Wednesday, February 22, 2012

AEE machined shift pegs

Here is what our machined shift pegs looked like up close. We also did foot pegs with same design. Also had some truly hideous (my opinion) foot pegs with Spanish tips on them. Looked liked we stole part of someones fence and sold them. Other than shots in the catalog you will never find them on an AEE bike but you do find these machined pegs on them. They were all made in house and then chromed by Orange County Chrome.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Big Twin update

Not much to report but the engines have been removed and chassis is waiting to be repaired from the disasterous attempt to put a blower in to it. You can see a good view of the chassis and the C4 automatic. I'm still stunned at how well the Molly paint is holding up 40 years after the fact. I do not have a lot of information but here she is as she sits today:

Thursday, February 16, 2012

AEE risers

Our risers, unlike most which are steel, were cast aluminum. These pictures show a pair that is unchromed.
While from the side they look like most generic risers you will note that from above they are much different.
You will note they are actually kind of flat sided, ending up with 6 facets on them. Very unique. Also they are one of the parts that we stamped with the identifying AEE logo.


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

You guess

Diamond King and Queen

Picked this up recently and its in unreal condition for over 40 years old. You can see a tiny bit of the part number tag on the bottom. The diamond pattern came about later in AEE's life. I always liked the king and queen we built, proportions were just right......without a doubt our biggest seller when it came to seats too. It goes in to the AEE collection. Anyone have anything AEE out there we accept donations!




Wednesday, February 8, 2012

AEE logo stamping

AEE did not stamp their parts until about 1972. In 1971 we started etching some parts and then went to stamping also. This picture illustrates the location of the stamp on sissy bars. Triple trees, springers, mono girders and square glides were all stamped or etched under the bottom triple tree. Risers got stamped on the bottom. To my knowledge nothing else got stamped though some items had assembly part numbers stamped in to them. Back then frames didn't get stamped or MSO's either typically. Kind of confusing really. If the stamp or etch is there it's AEE if not it still might be. We did put part number stickers on everything but most of them were removed at the time of purchase or have worn off the part. I do have two seats with the part number tag in place but it's very rare to find.

Monday, February 6, 2012

and now Dave Brackett's 23 T

Dave our famous designer and engineer at AEE Choppers worked for Mickey Thompson at one point and this is what he drove to work! 23T with blown small block Chevy, engine set way back in chassis.Dave built a lot of bad ass stuff over the years but I like the idea of this one running on the streets. Go to Dave's site at:
http://www.brackettracing.com/  and check out the cars and bikes he has been a part of. Great guy and my friend.

Tom's 32 at Pebble Beach

Great shot of Tom's famous blown 32 highboy roadster at Pebble Beach. Ranked by Hot Rod magazine as I believe number 7 best hot rod ever. Ford put it in the top 50 32's ever. This thing ran the streets in the 60's and set the style for a slew of hot rods ever since. The look, stance, flames and pinstriping are nothing short of perfect. Blown small block under the hood.........

Interesting info

While not relating directly to AEE this is some good information I ran across. One of the mysteries of chopper-dom is what is "stock length"? You can find out how long the springer or forks you are buying are but how long was your front end to begin with? Check this chart out and hopefully it can help some of you out with your builds! By the way the dimensions shown are from bottom of the tree to center of the axle hole generally speaking.


Wednesday, February 1, 2012

An Unknown AEE catalog

I recently found this catalog and uncovered a mystery. First you will note the date on the catalog 1968/1969. The cover is similar to the first AEE catalog but Rose and Boomer are missing from the picture with the Corvair Trike. Inside the front cover is a glued in discount schedule. The schedule applies certain discounts to certain letters...like 10% for A, 15% for B and so on. The last few pages are a price list showing each part number and price and it's respective discount letter. Obviously this was a catalog given to dealers that wanted to sell AEE parts. Now the most interesting thing....the cover says AEE Cycles not Choppers!. Never have I seen that on anything from AEE. A real oddity and a bit of a mystery. I am going to try to chase down more info on this one.

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