1974 Motorcycle Salvage Junkyard Parts

1974 Motorcycle Salvage Junkyard Parts - 5-Page Vintage Article Original, vintage magazine advertisement / article Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) Condition: Good
Uninitiated observers call them
junkyards; those who run
such places call them salvage
yards. If Madison Avenue types
named them, the world would have
emporiums of pre-owned parts.
Call them whatever you like
because we all know what’s there.
By Jess Thomas
• Suppose that you need a wheel hub for
your Suzuki X-6 or an engine for lhe ’49
Famous James you're restoring. The wheel
hubs have been back-ordered from your
friendly local Suzuki dealer for two
months and the last anyone heard from
the snarky old dude who used to be the
James dealer was that he had been the
focal point of a tremendous funeral. The
answer to these and similar personal
traumas for bike freaks may lie drowsing
in the warm summer dirt at a local motor-
cycle salvage yard.
For the good old neighborhood junk
yard, limes have changed. The dog de-
scribed in Jim Croce’s bad man ballad
reminds one of the days when a fellow
could heft his tool box into a junk yard
and remove an un-split radiator for his
'51 Ford and walk back out the gate for
ten bucks. But junk yards now are unfit
for human eyes. Various local and na-
PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVE HOLEMAN, STEVE FRENCH
tional ordinances have the yards sur-
rounded by high, opaque fences. When
you walk into one you face an experienced
counter man who can look in his card file
and tell you if he has what you need. The
part will have been removed, at least su-
perficially cleaned, and placed in a num-
bered bin. And it'll cost you half the retail
price of a new part, plus tax. The yard
employees work with high-speed pneu-
matic tools, often belong to unions with
medical insurance and retirement pro-
grams. and their work environment is
regulated by the Federal Occupational
Safety and Health Act. The term junk only
enters the picture when the time comes
for the salvage owners to tell the IRS what
their inventor}' is worth. The situation
hasn’t reached the Cadillac stage yet,
wherein junk parts might be called pre-
owned components—but it isn’t far oft'.
The motorcycle salvage yards range in
nature between what the car yards used
to be and what they are now. The bike
bone-yards approach both extremes and
many are venturing off into other sidelines
and specialties. We visited three of the
better known yards in the Southern Cali-
fornia area to give you an idea of what
motorcycle salvage yards are all about,
and what you can expect when you first
do business with them.
San Diego Motorcycle Salvage is owned
and managed by a couple of the freest
spirits you’ll ever want to meet. Wade
Killen dawdled through as much school
as he could stand in a small Alabama town
and applied to Harley-Davidson for a job.
After a couple of years as an engineering
draftsman and road racing weekends and
vacations on his Sprint CR, Wade shucked
the Wisconsin winters for the beach life
in San Diego. While working as a me-
chanic in a local Honda shop to support
his considerable racing habit Wade met
Eric Marcus, a refugee of the Chicago auto
junk yards and a bike freak who was
leaching motorcycle mechanics at a trade
school. A deal came up for the two to
buy a lot of parts from a dealer that was
going out of business, and San Diego
Motorcycle Salvage sprung into business
overnight. Wade still races in the AMA
National Championship Road Races and
Eric teaches motorcycle safety at San
Diego State, works on his dune buggy and
takes flying lessons. The SDMS “Team
Junk” entry won the sweepstakes class in
a recent benefit economy run with a
step-through Honda 50, and look the lil-
lle-wheel class with a Cushman scooter.
San Diego Motorcycle Salvage special-
izes in European din bike parts as well
as the standard street models. Their par-
ticular sideline is completely recondi-
tioned cylinders and heads with new parts
on an exchange basis. They have a good
machine shop. A Honda Japanese domes-
tic model truck has been converted into
a mini-wrecker, complete with an electric
hoist actuated by a starter motor from a
salvaged CB750.
Once a most prized possession and the first easy rider on the block, this old Suzuki slowly erodes.
A classic of tuning overkill: a BSA blivet tries
to drive 500 cows through a two-cow gate.
Old West saddlery combines with dime-store
shirt-pocket monogram on this old Harley seat.
Eric Marcus (!) and Wade Killen started SDMS with a joint deal on old Vespa parts.
Double indemnity: old Triumph
sprung hub on BSA swingarm.
Tiger Cub fender chronicles L.A. carpel baggers' trips to England.
Oldest Villiers two-stroke we ever saw next to H-D 125 at Motorcycle Salvage.
As near as we could determine, the
oldest bike yard in the country is Motor-
cycle Salvage, Inc. in Azusa, Ca. Bill Gross
manages the yard with his assistants Edgar
Cazares and Harvey Webster. In the Six-
ties, Gross says that he imported as much
as 100,000 pounds of used parts from
England in a single year. He still has a
huge amount of older English parts, but
the natural bulk of present business is with
Japanese brands. In the front half of the
salvage building. Gross operates the big-
gest helmet, boot, and accessory discount
store we’ve ever seen. Leather pants and
jackets for all kinds of bike sports cover
a huge showroom. In an adjacent building.
Gross’ son and son-in-law operate a
warehouse for their chain of motorcycle
parts and accessory stores.
In nearby North Hollywood, the firm
of Johnson and Wood has been selling
salvaged parts since 1968. about half as
long as Motorcycle Salvage. A few years
ago. Woods tired of the business, sold out
to partner Teddy Johnson and steamed
off to India in pursuit of a ghuru, truth,
and beauty. The salvage store continues
under the management of Alan Butts.
Besides the normal mounds of Triumph,
BSA. H-D, Norton, and Italian parts. Butts
also has a good stock of new Triumph
components. All the fast-moving Japanese
items are binned according to file
numbers for quick service.
Johnson and Wood's sideline is the
manufacture of specially spoke kits. Ted
Johnson supplies high-strength stainless
steel replacements for all standard dirt
bikes as well as specialty items like a set
of spokes to adapt a 16-inch wide rim to
a Honda CB-750 rear wheel. These kits
and spokes, plus a custom wheel-building
service are provided on the retail and mail
order level at the salvage store.
The salvage end of all three of these
yards operates almost identically. As bikes
come in, the fast-moving items are re-
moved and stored in indexed shelves. If
a part is in good condition, the starting
price is half the retail price of the new
part from a retail dealer. The more items
or the more complete assemblies a cus-
tomer wants, the more likely he is to gel
a discount on the lot. From what we could
see, good-natured haggling is the spice of
life for the counter men. But woe unto
the poor soul who insults the man by
offering a ridiculous price. He'll pay ex-
actly half of retail, or get kicked out of
the store immediately.
The rarest and most expensive parts are
for Harley-Davidson. Norton, the Euro-
pean dirt bikes and the Honda Fours.
Suzuki bits are the cheapest at both retail
and salvage prices. Complete engine as-
semblies range from about S25 for a Honda
50 to more than S500 for a mediocre 750
Four. Engines and parts used on profes-
sional racing machines, such as the Ya-
maha 650-750 twin, are particularly dear.
As we strolled among the treasures and
trash in the three yards, distinct categories... 17418

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