As many of you know, our good friend Matt Olsen, the Antique Motorcycle Club of America's Youth Director, put on a Youth Essay Contest in 2008/2009 aiming at getting a younger generation of people involved with the AMCA.  The Grand Prize  -- a 1942 Harley-Davidson WLA Bobber Basketcase.  And the catch......the winner would have to build it!

In order to make this project happen, Matt put in months gathering parts for the basketcase.  and by the end of 2008, he managed to gather an entire basketcase motorcycle through donations from countless AMCA members who wanted to help open the club to a more youthful audience.

For the contest, entrants between 18-25 years of age would write an essay, explaining their passion for old motorcycles and why they were the right person to win this great bike.  The project was a huge success with over 90 young, ambitious guys and girls sending in their essays before the deadline.

At the Davenport, Iowa AMCA swap meet and bike show, the winner was announced as none other than 18 year-old Ryan Mackey of Willoughby, Ohio.

Ryan would be building his basketcase bobber to his own standards, and as part of the contest, he'd work under the supervision and guidance of both Matt and his dad Carl at their shop in Aberdeen, SD.  Over the course of the winter, Ryan spent five weeks with Matt and Carl, and made some serious progress on getting his WLA basketcase ready for the road. 

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Over Ryan's spring break, he made his way down to Wheels Through Time to take on a very important aspect of the build --- the transmission.  When Ryan came down, we knew we'd be working with someone who was excited about antique motorcycles and, I have to say, I was overwhelmed with his passion.

When Ryan got here late Saturday, we toured the museum for a while, then made our way back to the shop to take a look at what we'd be working on over the week.  He was ready to jump right in, and within only a few minutes we already had our hands greasy. 

The next morning, Ryan and I jumped in on starting the rebuild of one of my very rare Harley 45" motors -- a 1942 WLD high-performance 750.  This type of motor was similar to Ryan's motor, which he and Matt Olsen had already built a few months earlier, but with a few different high-performance parts.  By having Ryan do most of the work on it, he'd acquire some great experience in-case he ever needed to work on his own motor in the future. 

Within a few hours, we had the heads and cylinders apart, cleaned up, repainted, and rebuilt.  By the end of day, the cases were split and the crankshaft was disassebled.  After lots of clean-up, they were ready to go back together the next morning.  Ryan took on the build with great interest, and it seemed that he learned quite a bit along the way.  By the end of day 2, we had the motor rebuilt and were ready to move on to the next project.

In his basketcase, Ryan had received a complete transmission, correct for his bike but needing to be rebuilt.  Harley 45" transmissions are an intricate component and must be set up as perfect as possible to run and operate correctly.  After lots of Kroil and WD-40, Ryan had the tranny torn down, and moved on to cleaning.  Thats when we hit our first hiccup.  The transmission had a small crack by the third mount, and would need to be repaired before the rebuild.  The only problem -- we only had a few more days to get it done.  Opting not to stretch the build any closer to the deadline, we managed to dig up another transmission case that looked like new.

After clean-up, it took most of the night to get the transmission reassembled, but with great help and great company, we were able to go home that night confident it was a job well done.  We replaced many of the other worn out parts with new ones, and ended up with a transmission that'd be perfect for Ryan's new bike.

The next day, Ryan helped me rebuild another transmission -- the mate to the '42 WLD motor we'd rebuild a few days earlier.  By mid afternoon, the transmission was done, and we were mounting it into the frame that our painter John had dropped off a few hours earlier. 

While Ryan was here, we also got him running down the road on his first tank shift motorcycle...a 1932 Harley-Davidson VL sidecar.  He picked it up in no-time, and within a few rides, he was on to another foot-clutch, this time with two wheels.  He's a quick learner.

Having gotten so much done over Ryan's week-long visit to the museum, I'm already wondering when he'll be coming back.  Matt and I sure could use the help around the shop.  

Thanks Ryan.  Good Luck in your build, and were looking forward to when you make it back to WTT.

To read more about Ryan, and to follow the AMCA Youth Contest Bike Build visit www.antiquemotorcycle.org