Saturday 18 June 2011

Fishing with the right bait……

Early morning, I have been convinced by my friends that it is a good idea to come along to a local small auto jumble…….Well, I am always ready for a jumble…

After a wile I saw this big V-twin engine……Iver Johnsen, rare as hen's teeth…






I thought I had struck gold until I recognized the smiling face of the vendor. He is a friend of mine and had brought the engine to use as bait for likeminded people.


He is desperately seeking parts for Iver Johnson, so all ways will be used to find bits. If you have anything for Iver Johnson, send me a mail, stigtorb@hotmail.com , and I will get you in contact with a dedicated restorer.







So why this fascination for Iver Johnson? To make a long story short: Iver was a Norwegian gunsmith who immigrated to USA in 1863. He’s skills was much needed during the civil war and he ended up with a company called Iver Johnson`s Arms & Cycle Works. Iver Johnson died in 1895, but he’s sons continued the firm. They produced motorcycles from 1907 to 1915. So it would be cool to see a motorcycle with so much Norwegian history again on Norwegian roads…


4 comments:

American motorcycles said...

I could tell many stories how I tried to track down where this bike dissapeared after having been sold of to a local scrap dealer in the late sixties (that was what the rumors said, they where wrong). This Iver Johnson and a couple of other teens bikes came out of the same house not far from Vennesla.
I think there is a fair chance we will se more bits of this bike beeing discovered in the future.

Lasse said...

Confess I´ve never heard of it! Very interesting!

Anonymous said...

super cool, super rare bike. I knew of one guy here in the US that had one, but he died and it disappeared. I'll ask around to see if anybody can help your friend.

Beveldrive said...

Would be great if you found anything.