Manky Monkey Motors

Think trikes are a new concept?
No, of course you don't!
It is reassuring to know, however, that people have been "draggin an axle around" since 1931.

Now I'm not going to go too mad on the research side of things. Cos that's what Google is for. Going down a rabbit warren of web pages and seeing what YOU can find.
For you who blabber and blubber about Harley Davidson, whatever. I have loved SOME of mine, so I'll not engage you on your thoughts on the marque.

It was out in the wilds...and it had come from Mendon, Illinois. Not far from where the the great Mississipi River lazily carves it's passage through the States.

It was in a bloody great barn, at the centre of a vineyard.
Still covered in it's Illinois dust, it looked like something that you see lurking in the background of a Gothic/pyscho/sci fi flick.
It looked Raw.
Agricultural.
Edgy.
I bought it.

As the enormous farm forklift settled it in the back of Spider's pick up. We took note of the start of something emerging...

We pulled out onto the first of the many roads home.

"Postie, (for that was my name) you are a man of,  vision."

Spider was always refreshingly brutal with his observations... 

Apologies for the fractured nature of these postings. If I type/edit too long, my server cuts me off. This means I have to faff  around again.

The Servi took up a good bit of the garage.
Settled in with the others in the pic.
A full garage it was.
I took it for an unregistered moonlight flit through the lanes.
I discovered a beast that had the "seat of your pants" sensation akin to - Sitting on top of a running washing machine.
Maybe some of the female trikers may verify what this actually "provides" you with....But it certainly didn't convey it's roadholding integrity.

The forks had so much flex that the headlight pool of light ran in an eliptical spin, from left kerb, and over, to right kerb...4,5,6,7,8 o'clock - to left kerb (etc)
Adjustments to Hicksville Motor Works Enterprises were becoming evident.

Popped round to see my mate, Mallet.
He used to have a hardtail HD knucklehead that he rode back from Poland with a broken shoulder bone.
"Ha ha", he said. "Come in".
Now Mallet used to be president of the Harley Riders GB. His mate had Harleys back to the 1930s.
So the "find the Old Skool boys" door opened.

The "Springer" front end.

Not a standard Servicar then  ;D but I do like them springers.

Early days, Twisted Patience. Early days.
Now get out the way, cos Chris Ireland is about to turn up!

Oh! the Trike Lord, I'm off...........................

Some fifteen miles from where I lived was an outfit named Desperate Dan's.
It was part of the biker geography/folklore/etc.
It was just, "Desprutts."

Now was time to let my self in for AN OUTSIDER! to have access to my money.

I never regretted a second of it.
They came OVER. Yup, over came a motor with a towing dolly and we were all whisked away to Desperate Land.

Chris, at the time, had a pin running straight down the centre of his finger.
A pillar drill base clamp was not secure. The drill and bit spun the whole part being machined round.
The wall (much like the one in those shortened axle thread pictures) FAILED TO MOVE.
The subsequent spinning/torque/weight - crushing his finger...!

(I'm off to make the missus and myself a cup of coffee. If I leave the computer on, I will become "WebboCastratto")

Going...

Going..

GONE.
This is the trimmed down Servicar.
Chris, with his Indian said it would be a worthier project to try and get it back to what it was.
The more that is chopped, the less preserved from the Old Skool.

...and so started a long and winding road to "what can be done"

Is that really the same trike?

Got it age related with a nice MuFFy number.
Ken Lee of the Harley Riders GB, Mallets old mate, came up on his 45 outfit.
Hmm, he said.
That was it!  This suggested that he was looking at a project that was more formidable than I expected.

The trouble with "chopping", is that it invariably is ALL chopped off.
ALL being the brackets and mountings that support and hold the original design together.

If you are going to restore. How far do you go ?
Are you going to "Parkerise" the parts that were produced that way...Where do you get Servicar wheels? What did the Servi have in common with other stablemates?

The Servicar was the FIRST electric start Harley. A strange platform that held some of the earliest HD parts, yet showcased the latest in it's forty odd year production.

Yes, O Mighty Manky One,

The black and white one is indeed the very same.
Those Mendon illinois fork tubes were starting to split at the headstock end. They were sheet metal rolled into those whopping great taperring fork legs.
The front of the springers was fabricated out out building tie rods.
Where it was welded up, it was not true.

So it was decided to take that extra amount of "spring" OUT.

Look away, they'll be some sparks flying!

Now this the part that terrifies The Sun readers among us.

There are

No pictures



NOT OF THE SERVI THAT IS - BUT ARTWORK!


I needed some elements (mudguards/fenders) that I had to fabricate. The medium I chose to try was Fibreglass.

An ad in BSH (Back Street Heroes) cited an Elbro laminations as being worth a call.

There started a friendship that literally shaped the future of the Servi restoration.

I started designing an ad a month for Elbro.

(spot the Elbro "stonehenge" in the background)

Most of that artwork is gone.
Some remains.
One Christmas card where Santa can't find his bike keys, however hard he looks...

The Harley 45 Club.
This led me to Tony Bairstow.
Situated in Flood Street, just off the Kings Road, Londinium SW3.
Tony dealt with vintage/classic Harley parts. Visited swap meets in the States and provided me with some components that you just could not find.

This was a time, when, as the grandchildren stand agog ....
...The Internet was still pretty much a cottage industry.

Another cuppa.
See you in a Manky moment. ;D

Cripes!           I've been gone half the day!


Continuing the adventure.

Andy Pettit. A fellow I got to know about with a "spare" Servicar box, just happened to live in the same town as I did.
Well, that  became ONCE happened TO."
He had now moved to the southern most tip of Dartmoor.

I borrowed my mates van.
Drove 150 miles to Andy's bakery, centred on the hill in a tiny village (can't remember now) between Dartmoor and the coast.
Two Servicars in the same room!
An old part of a large bakery now was a Harley trike garage/workshop.
I slept above this place, that night...and froze me nuts off. Perishing!
Next day.
Up to Nottingham and Elbro Land.
Now with Andy's spare steel box and lid in the back.

Arrived outside Elbro's workshop.
Had a deep sniff of the fumes and virtually caught a small cerise pig that was flying round the room.
But lamination was the game...
I loaded up a thirty square metre roll of fibreglass matting.
Ten gallon drum of resin.
Couple of litres of catalyst.
Ten gallons of gel coat.

Back in the driving seat. Back home, eighty miles. Unloaded. dropped the van off, rode home. Fed the Maine Coons.
And presumeably, had a beer.

Now I had my forces marshalled tor the great offensive...
Let battle commence.

I had borrowed Ken Lee's spare vintage sidecar mudguard.
Using this as a template I took a mould of it's complete length.
I then took another mould of half it's length.

By using the Servicar fender stainless steel trims that I bought from Jan Willem Boon, a Harley 45 specialist, in Holland...
..I made a complete mould of the long arc of the Servis back fenders, by fusing, very nicely, the two moulds.

I then had to take a mould of the lid.

Eventually a mould of the whole box.
This had to be quite meaty, so not to distort.

I could babble on about all the various components, where they were found...

But I think i will let the pictures steal the last scene.

It was not a restoration, so to speak. To call it that would be laughable.
But to find the parts required, for the right years, aswell, don't forget..
Would be an endless road.

I had taken something on and was proud of what it became.

As Chris had said.

"Try and get it back to what it was."

You could tell there was a deep affection in his voice for the composite of old Milwaukee steel.

Chugging along with it's Linkert carb hanging off the manifold half an inch.

It didn't want to die.

It was a V twin. They don't want to stop.

So I left his workshop with a search for a holy grail.

WHY is it, we "love" our machines?

With my MGA (both gone)   Hey, what's that stripey van, out there!

Mendon, Illinois, remembered.

Just keep those stripey vans away!
The fiddly mudguard design.

Iain Cottrell's masterpiece.
A NEW Harley 45 engine, inside and out.

Harley Davidson, Vivid Yellow. The colour of my Reliant trike that is being built NOW.
The ghost of the Servicar rides on......

The Servi went to live in Wimbledon.
A carpenter bought the beastie, to carry his tools in to go to work.
Just
what the Servicars were designed to do.

So

A thread finished, Andy and Co.
In repayment for what you had/have started. A respectful nod to Mr. Ireland, for your focus and verve.
I will meet up with you at some point. ..

On the ghost of the Servi......

Nicely penned Gary.
Give us a few days & we'll pinch that lot as a vehicle write-up for the main site.  ;)

Nice one Gary a good write up.

Reliant Trike? look forward to seeing that one.

It was a babe, wasn't it ?

when i first got my bike 5 years ago,i was told by a friend of a friend about a bloke his best mates dads uncles brothers girlfriends dad,you get the gist,about a guy who was importing bikes from the usa,and would sell them for the best offer,so off i went in search of thiselusive bloke,2 days later i found what i was looking for and he took me to what he called the shed,bloody hell it was like an aircraft hanger absolutely chock full of bikes and cars of every kind,there was even a bike from canada that was used by loggers out in the forest,thst had big fat tyres and an engine from a chain saw,they carried a lot of cahainsaw spares.anyway,he led me through the "shed"and into another room where he kept the nearly finnished and for sale bikes ,low and behold ,in the corner on two big stands were two servi cars ,after admiring them for ages he said that he had more in anothr "shed" and took me through to see them,there were 3 more in this shed and another large room full of spare pannels and engines for said vehicle.this man only brings them over here ,he said because he has retired and has nithing to do with his time,
he also had 3 daimler darts and a few muscle cars just sat around gathering dust.what a waste.i would love to find this place again and have a look around and maybe take a few pics .this guy must have more money than sence.

I have a Servi car page on my site. Always liked them.

Got this one off E bay.

FRom what i can remember, elbro mudguards were (are) as tough as hell. neat advert  :)

There ya go ChevyRick...thats what you ought to do with your 45 :)

Oh Dear, someone else got same avatar as me :-\ :)

Maybe you have a dual personallity ?  ;D

No we havent, I just asked myself that question  ;D

pmsl ;D

now now you 2 err 1 play nice  ;D