Million dollar duo
by Dennis Baswell
Title
Million dollar duo
Artist
Dennis Baswell
Medium
Photograph - Photograph- Photographs- Prints- Digital Images- Cards- Posters
Description
In the 1930s, the only American to commence the manufacture of motorcycles was Al Crocker with the legendary Crocker motorcycles.
Crocker worked for the Indian Motocycle Company in the late 1910s, not long after graduating from engineering school. By 1928, he was the Southern California Indian distributor, but what he really wanted was to go out on his own.
Crocker bought a machine shop, where he made aftermarket parts such as a steering dampener for Indian Chiefs as a sideline. He would have probably continued his main business selling Indians, had it not been for the speedway craze, a type of short-track racing on a cinder course.
In 1931, racers from Australia gave speedway exhibitions in Southern California, touching off a brief speedway fad across the U.S. Seeing an opportunity, Crocker designed and manufactured special speedway competition cylinders and heads for Indian Scouts. About this time, he met up with Paul A. Bigsby, a patternmaker by trade, who shared Crocker’s love of fast motorcycles. Bigsby soon became an integral part of the Crocker motorcycle operation. They were so fast that they offered a full money refund to anyone who got beaten by a Harley or Indian. NO refunds were ever requested , no need the competition could not compete. These bikes shown will often fetch $500,000 each at auction, if you lucky enough to find one.
Uploaded
December 8th, 2019
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