#82 In Roads-Servi-Car score
I stopped by the Sturgis Harley dealership to pick up the newest Thunder Press and struck up a conversation with the parts guy. It’s fun to talk to a biker. We crack a few jokes and chatter a bit before I ask if I can take his picture. We head to the parking lot so he can pose with his bike. Sitting gracefully in the corner is a beautiful 1959 Servi-Car 45 ci trike. John pops the trunk to show an album of the bike’s colorful history and walks me through the photos.
When John found the neglected bike in a chicken coop 10-years ago in Sanford, Florida it still had the name of the dealership where the machine had come from. After a 3½-month restoration, he took the trike down to the Athens, Georgia shop unannounced and left it parked out front just to see how long it took them to notice it. Ed, who was the service manager at the time, came out to see. Turns out Ed’s first job in 1961 as a 16-year old boy was running parts on the bike. He was excited to see the bike from his youth. He had no idea where it had been and it gave John great pride to share the restored bike and its story with Ed. One of the photos shows Ed sitting on the bike.
John is 62-years old and has been riding since he was 16. His first bike was a Honda 65; his first H-D was 4 years later when he found a trike in Orlando for $600. The machine fell apart three times in the 28-miles it took get it home. John shares his annual schedule of following the biker events. For the last 5-years he’s come from his home in central Florida to Sturgis and stays from Memorial Day to Labor Day before heading to Bikes, Blues & BBQ in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Then he heads back to Panama City for Thunder Beach before relaxing for the winter to get ready for Bike Week. I ask if he’ll be in Daytona when the Motorcycle Cannonball ride leaves in September.
“I’m friends with the MC riders Scott and Sharon Jacobs and their girls. Just talked to them the other day about their bikes and Sharon’s is ready but Scott’s still has some issues.” He follows with a prediction that Sharon will kick her husband’s butt on this year’s coast-to-coast vintage race. We’re anxious to see if he’s right.
