Who gets to define a man or woman? Who is permitted to evaluate the life and choices of a person? And who is to be believed? **Moving slightly away from The Vintage Motor Company’s main cultural explorations (motorcycles!), we’d like to examine a cultural event that effected all of us to some extent or another…
Tim Hart passed away on March 6th, 2017. In retrospect, he was a hero to most every formerly-young dirt rider, who is now past the age of 55. He was the image of who we all wanted to be, those many years ago. The funny thing is that each of us kept this admiration inside, […]
Eastern Maico Distributor Dennis E. “Dennie” Moore passed away on the evening of November 24, 2016 in Danville, Pennsylvania. As one of the early importers of Maico motorcycles and an enthusiastic supporter for the Maico racing team in the early 1970s, Dennie was one of a small number of men and women who spurred on […]
“You don’t test a 501; it tests you.”[1] Maico was known as the company which made big-displacement motorcycles, the best. Though it produced smaller ones, it was Maico’s larger motorcycles that forged its reputation. During the company’s prime, as has been previously noted, over half the machines on the starting line of an […]
MOTORCYCLE PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION And so, given our discussion of the motor vehicle as both historical/industrial artifact and art object (our last article: Preservation and Restoration), what should we do with that old motorcycle in our possession? Preserve it for posterity, or restore it as art? In earlier times, contemplating simpler (non-industrial) objects, […]
Glad to Live in the Northeast A motorcyclist said to me the other day, “You know, we are so lucky to live up here in the Northeast! There were so many motorcycles imported here, bought here, ridden here…other than maybe Southern California, there is no place like here!” And, for those interested in old motor […]
Motorcycles as Artifacts In the course of this article installment I have used the Maico motorcycle as the lens through which American sport motorcycle culture was examined. Now, looking back to this motorcycle—material culture, art object, utilitarian racing machine, or however else we may wish to think of it—what are we now to do with […]
In the beginning The covering of the end of a motorcycle’s handlebar, allowing the rider to “grip” the metal bar and prevent his or her hands from slipping off, has been made of rubber and known by its function since motorcycling’s beginning.[1] The handlebar grips on early motorcycles were a rather hard natural rubber sheath. […]
RACING: HOPE, IMAGE, REALITY THE SUCCESS YEARS: AKE JONSSON “Everything was possible:” the 1971 World 500cc Championship 1971 was another successful year for Maico and Jonsson. It did, however, also hold one of motorcycle racing’s bitterest stories of poor luck and defeat, for both him and Maico. Jonsson, while leading the 500cc championship series […]
A “Must Do” Vintage Bike Attraction Another Vintage Motorcycle Days (VMD) event has come and gone, and it was great as always! The weather this year was as perfect as one could expect, at least for a field in the middle of Ohio in the summer. VMD is produced by the American Motorcyclist Association, […]