Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

By the end of the auction. a turn-of-the-century Pope V -twin (above) and a four-cvlinder Ace with sidecar (below) seemed commonplace. Many bikes were unrestored: t he only glamorous thing about these machines was the price they commanded on the auction block. McQueen (Continued from page 8) me. "His favorite bike was that Indian Chief chopper. " I flipped through the glossy pages of the overpriced ($20) Official Souvenir Steve McQueen Estate Auction catalogue. and fina lly located the particu la r Indian. Zounds? My heart immediately went into de p ressive spasms. This was no pris tine hunk of machinery. T h e Indian was a battered 1947 semimotorcycle. chopped and butchered to the point of no return . Dingywhite (wh a t might have once been pearlescen t), there was more rust than motorcycle. The tank was dented. The front tire was flat. The seat was rip p ed. The saddlebags looked green with mold. Having floppy-looking ex tended front forks. an oil-soaked engine and loose wires every wh ere. McQueen 's favorite Indian wa s a veritable wreck. " Yep." Ekins cont inued while I stared in horror a t th e ugliest bike in the ca ta log ue. " It was h is fa vori te bike. He used to call it his Rat Bike. He'd ride it up to the Rock Store. So he wou ld n't be recognized h e'd put on his white stro ker ca p. dark gl asses. throw a bedroll on the front a nd tak e off for th e weekend. N obody'd pa y a ny a tte nt io n to h im . H e didn 't restore th e Indian . H e did n 't work o n it a t all. T ha t's wh y i t was h is Rat Bike. H ell. yo u g ive h im a screwdriver. he'd cut h imself." Not be recogn ized? No wonder ! McQueen would ride up and park th e wh eezing Indi an . and o the r m ot orcy cl is ts w ould run ba ckw ard s . scr eaming in horror and holding up crossed o pe n-end wren ches to ward off th e dem on I Even th e low-maintenance types wh o never ad just th eir ch ains would look aska nce a t th e Indian. w h ich probabl y h adn't had an oil change since 1952. (E kin s did explai n that McQueen was a pro when it ca me to tire cha nges.) Ekin 's story about the Indian was the cloth that eventuall y went into the McQueen tapestry: T o hell with fi lm-strip heroes who ca n field-strip a motorcvcle in 30 seconds flat. a ll th e while making out with 12 alternating heroines. McQueen's cu tti n g h im self silly on a du ll screwdriver means a lot more. Ekins succeeded in . ma king th e priva te McQueen I'd not known. come to life. I cou ld envision McQueen sitting on a rock up Mulholland. si p ping a Cold O ne wrapped in a brown paper bag. McQueen eyei ng the sport-squids and Harley machisrnos, a q uintessentially cool McQueen peering o ut from beneath the brim of his white stroker cap. maybe thi nking about making a G rea t Escape from Hollywood. getti ng ou t the Indian . th e bedroll. and blo wing smoke across the Mojave. .' Las Vegas itself. however . was the gateway to debacle. I lodged a t th e Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino. and my room quickly became the nerve center for those other few motorcycle reporters unlucky enough to have drawn Thanksgiving duty. who were in a fou l mood and needed a room besides their own to destroy. The immediate consensus was that the auction story would be a ya wn er. ranking alongside reportage of th e industry's newest chain lube. It was onl y Friday afternoon . with no football games on the tube . m iserl y expense accounts. all of us knowing that Saturday 's auction would see McQueen memorabilia - but 'no motor cycl es until Sunday. Most of th e journalists had already dumped th eir 10 worth o f ni ckels into th e slo ts. a nd left to o ur o w n co n versatio n s we gagged o n th e idea of wri ting a bo u t h o w gr eat each bike wa s a nd ho w much it so ld for. By ea r ly Frida y even ing. non e o f this elite group ca red a bo u t th e a uc tio n sto ry. and th e biggest probl em wa s what to do for fun . (This is where Evel yn th e $200 R edh eaded hook er fi ts i n. so ge t yo ur editor's p in ki ng shea rs ready. Alth ough yo u 've esta blished yourself as e jou rnalist-prooocateur, a nd th ough a mod icu m of good taste a nd desire to p rot ect the ide nt ity o f the reporter in delicto keeps m e from fleshin g o u t scurril ous des criptive p assa ges . I doubt eve n yo u have th e teme ri ty to print th is particul ar. sere n -dipi to us nuance.) \Vhere Evelyn was concerned . • • • • • • was tb e onl y reporter wh o had a spare $200 a nd wh o got to kn ow th e bell ca p ta in on a first-name ba sis. Mostl y. ...... figured McQueen wa s a hell of a g uy who wouldn 't have wanted ...... to spend Thanksgiving Weeken d alon e. As ..···· later sai d. " I did it as a tr ibute to McQueen. " But Evel yn 's primary soc ia l co n tribution was to virariouslv breathe life into a n otherwise dead bunch. On Saturday morning. th e m otorcycle press corps were dozing in th e reporters' gallery. but as soon as word about Evelyn made the circuit. the hot topic was how to devise a foo lproof method of expense-accounting Evel yn to ......'s magazine. We had already artfu lly contrived to charge off ......'s $35 quart of Crown Royal he 'd ordered up from room service. Bu t disguising a $200 out-of -pocket cash disbursement with no recei pt was an a ltogether different matter. J·rry Smsth o f Rs der magazine was the most vociferous ad voca te. insisting that ...... 's motorcycle might hav e serious-a nd-mysterious clutch basket problems on the return to L.A . B·II St·rm·r,though. worried about th e probabil iti es o f ......'s being ca u gh t in [lagrante, M·ch" l P·ns. a yo u ng a nd eager freelance ph·t·gr· p h · r. pondered wh ether or no t a cIut ch basket was wo rt h $400. (just re me m ber. as you 're m adl y sn ip p ing away: Redheaded hookers ride mo torcycles. too . a nd we're talking a bo u t Real Life J ournalism .) The McQueen a uc tio n story co ntinued to p it ch to ward Gener a l Debacle (ret.). Saturday's a u ctio n co n sis ted o f as h trays. di m e- a- d o zen p hotos. road sig ns and bread bo xes . I was eager to p ursue bi ts o f t he p ub li c McQueen leg en d by i nter vie wi ng so me o f th e bidders. but a rece p tio nist at th at o ther mo torcycle magazine h ad forgo tten to o bta in a bidder 's pass for me. Ther e wa s. o f co u rse. th e Peanut Ga ll ery. a p ress-on ly balcon y ove rloo ki ng th e a rnp ithea tre wh ere bid der s suc ked do wn free Blo od y Marys. but by the time I arrived a t the press boot h th e o the r journa lists had ea ten a ll th e free blue ber rv Danish a nd wer e dozing with muffi~ cru m bs in their beards . So . because o f th e lack o f free food . I wandered down to th e bidder 's bowl. Wi thou t my having a pa ss. th e secu rity guard refused m y e n tra nce. I fin all y succeede d in o bta in ing a pass by pretend ing I wa s Bud Ekin 's seco nd cous in . . .. And presently sa n k into the p illow y depths o f a naugah yd e , diamond-tuck-and-roll booth in th e ampirh eatre (w here at night th e Imperial Palace presented an extra vaganza of Budd y Holly . Elvis and Marilyn Monroe impersonators). This wasM-O-N-E-Y. at least in the pocketbooks of those who were bidding. I saw more diamond rings than you have endurance racing trophies. and most of the diamonds were bigger than most o f yo ur trophies. It was especially depressing for an u nder pa id motorcycl e jounalist to watch th e gaggl e of tuxedoed aucti oneers titil late a bidder into bu ying McQueen's Towering Inferno ha t for $1.900. This was th e " twee d y suit set." a hotel employee described. people wh o tossed a way m oney like co nfetti. everyo ne vyin g fo r a piece of McQueen like so ma ny vu ltures pecki ng away a t th e bones of a legend. It was a n a bsu rd gat heri ng of America n No uvea u Ri ch e. and if the re were a ny nonersatz co llectors th er e o n Sa tu rday . I did n ot recognize them. No . these struck me as o ld g ro up ies who 'd co me for a p iece o f T he Sta r as th ough to promote th ei r o wn faint legacies. (Perha p s. I th ough t. Sunday wo u ld be beuer.) Nope . T he debacle worsened Sa tu rd ay n ight. I spent th e remainde r of th e day musi ng over wha t I kn ew to be a story w ith ser ious internal co nIli cts, The sp iked $ 1000 phot ogra ph was o n ly th e beginn ing . On th e o ne hand was th e pur it y o f a n o ff-scree n McQueen . O n the o ther was this nau sea ti ng L as Vegas specta cle. Even th e idea o f expense-accou m ing a buffet di nner fa il ed to cheer me up. Ov er a pl at e o f beef S troganov, I lamented to photographer Pons th at not o n ly had th e other journali sts g u zzled down m y ent ire quart o f Crown Royal. but I'd a lso won and th en lost several hundred dollars a t the blackjack table. Surel y. th e Ha r ley co u ld n ' t have two broken clutch basket s o n th e same trip. When sudden lv! Deus ex mach ina! Even as th e check a rrived m v internal o rgans began to pipe thei; discontent. I kn ow as well as a ny tireless journalis t th e o ld Get-Si ck -AndDisappear- When-The-Cheek-Arrives p loy. but th is a ttack was unm ista kabl y a gen uine blitzkrieg. Pons. o f course . thought I'd run off so as to gore him with the check. but he . too. was stricken within an hour. Sunday morning witnessed a shouting match between myself and some minor fu nctionary of the hotel, who (Co n tin ued to page 2-1 ) 17

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