Archive: 1 ,2 ,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10	Viking edition	August 2001

The 2001 Outlaw motorcycle races in Ventura, CA!!
I Headed out to Highway 5 early in the morning, and four and a half hours later I was in Ventura. The Porsche got fresh oil last friday, and it was running as smooth as ever. It was the last trip with that car.. now it's for sale at California Motorsport. I bought a pit pass, so I could sneak around the pits and bother the Indian enthusiasts with my questions. Dodge Bros was there with a couple of Sport Scouts, Nichols Racing team had a '37 and a '40 Big Base Sport Scouts. Bob Stark had his collection of IROC Arrows (250ccm Warrior pistons, special race cams) there, and the rest of the bikes were Hardley Ablesons, brit and jap bikes. I spent most of the time studying the Sport Scouts, trying to understand what it takes to go fast and also see if there were any details to incorporate on my own street Sport Scout. T he Sport Scouts were fast out on the track, even though some of the bikes had some engine problems in the beginning. What amazed me were how fast the single cylinder Arrows were.. My Arrow surely didn't have the same power as these, but I guess it's the handling that makes the difference. "Fast" Eddie Castro won the Class C handshift and I think he also won the IROC. The audience favorite was the Hooligan class, a couple of choppers and "Gypsie's" Honda really showed off... Pictures from the races: 1,2, 3,4, 5,6, 7,8, 9,10, 11,12 13,14,15,16 S unday was the swapmeet and motorcycle show day. Not alot of Indian stuff there, however I saw some NOS and origianl parts and memorabilia, a couple of vertical scout basket cases, and some stuff for early motorcycles. I bought a helmet and a seat and some "bullet holes"... I put a "bullet hole" on my computer, as it has been bad lately. There were several early pre '16 Indians displayed, belt drives included. I also have some pictures from the sunday's event as well. I  talked to a guy who has a 1909 Wright with a Hedstrom engine. Wright was a personal friend of Hedstrom, and it's likely that Oscar himself touched that specific engine. I think he was the last descendant of the Wright family. He is looking for some valve parts etc for the engine, I can forward you to him if you send me an email. He was also looking for a specific nut for that engine, I will post the size when I find the note. M et several VI listers, and also Eric Vaughn and Bob Nichols. Bob had a pair of Titanium H-beam rods for a Sport Scout in his pocket!!! WOW... the rods have a cross web in the middle to reduce torsional vibration. There was an article in Cycle world about his design a while back. He have to re-balance the flywheel/ lower end ... they were extremely lightweight! Bob then showed me more of his race parts and his two BB Scouts.. He had some titanium lifters which had two mounting points(pivots?) to the cam follower stud(axle..?). The tappets had material drilled out in the middle to reduce weight. He also had some cams of his own design, I think they looked like a Daytona scout cam. The attention to the small details make his machines rev high and go fast. One of the Scouts (the yellow one..?) is capable of 8000 rpm, and he mentioned something like 125 and 140 top speed for his bikes. With a fresh pair of FHP cylinders and the new titanium rods will probably make his machines even meaner and faster. E veryone involved in Sport scout tuning has said to me that there's so much you can do to a Scout engine compared to a Chief or a Harley. I am very glad I bought the Sport Scout, and it really has all the goodies in place to make it a mean looking and eventually a fast machine. If someone buys my car soon, I don't have to consider selling it to get rid of the car loan.. I consider buying some of Bob Nichols race parts, and start tuning the Sport scout when my Chief is roadworthy. Well.. have to consider a career change or something, to earn more money.. Pictures from the swapmeet: 17,18, 19,20, 21,22,23	I have the '44 Chief, I have a sidecar, I have a hotrod Sport Scout... the only thing I have to do is to weld a bracket to the sidecar chassis and tow the racebike.. Dixon, CA - Fort Sutter Chapter National meet!! W ho stole my INTEL Camera!!! Or did I leave it somewhere..? Losing the camera really bothered me all weekend, as there were plenty of Indians and other motorcycles there to take pictures of. We shot some really cool pictures of me sitting in an Indian car (built in the '30 s with a '20s Indian engine), now I will not be able to post the pictures here. Most of the guys were already there when I finally arrived late friday evening, RedFred had his blue show Indian there and also his original Indian Papoose. Eric Vaughn displayed his racer, now twin carbed and with a Laverda fairing. Several Chiefs, some 101 scouts and Sport Scouts, verticals, a Chout and some early Indians None of the major dealers had booths there, which was quite diseappointing as I planned to buy parts for both of my Indians. Bob Stark was the guest speaker at saturdays banquet, and he talked about his and Indian's story up to now. Later that evening I listened to old stories told by some of the Indian guys, but they didn't scare me away from this horrible motorcycle lifestyle. Most of the guys left on saturday, but a few brave men and women entered their motorcycles for national judging on Sunday morning. That part is a little bit different from the Norwegian antique/classic motorcycle meets that I've been to, I've never experienced judging down to details... V aughn's racer was really cool, even though it couldn't be judged because of it's modifications.. He had new FHP cylinders in place. The intakes were blinded off, and intake "tubes" had been inserted from the exhaust side of the engine. Dual carbs (M6 ?), and a lot of nice welding on the new intakes and the carb adaptors. Sport Scout update!! S ince I'm moving to Norway in August, I'm trying to prepare things for transport. I've put the engine and the frame together, and the front end will be put together as soon as I get the correct bolts and wheel axle. It's much easier to move the bike around with the wheels attached... I mocked the front end together on July 4th, and even without the tanks the "look" is correct (well, that's my opinion) The front brake plate will be a 741 one which I got from Greg Cooney(thanks!), and I'll have to look into attaching a speedometer later. I just have the rear stand for the bike.. Jeff Hiatt will try to mock up the right tank with a 50/50 Oil/gas capacity, and maybe make new mounts for the tanks. Cotten is going to cut some Peek rings for the manifold. The frame/ rear fender etc is still rusty, haven't been able to beadblast and powdercoat yet.. Also the brake crossover didn't want to go through both of the holes, and it looks like the left bottom mount on the rear section is a bent. It looks like the left bottom tube on the rear section is a little extra bent between the crossover shaft hole and the vertical tube.
The Century ride home.. J ust 5 minutes before flying out from San Francisco, I was still unsure if the trip would be a success.. My employer FORGOT to give me my Norwegian vacation money on june 22nd, and they said they couldn't give me the vacation money until the next pay day(July 20th). Well, I was expecting and I really needed the money for my vacation plans.... However, from my calculations I had enough money available in my checking account for two week on the road. I had a screaming baby next to me on the redeye flight to Boston, so I didn't sleep much. The motorcycle rental place was in Manchester, NH, but getting ther from Boston didn't cause any problems. Suddenly the money situation changed dramatically! I didn't realize that the mc rental company were going to hold additional $1000 for insurance purposes. Suddenly my bank account was dry.. but with help from my brother in Norway we fixed the rental issues. Luckily our US CFO agreed to give me an advance so I could have some money to pay for the hotels. But, of course the bank didn't transfer the money until the next day. With just $10 in my pocket, I decided to start riding towards Schenectady and hoped that the money we transferred to my account would be available soon. Well, I checked the balance in New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.. but no money available. T he Buell is really a good handling bike, and I really appreciated the 75 MPG since I didn't have much money. The seat, however, feels like a Mc'Donalds chair after 30 minutes of driving! But heck, "I'm young and if I stop now I will be put in jail for vagrancy". I got pulled over by the local police somewhere in Vermont or NY, just because the female officer wanted to learn more about the Buell. The Hemmings Motor News was located in the same town.. they had a recently aquired Chief on display there. They also had a lot of collectibles there, but I didn't buy anything (no money, remember..). B inghampton was 400 something miles away, but I hoped that I could find help down there. But, after the troubling with the motorcycle rental and driving in the wrong direction for a while, it started getting cold and dark. Well, still no money when I passed Schenectady.. so I decided to drive the remaining 108 miles to Binghampton. I'm more used to kilometers, but I know that the 108 miles where much longer than ordinary miles. It was dark, windy and cold.. and occasional rain just added to the experience. Troubled with lack of vision(dark glasses), I followed a couple of trucks. A lot of turbulence, but still the Buell ran faster than ever and they were my "eyes" looking out for dangers. Arrived Binghampton, NY at 1100 PM.. but didn't have a clue where I could find the rest of the guys. Luckily I met some CRH guys on a hotel downtown Binghampton. Off course, the bank was still sitting on my money, but my brother helped me out again. The lady in the hotel reception felt sorry for me, and gave me a voucher for a free drink in the bar. I found several CRH guys in the bar, and I knew I could stop worry... T he next morning I solved all the money issues, and from that point everything worked out as planned. I didn't know a lot of the guys there, so I just rode together with a some people I talked to the night before The Buell is a very agile motorcycle, and it was perfect for picking up parts lost by the old Indians. Out on the freeway, a battery bracket fell of a Chief, bounced a little and almost hit one of the riders, and eventually it hit the follow truck. I picked up the remains of the battery bracket.. never found the center piece of it. Well, we thought we couldn't catch up with the rest of the guys so we drove the freeway from the lunch place to Schenectady. Eventually the rest of the guys appeared as well, and a lot of them started working on their bikes as soon as they arrived. I talked to a lot of people on the parking lot, and ended up having a very delicious dinner out on the parking lot with Matt Blake, Kiwi and their family. One of the German Indians had a broken tappet adjuster bolt stuck in the tappet, but with they got a new tappet from Chuck Myles late in the evening. They worked on the bike until 0230AM, and completed their successfull repair the next morning The bar closed early at the hotel, and after the very long first day I was going to get a good night's sleep before the big day. However, I just wanted to see if the guys on the parking lot were doing OK. The Germans had everything under control.. but there was this Sport Scout with blown head gaskets... A mirror was used to plane the heads as they were distorted. I helped out the guys working on the SS until 300AM, then I was to tired to continue working on the bike. The SS suffered more problems and never made it to Springfield, but I'm sure all the problems will be solved before the next CRH(in 5 years) H ere's some pictures of the late shift Sport Scout repair team..(Repairteam1, Repairteam2). Pictures from Schenectady: 1,2, 3,4, 5,6, 7,8, 9,10 L uckily we had a late start the next morning, as there were a lot of tired people and some wrenching to be done on a few bikes. For some reason we ended up downtown Schenectady, and it was stop and go through stoplights. One of the Swedish bikes stopped downtown, and suddenly he was all alone. I turned around and tried to pushstart his bike, however it was totally dead. We attached a tow rope to the little Buell, and after a while the Chief fired up, and we hit the road trying to catch up with the rest of the guys. A ll the bikes were gathered downtown Pittsfield, and there was a short ceremony up on a stage. After eating lunch on one of the local restaurants, 6 or 8 Police motorcycles was lined up front to make sure we arrived safely at the main gathering point. One of the Chief was slowing down, and eventually the throttle cable got really stuck. It was repaired with some WD 40, and with some tightening of the front fork bolts it was running properly. Several Indian riders joined us in Lebanon(?), and after Kiwi(Mike Thomas) had a final drivers meeting we were on the road again heading towards the final goal.. Springfield, MA.. The Home of the Indian Motorcycle! T he police was fabulous, they stopped all traffic and made sure we arrived safely in Springfield. There were thousands of people along the route and downtown Springfield. We were honking the horns and waving to the people along the route. I even did hi-5's with some of the guys..! Downtown Springfield was crowded with people, but the police and security guards kept an eye on our bikes. Mike Thomas, Steve Adams and the original CRH riders were up on stage, they have really gone through a lot on the trip and really deserved the applause they got. T he new Indian Motorcycle company put on a cocktail party on Friday evening, and their CEO, the Kiwi team, representatives from Springfield made speeches. Another thing that was really cool was that several of the employees from the old Indian factory were honored and some of them talked a little bit about how it was back then. I talked to Jack Amstrong, after he spotted my Ed Kretz(number 38) t-shirt. A picture of his '44 with racer in tow is displayed on this page. I told him about my Indians, and he told me more about the rig he rode to the races. He said the '44 Chief was a really dependable and good bike. Sometimes he even had two racing bikes in tow on that Chief!! Here's a picture of Max and myself, Max rode his four all the way from California but not with the CRH. Even though it was extremely tired, I joined a group of people and explored a local bar. T here were plenty of bikes parked downtown on saturday, and several good bands were playing music up on the stage. I met some Norwegians there and we drove to the Chester, MA meeting and spent a few hours out there. Pictures from Chester: 1,2, 3,4, 5,6, 7 A local hero in his pickup truck tried to kill me out on the freeway.. he passed me in the left lane then suddenly he decided to change back to the center lane again. A minimum of 5 seconds of memory capacity should be mandatory for all drivers..cagers or riders also. Well, I got lost again when trying to find the hotel.. However, I saw a lot of old brick factory buildings from when Springfield was a successfull industrial city. I was lucky enough to arrive in time before dinner, and I learned more about the Hanlon gearbox during the dinner. We explored the Springfield nightlife again on saturday, but didn't stay out to late. Sunday was the Indian Day...! Pictures from the final day of the Century Ride Home: 1,2, 3,4, 5,6, 7,8, 9,10 Summary: I should have started with my own Indian in LA!! But, still I did get a feel of the good spirit and how all the guys helped each other reaching the final goal... riding into Springfield! Even though the Buell didn't give me any problems, for some reason my hands got their share of dirt and grease. I don't know much about keeping the old Indian's running (none of my Indians are done..), however helping others reaching their goal felt good. And it was much more fun than just riding.. Jack Armstrong talked about "living Indian"... What it means to each one of you guys may differ, but I have realized that it's not the motorcycle itself that is the most important. It's meeting old and new friends, giving and recieving, learning to be patient( I've worked on the Chief for 4 years..), that being able to listen is a good thing, and being an motorcycle adventurer leads may be both fun and thrilling. George W.'s and the CRH involvement with the CFF charity shows that we can give and brighten other people's lives while living the Indian Motorcycle.. Apart from that, all the guys were cool, no fights(apart from that little incident with that Hardley Ableson guy at the bar), plenty of cursing late at night, and no big accidents... Well, Steve Adams foot got hurt after he was attacked by a BMW, I think his pain shows in this picture.	The Indian day! A lot of people showed up on the Indian day. I got to see the museum, buy some part for the SS. However, I had to rush up to New Hampshire and deliver the rental bike, so I left early. I will write more about the Indian day.. but it's past 0100AM already.. Pictures from the Indian day: 1,2, 3,4, 5 Restoration/ rebuilding status: The 1944 Chief: Visited Kiwi Indian in June last year, and spent $3000 in just a few hours... Their parts are really great! I did some work on the Chief last summer, and got the sheetmetal painted. But since I spent most of my time in California last year, I never finished it. I considered shipping the Chief to California, but I didn't want to send the bike as is and without a Norwegian license plate. Here's some pictures(1,2,3,4) of the Chief, shot just before I put it into long term storage. I also have some pics of the sidecar before painting: (s1,s2,s3,s4) The 1939/40 Sport Scout: I just bought a SS here in CA, the plan WAS to do some ridin' while I'm in the US. The main goal WAS to join the Century Ride Home in June/ July. Also I've heard rumors about a NORCAL Indian meting in June.. The SS will be built up as a racer/ hot rod. Some race parts came with the bike. I have a set of Junior Scout tanks for this bike, the right tank is converted to oil-only. I'm not sure what to do with the oil/ gas tank issue. Tank pics: (1,2,3,4)   I also considered 648 style narrow tanks and an underseat oiltank from Matt Blake (http://www.indianfenders.com/), but I'll save that configuration for a later project. The junior scout tanks are too cool to be left unused. The tanks are at Jeff Hiatt's shop right now, as I want to have them properly rebuilt! I'm sure I've sent the tanks to the right place! Last evening (03/25/2001) I test-installed together the frame parts with the freshly rebuilt engine and took some pictures: (1,2, 3,4,5,6) The pictures of the SS was shot with a portable webcam, so they aren't very good. I have a better digital camera available, but the software is unstable. But I'll try again later. The upper tube on the front section seems to have a slight banana shape, but I haven't yet done extensive measurement of the whole assembly. A bent frame/ Fork will delay or upset the tight time schedule.... But the problems should be REALLY bad before I decide to leave the bike in the garage this summer. One of the major challenges in this project is that I don't have a proper workshop set up, I left most of my stuff in Norway. I don't know how long I'll stay in the US either.. RedFred has helped me with parts and engine rebuild, using his extensive network of "Indian" friends and dealers. THANKS!! Sneaking around his garage(and house..) looking at the beauty of rusty or NOS and restored parts is like therapy for a guy who works in the hectic Silicon Valley software industry... The Cord and the other cars are cool too.. They say u can't wear 'em out, so ride 'em! Parts needed.! B oth the Sport Scout and the Chief needs more parts. I got a lot of stuff at Hanford and Dixon, but it never seems to be enough parts.. Here's the list of what's still missing.. THE LIST Car for sale: '90 Porsche 911 Carrera 2 Email me for more information.

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