Wednesday, August 3, 2011

AEE's Big Twin Lives...

...well, sort of.

I thought I had read somewhere that it still existed.

Blog reader Stu, sent an email to let me know it's on freewh33ler.blogspot.com explaining that it's for sale on ebay right now. Item#170675591779. Note the outboard wheel is just placed here for the photo since it is both unbolted and inside out.


The replaced fork and front wheel assembly totally sucks and betrays Ed Newton's original elegant design. It originally showcased a narrow AEE Springer (which is how it looked the best). When AEE repainted it to this color scheme, they replaced the springer with a rigid girder style fork (not the current forks). You'd think that if anything would have been pirated, it would have been the engines.


Someone had the brilliant idea (NOT!), to modified the frame to accept a blower.


Besides the fact that they shouldn't have modified a classic show piece, the blower mod kind of ruins the effort of the reversed heads of the left side. The original intention was for the pipes and carbs to be a symmetrical mirror image of each side. The listing mistakenly states that machining of the flopped heads was done by Harley, it was actually performed by AEE's own machine shop. Good God, what happened to it's seats?!!


Note that it was licensed and tagged up to June 1980, meaning it was likely driven on the streets.


My vote would be to put it back to it's first incarnation's paint and forks.

I guess it's better that it has survived in this shape than not at all. Now all that is needed is for a rare individual who has the means and desire to rescue and restore it to it's former glory.

6 comments:

Johnny Wolf said...

I saw that too, lets hope it happens!

damion saunders said...

Great post C. I wanted to put more about it on freewh33ler but I'm glad you did... you're certainly the right guy for that! Now, if anybody wants to buy it fore me I'd be glad to restore it back to original... just throwin' that out there. :)

Chris K said...

Damion, Thanks to you for finding it and posting it on your blog.

I think it's cool that you guys started a Trike only blog. I found it when it first started and forgot to go back until Stu gave me the link.

If anybody hasn't visited it, go check it out.

http://freewh33ler.blogspot.com

damion saunders said...

Thanks Chris, we try not to step on your toes with it. I always have to check your site before I post something to make sure I'm not re-running it. I think yours and ZZ's sites have been the best for Trike stuff, sometimes CoC and the ASL too, but I like the way you give actual information about what you post. They say that people these days learn 80% of what they know about a particular subject from blogs... I think 70% of what I know comes from yours! Love your art too, thanks again!

Chris K said...

Thanks again Damion, I hoped you didn't feel I was stepping on yours. I just couldn't help sharing the news.

On the subject of posting what others have... It's OK if we each put our own take/spin, or add new information to the topic. Also, a blog that is a compilation of images and info which focuses on one topic such as yours, is a good thing.

People learning 80% from blogs?... now that's a little scary.

grant said...

i was hoping no one would post it so it would stay affordable and i could buy it!