A 1935 Harley-Davidson VL with left-side sidecar.
After wandering around the first of three buildings surrounding the car lot, I?m so overwhelmed, I can?t help but exclaim, ?This is incredible!? Owner Tom Brim smirks and replies, ?No it isn?t,? and invites me to view ?the rest of the bikes? housed in additional buildings around the neighborhood and in the salvage yard he owns on the edge of town.
Red, white and blue of different stripes.
We hop in Brim?s pickup to go see the offsite buildings and Brim makes some room on the seat for me, moving a box of Ducati rain gear thrown in with a recent purchase. ?If you buy the motorcycles, you?re required to clean out the closet as well,? he jokes. We drive a block or two from the car lot to a small cinderblock building with partially boarded-up windows. There are a few worn-out dirtbikes, a perfectly restored Suzuki two-stroke from the ?70s and a BMW Isetta 300 with its torn-apart engine sitting on the concrete floor in front of it. The afternoon sun streams on a pearl-white 1935 Harley VL that Brim says came from Spain as he hangs up his phone. ?It has a sidecar mounted on the wrong side,? he points out. ?Every time the exchange rate changes, bikes change hands.? A gearhead?s take on international commerce. Even the display cases have wheels! Inside are a 1917 Indian 8-valve boardtracker, a 1907 Indian tri-car and a Jefferson single.
Many of the machines in Brim?s collection are ones I have admired from the pages of books, but hav...