From Pepe Alvarez:

In our driveway last week, on their way to Mexico

“The motorcycling world loves a barn find, an old, obscure machine wheeled out of the woodwork for the first time. And this is one of the biggest revelations of recent months. It’s a 1930 Henderson that was customized before WW2 by a fellow called O. Ray Courtney and fitted with streamliner bodywork.

One night in March, 1950, O. Ray Courtney worked until two a.m. And drove home discouraged. He was trying to design a better motorcycle. He wanted one with the seat forward, with better cooling, better springing and a more beautiful body. Discarded sketches littered the floor of his shop.  That night in a dream he saw a steamlined beauty skim across a flowered field. Too excited to report for work the next day, he hastily put his dream on paper and he is riding that dream cycle now through the streets of Pontiac, Michigan

The art deco influence is obvious; legendary automotive designer Harley Earl could have drawn those curves.

It’s all the more unusual because the mechanicals are hidden: even at the height of the Art Deco movement, most motorcycles were a triumph of form over function, with exposed cooling fins, brake drums and suspension springs.

The bike is owned by collector Frank Westfall of Syracuse.

It caused a stir in June 2010 when it appeared at the Rhinebeck Grand National Meet, a motorcycle show held a couple of hours drive north of NYC.…”

https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,59055.msg1358117.html

Was generating a lot of interest at Green Festival. 100 miles on a charge. Top speed 90mph. 100% electric.

Lew and I spent the weekend in Ukiah, manning our booth at SolFest, the solar energy festival. Ukiah is kind of a relief from the preciousness of Marin County. It’s a real town, with real working people.

The Sun House, a redwood Craftsman bungalow home built in 1911 by John and Grace Hudson is adjacent to the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah.

Typical shit-kickin truck of the area…