As Promised - The story of the "Worlds Fastest Flathead…. Motorcycle !" - part 2

I am also going to attach two pictures from the 1931 Modern Mechanic which featured contest award winners from the “baby auto” contest. Both these featured car/motorcycle mixes and it was really from this 1931 publication that Grandfather said Fred got the idea for putting a car engine into a motorcycle.

But the story didn’t end in 1935. The Plymouth Motorcycle had the engine and transmission removed and well those pieces along with the seat and gas tank just happened to wind up in my Grand Fathers driving shed/work shop. The bike, I am not 100% sure where it went immediately after Fred Luther sold it, but I do know it was eventually discovered squirrelled away in the back of a museum that had closed. In 1950 it was reported that is was still in Fred's garage and today I am quite confident I know where it is. The in between, well that I am sure is a great story that might come to light some day, who knows!

Lets just say, the Bike is not owned by myself or my family, but I do know exactly where the bike is and I will attach some pictures taking ten years ago as the restoration of the bike started, and again this summer as the bike is very close to being completed.(see part 3 for the 2014 pictures of the bike)

So yes, the famed Fred Luther Plymouth Motorcycle lives on. In fact the “global we” are on the look out for a period tach from the 1930’s that will run off a distributor and has at least a “hint hint” 5500 rpm upper limit ! Yes in a very very small way, what started with my grandfather Earl Bolton who helped in a big way, continues today and I am as excited today as I know he was in 1935 to see the bike back running !

Finally without stealing the thunder of the rebirth of the “Plymouth Motorcycle” you can expect at some point in the future another blog entry concerning the “On the drawing board” motorcycle plan. Since my grandfather moved to Windsor in 1936 for the opening of the Canadian Engine plant I think the “Plymouth Motorcycle” was in the back of his head, because in his not pad and in his driving shed/shop was the start of the “Chrysler Motorcycle” dream !