START SOMETHING OLD

Borrowing its styling from 50s and 60s race bikes, the Honda GB500TT was a modern café racer ironically ahead of its time. The GB500 was unlike any other motorcycle available in 1989. An homage to the 50s and 60s British bikes that ruled the famed Tourist Trophy circuit on the Isle of Man in England, it had the look of iconic bikes like the AJS 7R or Velocette Thruxton from decades earlier. The GB500TT (for Great Britain and Tourist Trophy) has a 498cc, air-cooled, single cylinder engine, and was unlike anything Honda had previously offered in the US. All of the bikes were painted a unique deep green so dark it looks black in anything but direct sunlight, with gold pinstripe accents. Featuring clip-on bars, a front disc brake, steel braided oil lines, silver instrument panel, and a sleek body design, all this allows the GB to run with precision and look cool as hell. Weighing only 370lbs, this thumper can scoot and its aggressive riding stance gives you the illusion of tearing up the TT circuit. Riding the GB500 makes you feel like you are Mike “The Bike” Hailwood, the 14 time winner of the Tourist Trophy race, including 5 wins in row from 1963-1967 in the 500cc class (just in case you were wondering). Production was limited to just two years in the US due to poor sales performance. Why didn’t it sell well? It didn’t look like the cruisers that were dominating sales at the time. The 1980s were about excess and technology, not looking back towards racing minimalism. Hammer Time and Debbie Gibson, instead of British invasion. The combination of timeless styling and low production was a perfect recipe for the GB500 to become a collector’s item. For example, the 1990 GB500 pictured, alongside the 1966 Velocette Thruxton, sold at the Mecum Auction in Las Vegas in January 2020 for $17,600. It had one mile on the speedo!

The arrival of the GB500 was just too soon. Custom café racers are extremely popular and today most major manufacturers offer a café racer like the Triumph Thruxton, Royal Enfield Continental GT, and many more. On the GB500, you think you are a British racer from the distant past, but in reality, you are on a Japanese street bike from the late 80s that thumps to life with the push of a button, shifts smoothly, and stops quickly. All before it was cool... again.

Start something old with the 1989/1990 GB500TT. A classic before, and after, its time! Article written and sponsored by Throttle Company Vintage Motorcycles Photography by Nicole Coleman, Throttle Company & Zach Sanderson

Two unique Harley-Davidson Knuckleheads join Vegas MECUM lineup

The 2021 Mecum Las Vegas motorcycle auction will present a shockingly extensive selection of the iconic Harley-Davidson Knucklehead motorcycle with two impressively restored examples hailing from the estate of Richard Bernard. One is a first-year 1936 EL model previously owned by AMCA board member Dick Winger and the late owner of the Wheels Through Time Museum, Dale Walksler, and the other is a 1937 EL model previously used as a California patrol motorcycle. Both Knuckleheads have been concours restored to factory original condition, and they have been and will continue to be on display at Parham’s National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa, until the Las Vegas auction.

The late Richard Bernard’s obsession with motorcycles, HarleyDavidsons in particular, began in 1968 after seeing the movie “Hells Angels on Wheels” starring Jack Nicholson. Then, in 1969, after the movie “Easy Rider” came out, Bernard’s fate was sealed, and there was no turning back. It was during the following years, and while attending a strict Catholic high school in Wheaton, Illinois, that his obsession turned into action when Bernard befriended the late Dale Walksler. Walksler was working as a mechanic at the time at Villa Park Harley-Davidson, and their friendship soon kick started Bernard’s quest to accumulate as many old Harley-Davidson parts as possible. Then, in 1972, Bernard and Walksler built their first and only chopper together. The bike was completed in 1973, and it was nice but not quite spectacular for the times. However, in 1974, the chopper went back into Walksler’s shop, and what came out in 1975 was the bike as it appears today, featuring a new paint job, 12:1 compression, shovel heads, ported and polished, a cam and an S&S carburetor. In addition to building the custom chopper together, Walksler and Bernard also built a strong friendship that lasted nearly 40 years until Bernard’s passing in 2012. Beginning sometime in the late 1970s, Bernard made it a point to attend nearly every swap meet, bike rally (Sturgis, Daytona Beach, Davenport) and auction that occurred from coast to coast across the United States, buying specialty parts and motorcycles that he felt were unique enough for him to own. In 1989, he purchased the 1936 EL Knucklehead from Walksler, and the original paperwork from the transaction still accompanies the bike today. Walksler had purchased that bike many years earlier from Dick Winger and truly did cherish it, but he wanted to invest the money into his HarleyDavidson dealership located in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. The dealership went on to become one of the largest and most respected HarleyDavidson dealerships in the entire region. In 1994, Bernard placed the winning bid on a 1937 EL “California patrol” bike at an auction in Los Angeles, and it came with the original “pink slip” title. The bike was then delivered to and put on display at a museum that Walksler had recently established and dubbed Wheels Through Time, located in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. It was later moved to Heritage Harley-Davidson in Lisle, and it’s now on exhibit at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa.

In addition to the two Knuckleheads that he purchased back then, Bernard also bought other specialty bikes at auctions throughout the country, such as the drag bikes from the R. J. Reynolds estate: a 1976 Bicentennial-edition Harley-Davidson and a 1982 Sturgis-edition Harley-Davidson. All four of those bikes ended up on display at the National Motorcycle Museum as well, and John Parham purchased the entire group of them in 2014. In 1998, the 1936 EL was featured in the hard cover “tribute to an America icon” three-dimensional pop-out book by HarleyDavidson, along with the Harley-Davidson book “Chronicle” by Doug Mitchell. Then, in 2003, Harley-Davidson and the Miller brewing company asked Bernard if they could feature the 1936 EL on the side of the 20-ounce Miller Genuine Draft beer can as a tribute to the 100-year anniversary of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company. Richard Bernard deeply loved and cherished these motorcycles for more than 30 years, and his brother, John, hopes that their next caretakers will continue to treasure them as Richard did and in honor of his memory.

Photography by Dan Duckworth Courtesy MECUM MAGAZINE – Mecum.com