I've said it before but this is ridiculous...out of 49 items listed today as AEE exactly ONE is!!!!!!
Buyer beware please, and to all of you out there trading on AEE's good name go the hell away.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Street Digger
This innovative chopper was built after both Dave Brackett and I left AEE. As you can see they threw everything at it, AEE parts, supercharger, digger style body and so on. As you can see in the picture Lenny our parts manager and friend (standing next to Rose McMullen) look shighly skeptical. he was right. As you will see in the pictures somehow the rear disc got chromed. Tom hops on for the first ride, and since he wasn't known for being discrete, he hammers this blown 74....grabs for the brake and nothing! that chrome disc didn't slow him at all, he proceeded across the street and plowed up the field according to Lenny! The location of this AEE chopper is unknown like all of the rest except for Big Twin which is undergoing a very slow restoration.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Sportster tanks from AEE
AEE only sold two different Sportster tanks and only both styles at the same time for a short while. This picture is from the Summer 1971 catalog and shows both types. We had just added the white gel tank with the vertical tabs (the other tank disappeared after this) and kept it in the catalog for a few years. It was the only fibergalss tank we had other than a skull tank for a short while and later a coffin tank for a while. We always had both the banana and peanut tanks in steel (some were Wassell tanks but most were knock off's from Hap Jones, Rocky and others that made them). And of course the famous wing tank which we never called that! It was a "custom contour tank". I never was a fan of the fibergalss sportster tank but Lenny our parts manager ran one on his ex-cop shovelhead and it seemed to work well plus it had a killer paint job on it.
Monday, July 16, 2012
flying update
This has nothing to do with AEE but it is a cool piece of machinery and I had a blast so thought I'd share....nice long flight the length of the northern part of the SF Bay. Then back and did some aerobatics over the wine country...I caught 2 loops and a roll on the video then I couldn' t hang on to the camera any more...enjoy, I sure did!
Oh, its a 1942 Stearman biplane.....
Oh, its a 1942 Stearman biplane.....
Going flying!
Though I am not a pilot I love to fly and today I am going up in a mid1930's Stearman biplane (open cockpit of course). Besides cruising around the northern part of the Bay Area and the wine country I will be doing aerobatics, loops, rolls, hammerhead and cuban 8.....Yeah! so no post today!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
AEE finned dishpans
This is an interesting piece I came across....this is an ad from the very early days of AEE Choppers. It shows their name as AEE Choppers Unlimited. The blacked out area shows who the actual producer of these items were with AEE distributing them. the name looks like Custom Cycle Engineering, Gardena, CA.
At some point there was a lawsuit between Tom McMullen the founder and whoever came up with the finned panhead covers. We always sold them but ours had been modified (you can see them in the catalogs), I presume to get around the design by the guy that sued Tom. At any rate here is another long lost piece of AEE history:
At some point there was a lawsuit between Tom McMullen the founder and whoever came up with the finned panhead covers. We always sold them but ours had been modified (you can see them in the catalogs), I presume to get around the design by the guy that sued Tom. At any rate here is another long lost piece of AEE history:
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Where it started for me
This is me at the whopping age of one year sitting on my dad's motorcycle, that's him and my older sister behind me. This is the only shot of this particular bike. A few years later my dad couldn't justify the expense of owning motorcycles and raising a fmaily on a carpenters wage. Later in life he did by a couple Honda's, a 160 and 350, until he wrecked the 350 and broke his leg. He had owned a variety of bikes along the way including a Henderson. Picture taken June 1953.
Friday, July 6, 2012
sorry for no posts
Due to family illness and now death in family I have been very busy away from my beloved AEE. Mosr coming soon for you fans!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Dave Brackett's Honda 750 dragster found!
Dave Brackett, AEE's famous designer and engineer has built many vehicles over the years. When Dave had his own chassis company he teamed up with Action Fours (famous Honda engine builders and racers) to build a Honda 750 rear engined dragster. As the decades went by it was lost to time.....until now. A gentleman named Kenneth Bell and his son Kurtis found it beside a barn in Temecula,CA. Their intent is to restore it to original configuration. Here is a picture of Dave with it and how the chassis looked when found:
