Turn-Of-The-Century Tiddler
TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY TIDDLER
World's oldest mini-bike?
IF YOUR IDEA OF A VINTAGE mini-bike is a Seventies Honda XR75, take a gander at the Iver Johnson shown here. A one-of-a-kind special, it was built in 1912 by board-tracker Jonathan Sullivan in the hopes it would stir his son's interest in racing. A toolmaker by trade, “Sully” did work for Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and used that expertise to assemble a scale replica of one of that firm’s “motor-bicycles.” Powered by a 65cc two-stroke with the throttle control on the top tube, direct belt drive to the rear wheel and no brakes, it’s knee-high to an adult, with a 26-inch-tall seat, 28.5-inch wheelbase and a total weight of 43 pounds.
The “Mini-lver” was passed down as a Sullivan family heirloom for decades, before a family friend sold it to current owner Kip O'Hara. “I met a man named Frank in 1999 at the Belltown Gas Engine Show in East Hampton, Connecticut,” O’Hara recalls. “We struck up a conversation, and he told me of the little motorbike he had acquired 20 years before. It was going to be one of his retirement projects, but he had not gotten around to doing much with it.
“Frank showed me the Iver Johnson that same year, and for the next tw o years, whenever I saw him, I was persistent in asking him to sell it to me. Finally in 2003, Frank called and offered me the motorcycle. I was ecstatic; I didn't hesitate. 1 hopped in my truck and picked it up that very evening.” A noted restoration expert with a passion for early 1900s motorcycles and bicycles, O’Hara bought the bike for just SI ()()(), but has since spent some S2500 and 250 hours returning it to nearoriginal condition. With both wheels missing, he substituted modern bicycle hoops in the appropriate 16inch diameter, and bolted a set of BMX stunt pegs to the rear axle, the original pegs proving too flimsy to support the bike on its stand. Whatever battery originally powered the ignition was also MIA, so O’Hara replaced it with a repro part that holds a stack of D batteries. That explains the cylinder behind the seat tube; the one below the downtube holds the coil.
The fuel tank was present, but was in such bad shape that O’Hara replicated it. But aside from those few parts, the engine flywheel and the cork handgrips, all other parts are original, including no fewer than 48 pieces that he had stripped and re-nickelplated. Gotta love that kerosene headlamp! Polishing the few brass pieces on the bike such as the carburetor, the tire pump and the “cyclometer” (which measures mileage in eighth-mile increments) put the finishing touches on the museum-quality restoration which is a good tiling, because the bike may someday join O’Hara’s 1901 Steffey motorbike in the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum in Maine. For the moment, however, the owner is content to show the bike in regional concours. And he’s looking forward to the annual Antique Motorcycle Club of America national meet in Hebron, Connecticut, where he hopes to have it appraised to ascertain its worth. Not that he’d sell it. “My wife would kill me if 1 did," he says. “She loves it!" - Brian Catterson
