![]() I would have never gone to a traditional musical, but this…’ Seeing bros on dates is kind of awesome.” Some of my favorite comments from people are, ‘I would have never gone to see a theatrical show. The bike actually idles and sounds like a Panhead with that carb on it.”Īlthough Bob will admit that everything is for sale, but for the time being he is content with having an original legend to grace the corner of his shop, and the bookend bobber to grace the country roads around his home.And finally, the M-word might scare off part of the target audience - the part that is wearing “Death Proof” T-shirts to a night out at what may or may not count as “the theater.”Įxecutive producer Shane Scheel says part of the production’s marketing goal is to “reach the average Joe that’s intimidated or is turned off by theater. I even went a little extreme and built a manifold for it so I could use an old brass Linkert carburetor. “It’s designed to look like it came from the 40’s or 50’s.” Bob said, “This one, with the tank emblems and the way we laid it out, looks like a 1946. Taking a 1978 Shovelhead driveline he had kicking around the shop and pairing it with an aftermarket FL frame, he wanted a street rideable track bike that looked old. In fact, he liked the style so much he decided to make a bookend to the WR in a more modern street legal version. It didn’t matter what type of racing it did, so in keeping with the heritage of the bike, he decided to forego the hill climber version and make it a flat track racer instead, liking the style a little better. ![]() Race engines are built to run fast, but for only for a couple of races and then they’re rebuilt again, so they’re built loose to begin with,” Bob said.Īfter researching the WR series of bikes, Bob realized that a WR motorcycle was a race bike, period. “To rebuild this engine was kind of weird to do because you’re rebuilding to worn out specs. Being the perfectionist that he is, Bob found it a little difficult to rebuild the engine to the race specs. A quick rundown of the bike’s visible components revealed it was pretty complete with original parts, unlike many race bikes of that era that were bastardized with homemade pieces which were quickly made to repair the bike and get it back into the race.Īfter a complete teardown of the bike and the driveline Bob repaired, welded and rebuilt everything that needed attention. It was in pretty tough shape cosmetically when Bob took possession of the bike, but it did run after applying a little coercion. The gentleman that answered the phone just happened to be part of the race team, but didn’t remember a lot about the bike. This last race campaign date was determined after calling the phone number on the remaining piece of a bike shop decal that had actually become one with the fender. This 1951 WR served as a Southern Ontario hill climber in its past life and from what Bob can figure out, it last saw action in 1964. The WR models were never available to the public and were the Harley-Davidson factory purpose-built race bikes from days gone-by, making them fairly rare in their day, and especially rare today. So with all that experience, to say he has never been inside a WR race bike engine sounds a little absurd.īob heard about a bona fide WR for sale through the grapevine, and after working on so many different Harley engine configurations, he just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to rebuild the race bike back to its former glory. He has built hundreds of engines over the years for the American V-Twin market. For well over thirty years, Bob has been wrenching professionally and building bikes that have appeared in many magazines worldwide. ![]() Both of these bikes featured here serve a purpose in Bob McKay’s mind, one is a legend from the Canadian vintage racing scene, and the other is just a fun road-worthy bobber project to imitate the antique flat tracker.įor those who don’t know the name Bob McKay, he is one of Canada’s best-known bike builders. ![]()
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