classic motorcycle forum
Motorcycle Discussions => Identify these bikes! => Topic started by: VintageBike on August 25, 2008, 07:36:44 AM
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Can anyone help Lynn Jones of the USA? She would like to know what these bikes are in these superb pictures. They show her grandfather and his cousin in 1906.
(http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Bike%20Directories/OthersStoZ/images/Yale-06-1.jpg)
(http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Bike%20Directories/OthersStoZ/images/Yale-06-2.jpg)
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Many thanks to HOward of Oz for advising that these are both Yale motorcycles.
Nigel.
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Fabulous photos! This model Yale was introduced during 1910, as the early 1910 models had trouble with breaking frames.
http://users.senet.com.au/~mitchell/bikes/california/html/yale.htm
Leon
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And thanks also to Max who has emailed me the following info:
If you look very closely at the Frame on each Yale you will see that the top frame tube drops down just after the head-stem casting, this was done to lower the frame and seat height, but was only ever offered for the 1910 Yale selling year , the very same year the first 6 ½ HP V-Twin Yale appeared also with the drop down frame , standard finish being gray with navy-blue pin-stripping.
Because the Yale’s featured did not exist before 1910 nor did the photograph.
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First, let me say that my grandfather must has made a mistake when he labeled the back of this picture "Leslie & me in 1906" when it was taken and printed (not later on when he was old). I would be happy to email you a picture of the back of the picture. Second, I guess the picture does exist since it is posted on the site. Third, I just looked at an advertisement I found for a Yale Test motorcycle that looks similar to this one dated 1901. Fourth, since the picture shows one of the sawmills that he kept the books for in 1906, I assumed the motorcycles were from 1906 or earlier.
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Hi Lynn,
I'm sorry you seem a bit unhappy about dating the Yale motorcycles in your photos at 1910, even if I can understand your scepticism of information that arrives via the internet! I'll attach period (and dated) illustrations of the 1906 and 1910 Yale models to show the differences. For more info (for example to show that the 1909 Yale is quite unlike the 1910 model), follow the link in my previous post above.
I'm not an expert on Yale, but I am very interested in the origin of the Yale motorcycle as I own a 1903 California which was the basis for the 1904 "Yale-California" - the first Yale motorcycle. Or at least what I thought was the first Yale motorcycle! I'd be most interested to hear more about the 1901 Yale Test, as I've not heard of it before.
Cheers,
Leon
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And the 1906 Yale.