The Way it Was

As a society we've become pretty good at whining about every inconvenience, but we really take things so much for granted. Good motorcycles, good roads, good tires...but it wasn't that long ago that things were much different.

Here's a couple old photos I scanned of my buddy's great-grandpa on what I believe to be a WW-I vintage Indian. What seems rare to me is the gearshift, which on Indians was usually on the right side, with the throttle on the left, so you could ride & shoot at the same time. Here the shifter appears on the left. Maybe this was special-ordered for some left handed guy.

Anyhow, I thought you guys might enjoy these.

Cool pics CQ!

[Yellow Jacket]

Thanks, I love those old pics!

[ianicky]

Great pictures caddmannq

I bet that bike would be worth a few $$$ now

[racinchef]

My family has a bit of motorcycling heritage in it. My paternal grandfather took my grandmother via motorcycle sidecar from Massachusetts to Quebec for their honeymoon. This was around 1925. I can only imagine what the roads were like back then. The ride must have invigorated her because she had nine children. There was also a Harley-Davidson dealership in the family that started in 1915 and evolved into a bicycle shop that still does business today

Cool Racinchef!

[pirate]

Thanks for those pics, CQ! I am a history buff, so I love seeing old time photos and imagining what it would be like to live in that time.

Real neat photos, CQ. Sometimes on an old movie cable channel, you can see these bikes in action in a movie. Like you and racinchief said, between the bike and the roads, it probably came close to shaking some teeth loose.

I'd posted these up on the board at Motorcycle-USA and one of the members identified it as a 1918 Excelsior-Henderson. I'd forgotton completely about these bikes that they'd made after merger. Upon really close examination the faded markings on the tank do reveal themselves to be the big Excelsior "X".

[blowndodge]

could it be that that pic is from a negative that was flopped over and thats why the controls seem backwards?

[bobzinger]

I didn't even know we had a museum in Livermore and then I found this. COOL!

Cool pics Cadd. Just think what tires were like in the 60s even. Now ya hardly ever see a tire failure, unless it is actually punctured by something. Used to change points, plugs, and condenseres about every 10,000 miles as well. Some things are a lot better than they used to be.

Originally Posted by Blowndodge "Darksider"

could it be that that pic is from a negative that was flopped over and thats why the controls seem backwards?

Could be, but it's not. It's because it's not an Indian at all.

Look at these photos:

[misunderstood]

Love the old pics !! Thanks for sharing.

[dakals]

Very cool!!!!!! Thank you!!!!