The Panther Roars

A Big Day.

As you may recall from an earlier BLOG the Panther came home on January 14th.

Today, 12 days later we have it running; a not insignificant feat.

We have to be grateful that after two whole weeks of winter we have now returned to 75 degree weather allowing us to work outside in the yard.

Some work has taken place in the meantime, the carburetor was removed and found to have a lot of deposits, the idle jet was completely blocked.

The ignition wiring and HT pickup were repaired.

The center stand was more or less straightened and a new bolt made by Sheddington Enterprises was installed.

An adaptor was made (again thanks to Sheddington Enterprises) to attach the small fuel tank used for setup.

This allows you to start and run the bike with out the real fuel tank in place.

I need one of those stands on wheels they give you in the hospital for an IV drip.

I have been in contact with the Panther Owners Club about the bike and with their help have found that the engine is correct for the bike.

It took a bit of finding, but the build number confirms the assembly of the bike.

Thanks to Alan Ratcliffe for his help in checking the numbers.

I had to use some of Madame's lipstick to make the numbers readable for the camera.

I sneaked it back in when she was out on a walk, but I guess the taste of oil gave the game away.

She was not happy!

All of these projects require some effort, and when you get a bit long in the tooth you may need a little chemical assistance.

My brother Jimmy and I both take the pills from the blue bottle, no not those blue pills, albeit sparingly. You don't need NSAIDS like Aleve to be screwing up your liver, you need to keep it in good shape for beer consumption.

Click the link below for the movie.

The Panther Roars

With my apologies for getting a bit exuberant when the Panther started.

Please note that in future POSTS about bikes and biking will be on my new blog.
Click on the link below for a preview.

Norms Bikes

Ciao Bella

Norm

SoCal Sunday

A Ride To San Juan Capistrano

Today we decided to take a ride down to San Juan Capistrano on the scoot.

We made a stop at a serious biker hangout called The Swallows Inn and Nest.

If you are not familiar with the association between Swallows and San Juan Capistrano, look it up on Google.

As it happened, today we were lucky, there was a band called "Big Fat Steve's"playing.

And boy could these guys play.

They had a lot of different instruments, but I have to say that this is the first time I have seen someone play the fiddle like it was a cello. You live and learn; I'm not sure that Vivaldi would approve, but then he wasn't there.

Click on the link below to see one of the numbers played.

The Band

If you would like to learn more about the band, the link below goes to their website.

Big Fat Steve

The trike gets better by the day.

I'm beginning to get the hang of it now.

Of course, if we had gone to Washington DC instead of San Juan, Madame could have joined the event shown below; she could have worn her Leopard Onesie!

However, as Madame is not much of a snow fan, we probably made the right decision.

More soon,

Ciao Bella,

Norm

Return Of The Thumper

The Panther Comes Home

On Thursday the driver from Haul Bikes Called to say that he was about 30 minutes away.

My bike was on the top deck, this thing has a massive tail gate lift.

The driver helped me roll the bike into the garage.

After a quick check in the tool box, I found a California plate from 1992 which will make registering the bike quite a bit easier.

On Friday my brother Jimmy came around and we put the bike up on the lift for a better look at it.

Some problems showed up right away and we have a plan in place for resolving those issues.

In fact we have two plans, short term goal and long term goal.

The wiring is junk so we will need to replace that.

There are not too many wires, so that should not be too much of a problem.

The side stand is bent all out of shape and the center stand has a few issues, both have been removed for cleaning and inspection.

 More soon on the progress of the Big Cat.

Ciao Bella,

Norm

Wrap Up From Las Vegas

Back Home

We left this morning at 8:30 AM and were back by noon.

Not too much traffic and not a lot of rain.

A correction from yesterday, the Panther does not have two exhaust valves it has one valve and two ports.

One guy bought thirty bikes at the auction, 24 of them on Thursday afternoon!
That's the day for deals if you are on the ball and know your stuff.
He also bid on a clock being donated to a children's cancer research charity, he bought it for $2500 and then offered to double the bid if all of the Mecum crew would sign the clock; which they did.
On Friday morning he donated the clock back to be auctioned again, This time it made $3000, that guy donated it back and on Saturday it sold again for about the same, so $11,000 in all for the charity.

There were some surprises, bikes that did not make anything like my estimate and others that were way up there.

Click on the link below for the pictures, this was a factory made cutaway bike shown at Earls Court, London motorcycle show. It sold for $110,000 

Cut Away BSA

Another one was this Turbine powered bike.

This sold for $115,000, when it was new it cost $175,000, I don't imagine it has a lot of miles on the clock.

The highest bid was $400,000 for a 1908 Harley Davidson Strap Tank, it did not meet the reserve.

I guess the guy wanted a half a million for it.

More soon when the Thumper makes it back home.

Ciao Bella

Norm

New Old Bike

As you can probably guess, I bought the Panther.
It's a survivor, not tarted up or a trailer queen. Just an honest old bike.
It's been sold three times by Mecum in he last three years, each time for exactly the same price.
So I guess that is what it is worth.
I'm happy that I have it and that it completes my collection.

It will need some TLC from Sheddington Enterprises but that's what we do best.

This is a 650 single so it needs a bit of leg strength to kick it over.

At least it has compression release, as you can see from the picture it has twin pipes, hence twin exhaust valves.

This is a genuine sloper thumper.

One firing stroke every lamp post!

Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom.

I'm hoping to ride it to second Sunday some time real soon.

We had a total blast and met some really cool people.

We'll be back next year.

Ciao Bella

Norm

Sorry I Missed A Day

Friday was a full day of auction activity, we had several bikes of interest.

From Ariels to Scotts and everything in between.

The bike that I was most interested in was an unrestored Panther from 1962.

Fortunately not too many people have an interest in them or for that matter have even heard of them.

Erik this was the only Belgian bike I saw out of 700 + bikes in the auction.

The hotel is huge, this is the view from the elevator.

Guess where my room is...

Last night when I went up to go to my room there were three L.V.P.D. Officers there "interviewing" a couple of young guys.

So in the confusion I made a wrong turn and went all the way to the end of the wrong hallway!

Lots of snow on the way up from home.

More soon

Ciao Bella 

Norm

 

Las Vegas Auction

Annual Motorcycle Auction Junket

Today, Thursday January 7th, we (James Wilbourne and I) are headed for Las Vegas for the motorcycle auction.

Click on the link below for more info on the auction.

Bikes Galore

The weather has kindly opened up a window for our travel days.

We have had torrential rain with lightning overnight, but this morning we have blue sky and the chance of snow in L.V. has been lifted.

I'll try to publish post each day with a quick report on the action.

We each have a couple of favorites in mind, the trick is to find a bike you like and one that you can afford. Several of the bikes come from large private collectors who periodically sell something and buy something else, but those bikes can command pretty high prices.

I'll sit on my bidders badge until I see the right opportunity. If I come home without a bike, no big deal.

All the best,

Ciao Bella

Norm