April 10, 2021

“Meet Me In The City” Birmingham, Alabama Sloss Furnance

We had great day at the “Meet Me In The City” antique motorcycle swap meet this past weekend. It started out raining very hard that morning. None of us had any idea what kind of turnout there would be on such a wet day but we were counting on seeing the sun by noon, and we did. To our surprise the meet was very busy with folks. The quality of items that were in the swap meet was a top notch and the location was perfect for this type of event. We will definitely be attending this meet again next year.

03/06/2020 - 03/08/2020

Sunshine Chapter Meet, New Smyrna Beach Florida

A few pics sent in from SMC member Dorsey and Mike on their recent trip to the Sunshine Chapter Meet.

02/29/2020

SMC Huntsville meet this morning for breakfast. Attending were John Lindberg, John Keith, Erik Bahl, and Dorsey Uptain. Members decided we will be doing some lunch rides this spring/summer rather then all breakfasts and breakfasts at different restaurants.

February 8, 2020

Summary of 1st AMCA/SMCMarietta Breakfast Get Together

Five SMCM members met on a cold and snowy February morning to eat breakfast and do some bench racing. Discussions ranged from dirt and adventure riding to restoring a Harley Davidson VL. National AMCA Meets were reminisced and planned.

An April 18 date (same time/same station) was set for the next Get Together with an optional Quad County Figure Eight Ride afterwards.

Attendees: Mike McCloud, Stan Anderson, Doug Johnson, Chris Gilman, Charlie Drummond

January 25, 2020

SMC Carrollton’s monthly lunch at Knucklehead Café.

We had a pretty good turnout with a mini tech “show and tell” discussion on HD plumber style manifolds and the differences between shovelhead 74” and 80” cylinders. Good food, good friends and good fun!!

SMC Huntsville’s “Almost Monthly Breakfast” and Tech Day 11/9/2019

SMCHuntsville’s “Almost Monthly Breakfast” was held again at Rolo’s Café in Huntsville Alabama. In attendance was SMC Huntsville Ambassador Dorsey Uptain, members Erik Bahl and John Lindberg. SMCCarrollton Ambassador Mike McCloud and member Kent Bennett attended and were there for the following Tech Day to be held at the Bahl compound. A fun time was had by all!

Thanks, Dorsey and Erik!

After a tasty breakfast we headed to the Bahl compound to begin the Tech Day assessment of Erik’s leaky intake on the rear head of his 1947/48 Harley FL Chase bike.

Disassembly was next on the agenda with removal of the rear head. The intake manifold could not be removed without pulling the head due to the rear head intake nipple spinning in the head. The rivet that retains the nipple was loose and could be removed from the head. The top motor mount was discovered to be broken at the rear head attachment point, hummm, maybe why it vibrated a bit!

A peer into the hole a 0.030 over piston was discovered to occupy the bore of the rear cylinder…nice for a 72 year old engine!

The nipple threads and the threads in the head are buggered a bit and the nipple just pulled out of the head. Oh no!!! The retaining rivet hole has broken out of the side of the nipple. No wonder the manifold nut would not unscrew!

A burr on the valve stem presented a easy removal of the exhaust valve. A little SMC team effort provided the remedy with some micro surgery!

Looks like a valve job is in order….Both heads are now removed!

Check out the left front motor mount bolt…looks like it had a crack in it for sometime…Good, good vibrations!!!

SMC Carrollton’s Monthly Gathering at Canton’s BBQ, Brews, and Boos 10/26/2019

Saturday morning started out looking pretty bleak with cool temps and a misty rain falling out of the sky! Tommy Harper and I met at the Waffle House in Villa Rica at 8am with Kent Bennett on his way from Lagrange to arrive around 9am. We gassed up after Kent arrived and headed toward Canton with mist continuing to fall all the way to Cartersville, where we stopped at a gas station for a break. While there Tommy and Kent spotted SMC Huntsville Ambassador Dorsey Uptain with his 1976 Harley sidecar rig in tow. After a brief chat with Dorsey, empty bladders and some antifreeze added to the system, we all headed on to Canton with more drizzle in the face.

Once in Canton, SMC Huntsville member Erik Bahl spotted us and followed us to the event site. During more drizzle,  SMC Chattanooga member Doug and Patty Jones arrived as well as SMC Carrollton member Billy Russell. SMC Marietta members, Charlie Drummond and Stan Anderson came out to join in the fun as well. The weather actually cooperated in the afternoon with no more drizzle and the event had a pretty good turnout. Good food, music, brews and Boos fun was had by all! Please see pics!

Barber’s Vintage Festival 10/4/2019

Well, we had another hot one at the Barber Vintage Fest this past weekend! Despite the elevated temperatures there was a pretty good turnout for the 15th annual event. SMC members were well represented at this years event with members from all of our associate chapters, Chattanooga, Huntsville, Birmingham, Carrollton and Marietta.

We had several members who placed in the AMCA peoples choice bike show on Saturday out of 96 bikes on the field. In the custom class, SMC Birmingham's Troy Coleman placed second with his 1972 Honda Four chopper, and SMCCarrollton's Tommy Harper placed first with his 1962 FLH Panhead chopper. In the 30's class, SMCCarrollton's ambassador, yours truly, placed third with my 1938 ULH Flathead. In the 20's and earlier class, SMCHuntsville's Erik Bahl placed 3rd with his 1913 Excelsior Twin.

Congratulations to all who placed in the show and a "BIG THANKS" to all who participated!!! A "HUGE THANKS" goes to those who volunteered and helped out where needed during this busy event, Billy Russell, Ali Russell, Joe Morris, Tommy Harper and Kent Bennett!!! If I missed anyone, my apologies! A great time was had by all!!!

A short video shared by SMC member Dorsey Uptain crossing the Bixby Creek bridge in Big Sur, California on his recent trip to participate in the Monterey Roadrun.

Pics from SMC Carrollton’s monthly lunch gathering. 9/28/2019

Look for pic of Erik Bahl, Chase rider #63 from SMC Huntsville. Erik came over for lunch with SMC Carrollton. He gifted a tube of “goop” which he used to help plug up a inlet nipple leak on the front head of his 1947 FL during “The Chase”. You can read about Erik’s journey on the SMC Blog. Thanks Erik!!!

Coverage of “The Chase” from SMC President Mike McCloud

I followed them to Macon and Tallahassee from Chattanooga. Tuesday afternoon (9-10-19) a few SMC members came to Chattanooga to see the bikes and riders and our own SMC riders Erik Bahl and Mike Carson. Stanley Krawiec, Roy Chapman, Joe Casola, Doug and Patty Jones, Dorsey Uptain, Jake Segars, Cecil Frost and myself were present. Wednesday morning (9-11-19) the riders were preparing to make their way to Macon via a west Georgia route. The arrival in Macon was quite hot! The evening was filled with hotel parking lot maintenance and preparations for the ride to Tallahassee. Some riders took advantage of Tallahassee HD for maintenance and the hotel parking lot was the same as the nights before busy with preparations for the next day.

When I came out of the hotel in Tallahassee Friday morning, the rear tire on my bike was flat. The tube had a small split at the seam on the inside of the tube about 6" from the center valve stem. Took the wheel off while all of The Chase riders were leaving. Thanks to SMC member HD Liz, a bike shop nearby was the morning destination for a tube change. So I got a ride from a friend, Arley to Florida Motorsports. We got there before they opened and luckily they had the correct size tube. I had a spare tube and wanted to keep it for the rest of my trip, just in case! They got right on it as soon as the first tech arrived installing the new tube. Got the wheel back on and about 2 1/2 hrs later, Liz and I were headed to Lakeland. We arrived at Lakeland HD while all the riders were there. The morning, Saturday, Liz and I saw all the riders leave for Peterson's HD in Miami and we headed toward Tallahassee.

SMC representing at the Nashville Music City Roadrun.

Pictured SMC members: Pam Chapman, Roy Chapman, Dorsey Uptain, Kent Bennett, Keith Kizer, Kendall Kizer, John Linberg (not in photo)

SMC Carrollton Monthly

Kent came up from Lagrange and we met at the Circle K at Hwy.27 and Linda Lane in Carrollton. We gassed up and headed toward Rockmart to Knucklehead Café. Not far after leaving the “K” Kent’s primary belt lost some teeth, so he was out for the ride. Kent dispatched his wife to pick him up with the trailer while I proceeded to Knucklehead’s. Billy, Allison, Roy and myself enjoyed the afternoon lunch gathering.