Willie G Davidson Retiring

[Rub]

Would that be Willie and JOHN HARLEY

No, Willie and his brother John Davidson, former president of H-D.

[HarleyCreation]

Herb,
It looks like Ray Drea will be the next in line He is currently the V.P. of styling,Willie will be moving his office down to the H-D Museum and be more involved there.
Ken

I don't blame Willie G. for moving his office down to the Museum as the bikes there are cooler, although not better. Still, the red brick factory on Juneau Avenue has way more ghosts flitting about and no mistake. If there was ever a haunted house, it's that place. It's simply dripping with them. IMO, old Bill Harley and the rest of the gang walk the halls there at midnight.

Note that mention on the Knuth photo of the "Beer City Riders." What a great name for a motorcycle club! I don't know that I've heard that one before. Was that another Knuth sponsored club or something else?

Speaking of clubs, some time ago I found a blurb about the Milwaukee Pirates motorcycle club when they first organized as AMA and your dad was mentioned I think. Do you know the exact year they organized and who the orginal officers were?

[The Professor]

Willie who?

[milw.pirates]

Herb,
I have seen the Beer City Riders Memorabilia,but was not able to add to my collection.not known if they were sponsered by Bill Knuth.
The Milwaukee Pirates started some time between 1944-1948.
Buddy and Rollie at one time held the Presidents position in the club.
currently there are only 3 members that are known alive,Buddy,Lucky Eddie and Me.
can you e-mail me the blurb on the Pirates and have you ever seen anything on a pre 30'S club called " Pair-O Dice" M/C out of Milw.?

[HarleyCreation]

We'll have to keep a lookout for more about the Beer City Riders.

The Pair-O-Dice club seems to ring a bell, but I don't have a card in my files on it. I'll make a note tho. You say pre-1930s for that club. What is your source of info on it?

Yes, I will email you blurb on Milwaukee Pirates.

It's great that you are a member! Did the old guys swear you in?

Herb,
I have seen the Beer City Riders Memorabilia,but was not able to add to my collection.not known if they were sponsered by Bill Knuth.
The Milwaukee Pirates started some time between 1944-1948.
Buddy and Rollie at one time held the Presidents position in the club.
currently there are only 3 members that are known alive,Buddy,Lucky Eddie and Me.
can you e-mail me the blurb on the Pirates and have you ever seen anything on a pre 30'S club called " Pair-O Dice" M/C out of Milw.?

[milw.pirates]

Herb,
You have a copy of the photo of my Dad in a sidecar rig with a older woman in the sidecar,the woman is Buddy's mom,Her and Her husband in late teens early 20's rode with the "Pair-O-Dice" M/C from Milw.
My Members card was issued to me by my Dad early 60's

[rozmka]

Hello, my husband's grandpa and grandma were memebers of a local milwaukee club in the 1930s into the early 1940s. I'm trying to find grandpa's old bike. I guess his grandpa actually owned two bikes one that was about a 1936 and the other a 1942. It has been quite a search so far. I don't suppose you know if they were a member of the Pirates? Their names were Tony and Helen Rozman. I guess people called him "100 mile an hour Tony." The two of them enjoyed doing hill climbs up until a young couple they were friends with got killed.

If you have any other ideas on clubs I could check out. I'm hoping there is a way to check on past memberships. I'd don't have the VIN number or model for either bike so it is making things hard.

Thanks,
Kate

Herb,
I have seen the Beer City Riders Memorabilia,but was not able to add to my collection.not known if they were sponsered by Bill Knuth.
The Milwaukee Pirates started some time between 1944-1948.
Buddy and Rollie at one time held the Presidents position in the club.
currently there are only 3 members that are known alive,Buddy,Lucky Eddie and Me.
can you e-mail me the blurb on the Pirates and have you ever seen anything on a pre 30'S club called " Pair-O Dice" M/C out of Milw.?

[sirhrmechanic]

Kate:

If you write to the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles with name, DOB and other info... and a timeframe from which you are searching the records, someone may be able to do a manual search of the old records for Tony Rozman and get you a VIN number for the bike. There is probably a paper copy on file somewhere or it was transferred to microfilm or microfiche as was done in many states. We were able to do that in VT with a bike. The paper records are still in a dusty basement somewhere.

Some states charge fees to do this kind of research, but it's usually fairly nominal. Other times you can get them to do it for nothing, especially if there is a historical or research angle to your quest (ie. make one up!!). With a VIN you can do a national search very easily.

That would be your best bet unless some family member has an old registration or license plate floating around that would narrow the search. In fact, if you had a photograph showing a registration number and a date, that would make the search even easier.

If the state destroyed old records or they got burned or flooded out... your will be out of luck. But most of the time, those records are somewhere... Probably in a basement in Madison.

Cheers and just my 2 percent of a dollar....

Sirhr

[milw.pirates]

Kate ,
Do you have any idea where in Milw. they lived( north side,south side,west allis,south milw. etc.....)there were about 8 to 10 well known clubs.

[rozmka]

Thanks so much for the idea! I'll give it a try. I was told once that those years were tracked by license plate number so this might get interesting .

Kate:

If you write to the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles with name, DOB and other info... and a timeframe from which you are searching the records, someone may be able to do a manual search of the old records for Tony Rozman and get you a VIN number for the bike. There is probably a paper copy on file somewhere or it was transferred to microfilm or microfiche as was done in many states. We were able to do that in VT with a bike. The paper records are still in a dusty basement somewhere.

Some states charge fees to do this kind of research, but it's usually fairly nominal. Other times you can get them to do it for nothing, especially if there is a historical or research angle to your quest (ie. make one up!!). With a VIN you can do a national search very easily.

That would be your best bet unless some family member has an old registration or license plate floating around that would narrow the search. In fact, if you had a photograph showing a registration number and a date, that would make the search even easier.

If the state destroyed old records or they got burned or flooded out... your will be out of luck. But most of the time, those records are somewhere... Probably in a basement in Madison.

Cheers and just my 2 percent of a dollar....

Sirhr