Speed Thrills

Speed thrills

UP FRONT

David Edwards

AT FIRST GLANCE, I DECIDE, IT LOOKS more like an ancient Schwinn than a motorcycle, this 1913 Excelsior Auto-Cycle that I'm about to ride.

I,m not far wrong.

It was, in fact, manufactured by Mr. Ignaz Schwinn of bicycle-building fame. When it rolled out of the Excelsior Motor Mfg. & Supply Co.'s Chicago factory, all shiny and bright, its gray paint highlighted by red panels and a network of pinstripes, it was an example of the thriving L' U.S. market, made at a time when the country Was motorcycle crazy and we built the best bikes in the world.

It was an age of innocence, before our doughboys were sent off to die in the muddy trenches of World War I. Henry Eord may have been about to mass-produce his Model T and put America on four w heels, but until he did, the motorcycle was the easiest, cheapest way to gain mobility.

I'm in Atascadero. California, a small town in the central part of the state, to celebrate that time, here at the inv itation of I im Gräber, a member of the I lorseless ( 'arriage ( 'lub of America, whose motorcycle division is putting on its I 5th annual tour for pre-1916 bikes. " I he car guys picked the cut-off date," I'm told. "After 1 9 1 5. cars got electric lights and electric starters, and they're not interested in all that."

I lie cut-off date works for the motorcycles, as well. Bv 1910, motorcycles had advanced to the point that most had clutches instead of the awkward direct-drive systems that required the motor be killed at stops, then pedalled back to life. I he next half-decade saw the emergence of' twoand three-speed transmissions, some rudimentäre attempts at rear suspension and a move away from leather-belt final drives to chains.

American bike builders, spurred on by the vastness of the country itself, favored big engines, mostly VIvvins. for their top-of-the-line designs. And those designs were sound, too. In 1911. Indian sent a race team to the Isle of Man and shell-shocked the British with a 1-2-3 finish.

Approximately 90 bikes are on this year's tour, which consists of three day's riding, mostly on smooth, sparsely populated country roads. though tour leader Joel Naiv e throws in a dirt section on Thursday's 40mile shakedown run. "You gotta have some dirt." he says. "The bikes like it; it's what they were built for."

The next two days will consist of 75-mile loops, punctuated bv hills and hairpin corners. Which is just fine with club members, who come to ride, and ride hard. Indeed, this group is refreshingly devoid of the equipmental primping and preening that goes on with some of the concours d'elegance crowd. Nor is there a lot of banter about what the bikes are w orth. When I rather clumsily ask the owner of a clean 1912 Excelsior the value of' his machine, it's made clear to me that these guvs are collectors, not speculators.

"Let's just put it this way." he politely informs me. "my father bought this for me. and when the time comes. I'll pass it on to mv son. That's its value."

Later, more-discreet probing reveals that a useable, running example will set you back $8000 to $10.000, though it's easy to drop twice that amount for a motorcycle in really good shape.

My Excelsior V-Twin. a singlespeed. belt-drive job lent to me by Naive, is authentic and unrestored. It's benefitted from a few engine rebuilds and some fresh tires, but otherwise wears the scratches, scrapes and faded paint of almost 80 years of service. "There's no front brake— they weren't fitted until the late 1920s—and the rear brake isn't all that good. Make sure you raise the inside pedal in tight corners," Naive warns.then.looking at mv jeans.adds, "and 1 can guarantee you'll get oily."

Well, the cost of a new pair of Levas is a small price to pav for the ride that follows. The “XV'controis ( right-twistgrip throttle and compression release, left-tw istgrip clutch and neutral finder, tank-mounted oilfeed plunger, belt tensioner and manual spark advance) take some getting used to. and the coaster-tvpe brake, activated bv back-pedalling, is as weak as your Aunt Tilly's handshake. But as I perch atop the tinv. leather saddle and work the tillertype handlebar, the 6 1-cubic-inch motor pulls with surprising vigor. To the riders of the early 1 900s. moving up from a horse or a bicycle, the sensation must have been as intense as riding a ZX-1 1 Ninja is today.

Bob Karolev itz. in his book Yesterday's Motorcycles, gives us a feel for w hat it was like. "The idea of sitting astride the pent-up power of' an engine capable of catapulting one across the countryside at the unimagined rate of a mile a minute was an attraction almost too compelling to resist.” he w rote.

Old advertisements played up this new-found ability to cover ground quickly. Reading-Standard said of its bikes. "The R-S Motorcycle will develop all the speed your nerve w ill let you ride, and it w ill maintain that clip as long as the 'juice' holds out.” The American Motor Company billed its M.M. model as "The King of Motorcycles." and claimed that "it has that speed so desirable when the other fellow thinks you should take his dust.”

Motorcycles have evolved greatly in the last 75 years, but it seems many of the reasons for riding remain the same. At supper on the first night of the tour, someone at mv table suggests that modern motorev les are too fast, that they have too much performance. Funny talk. I counter, from someone w ho tomorrow w ill be going 60 miles per hour on a device that rolls on skinnv. puncture-prone tires, has no suspension to speak of and possesses less stopping power than a garage-sale 10-speed.

Mv dinner companion does not quite get the point. I'll wager the motorcyclists of 1915 would have understood completely. ®