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Nostalgic Ride

17K views 65 replies 44 participants last post by  Sevensky 
#1 ·
A great story I found over at http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?s&threadid=29723
By a guy named Wes Weber. Very cool, thought I'd share it over here


On Thanksgiving Day, as most of America was watching football, the Weber household was sitting around talking about bikes. We started looking though my dad’s old riding photos. These are so great that I had to share some with all of you…

My dad and some friends were Adventure Riders to the hilt back in the 1950’s. Sunday rides were the thing for these guys, with the occasional jaunt to Mexico City or somewhere thrown in for fun. First let’s introduce the characters. Here's the clan filling up for gas somewhere near Fort Collings, CO. We've got them from left to right:
Jerry Francis, 1950 Harley 74
Mike Sadusky, 1950 Harley 74
Warren Weber (my dad), 1950 Harley 74
Wendell Rea, 1942 Harley 45 CI. Notice the front knobby!

I guess the 1950 Harley 74 was 'all that', Just like the GS is (supposedly) these days. Seems pretty popular anyhow...


Here's the 'usual suspects' again taking a morning break on a nice Sunday ride.


One Sunday ride took 'em to the top of Mount Evans, elevation 14,264. This was back in the day before it was paved all the way to the top. It was, however, paved here if it hadn't been for the snow. I was recently in a similar situation on my Rally Twin coming over Pearl Pass. I thought it was touchy enough, and I didn't have a FOOT CLUTCH!!! Yikes!


Yet another 1952 Sunday ride ventured up Arapahoe Pass - it's near Eldora, Colorado and is now all wilderness. Stupid lousy rotten environmental freaks, but I digress… (sigh)

The clan started out from my Dad's house in Wheat Ridge, which is a stone's throw from Golden, CO. They usually left about 8:00 a.m. If you didn't arrive on time, they'd leave you. Hard knocks. They headed up to Boulder, CO and followed the nice, twisty, scenic Boulder Canyon to Nederland. From there they headed through the town of Eldora and up Arapahoe pass.


Now some things never change. There's always that one person in the group that either insists that they absolutely positively know where to go, or that it "not that bad". In this case, the group ended up venturing down this:


Turned out that this the wrong way (DUH!). The Harley guys actually let the english bike riders be guinea pigs on this part of the ride. Must've been one of those hot-headed british riding know-it-alls that suggested it in the first place...



After some back tracking and de-mudding operations, they finally found the right trail and made it to the top at 11905 feet elevation. Nice day!

 
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#2 · (Edited)
Nostalgic Ride (cont...)

I also think these guys could've invented the "No Fear" logo. I have fear when it associates a 750 lb hard tail with a stream crossing on a trail. These guys really deserve some respect for being able to pull this off. Or they deserve to be taken away in straight jackets, I'm not really sure.



Not that they didn't dab once or twice. OK, maybe they dabbed about 100 times, but they still made it across. Now it's time to take a break and dry out.


Here’s a portrait of my dad taken in 1951, just before the start of a nice ride. Notice the cool stylish apparel. Helmet? I don't need no stinking helmet! Of course, this was pre-head injury days....


These guys also had a lot of fun just playin’ around. Imagine getting a couple feet (OR MORE!) of air on a 750 HARD-TAIL Harley! This makes you GS-jumpers look like whimps, with your fancy rear suspension and all. Sheesh!




 
#3 · (Edited)
Nostalgic Ride (cont...)

But the most insane (read: talented) member of the group in the area of piloting a Harley 74(7) through the air was a fellow named Kenny Erie. If Kenny was alive today and about 50 years younger, I’m sure he’d be one of the top names in freestyle!




These guys weren't shy of riding on a bit of snow, either. Here's Mike Sadusky on his 50 Harley. Man, I really envy this guy's legs. I bet he could straddle the 950 Adventure-S with his knees bent. Me, on the other hand, can't physically touch both toes to the ground at the same time. Mike used to drape his legs over the handle bars to stretch on those long road trips (no joking!). Who needs hiway pegs?


You’d think these guys would know when to stop. Apparently not…


Good thing Mike has those long legs...


These were taken up by my Dad's cabin on Mt Thorodin. Wanna park, but you're too lazy to put the side stand down? Just cram it in a snow bank and leave it like my dad did. Mike and Kenny are in the process of “parking”.


 
#4 · (Edited)
Nostalgic Ride (cont...)

These guys were never short of play time. Once again, Mike's extra long legs save the day. Well, almost.


And again...


You’re not a real rider unless you can power slide…



And they liked a bit of dirt tracking to boot!



And I have yet to try this one:


So, as it goes on Thanksgiving day you’re supposed to think what you’re thankful for. I’m thankful for my dad being a nutcase in the 1950’s, buying my brother Wayne and I Z-50’s in the 70s, and riding every chance I get with my friends and family!
 
#7 ·

Heres a pic of my dad on the very first bike I learned to ride on taken 1 month before I was born. He used to take this bike out and sucker people in vettes into races to supplement his income. :bat

When I was about 6 or so, he would sit me on the gas tank, and I would work the clutch and throttle, and my dad would operate the gear shifter (my legs were too short at the time to reach the pegs!).




Here he is raising hell along the river in Topeka KS.


Then here we have my little brother.... The apple doesnt fall far from the tree.
 
#9 ·
My dad no longer rides in this world, he departed some 20 years ago after a bout with leukemia. But both of my brothers and I still ride. (little brother on the right, minus some hair... me with ball cap to cover bald head, and eldest of my 2 younger brothers on the left.)


Here we are at what is left of a B-29 training base, the first 7 B-29 Superfortresses were sent here. Aircrews from all over the country were sent here in the middle of Kansas to recieve flight training before being sent over seas into war. Very unusual to find a 8000 ft runway in a town of about 10,000 people.
 
#22 ·
No worries. This thread was getting lost in the archives of time.... It was good to dust it off. :cheers
 
#23 ·
What a lot of people do not know is that during WWII, the Army trained its motorcycle riders to ride their Harley's just about anywhere, and they did. They often had to go cross-country in the worst of conditions. Often lives depended on them getting to their destinations on time. So they rode in the mud, on very poor roads, an often where there were no roads at all. They routinely came under fire from the enemy.

They vets who got back on Harley's after the war very often bought surplus Army motorcycles and applied their training to the civilian world. These were some very tough and talented guys. The fact that no one was shooting at them or shelling them made anything else that they might encounter a piece of cake.
 
#24 ·
Brian, those pics are absolutely awesome.
I remember seeing you post some of them at one time, but not sure I ever saw this thread before.
makes me wish my old man would have been into bikes and such. you have some remarkable memories in those photos, I am sure they are only a seck of what you have in you, but they are truely pics of history
 
#25 ·
Just to be clear, the black & white Harley photos aren't of my family, but of Warren Weber and his friends.

My dad was into Triumphs and Nortons when I was growing up.
 
#27 ·
Great group of pictures ! I always like action shots from the post war era.

My fathers generation was less about riding around looking menacing and more about riding the wheels off their Harleys........pavement or no pavement. These guys were hard as nails.

I come from a family of long time Harley riders (with a few Indians mixed in) I wish there were some photos but they're gone if there were any. My Grandfather didn't own a car for decades the family transportation Summer or Winter were always motorcycle / sidecar combos, sometimes Harleys , sometimes Indian's. Gramps didn't get his first car till the mid 1950's when he was in his sixties.

Thanks for posting this kind of stuff........you can see by my avatar how much I like it !
 
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