| Many parts used in the
bike's fabrication bear uncanny similarity to parts that were used
on DC3s. "The bike is patterned after a Grindlay-Peerless but instead
of a tubular steel frame, my grandfather used wing strut 17ST-grade
airplane aluminum. The bolts are military specification hardware
with a tiny airplane stamped on them. And the control levers on
the handlebars might be from an aircraft, although they might be
homemade," says Neil.
And the brakes are decidedly low-tech coaster brakes, like those
on a bicycle you pedal backwards to make it stop. In this case,
a pedal gets pushed, a chain gets pulled and the brakes work,
sort of.
As for the riveted aluminum frame, Neil smiles and says, "I
think he must've done this at work because he would not have had
the tools to do it at home."
The bike accelerates by pulling on the front right lever. Tricky.
On most motorcycles this is the brake lever. The kill switch thankfully
says Stop.
Neil is adamant that the Hesselberg DC3 stay in its original
condition. He has entrusted Rob Ireland at Milwaukee Street Motorcycle
Service and Frank Strachan at Dream Cycle to fix it up. "I've
had it for 10 years and I'm not a motorcycle mechanic so I was
discouraged. I took it to Rob because I trust him and know that
he can do what I wanted," says Neil, pleased that Rob got the
bike running shortly after he started working on it.
|
efore
he left Denmark, when he was just 17, he designed and patented a little clean-out
adjustment on Coleman Lanterns that's still used today," says Neil,
32, an insurance-company computer programmer. "During the war he
worked at Douglas where they made parts for DC3 airplanes."
