it wasn't signed, you'd know this as Jim Phillips art.

Jim wasn't a Hero of mine only because I hadn't seen much his work. I only knew of him from a few samples of his chopper ad art, mostly The Fiberglass Works. I was in to skateboards at a very young age but, that was before his fame in that genre. I rediscovered him (bought the book), a few years ago and his work blew me away.