Actually, it all really began July 5, 1968. At that time I was working in the Parts Department of a Ford Dealership in Hamden Connecticut. One of the mechanics in the shop spread the word around that he had to sell his 1967 Triumph Bonneville. I talked to him about it and the price was pretty good, about $800 as I recall, plus he even agreed to deliver it to my home on Saturday.
Having grown up in the muscle car era of the 1960’s, I had been through the various stages of cars... stock, custom, hot rod, truck, van, 2 brand new cars, but no motorcycles yet. A number of my friends were starting to buy motorcycles at that time, and no-way was I going to be the last one to get one, so I figured, what the heck, let’s do it!
I had purchased it sight unseen, but he did describe how it looked and how it ran in great detail. Also, he was one of the best mechanics in the service department and kept his tools, working area, and the customer’s cars spotless, so I knew the Triumph would be in excellent shape, and it was.
I was really excited that morning when I got out of bed. After what seemed like an eternity, the mechanic pulled into our driveway with my Triumph in the back of his pickup truck. I paid him, he unloaded it and then explained the controls. Seemed fairly simple, so I hopped on, fired it up and carefully rode down to the end of the block and back again. This was the first time I had ever been on a motorcycle, it felt great and it was even easier to operate than I expected. Later, after changing clothes to something more appropriate, I went for a longer ride. This was better than great, this was “awesome!” I was now hooked, and a wonderful metamorphosis began to take shape that would change my life forever and open up doors of opportunities that I didn’t even know existed.
My First Motorcycle, 1967 Triumph Bonneville. Truly A Joy To Ride.
At the Ford Dealership where I was working, everybody was clean cut and wore uniforms. No beards or long hair. There was no written rule regarding beards, it was more like an understanding. Before you know it, my sideburns and hair started to grow longer. Soon there was a mustache. Someone mentioned it to the Parts Manager... “Ever since he got that motorcycle, etc.”, but the Manager stuck up for me because I was good at what I did. He said... “Yes, he’s got a mustache and sideburns, but they are nicely trimmed.” That didn’t last long though.
Soon, I started adding accessories to my new Triumph. A little chrome goodie here and there, new mirrors, new grips, then before you know it, I had it stripped down for paint and chrome, bought a peanut tank and sat in the back of “Ben’s Chop Shop” customizing it with some putty and a lot of sand papering
An old photo taken with a cheap camera so you can’t see the true colors.
Naturally I had to have ape hangers, and fenders chopped to the legal limits. After the paintwork was finished, I had my first chopper! Pretty basic I’ll admit, and it wasn’t a Harley, but it was my first motorcycle and we had some great times together.
How I Loved That Bike! This 35 Year Old Photo Doesn’t Do It Justice.
Sure, I had my share of snapped chains and broken rear wheel spokes, but I got to be pretty fast at replacing them. I remember the first time the chain snapped, I didn’t know what the heck had happened and it was pitch black at night. I figured it probably was the clutch or the transmission. I had to walk it home to my workshop where I could see what I was doing. That was one long walk from where I was. The longer I walked, the heavier the Triumph got. Funny, I always thought of it as being a fairly lightweight bike, but not that night. After that, I started carrying a flashlight and a chain repair kit.
It wasn’t long before my mustache connected with a newly grown goatee, and after a lot of soul searching, I decided to turn in my resignation at the Ford Dealership. The plan was to take a year off before my trip to California. I figured I had a chopped bike, a number of other vehicles, and no money problems. I could sell off my vehicles a little at a time, except for my 1963 Ford Econoline Window Van. I had gotten it for a song where I worked and had rebuilt the engine and fixed it up inside turning it into a home made mini-camper for my trip to California.
Had Great Times In My 1963 Econoline. Took Me From CT To CA
1969 was the best year out of all the 26 years I lived back there. It was the time of Woodstock, Easy Rider, motorcycles, especially choppers, were everywhere and a lot of biker movies too. Some were pretty good while others were really bad, but they all were about motorcycles so we watched them anyway. A bunch of us would all go to the drive-in theatre when they had Buck-Night Biker Specials. A whole carload got in for one dollar, and they ran 2 or 3 biker movies back to back. It was a time when owning a motorcycle was like belonging to a huge Brotherhood of Bikers. Whenever motorcyclists passed each other they waved or gave the thumbs-up sign even though they didn’t know each other. It was a time when choppers were works of art and a way of life. I have more happy memories from that one year than I can fit in this Blog. There was the run to Old Orchard Beach Maine, then to Sherwood Island and endless rides by the beaches from West Haven to Woodmont and on to Milford, not to mention all-nighters in the back of my van.
I remember one day right after summer when everyone was back to school or work and the beaches were pretty much empty. I rode down to a small beach I like in West Shore after a quick stop at a liquor store across the street from the beach. I parked my bike under a tree, and walked out to what was left of an old pier. I sat on the end of that pier with a bottle of Ripple Pagan Pink... hey, it was cold, cheap, and money was getting a little low. Besides, it tasted OK and didn’t get you so loaded you’d crash and burn on the way home (which I had already done once before and was down for a month). I sat there for hours. I just kicked back, mellowed out, and enjoyed the view of the beach, the water, clear blue sky, the smell of the ocean and how good my bike looked under the tree and thinking to myself...“ Ahhh, life is good!”
Later that night it was party time down at The Rock as usual. It was a great year, especially the summer, but when winter came, I was quickly reminded of why I wanted to go to California in the first place.
Why I Picked February To Go Is Beyond Me, But It Was An Adventure I'll Never Forget
Finally on February 7,1970 I loaded up the van with what I thought I might need on the trip... tools, sleeping bag, cooking gear, etc., but unfortunately no room for my Triumph. That was a tough decision to make. Leaving my family was the most difficult part though, but since I was only going out there for about a four-day visit, I’d be back soon enough, or so I thought.
Probably the most important thing I brought with me was an updated resume with letters of recommendations. I brought it just in case the van broke down somewhere between Connecticut and California (which it did twice with electrical problems) and in case I had to get a job to raise the money to live on and get it fixed. I had learned to be prepared for anything that could possibly happen. Real smart move on my part too, because as it turned out, that resume is what got me into AEE, but more about that a little bit later.
After a year of no income, even with selling off my other vehicles I didn’t have enough money or credit left to stay much longer than four days. I had no idea what I was going to run into on the way out to California in the dead of winter and what it would cost me. As it is, I got pulled over and searched as soon as I hit the New York border for no apparent reason, which wasn’t unusual back in those days, and my journey had just begun. When he was finished, he wished me luck and I was on my way once again.
I spent the first night sleeping in the back of the van behind a gas station in Pennsylvania. When I woke up I found I was snowed in and it was really cold, so I made a pot of coffee then dug myself out.
Later I ran into a blizzard in Indianapolis and couldn’t go any further. I stayed in a motel this time, but a while after I left, I realized that I had left my credit card there and I wasn’t about to turn back. Later I stopped at a phone booth and called them. They agreed to send it to me when I got to California, which they did.
The next day I hit snow and fog. I couldn’t see a thing, got lost and almost ended up in Lake Eire. I won’t go into the entire trip, but it was an adventure I won’t ever forget, and if I had it to do over again, I most definitely would pick a different time of year to do it.
When I finally made it to Oklahoma, once again I ran into more snow. I managed to find a junkyard that had the parts I needed for a low price, and I fixed the electrical problem that had been plaguing me once and for all. No more driving full speed at night with no headlights and no more dead batteries.
Before long I had gone from snow to the desert. That was one long ride. I had picked up a big bottle of water, a spoon and a large jar of Tang that I drank as I drove through miles and miles of desert.
Soon I arrived in Barstow and I knew I was almost there. I was finally in California the land of sunshine! I had gone from snow, cold, trees with no leaves and grey cloudy skys to the land of palm trees, orange trees, avacado trees mountains, lakes, the pacific ocean and summer practically all year long. I still had a ways to go to get to Santa Ana in Orange County but I was tired, needed to get cleaned up and get the van washed too, so I decided to spend the night in a motel there.
The next day I hit the road again and before you know it I was in Santa Ana eating my first chilidog. I found a pretty good, centrally located and reasonably priced motel, The Aqua Motel on 17th Street. I must have sent out about 50 post cards the first day. I fell in love with Orange County as soon as I got there. Inside, it felt like I had finally come home at last and it was where I was meant to be. I still feel the same way 34 years later. And have never felt it anywhere else.
I had planned to stay there for four days, but the money was going fast. I went across the street from the motel to a phone booth to call home, but when I looked down at the shelf under the phone, I found a wad of bills, some change and a Zippo lighter. There was nothing else, no identification, no wallet, nothing but the money and the lighter. Talk about a miracle! Just when I needed it most too.
On my third day in California I decided to drive down to AEE Choppers. I read their magazines, their catalogs, saw them in a movie once and bought parts from them through Ben’s Chop Shop. It was a “Must-See” for anyone interested in choppers. I figured I’d buy something for my Triumph while I was there. It was located in a small industrial area. I pulled into their parking lot and walked in. I felt like I had made a pilgrimage to Mecca. This was chopper heaven.
At AEE We Manufactured And Shipped Parts All Over The World
When I walked in I saw Rose, who was Tom McMullen’s wife and co-owner of AEE Choppers, standing behind the parts counter waiting on customers. Suddenly it dawned on me... “they didn’t have a parts counterman and that was my specialty!”
I introduced myself to her, mentioned that I noticed she didn’t have a parts counterman, handed her my resume and asked if I could be of service to them. She gave me one of those... “Yeah, right, like I’m really going to hire a transient biker who just got here, is staying in a motel and has a van to put all the parts he’s gonna steal from me in before he heads back to wherever he came from”... looks. She took my resume and pawned it off on Jim Clark who was doing the magazine work, figuring he’d blow me out the door.
A few minutes later, to Rose’s utter amazement, out walks Jim Clark with Tom McMullen, Roses Husband. We shook hands, talked for a little bit while Tom sized me up, and then he hired me on the spot. I could tell Rose was really pissed off. When Rose was angry about something you definitely knew it. Tom and Jim walked me out back to show me around and right there in front of me was a duplicate of the Easy Rider bike that Peter Fonda rode in the movie, which I had seen about a dozen times.
While I stared in awe at the bike, Rose came in and asked Tom to come out front for a minute. A little while later Tom came back over to me and said that Rose had said the salary we had agreed on was to high and she cut it by fifty cents an hour, no doubt figuring that I wouldn’t go for it and would leave. What she didn’t realize was that I would have paid them to let me work there if I had the money. I smiled and said... “No problem”! Tom smiled, we shook hands again and Tom continued to show me around.
Tom took me out the back door and to my amazement there were his two pet cougars. They were absolutely beautiful! He took me inside the caged area and I got to meet them up close and personal. It was quite an experience. Later we went back in and Tom showed me around the parts counter area explaining how things worked, where everything was and what he expected from me. I couldn’t help looking over at the Corvair powered Trike and the Mindbender, two of Tom’s more famous bikes.
I Now Was The Official Parts Counterman For AEE Choppers
Before you know it, it was time to shut down and call it a day, and what a day it was. It looked like Rose had finally (albeit reluctantly) excepted the fact that I wasn’t going away anytime soon. I was so happy and excited I felt like I was going to explode. I could hardly wait until I was back at the motel where I could phone home and tell my family all about it. I now was an employee of the most famous Chopper Parts Manufacturer in the world at that time, and it was only my third day in California!
As I laid there in bed unable to sleep, my mind racing with memories of the high points of the day, I just couldn’t help thinking to myself once again... “you know, life really is good!”
