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Fritz Harmon and his son and their 1913 Indian Single Speed
Make: Indian
Model: Single Speed
Year: 1913
Country of Origin: USA
Engine: 1000cc Twin
Transmission: none
Owner: Fritz Harmon
City: Riverside
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Congratulations to Fritz Harmon of Riverside for winning Bike of the Month with his 1913 Indian Single Speed. Fritz won a $20.00 Beach Burgers gift certificate provided by Beach Burgers and The Scooter Solution.
Normally we like to see people riding to the meet, but no one would expect Fritz to ride his 99 year old bike from Riverside. The next best thing would be to bring it to the
meet in the back of a 1940 Ford pickup.
Nearly 100% original, the Indian has been in the Harmon family since 1913. According to Fritz:
Purchased by my grandfather, E. F. Harmon in 1913 in Tucson, Arizona. He worked in the silver and copper mines and as a blacksmith in Duquesne, AZ. He rode the Indian untill 1922 when a part in the clutch broke and he had a long push home. In 1924 the family moved to Fullerton, California where the Indian was stored in the garage until 1962 when my Father started working on it. He had to hack saw the old tires off the rims, which were petrified, he cleaned the gas tank and carburetor installed new sparkplug wires and machined the replacement part for the clutch. Nobody made antique motorcycle tires at that time so he found tires off a rickshaw from China that were too small and had to be stretched to fit the clincher style rim. It still runs to this day, 100 years later.
The bike has clincher tires and a larger rear sprocket that his Grandfather purchased directly from Indian to lower the gear ratio for the hills in Arizona.
Thank you Fritz for bringing it to our meet. View all the photos in our October Gallery.
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