Here’s a collection of vintage photos of motorcycles and their riders in New Jersey.
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Rachel Young Rogers paused during her ride on this vintage Harley in West Hudson Park in Kearny to pose for this undated photo. Courtesy of George Rogers |
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An unidentified youth is astride his classic motorcycle chatting with a woman while his friend stands nearby in this circa-1950s photo from Chatham Township. Courtesy of the Chatham Historical Society |
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New Jersey State Police officer Harold Kiernan has backup riding shotgun in 1928 in this early version of the State Police K-9 division. Courtesy of the N.J. State Police |
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Earl Heyer, in the dark shirt at right, and a friend are shown at the corner of Bloomfield and Glen Ridge avenues in Montclair before leaving on a cross-country motorcycle trip in 1924. Their odyssey was covered by the Newark Star-Eagle. Courtesy of Charles Heyer |
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Irvington patrol officer Gus Zelles took time out from crowd safety duties to stop for this 1935 photo. Courtesy of the New Jersey Historical Society |
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A motorcycle club posed for this group photo in downtown Bound Brook in the 1920s. Courtesy of the Bound Brook Public Library |
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Two riders paused for a photo at the Crystal Sandwash in Vineland before continuing to ride the trails and hills at the artificial lake in this undated photo. Courtesy of Ronald Turchi |
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This unidentified young man has a cool scooter to tool around Chatham Township, as shown in this circa-1960s photo. Courtesy of the Chatham Historical Society |
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This photo, taken in 1918, shows members of a Plainfield motorcycle club known as the Queen City Motorcycle Club. Men and women are shown posing with their Harley-Davidson motorcycles in front of the stores of Randal Harness Co. and H.J. Pasch on Somerset Street in North Plainfield. Courtesy of the Plainfield Public Library |
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Dirt biking at the Eighth Street train trestle bridge in Bayonne, circa- 1970s. Courtesy of Keith De Mauret |
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Warren Pomphrey is the driver and Evelyn Leavens is the passenger on this Harley-Davidson in a photo from the late-1940s in Red Bank. Leavens could drive the bike, but liked Pomphrey's help in steadying the bike at stop signs and traffic lights. Courtesy of the Monmouth County Historical Society |
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Brothers Paul (left) and Robert Moody are ready for some motorbiking as they sit atop this vintage Harley-Davidson in a photo taken in Martinsville in 1926. Courtesy of Ellen Geschwindner Opdyke |
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The Millburn Police Department purchased its first motorcycle, this Indian, in 1911. From the photo, it's obvious that a different kind of 'horsepower' was still useful to the force. Courtesy of the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society |
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Clearly a man who kept his motorcycle clean, Allen Crawford sits on his Indian in this circa-1918 photo taken in Tinton Falls. Courtesy of Arcadia Publishing |
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Take a close look -- that's a happy dog ready for a sidecar ride in this photo taken in front of the Lexington Cycle Shop in Clifton in 1924. Ernest and Pierina Tramontin are standing next to the happy hound. Courtesy of the Clifton Public Library |
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Members of the Morristown Police Motorcycle Squad pose with their vehicles on the lawn of the Vail Municipal Building on South Street in this photo by Frederick Curtiss from June 4, 1926. Courtesy of the Morristown and Morris Township Library and the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center |
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John Mellor, left, and Carl Vanderwall are ready to hit the road in Linden, stopping for this photo on Hussa Street in 1908. Courtesy of the Linden Historical Society |
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A motorcycle police officer in Perth Amboy poses on this vintage Indian in an undated photo. Courtesy of Arcadia Publishing |
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Vineland's Motorcycle Club posed for this 1915 photo in front of J.U. DuBois and John Potts' Vineland Repair Shop on the 300 block of Landis Avenue. Courtesy of Arcadia Publishing |
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A group of motorcyclists posed for this photo in front of Van's Café and the Egg Harbor Hotel on Philadelphia Avenue in Egg Harbor City in 1912. Courtesy of ehchs.org |
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Doug and Stan Parker are ready for a ride on their Indian Motorcycle in this early-1920s photo taken in Little Silver. Courtesy of the Monmouth County Historical Society |
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Middletown Police Chief Earl Hoyer, right, and William Fix were a two-man department when this photo was taken in 1933. Courtesy of Arcadia Publishing |
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An unidentified motorcyclist in Piscataway paused during his ride through town for this early-1900s photo. Courtesy of the Piscataway Public Library |
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The Woodbridge Township motorcycle squad posed for this photo in front of the municipal building on Memorial Day in 1928. From left are Benjamin Parsons, Carl Sundquist, George Balint and Joe Lewis. Courtesy of Bernie Anderson Sr. |
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Aaron Morris stands in his bicycle and motorcycle repair shop in Elizabeth in this photo from the early-1900s. Aaron Morris Bicycles went out of business in 2007 after 103 years. Courtesy of the Morris family |
(via
NJ.com)
Bueno - maybe someone will find similar photos of Mexican-Americans, African-Americans and First Nations-Americans on their motorcycles so the full history is preserved.
ReplyDeleteThat would usefully add to history, but there weren't many of those groups riding or otherwise relative to population in New Jersey in the era this page covers. OTOH there's considerable later material from the West Coast, particularly California, where multiracial biker clubs and African-American clubs preserved their histories. Greats like Sugar Bear (still alive as of this writing and making his trademark springers), Cliff Vaughs etc are remembered on other pages like the Vintagent. If you can find vintage issues of Black Biker magazine (quite collectible today) that captures their creative West Coast scene well.
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