The A3-31 Crate Is Going Back
The crating that the Hammer A3-31 came wrapped in is going back. Not to Austria but to Germany.
My neighbor across the street had a Victoria motorcycle (not to be mistaken with Victory). He had restored it from the ground up to perfection and would occasionally take it out for a spin. But a bad spill on his BMW bike got him thinking maybe it's time to hang up his motorcycle days. He's 77. So he sold the BMW and gave the Victoria to his son in Chicago. Then he started missing his Victoria. So he found a new project, same year, same model Victoria. But it looked like it had been sitting up against a barn for the last few decades buried in weeds. It was REALLY bad! I thought he was crazy tackling that. Everything was rusted solid.
He dove into the project and was overcoming one obstacle after the next. Then he hit a wall. There are four chains in the transmission and all of them were shot. And all of them were slightly different. He contacted a guy in Germany who helped him with the first Victoria. They guy sent him the drawings for the chains. He also told him the company that originally made the chains is still in operation in Germany but hasn't made those chains in a very long time, and they don't intend to start again.
The German offered to buy the bike as is for $1,600. That compensated my neighbor for his time and he took the offer.
So he comes over and asks if I have any scrap lumber that he can have to build a crate for the bike. I still had pretty much all the lumber from the A3-31 crate and told him he could take whatever he needs. He just came over again and took the last three 2x4s and that will be enough to finish the crate. Pretty soon that lumber will be making the trek back across the pond, along with most of the screws.
How's that for recycling!
