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JG300-Stoopy · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 11:14 pm Post subject: ASCOUT! Your next ride awaits!

Still got room in the garage after letting go of the last HD? This beauty was recently spotted on Craigs List in your area - hurry before someone else snags it!!!!!!!

sandiego.craigslist.or...52527.html

JG300-WILLIFOCK · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 140

Looks like an abortion me and my brother tried to make when we were kids! This one will go 12km farther than ours did!

JG300-Ascout

Actually, it resembles (but isn't) that giant bike the guy (whose name eludes me now) built in the 1950's and required a set of outrigger stands when it was parked. He was an eccentric engineer or something and eventually died in strange circumstances involving the law. The picture of him on his bike is fairly legendary (and he wasn't a large man, to begin with.

JG300-Stoopy

Yep, man I know the one you're talking about, it resembles it but isn't quite the same....damn I can't think of the guy's or bike's name (it had some kind of name attached, didn't it?). Fascinating story, I recall, the guy passed away but the bike was still around somewhere, and someone actually tried to ride it (went off in the weeds in the first turn, I believe).

I think there was even an old, old old post around here about it, back in the day....well I don't mean back in the 50's....doggone it, what was that guy's name???

JG300-Ascout

- JG300-Stoopy

Yep, man I know the one you're talking about, it resembles it but isn't quite the same....damn I can't think of the guy's or bike's name (it had some kind of name attached, didn't it?). Fascinating story, I recall, the guy passed away but the bike was still around somewhere, and someone actually tried to ride it (went off in the weeds in the first turn, I believe).

I think there was even an old, old old post around here about it, back in the day....well I don't mean back in the 50's....doggone it, what was that guy's name???

There was also a "replica" that somebody tried to pass off as the original. I recall a stink in "Cycle World" or "Motorcyclist" about this a few years back.

I don't think he just died, but was killed, I think by a law enforcement officer under peculiar circumstances.

JG300-Ascout

P.S., it was called the "road hog". I'm not finding it on Google, but that was it.

JG300-Stoopy

MAN! Yes indeed, tough to find but here it is:

William "Wild Bill" Gelbke and his "Roadog" (close on the name and who knows if "Roadog" is authentic anyways):

Short bit of info here:
www.omra-online.org/ar...Roadog.htm

And yes it says he was "killed in a dispute" while other info I've read discusses he was indeed shot by a police officer.

JG300-Ascout

Ahhh, yes. It all comes back. ISTR that Buzz Walneck (founder of the family business, the publication "Walneck's Classic Cycle") acquired what he thought was the original but it was later revealed that he'd been duped and had something other than the one in the classic picture, which surfaced later. I don't think he intentionally tried to mislead anybody, but in any case I'll give the benefit of the doubt because the magazine sold two of my bikes and Buzz had given me some good advice regarding the best way to ship and insure one of my previous rides. The whole ugly saga of Gelbke and the bike were the subject of an interesting history in one of the two publications I mentioned previously. I don't thind the "domestic dispute" quite describes what happened to him. Somehow, I recall that a LEO was involved.

JG300-WILLIFOCK · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 140

Holy crap thats a bike! If saus were grounded thats what we'd ride for sure!

JG300-WILLIFOCK · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 140

With a seat belt you might even survive a head on
!

JG300-Stoopy

All I know is any I'd hate to have to U-turn that thing on a city street, and other than a Honda GoldWing, that "bike" is a perfect reason to include a reverse gear! Laughing

And I'd bet any oncoming traffic dove the hell out of the way once they saw that thing coming at 'em!!

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