A nice AEE sissy bar

This is a  later sissy bar that AEE produced. Our original selction was fairly small but grew a lot over the years. this bar is untouched from 40 years ago and note how good the chrome still is.

Early bars did not have the AEE logo stamped in, indeed they had no markings. I do know I was always amazed at the depth of the chrome we got from Orange county Chrome. Quite often I inspected parts as they returned from chrome and there was very little that ever got sent back. The inspection process was performed with each piece after we removed them from the newspaper they came back to us in (hey it was 1970-71, newspaper was the packing material of choice). we would visual and run our hands over the item then in some cases pack them in plastic (each seat was in plastic as an example) then put on the shelf. sissy bars and handlebars were built and shipped in such quantities that they had individual racks for each bar type. It meant for a pretty extensive inventory when you consider most of the handlebars came in 7/8" and 1" and sissy bars for both rigid and swing arm models!

Dave's new sidehack!

Dave Brackett our designer and engineer at AEE has taken his VW drag bike and adapted a sidehack to it for street use. Typical for Dave its forward thinking and well made. Check out his springer, its a piece of art and he builds it all himself. Notice also that the VW engine is in the front. think about that for a minute....takes some real work and ingenuity to make that work. Oh, and the faux western town in the shot he built in on his property too!

Be different!

USS Angler

Tom was in the Navy and this is the sub he was on. It is an older fleet boat that saw service in WW2, diesel powered. He supposedly had a nickname of "Tweets" as one of his job was sounding the boatswain's call or pipe on the loudspeaker system.

tom's 32 before it was his!

These pictures were taken in 1956, believe a guy named Don Hudson owned the car at that time. Work was being done on the car at a shop.

A seat I have

This is a 40 year old AEE seat I came across (and bought) and it's perfect!!! Check it out, it even has the part number sticker attached to it. This shows you how good the seats really were. I also found a real AEE king and queen seat (lots of knock offs out there) but its in much worse condition and I will probably have to get it recovered.

Tom's 32 is now a model from Danbury Mint!

Toms' 32 is now available as a model! This is an actual photo of the model, its perfect!

The Danbury Mint is proud to introduce the Limited Edition McMullen Roadster, a perfect 1:24 scale replication of Tom McMullen's roadster exactly as it appeared on the cover of Hot Rod.  This brand new replica captures every detail of the stunning '32 Highboy.  Production of this amazing model will take place this year only and this one-of-a-kind tribute to a truly historic hot rod will be gone before you know it!

Tom's house

If you follow the link you can find an ad about the house that Tom had just finished before he died. He and his wife never got to live in it. It is in Buena Vista Colorado. Tom loved old mines and often went out to them in the California desert so he built this house to be like an old mine.
http://tomcatranch.com/

Tom's 32 in 1961

This is Tom's famous 32 in 1961 at Pomona. It is a metalflake green that didn't work out so well.

Kit bike engine

This is a picture of the AEE Sportster kit bike engine. When this bike was originally assembled in the prototype department it had this engine in it without the Joe Hunt mag and Weber carb. As the kit bike was coming together a "performance division" was established at AEE. to that end we put these two items on this build. Later on one of the very first Magnuson superchargers showed up on it. It became probably our best "mule" for parts. Over the couple of years it had many different parts and accesories designed for it and installed on it. It ended up in multiple stories and ad's in Street Chopper. To see it in the original form, no paint or chrome, check out the June 1971 issue Street Chopper. Also note that AEE pioneered fully chroming engines with the Mindbender knucklehead. At that time common thought was the engine would overheat if plated.

Pink Floyd

Dave Brackett our esteemed engineer and designer at AEE recently forwarded me this picture of one of four choppers built for Pink Floyd for the 1974 European tour. I am just getting infoon them. The current owner of this bike is a guy named Laurent who is French and currently living in Germany.This is the only picture I have so far but for sure the sissy bar, springer, risers and handlebar are AEE....perhaps the front brake and seat too! As I get more information I'll update.

Lenny

Rode my bike 1,200 miles to Needles from Napa and back to see Lenny AEE's one and only parts manager this last weekend. He is doing well and we spent hours talking old times both at AEE and of times he and I have had as friends. He is recovering well from a long spell of physical ills and is even talking about getting well enough to ride again! We talked a bit about a new project I am working on (no details yet). It was wonderful seeing him again. Picture is of Lenny in the lead on his Shovel with Tom and Rose on the purple Shovelhead.

The Corvair Trike and Ed Roth

Tom on the Corvair trike with Ed Roth in the background with his trike. Tom's Kuncklehead "The Mindbender" was bought from Ed. This picture is from a staged article for Street Chopper very early on (1969). The build of the Corvair was featured in Cycle Guide over a handful of issues, same for the Mindbender as tom at that time was a contributor to the magazine. Corvair trike was a beast, fired right up and you could wheelie it at will pretty much. Unlike most trikes of that era that used Corvair or VW power the engine is out front.

Love this bike!

this was our Sporty, called the Supersport. Frigging great looking bike, killer paint by Molly. Built by Dave Brackett and others at AEE. Showed what you could do with a Sporty.

Old stuff

This is an ad from back when AEE was just a chopper shop in Buena Park. Check out the prices, those were the days! From this grew the parts and publishing empires.

At the Salt Flats

This is when Leo Payne ran the famous Turnip Eater for AEE. Bike is in the national motorcycle museum, still painted red, white and blue but the AEE that was on it has been removed. That is Tom's Cessna 310 painted by Molly and our ladies dressed to thrill! Showman to the end Tom staged all this for the magazine and for advertising. Leo was a nice guy. Unreal to stand beside that bike running on nitro while at full tilt on the dyno!

Tom and the Supersport

This is a shot of Tom and Jim Clark doing a chain repair on the Supersport while on a trip. You will note the rear wheel on the bike, its a cast spoke wheel. It's been argued that AEE was the first to produce these for the chopper aftermarket. As I understand it they did 50 wheels on the first run but I have no info beyond that. Interesting as at that time cast wheels were not on production bikes.

Shops

this is the second shop, it was on Burton Place and is where I started to work for AEE. It was at the end of a culdesac and across the street was a company called Fluidmaster. They made toilet valves of all things. in many of the older issues of Street Chopper the bikes were shot on the street and you can see either empty fields or Fluidmaster in the background. The shop and production area's were very crowded, showroom was tiny and so on. AEE was busting at the seams and we soon moved over to the next and last shop in Placentia not far away. The front door was one side of the glass but the other side opened too as the bikes were behind it. My very first day I had to back in our Shovelhead and I dropped it in the doorway as the door started to close on it. Luckily I stuffed myself between the bike, ground and door and saved it from damage. I had turned the front end too sharply and paid the price. Scared the heck out of me.

Early catalogs

In the early catalogs things were very crude as you can see. They shot this on a piece of corrugated with stick on letters. As time went by many of these lights got discontinued. We bought many of these small parts from companies such as Hap Jones.

wing Tank

Dave Brakett came up with this while building the Honda 350 "Really' . He says he just took some metal and started bending it as he had never made one before.

Soon the tank was for sale it was such a hit especially after it showed up on our Shovelhead. Unfortunately not many bikes were designed very well around this tank. Many of them it looked tacked on. Not to mention it was only one gallon capacity. Cool looking but not real practical. if you run across one I need it for my collection!