I saw this bike being rebuilt for the past few months and I knew I just had to get a pictorial for you. WOW! What a Bike. At first glance this bike may look like just another custom bike. When you really take a closer look, the theme is revealed. What you won’t see, is its history and link to the Beatles. A few years back, this bike was built by Steel Horse Custom Choppers in actually eight days. It was displayed at the first George Harrison Beatles Festival that is now held every year in Benton, IL.

Added 4.5.2009

Gottlieb Daimler was born in Schorndorf in Germany in 1834. After training as a gunsmith he became an engineer. He worked in Britain, France, and Belgium before being appointed technical director to the gas-engine company which Nikolaus Otto founded at Deutz. Daimler now worked with Otto and a young engineer, Whilhelm Maybach, in an attempt to develop the internal combustion engine for propelling road vehicles.

Added 4.5.2009

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Perhaps it was the appeal of hard sand, warm winter days and the excitement of that first motorcycle race on the beach, that made Daytona Beach the home of Bike Week. Maybe it was the spirited activities surrounding the event that have kept people coming back. Whatever the case, Bike Week has been a tradition since January 24, 1937 – the inaugural running of the Daytona 200. The first race took place on a 3.2 mile beach and road course, located south of Daytona Beach.

In the late 30’s, a young woman motorcycle enthusiast named Linda Dugeau of Providence, Rhode Island, conceived the idea that there might be a number of women who owned their own motorcycles and might be interested in becoming acquainted with one another. Linda wrote to dealers, riders and anyone she thought might know of women motorcycle riders. After this extensive search, she compiled a list from which the Motor Maid organization was founded with 51 Charter members in 1940. The American Motorcycle Association Charter #509 was issued to the club in 1941. Dot Robinson of Detroit, Michigan, was appointed the first President.

Added 4.5.2009

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When about nine racers and 200 spectators turned out for the Jack pine Gypsies’ first annual racing event in 1938, the Gypsies knew they had started something great. They just didn’t know it would get to be quite so big! Started with an idea to increase business in the Sturgis area by staging a motorcycle racing event, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally began as motorcycle racers flocked to the Black Hills to compete for $750in prize money, and have some fun at a carnival and dance at the community hall. They camped in local businessman and fellow biker J.C.

By the early 1980s the bikers’ days in the Sturgis City Park were nearing an end as city officials had grown weary of the smell of burning outhouses. In 1982 city officials put the kibosh on camping in the park, and such venues as the Buffalo Chip Campground and Glencoe Camp Resort were born. Located outside the city limits, the campgrounds offered a place where bikers could spread out, enjoy live entertainment, and party without worrying about the constraints of being in town. Spreading out proved to be beneficial to everyone, as law enforcement officials reported that the bikers behaved well, despite the crowd of 30,000. Bikers were happy too as liquor store sales showed record totals for the week with Harley Davidson’s introduction of the Harley beer. Approximately 1,059 cases were sold that year.  

Added 4.5.2009

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The oldest bike is a 1903 Indian discovered 80 miles from the original Indian factory in Springfield, Mass. The old Harley hill climbing bikes are there represented by bikes with serial numbers 9 & 10 of the only 20 every made, and a Harley board track racer with serial # 1. Owner Dale Walksler is about as friendly a guy you could ever meet and leads tours through the museum, where he tells the personal history off each bike and even starts some of the vintage bikes and rides them through the building, doing burnouts, and out into the parking lot.

Added 4.5.2009

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