fourth installment of 1969 AEE catalog

HAPPY NEW YEARS!   FROM THE GREATEST CHOPPER COMPANY IN THE WORLD.....AEE CHOPPERS.

third installment of the 1969 first AEE catalog

Hope someone out there is checking this stuff out! Nice picture of the first AEE springer sitting on a box. You will note AEE never liked slugs and some people called us and others criminals for selling them. Reality is they are safe used correctly. You can see in the catalog they have specific directions of usage.

more 1969 first AEE catalog

I took a few days off but here are some more pages of the very first catalog AEE ever produced:

part 2 of the 1969 AEE catalog

Next four pages...how does a fully painted tank, fender and frame for a couple hundred bucks sound? Rake neck for $25? Enjoy!

First AEE catalog 1969

Over the next week or so I am going to post every page of the first 1969 catalog, actually November 1968 (there were actually two catalogs in 1969, more on that later). I do this more for archive purposes than anything else. Many of the pages were taken straight out of the MCM catalog as an example. first up is the frotn and back covers.

Rose McMullen with the famous Corvair Trike and Boomer the shop lion. The back cover is Tom's Mindbender shot at what looks like the Fullerton airport. The Mindbender is the chopper that started it all and the first bike with a fully molded yet removable tank. Also one of the first street choppers with a fully chromed engine.

Denvers Choppers

Denvers Choppers built a lot of bikes in it's day. Kayelynn with Dream Machines over in Kingman, AZ has made it his duty to find and restore Denver's bikes where ever he can find them. I have seen some of them, and heard them run too. Great pieces, some restored, some left alone but all great pieces of 70's chopper history. A few have some AEE items on them but eventually Denver began building lots of his own parts. I post this here for Kayelynn and to salute his efforts saving our collective chopper past!

AEE at it's peak!

Never thought I'd find this picture but here it is...I helped set this up, rolled the bikes out and helped with the shot.....rear row left to right Corvair Trike and the mighty Big Twin, front row, The Shovelhead, Mindbender, Really and Supersport. These are the bikes that existed when I arrived at AEE (though Big Twin was red at the time). Not long after this shot the Corvair Trike was won in a contest, Big Twin sold to the show circuit and Mindbender was sold to person unknown.....enjoy the only shot of this many AEE bikes in one picture that I am aware of......

A fan's AEE story....

Dave Brackett our talented designer/engineer/fabricator  received this recently from a fan of AEE and Molly:

Dave
I've really enjoyed reading your AEE & Molly histories. I grew up in Placentia Ca. AEE was just down the street and I went there many times with friends that were building Choppers. The first time I went to AEE it was still in Anaheim and I remember seeing Big Twin with those tires all the way across the rear. It was the most radical thing I had ever seen. I don't believe it was finished when I saw it. All the other trips were to the Placentia Location. I remember being a little freaked out when Rose came to the counter. Turns out she new more about Chopper parts than we did. In the early 70's a lot of my friends built or bought Choppers. Two of them were painted by Molly. My neighbor, Frank, traded a Triumph 650 for a really nice 59 Panhead Chopper. Shortly after he laid it down on the 57 freeway. He wasn't hurt but the bike didn't fair to well. He tore the bike down and sent the tank,fender and frame to Molly for paint. I went with him several times to check out the progress on the paint. On one trip another friend of mine decided to light his pipe in the shop. The fender was sitting on a 55 gallon drum. After lighting his pipe he threw the match into the drum. The fumes in the drum ignited and blew the fender across the shop. After Molly threw us out of the shop he brought out the fender which just had silver flake on it. There was a small crack in the Bondo at the tip of the fender and he told my friend that he wasn't going to fix it. That crack was there for the life of the bike. When He brought everything home I thought that paint job was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I helped Frank assemble the bike and he let me borrow it whenever I wanted.
I didn't build anything back then. Well a few years ago I decided to build a clone of Frank's Panhead. I had taken a lot of pictures of his bike so I made enlargements to use as a guide. I found a 60 Panhead in the Cycle Trader that had been chopped in 1970. The guy finished it and hardly ever rode it. The bike made the March 72 cover of Cycle World's Special Choppers Magazine. It was in great shape but was ugly ! He bought most of the parts at AEE including the springer. The rest of the parts were purchased at Cheatah Choppers in Santa Ana. I took it all apart and built my clone. The springer is the original chrome. I copied the Molly paint job from the pictures I had. I spent days tapeing out the designs that he probably did in hours. His paint jobs were epoxy but I used House Of Kolors urethane. It's really a nice bike to ride and I was surprised how well the springer works. Most Choppers were hard tails but Franks wasn't and at 60 I can't ride a hardtail. I attached three pictures. One of the clone, another of my paint and finally one of the originally Molly job. Thanks for taking time to read this. I could have gone on for pages. Thanks again for the website.
 
Art Holling

 and thanks to Art for confirming that our chrome and springers were the best!

7Up Triumph once again

Another shot of one of two 7UP Triumphs built for 7UP Bottling of Los Angeles. One was a 650 and the other a 500. Gorgeous Molly paint in 7UP green (sorry about the black and white the green was incredible). Bikes were pretty much all AEE catalog items. One notable exception is the sissy bar had 7UP spelled out on it (you can just see the bottom of it in the photo) At that time period we sold a tremendous amount of parts for the Triumphs. I always loved the crossing upsweep pipes, Beautiful flow to them.

Roth

A picture of the famous AEE Corvair Trike and Ed Roth's 45 trike in front of Roth's place in May wood. Tom McMullen had known Roth for some time and had bought his famous Knucklehead from Roth. This picture is from the first issue of Street Chopper. They did a pseudo head to head competition with the trikes. Reality is the Corvair would eat teh45 for lunch but it made for a good story! If only we could find the Corvair Trike! You guys in LA need to start looking, it's hiding down there somewhere.

Pink floyd

This is one of 4 Pink Floyd choppers built with lots of AEE parts. I am trying to get more info on the bikes. They were built for an early Pink Floyd tour in Europe.

Mirror

I am restoring an old iron cross mirror like we sold at AEE. We bought these from a vendor and did not make them. The arm slid in to the back of the head and utilized 2 set screws to tighten the arm in to the head. Compared to some of the plastic and cheap crap today this is a quality piece even if pretty much useless as a mirror.This mirror was in decent shape but needs the stem rechromed and I am prepping it for fresh black wrinkle paint. We sold this mirror and a crescent shape and a few others but this was the most popular by a wide margin.

AEE Square springer

This is a crappy shot of an AEE springer I have (in the shot it looks like the front legs have twist to them. They don't, it's a reflection off my balding head or something). It has the wrong rockers on it. They are the fishtail style that went on the round springer's instead of the crescents that went on square springers. However you could buy each style rocker separately so perhaps that's how these got on there. Its in good shape but I will disassemble and get it re-chromed for use on a future project. it even has the correct nut covers on it which are tough to come by these days.

Me and the man himself....Carroll Shelby

Took this shot 15 years ago...me and Carroll and one of his USRRC Cobras behind us.  Has nothing to do with motorcycles but just love them Shelby's. When I was in high school we used to go down to LAX and check out Shelby's factory and his Goodyear shop. Never forget once I was out behind the Goodyear place (at the east end of LAX) and here sits a transporter with GT40's on it! Unreal stuff.
The day this picture was taken I bent down and whispered in his ear "thanks for the cars". He lit up like he had just won the lottery. Great moment for both of us!

AEE Square glide and my first day at AEE

This is a picture of the first square glide, it was part of an article about the glide in May 1971 Street Chopper. I went to work at AEE early in 1971 which is when this was shot. The guy on the left is Jim Clark who was with Tom off and on at AEE and Street Chopper and Street Rodder over the years. Probably knew Tom the longest of anyone and was part of the formation of AEE Choppers. The other guy in the picture is the guy that hired me, named Ralph. I post this as he hired me on friday night. I show up monday morning and he is not there. I stand around out front after all the employees file in and Tom asks me why I'm there. I tell him I got hired friday by Ralph. He says "well come on in, I fired him friday night!"......that was my welcome to AEE.

A DBL E

This is a mock up I am working on, note the cool ass license plate. The sissy bar is for mock up only as is the seat. Both are original AEE parts, Trip sissy bar and King and Queen seat.

Dave Brackett at work

Here is a shot of Dave with a little bit of AEE history....AEE frame that Dave designed and built for us, AEE square glide front end and an AEE mini drum. I took this a couple weeks ago up at Dave's place. Note the Kaiser Henry J in the background. Just one of Dave's toys. He is pointing to where the fork stops need to go on this build. More on it later. Don't you love his hydraulic work table?

AEE STORY!

If you go way back to the beginning of this blog there is a post by Dave Brackett telling the story of AEE. He just updated it and you might want to check it out to get the truth from the horse's mouth. Two thumbs up!

I NEED HELP!

We have been searching for quite some time for the AEE Choppers Corvair Trike. Now that the Big Twin is out of hiding we need to find the Trike. It was sold by the last owner to a person who was supposed to be restoring it in LA somewhere. How about some help finding it? Ask around, post on blogs, talk it up. Let's find it and if the owner isn't restoring it maybe we can!

some AEE coolness from JEFF WYATT

Jeff is a very kind fellow that made contact with me and sent me some superb posters (more on that later) and today I received a 42 year old sales receipt from AEE. And a credit back to him from AEE as he had overpaid. This is from the time period just as AEE was in transition from a chopper shop to chopper parts behemoth. Their first catalog came out in November 1968 so jeff was a very early catalog customer.

I'm pretty sure this would be the only receipt and credit that exist since most people aren't quite the pack rat Jeff must be! Thank god he is , that's all I can say. Enjoy the prices and a touch of greatness from back in the day.

BIG TWIN RIDES AGAIN!!!!!

AEE Choppers "BIG TWIN" has reappeared

by Dave Brackett, October 2011

     While I was working at AEE Choppers in late 1969, we had a meeting and decided to build a new wild chopper style three wheeler, or actually a five wheeler. We wanted to return to the Oakland Roadster Show, and again win the Grand Sweepstakes Award like AEE did in 1969, with the "Corvair Trike". The concept was to use two new Sportster motors, side by side, an automatic tranny with reverse, and four wheels accross the rear. It was to have a full body with a roof over the passengers. I drew plans and Tom liked them, so we started collecting materials and parts to start the project. After getting two new motors from Harley, a servicar rear end, a C4 Ford automatic tranny, and the necessary tubing, I was ready to start. I had 32 days to build the bike, and get it painted before the show. The bike was finished on schedule, and as they were loading it in the trailer, I built a turntable to use at the show.

     The bike was a huge success, and we won the grand sweepstakes award again, in February of 1970. A year or so later, the paint started to blister and the springer style front end, started to bend from the extra weight of the two motors and steel body. We had the bike repainted, and built a new girder style front end to support the extra weight. The bike was originally painted in reds, with silver and gold trim. Now it was in purples, with colorfull panels of green and yellow. The bike was used for many AEE functions and spent most of its time in our showroom, or at trade shows.

     In late 1971, the bike was sold to Missouri bike show promoter Ray Fahrner. He used the "Big Twin" to help draw in customers to his bike show circuit. The five wheeler was a great draw. Ray met Don Connelly, who was promoting shows in the Denver area. They worked together doing some shows, and Ray reportedly gave Don the "Big Twin".

     Don, and friend Paul Skinner, decided to change the bike to increase its show appeal. Paul contacted me around 1981, to get info about building "Big Twin". That was the last time I heard about "Big Twin". Internet  motorcycle chat rooms talk a lot about "Big Twin", but it's whereabouts has been unknown for  over  twentyfive years. There were reports that it had been on e-bay several years ago, but that could not be confirmed.

     In the summer of 2011, "Big Twin" was for sale on E-bay. It had a starting bid of $5000.00, but did not recieve any bid. I contacted the owner, Jerry Whitley, of Canon City, Colorado.  He has had the bike for ninteen years. He bought it from Don Connelly. Photos showed it was realtively unchanged, except for a different front end, and the upper part of the frame behind the neck had been removed, to install a blower. Jerry had intended to restore the bike but never got around to it. The running gear seems to be original, but the motors have not run for probably twentyfive plus years. Parts of the upholstery are missing, the exhaust pipes are gone, the  carbs are gone, but all in all, it seems decent for being 41 plus years old.

     In October 2011, Jerry sold the "Big Twin" to a private collector, who plans to restore  the bike and display it, with other bikes, in a motorcycle museum in Las Vegas. "Big Twin" in currently at the Bones Legacy Motorcycle Shop in Las Vegas, with work underway for complete restoration.      

     We all look forward to seeing the onetime hallmark of "AEE Choppers" back in it's original condition.

NOTE: pictures as Big Twin currently looks....superb for 41 years later!

7Up bikes

What you are looking at here are the first two "theme" choppers ever built for a company. Common these days with OCC and Arlen but no one did any before these two that AEE did. They were not identical, one was a 500 and the other a 650 Triumph. Interesting thing that doesn't show is a small rack to hold a six pack of 7UP was built to fit the sissy bar. Virtually all the parts for these bikes were off the shelf AEE parts. Color was gorgeous in person.

The Man Himself....Dave Brackett!

Dave is the genius behind the most famous AEE bikes. He designed and built all your favorites. Yes, Tom McMullen was the face of AEE but Dave and a handful of other employee's were the guys that made it happen. I had the pleasure of spending some time this weekend with Dave at his home. We worked on a personal project of mine and it was an honor and pleasure to be able to work with him. Dave and I worked at AEE at the same time. Though i didn't interface with him very much you couldn't help but be aware that he was the guy that had built the bikes and designed an amazing amount of the parts. We talked all day and in to the night about AEE and all that went in to the creation of the magic that it was.
He is still building amazing creations and has a garage and barn full of them. I highly recommend you read his articles:
http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/guestcolumnists/DavidBrackett/
http://www.bikerhotline.com/guestcolumnists/dbrackett/
http://www.brackettracing.com/

My man LENNY!

I rode 600 miles from Napa to Needles earlier this year on my Road Star (work in progress) to see my long time friend and fellow AEE Choppers work mate, Lenny Cenotti. Other than Tom and Rose he worked at AEE longer than anyone. He was the parts manager and worked the front counter nearly all the time. He devoted a lot of time and effort to the company and was there until the very end when it was just he and Rose. Along the way he and his bike were featured in some articles including a couple of runs that AEE participated in. He was a friend to Tom and Rose (he has a blog dedicated to Tom). Later on he worked for Rose's motorcycle magazine and unfortunately was injured in a motorcycle accident during what was called the Three Flags Run (he was parked on the shoulder of the road and got hit by a guy on a bike with sidecar). His injuries were substantial and long lasting, casuing him problems to this day. Though the decades since the accident have been so difficult it would have destroyed a lesser man Lenny has flourished. He always puts forth a happy and kind word to me. He trained himself in the computer world and runs his own small business out of his home. We had some wonderful times at AEE and after and if I got nothing else from AEE I got my friend.

Wing Tank

This wing tank is an AEE clone built by Acu-Weld. Dimensionally it is a bit different and holds more fuel than ours did. It's layout isn't exactly the same but close. Wing tanks you either love or hate and you have to be real careful what you put them on. On some choppers it looks perfect others it looks like an abortive after thought.
Acu-Weld was actually SMC/Acu-Weld which eventually became V-Twin parts.
The very first wing tank was built by Dave Brackett of AEE Choppers and put on our bike named "Really" which was a Honda 350 chopper in 1969. Good luck finding a Honda 350 chopper that pre-dates that!

The birth of the name AEE

Here is a cover from a car show that Tom's 32 was on the cover of. Inside was an advertisement for Auto Electric Engineering. Tom used the business license for Auto Electric Engineering when he formed AEE Choppers. Now you know the one and only story of how the name came about.

Tom's 32 with blown Ford 427

this shot is of tom's 32 with it's last motor in it. He went nuts and it had 850hp on pump gas. Proved too much for the frame, just over kill but damn what an engine and ride!

Blown Sporty

This is decent picture of the Magnuson blower on our Sportster kit bike (though in black and white you can tell it has the shitty ass brown seats on it. AEE sold those and then even some in denim, poor kit bike ended up with both on it at various times). It also has one of the first 2 in to 1 exhausts on it. Actually a muffler adapted to fit our exhaust system. Again this bike was a mule for a tremendous amount of parts. When this bike was built it was normally aspirated then quickly morphed in to having a Weber carb and Joe Hunt magneto on it, then the blower.

The manifold for the Weber and the blower were the work of Jerry Magnuson and I believe this was the very first commercial application of his design. It worked well and was reliable. If any one out there has one of the AEE/MPD Weber manifolds I'd love to have it!

Corvair Trike

AEE Choppers "Corvair Trike"

By Dave Brackett and Jim Clark

     In early 1968, Tom McMullen and Jim Clark were looking for a new project. There were a few three wheelers around that used automotive motors, VW and Corvair were examples, but they decided to build a style never done before. They utilized  a Corvair engine with an automatic trans, but with a twist. The motor was pointed forward, not to the rear.

     Tom started on a framework using mostly round tubing, and utilized a Harley neck. The tubing fit around the much larger motor, terminating in the rear similar to a Harley trike.  After making some modest engine modifications and adding a small master cylinder to operate the corvair rear brakes, three seat frames were made, one in the center and two over the rear wheels.

     Now the hard part started. There was considerable custom machine work needed to reverse the rear end rotation, when the rear end was flipped over.  The rear suspension was converted to rigid. Tom farmed this work out to some machine shop who knew Corvairs, and he proceeded with other tasks.  Jim worked on routing oil lines and external modifications to allow the reverse of the transaxle.

     Body panels were formed and the bike was sent to Molly for paint. Upon return, seats were fabricated by Whitey Morgan and installed. Upsweep style exhaust pipes were used and modified to fit the Corvair. An AEE 20 inch over stock springer front end was installed with small spool front wheel and hub, to finish the package.

     By late 1968, all the pieces were complete and the three wheeler was finished. This trike was an immediate success, bringing AEE much attention. The AEE Corvair Trike was entered in the 1969 Oakland Roadster Show and won the Best In Show Sweepstakes Award. The trike continued to be featured in AEE advertising and featuring new products for many years.

seat and pad

here are some shots of one of our seats and pads, very popular combo back in the day but WAY less than comfortable!

Shotgun!

Here is a nice shot of our Supersport withe Tom's shotgun carrier mounted to the springer. The shotgun was a sawed off 12 gauge (legal length) that we kept on the wall behind the cash box. Tom actually rode around a few times that I am aware of with this on the bike. Got pulled over and asked about it but since it wasn't loaded (on the bike, it was on the wall) not much they could do. I'm pretty sure for a very short time we sold the shotgun holder, I keep searching as my memory says we did but I can't find a catalog with it in it or else I am just missing it.

The Supersport was a very interesting bike. Very long and narrow, fit Tom well as he was small. proportions were just right. It like all of our bikes ended up being a parts mule for new products, many pictures exist of this bike with a variety of parts put on it.