We threw the ’68 in the back of his ’53, and drove for miles on unpaved hilly roads until we came into a little town strewn with ‘50s stucco homes, on ½ acre plots containing big shop buildings, some tin, plopped behind. On the winding way, the mountain introduced himself as JD George, and said he made a living restoring rare old Harley-Davidsons, along with a few other makes most people haven’t heard of in a100 years.
I listened intently as George pulled into a neighborhood of single story clapboard and stucco homes and deep lots. He wasn’t kidding when he said old. The first thing in the shop he showed me was a pair of 8-valve heads he reproduced based on Bill Ottaway’s design for early teens Harley-Davidson factory racers. From there it was just a string of older, and older Harley parts until we came upon a complete ’06 Harley motor George, and his friend Chuck reproduced almost entirely from scratch.
Second to watching the perky blonde jiggling braless under a shorty top, the thing that really grabbed my distracted vision was the array of customized old JDs parked everywhere. When I asked George what the story was, he chuckled, and said he built the bikes from slightly blemished parts his ultra-finicky vintage customers wouldn’t begin to consider putting on their immaculate show restorations. George went on to say because he could build the JDs any way he wanted to, they were an enjoyable form of expression.
JD finished the blue ’29 JD with spray cans and did a helluva job with the 86-inch stroker. To get the big inches, George trued up a set of early ‘20s Harley-Davidson factory cheater wheels for the bottom end. He made offset rocker-arms, and towers for the punched-out top end, giving it a more radical rocker-arm ratio.
For ignition a Fairbanks Morse magneto he snagged a ’59 XLCH unit was adapted. Also sourced from the ’59 Sporty are the fenders, with a ’34 Dodge fender light housing the basis for George’s custom Tombstone mount on the rear. The JD springer front end is also a JD George special custom adapted with an Earle’s style leading-link fork. The advantage to the Earle’s fork is the front end lifts under hard braking instead of diving—crazy.
Moving onto the green ’26 JD flat-tracker it’s a replica George built around a frame he built from scratch. He fabricated the Jawa front forks to resemble a Merkel racer. The wheels, tires, and sprocket are also Jawa. George bought them new from Cody Racing Products in Garden Grove, California. For power George built a 61-inch JD motor to racing specs.
The not so faithful reproduction of the Captain America bike is a ’21 JD, George built it with previously modified parts he scrounged up. (We are hoping Krylon will kick loose with a photo.)
The next morning George swapped me a good 65A, 12-volt generator for the tired generator my ’68 fried, and I was on my way — right after I spent over 5 bucks a gallon for gas that is, and took one more longing look at the bubbly blonde.
— Krylon John
