Saturday, January 9, 2010

A Rare Disease

There must be something in the water in Sweden, and whatever it is, it is pretty potent. And not only that, but it evidently has been in the water for a long, long time. My grandfather on my Dad's side came here from Sweden in the very first years of the 20th century; my grandmother's parents a generation earlier. Apparently they passed the disease on to me. Whatever the cause of this "bug" it manifests itself by causing the infected person to undertake totally illogical projects such as drag racing with decades old technology.


When I began drag racing back in the mid 1980's, the Knucklehead engine design was over 50 years old, and the last one had left the factory 40 years earlier. It looks as though my Swedish friend may have contracted an even more severe case than what I suffered through, since he is currently racing with the same engine design, which now is approaching its 80th birthday.



The 120 cubic inch Knuckle weighs in at 432 pounds, and as can be seen here, the 6 inch M&H slick with no wheelie bars makes for some great photos! What a great looking bike!

2 comments:

Electra Glide In Blue said...

Lee,
That is a good looking bike, but don't tell me, he kick-starts that machine?

St. Lee said...

Yes, as far as I know, he still kick starts the bike. The whole package is beautiful in its simplicity.