The difference between the U.S. and Britain?

[trikebldr]

During WWI both the U.S. and Britain had airborn infantry units, and both also dropped bikes for them use. Here's the difference in the bikes each got. The one with the big star on the tank is an old Army 45 Harley. Dad and I restored two of them when I was in High School. The one being held is the one that the British dropped for their infantrymen, made by Royal Enfield. Now, which one would you rather be riding when trying to chase, or escape the enemy?
Just having some fun here with historical bikes!
Also, here's a model of Harley most of you have never seen. It was made under license by Aermacchi in Italy, commonly called the Aermacchi Harley Davidson. Not your father's Harley at all. I believe it was a 250cc machine. No, it's not the Wankel Rotary bike!

[Mr Jensee]

Harley-Davidson purchased a half interest in Aeronatica-Macchi, forming Aermacchi Harley-Davidson back in early 1960s. They imported scooters, 50cc motorcycles and a new 250 called the Sprint. The Sprint later became a 350cc in an effort to compete with the Japanese two strokes but never really caught on. I believe the bike being held up in the picture is either a 50cc or a 65cc unit. The bike in bottom picture is featured in the Barber Vintage motorcycle museum in Birmingham, Alabama.
Here is a link to the Harley History. http://www.harley-davidson.com/content/ ... /1960.html

[ghostler]

During WWI both the U.S. and Britain had airborn infantry units, and both also dropped bikes for them use. Here's the difference in the bikes each got. The one with the big star on the tank is an old Army 45 Harley. Dad and I restored two of them when I was in High School.

I think you meant WW2, no?

Good your Dad got you involved, must have been a very rewarding project. Two of our chapter members were moving to the Abilene, Texas area. As a going away gift, we gave each a collector reprint of the Army TM for the old Army Harley.
I told the one who owned a 1990's tourer, he should be able to make use of that manual, as Harley's haven't changed much since then.

[trikebldr]

During WWI both the U.S. and Britain had airborn infantry units, and both also dropped bikes for them use. Here's the difference in the bikes each got. The one with the big star on the tank is an old Army 45 Harley. Dad and I restored two of them when I was in High School.

I think you meant WW2, no?

Good your Dad got you involved, must have been a very rewarding project. Two of our chapter members were moving to the Abilene, Texas area. As a going away gift, we gave each a collector reprint of the Army TM for the old Army Harley.
I told the one who owned a 1990's tourer, he should be able to make use of that manual, as Harley's haven't changed much since then.

Yes, I did mean WWII (world war 2)! Thanks for correcting that!
Dad and I bought our two 45's at an auction at McClelland Air Force Base near Sacramento. They were clearing out a lot of huge warehouses and found about 200 of these bikes, plus even more Jeeps, still in their air-drop crates. Paid $75/each, sight-unseen for two crates only knowing they were supposed to be the Harleys. (ever smelled 22 year old gasoline?) Turned out to be a LOT of fun rebuilding and riding them together. I had a hard time getting used to the suicide shift, though, since my only "bike" up to then was my Lambretta motor scooter with a twist-shift on the same side as the clutch lever!

[Mr Jensee]

Geez that must have been great! I would have been like a kid in a candy store opening those crates!

[trikebldr]

Geez that must have been great! I would have been like a kid in a candy store opening those crates!

I was, AND, I got myself in a lot of trouble for opening both crates before dad got home from work. He didn't have a reason except that he told me to wait until he got home!
Opening the two 2gal. cans of gas was a real eye opener, and eye burner! I think that was his main concern! I've since learned that 10+ year old gas can become shock-explosive. Sure does stink!
The biggest thrill for me was the fact that at 650cc it was the biggest bike at my h.s. until a friend of mine bought his 650 Triumph when we were juniors. He who has the biggest bike is KING! Although his was faster, mine was a Harley and still had more cool!

[ghostler]

Yes, I did mean WWII (world war 2)! Thanks for correcting that!
Dad and I bought our two 45's at an auction at McClelland Air Force Base near Sacramento. They were clearing out a lot of huge warehouses and found about 200 of these bikes, plus even more Jeeps, still in their air-drop crates. Paid $75/each, sight-unseen for two crates only knowing they were supposed to be the Harleys. (ever smelled 22 year old gasoline?) Turned out to be a LOT of fun rebuilding and riding them together. I had a hard time getting used to the suicide shift, though, since my only "bike" up to then was my Lambretta motor scooter with a twist-shift on the same side as the clutch lever!

That's neat. WW2 ended in 1945, I guess then you're talking around 1967? I remember those air base vehicle sales of the late 1960's, early 1970's. Military didn't use GSA vehicles back then, Hickam AFB or Pearl Harbor NB had a bunch of well worn early 1960 Ford 4 door sedans for auction. My father put in a bid for a military member abandoned Fiat sports car. He bought it for me in high school, but I never took an interest in it back then, too much work to restore, required considerable rust work. I rebuilt a running worn out 1300 cc 1967 Datsun PL411 Blue Bird 4-door sedan instead. It looked like something from the 1950's.

The biggest thrill for me was the fact that at 650cc it was the biggest bike at my h.s. until a friend of mine bought his 650 Triumph when we were juniors. He who has the biggest bike is KING! Although his was faster, mine was a Harley and still had more cool!

Back then, 650 was big. Nowadays except for 4 cylinder crotch rockets, they are considered small bikes. Yup, you certainly had no slouch there!

[trikebldr]

Yes, Ghostler, it was spring of '66. For my birthday (Jan) dad told me we would attend that auction and he set aside $200 for whatever we decided to bid on. Of course, it was MY $200 that he controlled!
McClelland AFB was a huge supply center with dozens of big warehouses, and when they decided to close it down everything had to be liquidated. Several of them had supplies targeted for Korea. Just another example of how our tax dollars are spent, then not used. I guess I was fortunate to have benefited from that liquidation. And I thank you all for your donations to provide those bikes and letting us have them so cheaply!
If any of you are history buffs and also want to see how the military "liquidates" other materials, here's a link that made me sick! I've heard all the justifications about not having room on the transport ships, etc, but there's just no excuse for such waste! This story makes me thankful that we did buy those two bikes!

http://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/05/0 ... e-pacific/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lucasind]

""the US Military decided to offer all of the surplus equipment to the joint English – French government at a very cheap price. The local government made their decision not to take the offer as they believed that they would get all of the equipment for free when the Americans left.""

”The Seabees built a ramp running into the sea and every day Americans drove trucks, jeeps, ambulances, bulldozers, and tractors into the channel, locking the wheels and jumping free at the last second. Engine blocks cracked and hissed. Some Seabees wept. Ni-Vanuatu witnessing the destruction of wealth their island would never see again, at least in their lifetimes, thought the Americans had gone mad”.


Thanks Bruce,enjoyed reading of your two surplus bikes very much ,also the link you provided ! The two paragraphs above were my favorites, Back when my dad was alive I used to like to listen to him recant those types of stories,as he was one of those "SeaBees" that could only shake his head and follow orders. Those guys that were born in the late 19 teens and 1920's(that found themselves in WW2) that went thru the great depression ,whose families scrounged for every dime, could not believe the magnitude of WASTE by the government,...I guess not much has changed.

[ghostler]

I looked up where this huge dumping ground is, found it to be a nation chain of islands northeast of Australia. They say US offered cheaply, but doesn't state how much. Perhaps to the islanders it was more than they were willing to afford, perhaps also too much stuff for them to make use of? I could be wrong, but this was just after WW2, it had an impact on the economy of many nations. Perhaps the US government figured that the cost of multiple trips and mobilizing all that stuff back to US would have been cost prohibitive? Or were attitudes involved giving offense?
(I know I'm speculating.) Now it's all water under the bridge. Our parents were of a different generation, where economy was key to survival.

Not too many kids or folk know how to live debt free these days. News says a lot of home owner foreclosures, makes me wonder if by living on the edge, never considered the possibility of hard times and planned according.

I remember those auto auctions done by secret bid. One would put their bid in an envelope, then receive word during bid opening if they won.

[trikebldr]

Ghostler, you're absolutely right in your "speculation" about the cost of re-transport being too much. I'm also speculating that it couldn't have possibly been more than the worth of the equipment. Also, even if the locals couldn't afford to pay, which is quite likely after a world war, then why not just leave it all where it sits. At least SOMEBODY might get some good out of it. That seems like such a slap in the face to shove it all into the ocean over a few egos. Not to mention that today it wouldn't be done simply for environmental reasons! Think of all the fuels and oils that have leaked out of those vehicles over the years! One or two aircraft-carrier loads could have brought all of that back. Kinda surprises me now that all of our troops weren't just left overseas because of the cost of retrieving THEM!
Considering the political effects, it seems that leaving all that equipment in place would be good policy since it would benefit our allies by helping them maintain the area.
Can you imagine the value of all that equipment in today's world of collectors?
George, you gave me a chuckle! It never dawned on me that dad and I might have paid WAY too much for our bikes at $75/each! Maybe the next highest bids were just $10/each! Ouch! $75 was a lot of money to me back in 1966!
Yes, it's water under the bridge, but unfortunately there seems to be a lot more of that same water flowing under that same bridge, and it never stops!

[Mr Jensee]

Yeah, in all it's brilliant wisdom, leaving military hardware behind because it cost too much to expedite it out of a foreign country. So now because of it ISIS is very well equipped. So somebody tell me, how much money was saved, how many lives were squandered on this decision? No worries, the taxpayer will come to the rescue.

[trikebldr]

Yeah, in all it's brilliant wisdom, leaving military hardware behind because it cost too much to expedite it out of a foreign country. So now because of it ISIS is very well equipped. So somebody tell me, how much money was saved, how many lives were squandered on this decision? No worries, the taxpayer will come to the rescue.

I like the way you put that, Mike!

[Mr Jensee]

[ghostler]

With New Zealand and Australia nearby and given the water distances, don't think the small Vanuatu island nation would be a security threat due to isolation. (Where would they get fuel to power these, except by boat? Also, would they have been able to use the equipment? With the Allied forces departed, it was a farming and fishing culture, with not much outside interaction except for perhaps agricultural exports.)

No one else had a Navy sufficient to transport all that equipment. I gather that Australia was already overwhelmed (or so appears) from the large amounts of equipment they already had on hand to deal with due to the US Lend-Lease program, and that they had already agreed to purchase at war end.

Then, people didn't think about environmental consequences. It's all a part of a bygone era.

Regarding Harley's purchased for $75 apiece, what was that? about 1/6th the cost now due to inflation? That would be $450 apiece now. I think those were reasonable. By 1971, what was the cost of my Honda CB100? I think around $500 - $600. Around 1979 when in college, went to the Honda dealer in Honolulu. They wanted $800 for a new Honda CB125S. I got by on my well used, worn 1971 for $300. An extra $500 was a lot for a college student.

[trikebldr]

In 1970 I bought my new Yamaha RD350 from the Yamaha dealer in Waipahu (top of the island of Oahu) for $650. Then, when I took it in for it's 600 mile tuneup, it cost me $250. Didn't take me long to figure out I could almost keep buying new bikes rather than pay for tuneups, so I spent that next $250 for my first metric tools and my DIY history went into high gear! I also earned all of my tool money back doing tuneups for others while I was still in the military! Got $400 for that RD350 in 1971, then paid $1250 for my new XS650 Yamaha. Ah, the old days!

[ghostler]

In 1970 I bought my new Yamaha RD350 from the Yamaha dealer in Waipahu (top of the island of Oahu) for $650. Then, when I took it in for it's 600 mile tuneup, it cost me $250. Didn't take me long to figure out I could almost keep buying new bikes rather than pay for tuneups, so I spent that next $250 for my first metric tools and my DIY history went into high gear! I also earned all of my tool money back doing tuneups for others while I was still in the military! Got $400 for that RD350 in 1971, then paid $1250 for my new XS650 Yamaha. Ah, the old days!

Bruce, I lived on Oahu 17 years, joined Uncle Sam's scouting club '72 - '75, but didn't get into motorcycles until in college, used the GI Bill for college after. Got my first motorcycle in 1979, best move I made. My gas bills dropped from $40/mo. to $10, insurance from $330/yr. to $50, registering a motorcycle at the UH was $5 per semester versus $55 for quarry parking and a long walk. Every major campus building had the motorcycle parking nearest the building.
Even my girlfriend rode pillion on that CB100. (You meet the nicest people on a Honda. )

Yes, I remember those RD's, neat bikes, in 2 stroke they were roughly equivalent to a 4 cycle twice the displacement, I imagine. They must have been somewhat spooky being light weight but wickedly quick with probably marginal drum braking. I remember back in 1973 a Toyota Corolla 2 door coupe was $2,300 on the island.

When I got tired of repairing the 1967 Datsun Blue Bird, (everything started to go at 100k miles, repainted, reupholstered, even replaced the exhaust), I got a 1970 Mazda 1800 4 door. With gas shocks but manual transmission, it was very smooth riding, sleek looking, slightly larger than the Toyota Corona, some thought I had a BMW. It was a poor man's BMW, even had wood grain dash, got it for all of $600 in 1974.

[Lucasind]

Trike wrote ; "Also, here's a model of Harley most of you have never seen. It was made under license by Aermacchi in Italy, commonly called the Aermacchi Harley Davidson. Not your father's Harley at all. I believe it was a 250cc machine. No, it's not the Wankel Rotary bike! "


You are right about that ! I don't believe that I have ever laid eyes on this red and white "Harley" !
Now I'm gonna have to ride all the way back to Maggie Valley N.C, and see if Dale Walksler has one of these in his museum....darn it ........................Tony

[trikebldr]

Anyone seen my Harley?

[hank43]

Trikebldr

I currently live not too far from McClelland AFB in Sacramento. A lot different now!
Will you be at the rally this year?
hank43