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Yesterday, my old buddy Mike came by the museum on his way through the area. Mike and I have been friends for 20 or so years and it'd been at least 10 years since we'd seen each other. Excited to have an old friend stop in, I asked how long he'd be in town, and if he'd like to stick around for a day or two on his way down south. Unfortunately, he couldn't stick around, but said he'd be glad to jump in and help out for the day. Thats were the trouble started.
We walked around the museum for a few minutes, looking for quick fixes that Mike could take care of in a few minutes. It wasn't long before Mike spotted my old 1925 Harley JD cut-down.
 The bike has quite a bit of history. On a sort of "timeline" of custom motorcycles, the "cut-down" was one of the first types of customs. This particular style is named for its "cut-down" features -- riders would strip all unnecessary items -- namely headlights, horns, floorboards, fenders, etc. Kind of the chopper of its day. The bike was worked on by the famous Elmo Looper, who was the lucky guy that acquired all of the Crocker Motorcycle inventory after the company closed in the early 1940s. He put on a set of Ricardo tapered-fin cylinders, which were used on factory racers of the day, and lowered the frame and shortened the tanks. And, wow, is thing thing a hot-rod.
So Mike pointed out the flat tire, and said let's get to work. I found the right sized tube and before long, we had the rear wheel off and ready for a new tube. Now the old JD's had what they call a "clincher rim", named so because the bead of the tire clinches against the rim. Not the best set up in the world, as the tires are an absolutely disaster to mount and the beads were prone to give out. I can only imagine having to do a roadside repair on one of these back in the early days under the hot summer sun.
We wrestled the tire and rim around for a while, being ever so careful not to pinch the new tube. As it all came together, everything looked to be perfect. We rolled it around for a minute, and grabbed the air hose. It took air quickly and didn't take long to fill up. We measured the tire pressure -- 30 pounds. We put it back on, and away I went, spinning the tires as I rode around front. As the small crowd outside the museum gathered to watch, I hit the throttle hard.......BOOOOM. There went the tire.....great.
So I rolled it back to the shop and Mike and I gave it another shot. This time.....a new tire AND tube. After another 20 or so minutes of wrestling this thing, we had the new tire mounted. Got the air hose and started to fill it up. Within 5 seconds, it happened again........BOOOOOOOOOM. The bead gave way. Imagine having a 70 year old tire blow up right in your face. We all had a good laugh about it, although none of us could hear a thing.
Try number three.....this time, we were extra careful, of course, to no avail. This time we pinched the tube. I guess third time is not the charm. Frustrated and tired, I called it quits and left Mike and my son Matt to do the dirty work. I guess they finished the job, but i havent checked the tire pressure yet. I hope, this time, its holding air!
-Dale 
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