AFA Autumn 2019

2019 Antiques & Fine Art 21 sometimes to finish a bike.” When he’s restoring a bike, McGraw is both methodical and thorough. “When I find enough parts, I amass everything I need to assemble the bike … but before I restore it I fit everything, do the body work, then take it all apart, clean it up, paint and polish, do the plating, and then put it all together again.” Taking his father’s suggestion “to pick one thing and try to be a little distinctive,” McGraw says he chose racing machines because “they have a history and they’re hard to find because they’re usually thrown away.” He is focusing on collecting the full era, from start until now, of Harley race bikes. When asked if he’s missing anything, McGraw smiles. “There’s one that’s called the 8-valve Harley, which is the Holy Grail. Don’t have one of those [yet].” Likewise, the artwork and memorabilia on the walls during Art on Two Wheels is from a collection McGraw assembled with great care and patience. “All the artwork, with the exception of a few things, is original.” The results are incredible and include a cornucopia of paintings, posters, signs, and artifacts. left : Harley-Davidson made this bike for only one year. It’s called a Pea Shooter because it has a single cylinder engine that pops when it runs. Harley stopped making single cylinder bikes in 1917 or ’18, and the 1926 model marks their return to single cylinders. This bike has Harley’s first true overhead valve motor. It is a 350CC, capable of going 80 mph, and intended strictly for board track racing, so it has just one gear, no clutch, and no brakes. Just a kill switch. (If someone hit the brakes in a race, the entire pack could go down.) The first Harleys were black. Then came the Silent Grey Fellows. Then, in 1917, this green. Harley did not have optional colors until 1928. Everything on this bike is original except the tires, which are reproduction but accurate. Every nut and bolt is original and right. It has a one-year-only frame and tank. So it’s a very rare bike. right : The 1936 Harley-Davidson RLDR represents the start of Class C racing: a new generation of bike to attract more people to racing. Class C had a limit of 750 CCs and was designed so a rider could drive the bike to the track, take off the headlight and other superfluous features, race the race, put the street trim back on, and go home. This is the way it would have looked when it raced. Harley made these only in ‘35 and ’36, so it’s very rare today. This bike would have raced at Daytona—on the beach, way back when. This Crocker is one of the rarest in McGraw’s collection It was built in California by Al Crocker, who completed about sixty of them before Harley pursued him for patent infringement. His bikes were very advanced, each one made to order. If a stock Harley beat one of his bikes, he would buy the Crocker back for whatever the customer had paid. It’s the most sought-after ‘30s American bike there is. It looks like it was modified, like other bobbers, but this is exactly the way it was manufactured for the original buyer.