Huey Schwebs and Jesse Bassett
The Cleveland Motorcycle Manufacturing Company located, where else, in Cleveland, Ohio, is alive and well. This isn’t the first time, either. Starting in 1902 and running right up to the Great Depression, Cleveland was one of the many motorcycle manufacturers trying to give Harley-Davidson a run for its money. It didn’t work and Cleveland-like so many other American motorcycle companies with big dreams-went under. In 1996, Huey Schwebs acquired the rights to the name of that long-defunct company and re-badged his Performance Engineering Company to become the Cleveland Motorcycle Manufacturing co. Huey and his crew are building everything from bobbers and choppers to baggers and streamlined and swoopy customs-and bikes like this one belonging to Huey Schwebs himself.
It all started with an old ‘44 UL flathead engine Huey had around the shop. He wanted to put it to good use. He came up with a really old-school bike, something reminiscent of the “teens” and ‘20s and celebrating the original Cleveland Motorcycle Company’s heyday. And it was all just for fun.
Cleveland’s Jesse Bassett says there was a lot of special fabrication here. Working from that vintage flathead engine that Huey rebuilt himself, everything else was assembled around it. A brand-new Redneck Engineering frame was sliced and diced in every way imaginable to downsize it to the diminutive scale of the ancient Harley-Davidson power plant. The UL Flatty, am 80 incher, is roughly 10 inches shorter than Harley’s latest offerings. That Redneck frame was shortened considerably and its backbone lowered accordingly. All this was matched with a Redneck Engineering springer front end. Jesse took care of the sheet metal work, building the tanks, going the extra mile to gently roll every edge to an exact and uniform fillet all the way around.
Each tank is separate and slides in place. One side holds gasoline only; the other side is split to carry both gas and oil. The ancient engine was matched with a late-model Harley-Davidson 5 speed transmission that connection of the ages made with a special inner primary belt drive custom machined for the job. A Crime Scene Choppers outer cover dresses it all up.
The bike-and its 5-speed-is obviously no slavish attempt at a recreation of something old and original. There are disc brakes on both wheels. Still, there’s plenty enough of the old here to go around, like the hand controls, for instance. They’re 1936 BMW reverse-hand levers. They were found at a swap meet in Holland. All the wiring’s routed internally through the handlebars with the brake lever cable actuating a master cylinder tucked away and hidden between those twin gas tanks. Speaking of hiding things, the magneto on Huey’s UL motor is actually a custom machined housing holding a Crane HI-4. But then jumping right back into the old, the floorboards came from a 1926 Harley-Davidson JD. They’ve been shortened to fit and match with custom handmade pedals. Air shocks from a mountain bike tame things under the seat.
No one around the sop was sure what Huey was thinking when he announced his color choice for the bike...1956 T-bird Sky Blue. But when it was finished, everyone had to agree the boss made the right pick--especially when it was matched with those cream accent panels and given a little pinstripping.
Huey’s 21st Century Cleveland took about a year to build, the guys working on it between customer jobs as he found time. It’s been finished for about a year now, and everyone also agrees it turned out just fine. It’s a fun little ride. It turns heads and draws a crowd everywhere. Watch out Harley, Cleveland’s back. Sort of...
Photography: Michael Farabaugh
Story: Easyriders.com
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