A couple more pictures of the Kit Bike

Some day soon for all of us!

NO AEE parts but when the time comes I'm building one of these!

AEE Kit Bike update

Below is a nice article and pictures about the ongoing AEE Kit Bike project. Make sure to also check out Dave's other articles about every AEE bike are very worth taking a look at.

http://www.bikerhotline.com/guestcolumnists/2013/13_aee_choppers_remake_sportster_kit_bikes_dbrackett/

Nice bike from one of our followers...

Check this out....an original Sugar Bear build.
Sugar Bear was one of our favorite customers at AEE and he has kept building for over 40 years now and still going strong.
This bike is owned by Mark Bottoms and is featured in the June issue of The Horse (pictures shot at Sugar Bear's shop).
 It’s all Bear, front end, goose neck he even made the seat pan.  No front brake, those are just to keep the cops off. Shhhh.
Enjoy and thanks Mark for supporting our efforts to keep the spirit alive.

Interview with Tom and Rose

Over the next week or so I am going to post up the compelte interview with tom and Rose from Custom Chopper magazine in February 1973. Asks lots of questions, doesn't answer some of them but I'll comment at the end. Interesting article especially since it was in a competing magazine to the McMullen's Street Chopper.
UPDATE!!!!!
I HAVE BEEN INFORMED THAT THESE PAGES SCANNED TOO SMALL. I WILL RESCAN AND REPOST SOON.

AEE Corvair Trike title!

Thanks to Scott Russell at Motosport Hillsboro we now have a copy of the title for the famous AEE Corvair Trike. He was the 4th owner (AEE, then winner of the contest that gave away the Trike, gentleman shown on this title and then Scott). Scott sold it about 10 years ago to someone in Southern California and we haven't seen it since. Scott said it was in fairly rough shape with the pipes missing and some of the chrome not doing well but certainly could be restored.
Thanks again Scott and for anyone up Oregon/Washington way you might want to check in with him, he is a large dealer and has a motorcycle collection with some chopper sin it:

Scott Russell
President

Shop:  503.648.4555
Cell:    971.246.2073

Spinner mirror

This showed up on Ebay......nice condition especially with the sticker on it. We always sold the iron cross mirror and later added the spinner and crescent to the offerings. These were bought from a vendor but I do not know which one.

Hot rod video Tom's 32 for a few seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYBvpMLpPPw

In this video for the 1965 Winternationals we can see Tom's 32 at the 7:50 mark for a few seconds......worth viewing just to see the car moving and revel in the flames.
If you are a fan of hot rods watch the whole thing, more famous racers than you can shake a stick at back when racing was the golden years!

More new shots of Tom's roadster

This is before Tom owned the car when Don Hudson had done the work on it.....beautiful work and great car but turned in to the iconic hot rod by Tom McMullen and others.

Bear with me!

I have some great stuff coming but have to get my move out of the way first so be patient! Also my wonderful wife has had 3 operations in 5 weeks and that has slowed up, well, stopped our life completely. Those are behind us and the move will be done soon then back to providing more AEE goodness!

Kit Bike pipes

Dave got the pipes done and they look perfect. We are getting close to mold, paint and chrome time. Couldn't do this without Dave putting his efforts in to this build too. Again nearly every part on this one is all AEE original items.

Moving

I am moving in the next 30 days and need to cut my stock of AEE parts a wee bit.

I have a few seats (2 K&Q's, one pad and one cobra...parts sticker still on a couple of them), a square springer, one sissy bar, a Honda 750 frame and the holy grail of all AEE parts....a single leg girder. 
If you are interested email me at:
takehikes@gmail.com and I can supply pictures.

Meanwhile on the parts front today there are 36 parts listed as AEE on Ebay and exactly one is....there is one other that we and others sold but only one real live AEE part and 34 others that aren't.....buyer beware!

more Wild Rose

This shot is also courtesy of WArren Bond, its the other side of Rose's car. Note Tom's name on roof and sponsorship by Auto Electric Engineering....from which the name AEE Choppers came from.

New AEE kit bike picture

This is courtesy of our great friend of the blog Warren Bond. With intense digging out on the web he found this. The AEE Kit Bike with Tom and others. Behind him is the white AEE Panhead.
UPDATE:  Here is the story behind the picture:::
It was in the late spring of 1972, we had just finished fixing up a van to take two bikes to Laconia ( the ones that got stolen). Tom wanted to do a test run, so Tom and Dean Rediger, the guy on the harley, put the bikes in the new van, it had a platform built on the roof for photographers. They drove out to Lake Elsinore, there was a motocross bike race of some kind going on there, parked outside of town, unloaded, and cruised the event. You can see in the photo girl scouts selling cookies behind the bikes. There was a lot of bikers there. They hung around most of the day, loaded up and came home. The bikes were the Kit Bike sportster, Dean had just put the narrow square springer front end on, and the Harley "Panhead 74", "How to Build a Chopper" bike.

Another Big Twin update

I apologize for length of time between posts but I have some personal things sucking up my life but soon they will be past and all will be well....now on to Big Twin!

Here are three recent shots...Big Twin with it's original girder back installed, two shots of the rebuilt and rechromed engines being made ready to install. Bones Legacy in Las Vegas is handling the restoration and from the looks of things doing quite well. I can't wait to go to Vegas and see Big Twin once again. I need to get Dave Brackett the builder, Lenny Cenotti our parts manager and any other former AEE employee to be there to see Big Twin rise again!

Another AEE mystery solved-the shock springer

I ran across some picture sin the January 1971 issue of Street Chopper that somehow had escaped me all these years. I sent them to both Dave and Lenny and here is what they said.

From Lenny: Yeah, I vaguely recall it but don't remember ever selling one.

From Dave (edited by me) :After we moved to Burton Way, and Big Twin was done, I was spending most of my time on the road, working with vendors.I hired this guy from the aerospace industry to be our designer .  Unfortunately he wasn't sharp about cost or ease of manufacturing, etc..  This was his baby and it had too many pieces, too much welding, too much pressure on top plate, etc. We could not build it for the sales price. 

So one was built and none ever sold....even if it didn't work right it sure would be fun to have!

AEE footpegs

Ran across these pictures on Ebay...not very good pics but these are the real deal, AEE machined foot pegs...4 3/4" long and 3/8-24 thread....you can see our high quality chrome even 40 years later looks pretty darn good. I have some of these (un chromed) so thought I'd share that these are available right now on Ebay.

Update

Many issues cutting in to AEE and Blog time.....no new news on the Corvair Trike yet....I do have some info coming on the famous Magnuson blower that AEE ran as a prototype for Magnuson on our Sportster Kit Bike.......and just for the followers of AEE a sneek peak at an on-going project.......UPDATE: 1/22 just heard from DAVE and she lit off on first try, the beast is loose folks. A big special day for us. Couldn't have done it without the magician Dave Brackett.

Some new info on the Corvair Trike!

Just had a great conversation with Scott Russell of Motosport Hillsboro in Oregon. He bought AEE Choppers Corvair Trike in about 2000 not knowing what it was at that time. he bought it as it had some Halibrand mags on it that he was interested in. On getting the trike home he wondered why he had bought it as it was in very rough shape, all there, but rough. Not long after he accidentally ran across the article about building the trike in Cycle Guide (this was prior to Street Chopper existing). Suddenly he realized what he had. A few years went by and he needed to cut his inventory of vehicles and such so he listed it on Ebay. A flurry of activity followed and he pulled the ad to rethink things a bit. Later an offer got made to him and he accepted it and turned the trike over in Medford,OR to the son of the buyer. The trike was headed to the LA area. I made contact once with someone claiming they had the trike in SoCal but they never responded to my emails.
So it sounds to me that the trike may still be out there hiding once again. We need to beat the bushes and find this piece of history so we can get it on the road again....maybe! Scott kindly is searching for any photos or further information he may have and will share it with us all. Meanwhile stop by his website or dealership:

http://www.motosporthillsboro.com/

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I'll try to get more AEE posts in this year than last....last year wasn' t real kind to me. Heck, I had another death in the family in December! So we will all hope for a better and brighter new year!