popes O.H.V.

[c.o.]

Awesome!!!!!!

[HarleyCreation]

this is jeff habermans bike with perry macks son bill.

Wonderfully excellent photo and bike.

Considering that Bill Mack is Perry Mack's son, would anyone care to guess what that trophy signifies?

Prize is one rusty old spark plug....

[Earl]

Wonderfully excellent photo and bike.

Considering that Bill Mack is Perry Mack's son, would anyone care to guess what that trophy signifies?

Prize is one rusty old spark plug....

Hmmm,....is the spark plug as big as a doorknob...???

[HarleyCreation]

Hmmm,....is the spark plug as big as a doorknob...???

Earl, you're a mind reader. I just came back here to edit my post and add that tidbit but you beat me to it!

Yes, it's a doorknob size early plug, but really, were they actually that big? That's what Bill Harley said, but a doorknob is huge!

PS: like Hap would say, that photo got everything! The big magnificant fully OHV Jefferson motorcycle, Perry's son dressed in matching blue jacket wearing that nifty hat, the FAMOUS trophy (hint hint), and the little sign reading "Mack" in the background. Even the paint on the house matches! That photo is a contest winner and no mistake! Will the guy who took it please step up and receive his award.

[HarleyCreation]

I just finished reading a bio of Col. Albert Pope. Not the greatest book and not much about the Pope motorcycles, but some stuff I never knew before.

Col. Pope was a HUGE player in the early bicycle industry back in high wheeler days. He got the "good roads" movement started which basically became our highway and improved road system! The Pope Mfg. Co. was also huge in new manufacturing methods and improvements handed down to the motorcycle industry.

In the early days, the Pope Co. built rip-off CLONES of English bicycles on least 2 occasions and sold them here.

Therefore, it seems possible that Pope did copy parts of Perry's OHV motor and produced it under the Pope brand.

f they did it before with English bicycles why not again for the Pope 1913 OHV line when they needed a new sensation?

Another thing I didn't know is that the Pope Co. was dissolved in 1914. The motorcycle and bicycle works were bought by the Westfield Mfg. Co., so after 1914 it would seem that the bikes were "Popes" in name only and produced by Westfield in Westfield, Mass.

If there's more to the story, the book didn't go into it.

The full Pope story needs to be told. I get the feeling it's an excellent American tale from early bicycle days right thru to 1918.

[pem]

I waited a few days for somebody else to have a chance but no takers. The trophy is the one that was won by Bill's dad Perry on July 4th 1905 at the Garfield Park cement bicycle track in Chicago while riding one of the first five production Harley-Davidson motorcycles ever made. It was also at this track on this very same day that Perry hit a dog in another race and knocked himself silly. Interestingly enough I was just at the new Harley museum yesterday and they also had a trophy from that very same day that was won by Walter plus one other trophy won by Walter in June 1905 at the mile track at the State Fair grounds near Milwaukee. If my calculations are correct the trophy Bill is holding is the 3rd oldest trophy known that was won by any Harley-Davidson rider and motorcycle.

Bill was pretty proud of his dad. I believe this was the first time Bill ever had a chance to actually touch one of his dad's v-twin Mack motors or original or replica of his dad's motorcycles. He had to wait 76 years to do it.

Dick Werner

[HarleyCreation]

I waited a few days for somebody else to have a chance but no takers. The trophy is the one that was won by Bill's dad Perry on July 4th 1905 at the Garfield Park cement bicycle track in Chicago while riding one of the first five production Harley-Davidson motorcycles ever made. It was also at this track on this very same day that Perry hit a dog in another race and knocked himself silly. Interestingly enough I was just at the new Harley museum yesterday and they also had a trophy from that very same day that was won by Walter plus one other trophy won by Walter in June 1905 at the mile track at the State Fair grounds near Milwaukee. If my calculations are correct the trophy Bill is holding is the 3rd oldest trophy known that was won by any Harley-Davidson rider and motorcycle.

Bill was pretty proud of his dad. I believe this was the first time Bill ever had a chance to actually touch one of his dad's v-twin Mack motors or original or replica of his dad's motorcycles. He had to wait 76 years to do it.

Dick Werner

Dick,

You win the big spark plug prize!

Interesting that three 1905 trophies have survived and are known to exist. That shows how suddenly the H-D motorcycle came onto the scene in 1905 and immediately set to racing, which 100% contradicts nearly every history book in existence that says H-D didn't start racing until the teens. Wrong!

It's a good thing you guys went up to see Bill Mack and put it all together like you did. To me that Jefferson OHV is a magnificant motorcycle and Bill's dad Perry E. Mack was the main man.

[jurassic]

[c.o.]

Wow! That's one fine machine! Good choice on color......... It looks like it drove straight out of the past!

[jurassic]