Big news on the Big Twin!

Bones Legacy Choppers of Las Vegas has had Big Twin for a couple years and has very slowly begun a restoration. They pulled the motors and had them re-chromed and rebuilt. However one of the previous owners had seriously damaged the chassis when attempting to put a blower on the Twin. In a very smart move Bones Legacy shipped the Big Twin to it's original builder Dave Brackett to do the repairs. Dave received the Big Twin this week and below are some pictures he took of it on arrival. I saw the Big Twin every day at AEE but I don't think I ever saw it missing the two outside Goodyear Blue Streaks (which they removed for shipping). Kind of looks like a funny car from the rear!  enjoy the pictures and also a summary story by Dave I will post in a bit. Dave is a magician and a genius and he will take very good care of his baby I'm sure!

Brown seat and pad

There currently is on Ebay an AEE seat and pad in brown. While I never liked them they do look right on some chops. If nothing else they are in superb condition considering their age....and the pad still has the AEE part number tag on it. It would be real easy to have them recovered by someone like the Haifley Brothers in black and have a real nice looking AEE seat and pad.....

and more trike pictures...its a gold mine!

An interesting collection....of pictures...note that the trike originally had 6 vertical exhaust pipes as shown in one of the pictures but no fenders. Later it appears some fenders got added by the owner and the engine worked on and the exhaust removed.

More pictures of the might AEE Chopper Corvair Trike

Below are some more new photos of the Corvair Trike that the Atha family has provided to me. Warren Atha owned the trike for some time and his family is kindly sharing photos of the trike with us. We are on the look out for the trike and hope someone somewhere will find it. Last reported to be in LA. the last picture shows a brown upholstery around the guages which we believe it had when sold to last known owner.

New info and picture of the AEE Corvair Trike

I was recently contacted by Travis Parks. He was the neighbor of one of the owners (Warren G. Atha) of the AEE Corvair Trike after it passed out of AEE's hands. He is kindly putting together some stories about the trike and will attempt to get some additional pictures from the Atha family for us to share....we need to find this jewel in the AEE collection. Last reports were it was in SoCal....everyone rally together, put out feelers and see if we can find it. Big Twin got found now lets find this trike!

Interview with Molly

Here is an interview with Molly Sanders from a few years back....done at the Long Beach Grand Prix. In it he mentions painting motorcycles and a few planes...those were AEE's!
For those of you not familiar with some of Molly's other work he touches on it.....Lexus, Toyota, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Buick, Indy Cars and more....

http://www.lacar.com/?p=1954

I'm back!

Took some time off and did a backpacking trip of 8 days in the Sierra's along portions of the John Muir Trail. Nearly 90 miles most above 10k feet.

Below is a nice shot of two of Dave Brackett's Amani motorcycles......a number of AEE parts and of course Dave's unique twist on design and engineering....sweet bikes from out of the past!

AEE square glide on Ebay

Only on there one more day, just found out about it.

Item # 271264314263

AEE chopper parts for sale

From now through the weekend I'm going to give all of you the opportunity to buy some of my AEE stash before I put it up all over the place. Some of you have been loyal followers of my highly erratic AEE blog and this is a way to thank you. You are getting first crack at them.
I have more pictures of each item. Each item is AEE original. If you want to see pictures of an item email me at: takehikes@gmail.com

A quick list of what I have includes: Honda 750 frame, sissy bar, spool hub, risers, cobra seat, pad, square springer, bowtie tweak bar, hex shaped mini brake hub, shit pegs, mousetrap eliminator kit and more.

 I also have some non- AEE items that are brand new unused including an Easy Rider gas tank, rear fender, 16" chrome rear wire wheel, 19" front wheel and new Avon tire and more. You literally could build a nearly complete AEE parts bike with what I have (note in picture the King and Queen seat is gone).Lots more than what is in this shot!!!!

Again I have more pictures of every item so hit me up.

Quick video of Big Twin

This link goes to a video from the Facebook page of Bones Legacy where AEE's Big Twin currently resides. Big Twin is at the start and end....be warned its real quick and you can't see much but when have you ever seen video of Big Twin?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=228226217295188&set=vb.136657089785435&type=3&theater

Been busy!

Between working out of town, having a new home and my wife getting a new job...well the blog has languished and I apologize. I'll try to step it up a bit!

How about a nice skinny rear?

Article about Dave Brackett's hot rod

Great article and pictures about Dave's old hot rod he ran on the street back when he lived with Tom McMullen...cool car and nice article. Happy to see Dave get more recognition. Check it out!

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=19865

AEE reverse rib fender

A friend of the AEE John Kelly (he has an interesting build going on that is AEE related but more on that when he is ready) recently came across an AEE rarity....our reverse rib fender. Fenders are a dime a dozen but these reverse ribs were quite unique at the time and you won't find one very often. Fenders are one of those things that get changed often and so there aren't many left. As you can see in the pictures (excuse the hideous green paint) the side fender lip has a crease rolled in to it. If you look at our sissy bars the fender mount brace mimics this shape and they are a perfect match together, notice too the arc of the fender. I checked with Dave Brackett our brilliant designer and engineer and he indicated that our sub-contractor HOG Manufacturing in LA made these for us. We had been getting regular fenders from them and asked if they could do something different and this is the result. I remember quite clearly cutting the hell out of myself most days trying to separate stacks of these fenders so we could ship them out. Sold a ton of them! Enjoy another small piece of AEE history......

re-rake

Dave talked with me about the amount of "flop" in the kit bike's front end. He said we should do something about it as the trail number was much too high, about 8".
He cooked up an idea of how to remedy it.....First he would bend the upper triple tree plate 5 degrees, then he would extend and then re-machine the lower tree with a 5 degree rake in the stem. Then he would extend the legs of the square glide about 4"....we would end up with a chopper that is about 5" longer, sits about the same, steers better, no flop and has a wonderful trail number of 3".  I said sounded good to me (thats because I understand it and how to do the work its beyond my abilities). Sure enough Dave whipped it out in a couple days of hard work. Look carefully at the pictures. While the kit bike is not sitting on the lift in the exact same position you can see the difference in the tree (no rake one picture, rake in next) and its easy to see the additional length.....amazing work by an amazing guy Dave Brackett!

AEE Supersport

I don't think I have posted this particular picture of the AEE Supersport before. In my opinion this was the "sleekest" of the AEE builds. The flow of the tank and frame are spot on. Once again a Dave Brackett creation.

NOT how to haul your chopper

Recently on one of my favorite websites, the Jockey Journal, there was  discussion about hauling bikes and the variety of lash up's seen. I mentioned that once at Disney World during Daytona Bike Week I had seen an HD tied to the roof of a Caddy. What looked like clothesline went through the windows and held the bike on top of the roof and trunk. At least that was my memory. Sure as heck one of the guys posted this picture (outside a Hooters no less). Don't know if its the same one but here you have how not to transport a bike.

A BSA with an AEE square glide.

One of our readers used an eagle eye to spy out the AEE square glide front end on this "bobber". It appears to be a BSA in a modified stock frame though I could be way wrong. I'd love to know who's this is and how they came on to the square glide. Not many out there any more. Nice clean build, minimalist.

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/