When I interviewed Todd Copan, who had organized the Classic & Vintage Swap Meet and Show n Shine for over thirty years, I asked him about the stories he’d encountered over those years. One stood out for me.
It was the story of a motorcycle collector who did some digging in the mud at a farm outside of Vernon, British Columbia. He’d found bits and pieces of a 1915 Ariel scattered across this property and, with the blessing of the landowner, excavated these pieces out of the ground, put together the bike, restored it and now rides it. As Todd put it: “You cant make that up.” I proudly included that clip in my film Classic & Vintage.
In Tom Cotter’s book, which as the title suggests is part of a series of books he’s written, there are similar stories embedded within, mainly from the eastern United States. There’s a 1970 Norton Commando, a 1953 Vincent Black Shadow (I like that one) and a 1936 Harley-Davidson reconstructed from barns, sheds and sometimes refrigerators, (referred to sometimes as ‘basket cases’) and that’s just scratching the surface. Of course, I prefer the stories in this book of unearthed and pieced-together classic motorcycles that collectors ride over those where speculators find and flip for profit. The histories of the motorcycles are interesting, and I enjoyed learning how they found themselves in the scattered states they’re found in. My favourite is that of a 1911 Thor motorcycle frame that has been absorbed by the trunk of a maple tree.
Sometimes there are missed opportunities to explore the histories of these motorcycles, but there’s enough here to keep anyone interested in collecting or classic motorcycles to keep flipping pages. There is the sense that this is a boys’ own book, with wives sometimes relegated to being the nagging ol’ ball and chain, and I’d definitely prefer less speculatin’ and more ridin’ motorcycles, but this was a fascinating assembly of stories of motorbikes reclaimed from oblivion.
Author: Tom Cotter
Book: The Harley in the Barn: More Tales of Motorcycle Archaeology
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.
Year of Publication: 2012
P.S.
I’ll be back with an author table at the Copan family’s Classic & Vintage Swap Meet and Show N Shine, held for the first time since the pandemic began, this time held in Abbotsford, British Columbia on April 30, 2023. I hope to see you there:
