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The Antique Motorcycle Club of America Bi-monthly Newsletter
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October Newsletter 2017

AMCA CHAPTERS

 
Dear ,
 
After a welcomed rain free weekend at the Chesapeake Chapter Jefferson meet, the National season is over for 2017. For those lucky chapters in the South and the West there are plenty of opportunity for more riding. For everyone up North and East it's time to socialize, work on bikes and plan for the Spring riding season. If you don't belong to a chapter, now is a great time to join.

If you are looking for a new AMCA Chapter in your area, check out the Chapter map. If you don't see on one on the AMCA Chapter Map, make sure to click on the "Read More" link below to see a list of all the new areas of the country in the process of starting a chapter.

We've listed the forming chapter's contact information. Let them know you are interested in being a member of their chapter and get involved.


LOCAL CHAPTER EVENTS

 
   
 
 
Buckeye Chapter
 
Click on logo for details   
 
 
 
 		  

SoCal Chapter Road Run       
October 8-10, 2017
 

Click on logo for details   
 
 
 
 
 
Comstock Classic Fall Run      
October 13-15, 2017
 

Click on logo for details    
 
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
 
 
 
Gulf Coast Chapter 
November 19th 
   
  AMCA Chapters to  
 Panhead Reunion

We are encouraging AMCA Chapters come up with their own ride to Milwaukee.  
 
Some members riding to the event, suggest using US Highway for passing through their area, based on their research into current and future road conditions and pending construction projects.   
 
You could add cool places to stop for food and breaks.   Imagine if your chapter were to enroll a volunteer fire department that was next to a city park in a small town on an old US Highway, and have their members who are not making the trip gather there on the likely travel days to welcome folks who want to stop.
 
 		  
 
 
In the case of Highway 20, there are a couple of Harley-Davidson Dealers right along the route.  New York Chapters plan to let them know that some people may be passing along the route on vintage Harleys during certain days but without making any promises that they are going to choose to stop.
 
We imagine people stopping and socializing together along the way.

More to come.
 


 
 
                    
Special Announcement:   Panhead Reunion!  
AMCA is working with the Harley-Davidson Museum to promote the 70th Anniversary of the Panhead. As one of the museum's "Not-to-be-missed EVENTS" the Panhead Reunion will be the focal highlight of the annual Wild Ones: Vintage Motorcycle Rally.

Wild Ones will be Saturday, July 14th, 2018 at the Harley-Davidson Museum® in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Scheduled events will include an antique motorcycle ride-in show and the AMCA Badger Heritage Chapter hosts authentic motorcycle field games like the slow race and plank ride. Also see live musi cal and motorcycle exhibition entertainment. Be sure to check out the Museum as well.

The special day will include scheduled events from 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Harley-Davidson will also be celebrating their 111th Anniversary. The goal is to get as many Panheads as possible to the event, who knows many 2,000 of them.

Beginning on Monday, July 16th, AMCA local chapters will conduct a four-day ride and journey to the Wauseon National for the following weekend. The Wauseon National will also feature the Panhead as their featured bike.

The five-day ride and journey will be a tour across Lake Michigan via ferry and the scenic highlights of Michigan prior to arriving in Wauseon, Ohio. Details of the trip will be announced soon. Look for details in the AMCA Newsletters throughout the next year.
 



Did you know that you can keep up with Chapter Events by going to the AMCA Website and clicking on "Chapters" then "Chapter Events" to see what's going on in your area?

If your Chapter is planning an event for the Summer and you want listed, please send the event poster or flyer to AMCA Executive Director
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DEALS FOR MEMBERS
Sponsors and Advertisers

Support the companies that support you and our industry. Click on each company's logo to visit their website. 






AMCA Members receive a
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code is: CP M68H3Y




AMCA Membership Sweepstakes  
 
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Enter for a chance to win one of
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For more Sweepstakes information see your previous or upcoming Antique Motorcycle magazine.  







The 2017 Medallions

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10% Admission Discount with
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Up to 15% Discount to AMCA Members






All new Kiwi Indian Riders Instruction Book by Mike Kiwi Tomas. 14.99 
Oil Filters $9.99
 
Kiwi designed performance pistons $64.99 ea (includes rings, pin, clips)
 
Discount with Active AMCA Membership 

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Binks Carburetors
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The Automatic Brake Light
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NATIONAL NEWS
     
2018 AMCA Schedule
 
 
  
The 2018 AMCA National Meet and Road Run schedule will be released in the upcoming November / December issue of The Antique Motorcycle. Look for it in your mailboxes beginning in the first week of November.
 
 
     
   
   

  Read More  
 
 
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MEMBER'S RIDES


 
"The Sammy Miller High Boy Bultaco"
By Alan Singer, Member #16826

In July 2014 I found an ebay auction for an odd trials bike. It was a Bultaco M151 motor in a British-made Sammy Miller frame. The bike was somewhat weathered and tired, but on the plus side was only 100 miles or so away. The Model 151 is a bit of a rare bird, it's a Sherpa T 350 (actually 325cc) that had a short, six month production run. There were no bids, on a lark and lacking a current project, I put in the minimum bid at the last moment. When picked it up it was about as expected, but it ran, I paid and took it home.


I did a bit of research. Sammy Miller built a number of frames for Bultaco motors in the 70's. I wrote to him at his museum but he was of limited help saying the records had been lost in a fire many years ago. He did send me a copy of an old advertisement for the frames. The current operators of Sammy Miller Parts likewise had no information. I posted on several web sites and here at SMOG seeking any information with very little result. I found there were a couple (2) 250cc examples out west, but that was all. Slowly I pieced together some info. The frames were referred to as "High Boys" thanks to their use of a skid plate as the frame lower section.

 
 


Want more information? Visit our website for more Chapter information or check out the Forum to see the latest discussions on topics that are pinpointed to your interest.
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Archive Newsletters
 

October 2017 Newsletter

Stories Continued from Above

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Find a Chapter (Continued) 


In our ongoing effort to ad dots to the map, here is a list of Chapters trying to form. Contact the names below if you are interested in being a chapter member in one of these areas.

South Alabama                 Contact Charles Barber     Sandy Hills Chapter
Tucson, Arizona                 Contact Cliff Steimle
Bakersfield, California     Contact Chuck Bent
Fresno, California              Contact Keith Kizer
Northeast Canada            Contact Mike Podger
Indianapolis, Indiana       Contact Keith Kizer 
Savannah, Georgia           Contact Dave Ervin          Low Country Chapter
Toledo, Ohio                        Contact Keith Kizer 
Spokan, Washington        Contact Bob Morrill

 
MoreBlue Local Chapter Events (Continued)

This week's shooting in Las Vegas gave us great concern for our many friends in our Las Vegas Chapter. One of our members had two friends who were shot. One is a young woman who has a bullet lodged in her spine and doctors do not know how to get it out without further spinal injury.  Sadly the other person was listed as one of the dead as well as a friend of the same member's son. Our condolences are extended to this family and the families of the dead.
 
He said the blood donation centers have a 7 hour wait because so many are giving. Yet they are asking for more. Two more friends who were at the concert hauled some less injured people to the hospital.  
 
Blood can be donated and designated for Las Vegas. Pray for the injured and for the families who have lost a life including the family of the shooter we certainly offer up our prayers for the victims and their families. 
    
 
Local Chapters are the ones who bring camaraderie to enjoying the sport you love. If you are not a member of your local chapter, please look them up and visit their next meeting or event. You can find them in the block above by clicking on the Chapter Link which takes you to the map. Click on the state of choice then on one or more of the bubbles in that state. Once you click on the bubble, scroll down to the information for that club. Most have a website link, but if not, click the email link and ask for details of their Chapter.

For those who dedicate their time as Chapter officers, directors or volunteers please send me your Chapter Events so I can include it in the next newsletter.

We will include your local events with links back to the "Chapter Event" pages of the main AMCA website. If you have Chapter logos, Upcoming Event logos, artwork, or photos, please include those too. We are here to help you promote your events to other members.



 
  DealsDeals For Members (Continued)

AMCA Now Accepts PayPal for Membership and Merchandise!  
If your company would like to offer a discount to the ever growing AMCA membership, please contact AMCA Executive Director, Keith Kizer. Your company logo will be added to future Newsletters and the AMCA website's Sponsor's Page. 

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RidesMember's Rides (Continued) 
 
"The Sammy Miller High Boy Bultaco"
  

There were probably three different series with slight variations. I believe mine to be the second series, based on the serial number stamped on the steering head. I received a few early documents with the bike and found the donor Bultaco was purchased in March 1975 in the UK. More on this later. Sometime in the late 70's Miller took a prototype to Japan and made a deal with Honda to supply frames for the new TL125. This marked the end for Bultaco frames and turned out to be a wise decision as he built many more Honda frames, and the follow on company continues to do so to this day.
Copy of the advertisement for Sammy Miller High Boy frame as provided by the Sammy Miller Museum
As an aside, the frames were welded up in a little town in the south of England, New Milton. That was also where the Rickman brothers were building their frames and bikes. My guess is that town probably had the highest concentration of top notch welders in the country.
While working the web for info, I began on the bike by generally cleaning it, shooting lots of photos, and making lists of needs. I stripped it to the bare frame and, along with general reconditioning, began the laborious task of polishing. Miller chrome plated his frames, not triple chrome, more of an industrial finish. Using Ospho, bronze wool, metal polish, and lots of elbow grease, a really nice frame emerged. The motor, being relatively fresh, required only cosmetics; more polish, paint, etc. The forks were rebuilt and also polished.
The wheels turned out to be a big problem. I found a few broken spokes but initially, I thought I could simply replace them without disassembling the wheels. I carefully refinished the hubs and polished the rims with the wheels intact only to find that they would need to come apart and have all the spokes replaced. Turns out there were many incorrect spokes and some of the spoke holes had been elongated so the wheels needed rebuilding. Had I realized this earlier I would have broken them down before busting knuckles on the hubs. In the end though, they came out really nice.
Status photos taken during the restoration
 
The fenders were a disaster. The front was homemade, the rear cracked, split and broken. I was able to source an original set of Sammy Miller fender brackets out of the UK and fitted a pair of replica M199 fenders. The seat/tank unit has its own interesting story. For a brief period in 1975 Britain banned fiberglass fuel tanks on motorcycles. The Bultaco importer commissioned a local company, Homerlite, to provide hand hammered alloy tanks. These tanks were very light, fragile and easily damaged. Mine required some serious surgery, beyond my abilities. A friend with a local body shop who had previously painted my BMW café racer took on the task and did a great job. Having found some green paint during the repair, he finished it in my favorite shade of British Racing Green, a 70's Porsche color. Sargent Cycle Products re-covered the seat using a Bultaco Kit Campeon pattern after I repaired the seat pan.  
 
One quirk was that the hardware was a mixture of Wentworth and Metric. Where possible I converted to Metric, sometimes tapping out to the nearest Metric size. In truth the bike went together pretty easily. The entire project took about five months. As usual, the final cost was about double my rosy initial estimate, but I'm quite pleased with the final result.
Earlier I mentioned receiving a few copied documents, one of which was the purchase receipt. There was also the original British registration document with the name of the owner and an email trail from 2005 between the original and second owners. I wrote to both men and sent photos of the completed motorcycle, beginning an extended correspondence.  
Taken May 23_ 2015 at Riding Into History Concours d_Elegance. The first public showing. It won Best in Class for Competition Off Road motorcycles
 
Here's the story: Colin Blake was a teenage trials talent. After competing on a Triumph Cub and a used Sherpa, his dad bought the M151 from John Lee of Willingsborough (£636) and subsequently assembled the High Boy. Colin competed on it for a couple of years, including at the well-known Isle of Man Two Day Trial, and was a nationally ranked junior rider.. Colin kept the bike after marriage, took it to France and later when he immigrated to New Hampshire. His son rode it a bit, but mostly it lay about. In 2005, with an impending move to the Pacific Northwest he sold it locally to Brad Marshall. Brad says he rode it only once, it ran out of gas and he parked it. Brad moved to Florida and passed it on there to Don Jacobs from whom I bought it a couple of years later.
 
And that completes the circle.
 
Alan Singer 
www.MotoEuro.org 
    

This secton is normally for Member's motorcycles. If you would like to contribute to the "Member's Ride" section, please contact AMCA Executive Director, Keith Kizer.