32nd Annual El Camino Bike Show
Rust was upon us, the dreaded rust. Like the metallic taste of blood, the reek of rust hung in the air and assailed our nostrils. Or maybe it was the guy smoking a recycled ragweed vegan cigarette next to me.
In any case, here I was perched precariously atop the multi-story parking lot of L.A.’s El Camino College as the heavens barfed upon us in apocalyptic volumes. What gods had we offended? Thor, Vulcan? We even saw their namesake bikes hunkering under the monsoon-like downpour. Rarely seen SoCal rain clouds, dark and stormy, belched buckets on our little group crowded like sardines under one of those pop-up blue vinyl canopies. Huddling beneath that 8x8-ft. square of dryness were some of the rarest of bike collectors. Not bikes. Bike collectors. The bikes were outside being treated to the ultimate car wash whether they liked it or not.
The Crocker was now at the center of the storm of collectible motorcycles. Two had recently been sold at auction for more than $250,000. Another was just on eBay where the owner turned down a high bid $202,000. Crocker was the bee’s knees of vintage bikes, and this select band of Crocker brothers had come to the El Camino show to see two examples recently unearthed. Literally. One, a 1939 Crocker 61-inch V-Twin shoehorned into a pre-war Triumph hardtail frame, had sat in a Colorado basement for half a century. Though crusty, the hybrid hipster still ran and had the bad boy look going for it. The other, meticulously restored and as tasty as any Czar’s Faberge egg, has just been “rescued” from Italy. There the two were, just a few feet outside the blue canopy, almost invisible behind a curtain of raindrops the sizes of .50 bullets, at least in the minds of the Crockerites.
Sadly enough, all five of the bikes were destroyed in that year and it would take more than seven decades before their DNA would appear again. Five more were built by hand by a reclusive though brilliant modern-day bike builder in the hinterlands of Sweden, who using the original blueprints as a guide, replicated the machines. And today, here at El Camino, we were looking at one of them, literally just having arrived by air freight at LAX and debuted at the event by its owner Chris Carlson (who just happens to run a Volvo/Saab repair shop.)
A few booths away a couple other bikes, though far from rare, or even expensive, caught my eye. A pair of khaki green “Condors.” Now I knew my WWII history and remembered that the German Condor Legion practiced for WWII by bombing fascist Franco’s enemies during the Spanish Civil War, but these looked too new, and since they didn’t have feathers I figured they weren’t an endangered species. But there was something odd about the engines. Although they sported the “Condor” imprint, they were exact lookalikes of Ducati 350 singles. Which it turns out they are. When the company who got the contract to build bikes for the Swiss military (yes, to guard the chocolate), they figured, why reinvent the wheel? So they popped their name on some Duc motors and turned out their bikes. They even included a shovel. The vendor was selling a complete runner for $2800. Sounded like a deal to me.
Lo and behold, the clouds parted on cue and shone down on the bike show awards for the 60-some bikes of all makes, models and years that showed up for El Camino this year. Some of the highlights included the Best of Show winner, a 1908 Excelsior factory racer owned by master restorer Willie Chambers. Best Antique award went to Doug McKenzie’s1914 Flying Merkel, while People’s Choice was garnered by Jack and Mick Flavin’s spiffy 1963 Harley Sportster, the show celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the iconic Sporty.
Next year is guaranteed to be as rain-free and sunny as the smiles beaming across the show winners and spectators alike. More info about that at http://www.batorinternational.com/, the hosts of the show.
Related Reading:
Two-Stroke Extravaganza
Master Restorer Glenn Bator
2007 MotoClassica
LA Calendar Bike Show
More by Paul Garson
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