YORKTON - It looks like something out of a steampunk novel, but it’s really a vintage motorcycle, one of the earliest produced by Harley Davidson.
The motorcycle, a 1911 ‘Silent Grey Fellow’ was one of the entries turning heads at the 2022 edition of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Yorkton and Area ‘Show and Shine’ held Saturday at the Walmart parking lot.
“I found it on a farm near Humboldt, a little town called Burr,” related Tony M Medernach, adding it took some dealing to get the old bike.
“The guy didn’t want to sell it.”
Medernach said what the fellow did want was a Buick straight eight engine. He happened to have a friend that had access to such an engine, so he made a trade for the rusty old bike, and then Medernach bought it.
It was a bike Medernach said he just realized he needed to save.
“When you find a bike that old, it’s quite a treasure,” he said.
The 1911 model means it was built in the seventh year of Harley Davidson.
“They did build about 5,000 bikes that year,” said Medernach.
Very few of those 5,000 survive, with Medernach estimating maybe 100 exist today, which is why he estimated the bike has a value of about $100K.
The old bike was in rough shape, but Medernach proved a patient man and slowly the skeleton of the past began to look like it just rolled off the assembly line.
“It was about 10 years of restoration,” said Medernach.
Interestingly, the bits and pieces required proved relatively easy to find, the barrier as much time and money as not knowing where to turn.
“Really nothing was really too tough. When you’re doing projects like this you get to know people who have stuff,” said Medernach.
So once he had it back running, what was it like hearing the four horsepower, 30 cubic inch, motor that is started with the aid of bicycle pedals running?
“Before the bike was painted I put it together to see if it would run,” said Medernach, adding when it started, “that was like heaven.” When on the street it can hit a top speed of about 30 m.p.h.
Since then the refurbished motorcycle has been a showpiece Medernach rides whenever he can.
“I’ve probably put several thousand ‘K’ on it over the years,” he said, adding he has taken it on poker runs, toy runs, and drove it to Saturday’s show although that was a short ride as he lives in Yorkton.
