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The Best of of the EJ Cole Motorcycle AuctionMarch 20-21, 2015 - Las Vegas, Nevada
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Sold for $350,000 on March 21, 2015 This 1942 ‘big tank’ Crocker was restored by Richard Morris, who spins this tale: “In 1980, Bob McCloud needed $5K for an operation, and sold me Herb Fagan’s old Crocker. It was remarkably complete, barring an ugly glass pack muffler from a hotrod. It was gold and green metalflake, a real barfmobile, with a Vard fork, which I put on my Chief. Willie Chambers replicated a Crocker fork, copying Dennis Young’s bike – you can only tell the difference by Willie’s excellent welding job! For this bike, we also made the air cleaner, headers, and exhaust. Given its age and life of hard use, this is a remarkably original bike. It’s currently bored to 70 cu-in. – we had to overbore it as there was a deep gouge in the front cylinder. This 70-inch job is much faster than my stock 62-inch Crocker. I built the toolboxes from Ernie Skelton’s blueprints; he had about 50 pages of prints on brown paper, plus tuning notes from Bixby on gum wrappers etc., and this toolbox drawn in January 1942 and signed by Al Crocker. I copied the drawings and built 35 ‘Crocker’ toolboxes, which seem to be on every Crocker now, although they were never produced. It’s a fantastic machine, and really fast.” |
| 1942 CROCKER V TWIN BIG TANK | |
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Designed during 1935, the Crocker big twin
was intended as a durable and powerful, yet fast and nimble machine. Its
45-degree V-twin engine had hemispherical OHV cylinder heads and a
nearly 'square' bore/stroke (3.25x3.62 inches – 62 cu-in.), with an
incredibly robust three-speed gearbox, with its cast steel housing part
of the frame. While Bigsby made the patterns, most castings were
subcontracted, then machined in-house. The first models used HD valve
gear, Indian timing gears and brake shoes, plus occasional HD or Indian
headlamps and ancillaries. Crockers featured a pair of cast-aluminum
fuel/oil tanks, holding 2.5 gallons initially (the 'Small Tank' models).
Most ancillary parts were purchased from standard motorcycle industry
suppliers like Autolite (electrics), Linkert (carbs), Messinger
(saddles), Splitdorf (magnetos), and Kelsey Hayes (wheel rims). Introduced in 1936, there was no 'standard' Crocker, every customer specified the state of tune and engine displacement; the cylinder barrels were cast with extra thick walls, and could be overbored to 100 cu-in. The 62 cu-in. Big Twin produced about 55-60 horsepower, which exceeded its competition by 40 percent or more. Al Crocker offered a money-back guarantee for any Crocker owner who was 'beaten' by a standard HD or Indian, as he had built the fastest production motorcycle in the U.S., with speeds over 110 MPH the norm. Harley-Davidson introduced its first OHV V-twin – the model EL 'Knucklehead' – six months after the Crocker, but it was 15 MPH slower. |
