Ed and His Harley-Davidson Topper

John, you will recall when we visited that Schwigart Museum in PA you took a photo of me standing beside a Harley-Davision "Topper" motor scooter.  Here's a U-Tube video of a guy starting up one just like I had -- they started with a "pull cord" much like a lawn mower and had "Scoot Away" drive which was essentially a centrifugal force transmission -- the higher you revved up the engine the higher the belt would move on the cone shaped drivetrain.  But its funny how we often remember the sounds of the various vehicles we've owned.  Listening to this guy start up and then drive off on this Harley brought back the exact sound of these 2-cycle engines.  But they were often temperamental to start as one has to jiggle the choke just right.

There was definitely a "technique" to getting these things started.  And I always measured the oil that had to be added to the gas very carefully because if one put in too much oil there would be lots of black smoke and the engine would sometimes just choke up.

 I look back in some disbelief, but after finishing high school in "backwoods" Southern West Virginia  in June 1965, a few weeks later I started to college during a five week summer school -- the summer before the official fall term 1965 began.  I had not moved to campus yet and lived at home -- 21 miles each way, from the college.  Can you believe that I rode this motor scooter five days a week for five weeks in July and early August 1965.  Took English 101 and History of Western Civ 102.  There were a few days where I got to class soaking wet because of heavy rain and arrived back home later in the day often still wet.

While I got a "head start" on my freshman year, I still wonder what propelled me to do what I did -- ride a motor scooter 42 miles round trip each day for five weeks.  What kind of "quest" for betterment or knowledge pushed me to make such a grueling ride and on a scooter that rarely made over 40 miles an hour and on treacherous  winding roads.  

We all owe debts to those who enabled us on our life's journeys, but I sometimes think I owe a debt to that little Harley-Davison scooter that got me to class. But in the fall of 1965, I'd saved enough money from part-time jobs to buy my 1959 Plymouth Fury which, as I recall, already had 95,000 on the clock.  The car with swivel seats!

an advertisement for a Harley "Topper" that shows cut-a-aways of the engine and the "Scoot Away Drive."   It's interesting that this was the only scooter that Harley ever made -- a really dependable and reliable vehicle, yet it sold in very low numbers over its short life span.  Only a year or so after it was discontinued, of course, Honda brought out the Honda 50 cc which was a sales splash.