Published in Great Britain in 2014 by Shire Publications Ltd,

PO Box 883, Oxford, OX1 9PL, UK

PO Box 3985, New York, NY 10185-3985, USA

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© 2014 Margie Siegal.

All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Shire Library no. 783.

ISBN-13: 978 0 74780 343 9

PDF ISBN:

ePub ISBN:

Margie Siegal has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this book.

Designed by Tony Trucott Designs, Sussex, UK and typeset in Perpetua and Gill Sans.

COVER IMAGE

This Softtail Deluxe sports the heavy fenders and chrome spotlights of the classic Harley but is powered by a thoroughly modern engine. (Image courtesy Andrew Gribben)

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This book is not an official Harley-Davidson publication, and is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Harley-Davidson Inc. We acknowledge that some names, model designations and logo designs are the property of Harley-Davidson Inc. and their use in this book is intended purely for the purposes of identification.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

“You are going to join the Antique Motorcycle Association of America,” said Jack Gormley. “Here’s an application form. I’m going to sponsor you in. Sign here.” I was a very young and green journalist at that point, but one of the few who had any interest in old motorcycles. Jack was one of the leading lights (or chief trouble makers, depending) of the Fort Sutter Chapter of the AMCA. Jack introduced me around. I met Armando Magri, who had raced the Oakland Mile before World War II and ran a Harley-Davidson dealership afterwards. I met John Cameron, Two Cam expert and one of the founding members of the Boozefighters. I met former Class C racer Francis Clifford and his wife Helen Clifford. Helen was a relative of William Henderson who designed the Henderson and the ACE four-cylinder motorcycles. I met Crocker motorcycle experts Ernie Skelton and Chuck Vernon, I listened carefully, learned a lot, and hope I have retained one-tenth of what I was told.

I started going to the big swap meet in California’s Central Valley and met Dave Carleton, with his wealth of Sportster knowledge and enthusiasm, and restoration expert, broker and promoter Glenn Bator. I learned a lot from them as well. I got in touch with Ed Youngblood, former president of the American Motorcyclist Association and met ace photographer Dana Shirey. Dana’s photos grace this book: you can look at them and sense the lure of the two-wheeled beast. I met Jerry Hatfield. Ed, Dave, Glenn and Jerry volunteered to review parts of this book, and their comments are much appreciated.

Francis and Helen used to throw the best Christmas parties, and invite a lot of Francis’ old racing buddies. Francis used to work for Dudley Perkins Harley-Davidson, San Francisco’s Harley-Davidson dealership, and Tom Perkins, the third generation of the Perkins family, would be there. Tom, now president of Dudley Perkins, has generously opened his archives, and provided the period photographs that illustrate this book. This book would not have been possible without the generosity of all these people, many of whom are no longer with us, but especially Tom Perkins. Thanks to all.

Shire Publications is supporting the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity, by funding the dedication of trees.