all about motorcycle: Ed Roth

Showing posts with label Ed Roth. Show all posts

Lucky 13?

Have a nice day!

Was it Bad Luck? Google messed up last night. You notice how all the blogs (including mine), lost their most recent post? art: modified Roth decal

Ridondo Beach

That's Joe's Hustler. It says any extension to 15", but many of them (including on Loco-Motion), were longer. I'm guessing it was a higher price point from 15" up. From the Dec.69 Choppers Magazine.

Ed Roth's Hustler Photos Uncut and Uncensored

Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit... nothing was censored, but these photos have never really been seen before.

Awhile back, In the midst of an unrelated email subject, Joe Hurst surprised me with Ed Roth's original photos for the Hustler feature in Choppers Magazine. As it turned out, Ed gave Joe the photos after it was in the magazine. The first two photos (below), were not published. I did a post on the Hustler feature last Dec. and although the last three made the magazine, I'm posting them again since they are much bigger, much better (than the bad print quality of the magazine), and uncropped.

Here's a cool one. It's an alternate to the shot Roth used to open the article. Yes the angle of the one used is better, but it has that big finger print on it. Like Roth said in the feature, "those forks really shine!"

Another photo that didn't make it.

The sissy bar in all it's glory. This one and the two below were featured, but the top of the sissy bar and the groovy trash can got cropped out.

Besides the details of the Phil Ross stitched seat, Jim Andrews bike "Grapes of Wrath" (upper left), is easier to spot in this large print.

The money shot, large and uncut. Joe later had the big SU carb polished to match the other shinny stuff. As mentioned in the first post, the engine came out of Dick Allen's Wheeler Dealer.

I think it's pretty cool to see these behind the scene shots all these year later.
Thanks Joe!

Oink Spotting

If your anything like me, you dig checking out bikes in old biker flicks, and also dig Roth's Oink. About a year or so ago I saw this sequence but didn't bookmark it and forgot the film it was from. Recently I found it again and thought I'd share. The film is Run Angel Run. It's a fairly long chase sequence done in a series of split screen shots. All the shots with Oink in frame are pretty quick, so here's the best of them.

You really wouldn't know what bike it is if you didn't see more.

I pasted these frames together as he almost loses it and quickly recovers.

Not sure what frame is better so here's both.

Again you can clearly see the sissy bar's tell tale iron cross.

Happy New Year

Be careful today too. Hung over drivers are almost as bad as drunks.

The Hustler

.... and a little more Joe Hurst history.

This time from Choppers Magazine May 1969.

Roth liked nicknames and the bikes named for the features. Roth asked Joe if he had any nicknames, Joe said no.... then Ed asked, if he liked playing pool.... Joe said said yup.

The Hustler is pretty much the prototype of what would become the South Bay Style.

If I got it straight, this was Joe's second Harley and the Shovelhead was out of Dick Allen's chrome frame bike (Wheeler Dealer Chop. Mag. Oct.'68). Joe always laments, the funds from selling his complete Panhead only got him an engine and trans.

Joe's the Godfather of the swooping double braced sissy bar and Dick Allen springers. This fork was the first one Dick Allen made. Actually second, the very first was for a Triumph, but Joe jokes, that doesn't count! The first few Dick made had Harley spring perches and top trees, later versions were completely fabricated from scratch.

From the shadow of the sissy bar, I was able detect the bike next to Joe's was his friend Jim Andrew's Grapes of Wrath. It was featured in another issue.

The tank featured a stylized "13" as on his former Panhead. The seat maker's credit is an error, Phil Ross stitched it up. As Irish Rich pointed out, this front view of the forks was used for the ads in this issue and others.

Here's the cover of the issue it was in. Not Joe's bike, but I know you guys enjoy the Choppers Magazine stuff.

Prior to this feature, the Hustler had tall stacks and had won First Place in the Street Bike Class at the Trident's custom car and bike show. More on that later.

Doc Holiday's Witch... Too Late for Halloween

I wanted to post this for Halloween but got hung up on some other stuff.

Randy Smith painted the Witch on the tank. The text mentions that Randy is now making his finned valve covers.

Typical Choppers Magazine layout. The print quality wasn't the best and not one good overall shot of the bike, but you got to love it. Roth mistakenly says that the chrome front tubes of the frame were twisted. They were instead made from hex stock. In addition to the tubes and tank, the fender tip also features a dip of the shinny stuff.

Randy Smith is another famous South Bay builder. Here he is on his Hawg Wild panhead. The nearly identical stance of Doc's Witch is probably no coincidence. The similar length of springers and sissy bars, handlebars, bates style seats, 19" front wheels, tells me that Randy was a major influence. The Witch also had Randy's "Finned Dishpans" installed about a year later when the bike was redone. Since they were all South Bay bikers, Joe Hurst knew both Randy and Doc.

Roth shot some interesting angles. Robert Williams wife Susan, is said to be responsible for that lovely masthead.

Back around 1969-'70, I was lucky enough to see the Witch in the parking lot of what is now called the South Bay Galleria.

Hardly David 3

Also from Choppers Magazine Nov. '69 issue. These cartoons are always signed Luke? As mentioned before, they look like they could be Ed Newtons work.

This Month's Header, Freaky Forks

I try to relate each header's image with something to do with the month. This time it's the cover from Roth's Choppers Magazine Nov. '69 and the drawing I did of it sometime in 1972.

For all you Choppers Magazine fans, here's the actual cover. I recently posted a few Goose-Necks, so why not a Freaky Fork?

Regardless what you think of the strange fork, it's a cool image, and it inspired me. India ink and a black color pencil on illustration board. 1972.

Here's a better look of the featured bike.

Too bad the forks got cropped in the magazine's gutter. I'm not sure his chic was dressed for a putt.

Then as now, guys have always been look'in to be different but, there's a point when it gets ridiculous. Thankfully freaky forks never really caught on.

A Good Issue

It's been a while since I've posted any of my old magazines. This one has a ton of "out of sight" images. The American Chopper Enterprises/Himsl Custom Paint Studio ad came from this issue and so did one of the photos of Roth's Mail Box trike.

These cover bikes were not featured, but here's what it said on the index page: Jammin' is what it's all about. In front is a bastard '57 lower end in a '56 frame, topped off with a '62 shovelhead upper end. Close behind is a '49 Pan bored .030 oversize, raked, and running a 12" overstock extension.

The tape on the bound edge of this issue is testament to how many times I looked through it. I'll be posting more from it soon.

This Month's Header

The Candy Box
What do models have to do with Summer? Well, when I was a kid, if we couldn't go to the beach, or playing various games in the street, we built stuff. As a matter of fact, my brothers and I were fairly avid car modelers. Most of the time we just couldn't help but modify them to the extent that they rarely resembled what was on the box cover.

I built this model sometime around 1970-71. It was it's second build and was loosely based on Roth's Mail Box.

When my interest shifted, I stopped building cars and started building bikes. The first one I remember was Revell's "Chopped Hog". At first it was built as it came, but since it was a lousy depiction of a chopper, I quickly tore it apart and customized it. I added a hard tail, a molded in peanut tank, new pipes, sissy bar, rear fender, seat, and scratch built a brass springer.

The next victim was Revell's CHP model. I don't recall ever building it stock. Instead, it became the raw material for a chopper based on Jim Breo's trike from the first issue of Big Bike magazine. I posted Jim's trike here last January.

As in real life, a cop bike becomes a donor.

Here's how it looked the first time around. In someways I wish I left it alone.

Like most of my models, it didn't stay intact long, and soon it was apart for a new build based on Roth's Mail Box. Since, I had already modified the Shovelhead frame and engine to look like a 45 c.i. Servi-car. The new mods consisted mainly of stretching the down tube, molding a cut down gas tank, building a body, and adding a longer springer.

The Real Deal. The Crosley engine really only looks good from this side. Roth didn't want to use another flathead 45 since he had already built the Candy Wagon. Each trike project was built to gain more experience. The Crosley engine was an experiment for using a water cooled engine with the radiator mounted in the back and served as a stepping stone towards the later V-8 powered trikes.

Roth's original Choppers magazine used Ed Newton's Mail Box drawing at the top of the letter's to the editor page. For fun, I took a shot at replicating it.

Engine and frame mod details. The cam cover was cut down and the timer centered. The barrels, heads, and push rods were cut down and filed to resemble flathead cylinders. Drag pipe were fashioned from other pipe pieces. This is the second oil tank and was made from a rear shock capped on each end with a spotlight. Now, the only part of the frame left intact was under the engine and trans and the seat post. The drive chain was moved to the right side. Rear fender mounts were used as 45 brake and clutch side straps. Some parts, like the kicker, brake pedal and foot pegs, have broken off over the years. A top engine mount was never made.

The finned heads were scratch built from sheet plastic. Cutting and fitting each fin and the bolt pattern was the most tedious chore. The carb was moved to the left and a working choke was made from a pin. The primary cover was also reworked to resemble a 45's. The left side engine case was the biggest omission, it should be finned. The spark plugs wires and coil have since come off.

The body was made from balsa wood and the interior is covered with vinyl. The gas tank is from a Triumph kit. To create the indents, the knee pads were cut off and glued inside on the opposite sides. The fork was scratch built out of brass and was from another model I built. I don't remember ever seeing a color photo of the real trike back then, but read it was fogged in various colors. My attempt at custom paint was fogging some red over the green Testors metal flake and was never very happy with the result.

The Candy Box. Another fun exercise, a Photoshoped Candy Wagon/Mail Box combination for comparison. You can definitely see the Candy Wagon's influence on my model.

I still have remnants of other chopper models but, somehow this one survived. It was tossed around and stored in a box for about two decades but has since been on display in my studio for about the last 6 years. I'd like to rebuild some of the others, but that will have to wait for a future Summer.... perhaps in a second childhood?

Sano Trike Orgins

I've been meaning to post this cool ad for Himsl Trike Bodies for some time. I didn't just want to post it and leave it at that, but rather to show how it relates to other Heros of Chopper History.

The design of the body brings up the question, who first designed this style of trike body?

An Ad for Himsl trike bodies. Love the illustration. The art is not signed, but I have a strong suspicion it was done by Ed Newton. From the July '71 issue of Choppers Magazine.

Art Himsl's Preying Mantis as featured in the larger Nov. '70 Choppers magazine. It had been previously featured in Roth's July '69 digest sized Choppers magazine. Both articles mention the sale of the semi mass produced bodies. The first article calls it the Himsl Brother's Mantis and mentions Art's brother Mike. Art is still going strong but, what happened to Mike?

Because of the dates mention above, I'm sure Art's design was influenced by Roth's first trike, The Candy Wagon.

The trike won Custom Bike of the Year at the '69 Oakland Roadster Show. Art's Alien show car can be seen in the garage in the background.

Roth's Candy Wagon on the Dec.68 cover. One might assume that Ed Newton designed it, but it may not be wholly true.

The article inside shows Newton's early more ominous designs featuring booze related items plus a machine gun. Roth wanted something more kid friendly. Note that the high back seat body is absent in the drawings and nothing is mentioned in the article of the seat body's design orgin.

Was another Roth artist, namely David Mann, the one really responsible for the Candy Wagon's seat/body? Notice the pipes too, and compare to the Candy Wagon cover above. Did Roth decide on the style after seeing this? Did Dave do it after seeing the CW or see another sketch of Newt's, or visa versa? Based on this art and the date, I think Dave had the idea first. Roth published this poster in '68.