The Forgotten King of American Motorcycles

There are plenty of great motorcycle manufacturers. Honda, Kawasaki, BMW, Honda. These are companies that have built incredible machines and they've stood the test of time adapting and evolving when necessary. But then there are the legendary manufacturers, the ones founded by visionary minds who redefined the motorcycle as we know it for their time, only to then fade away, sometimes because they were too ahead of their time. More of these kinds of companies have come from Great Britain than probably anywhere else. Brough Superior and then Vincent made bikes that were the epitome of legendary. But what about American manufacturers? One of these kinds of companies stands above the rest, a company that made motorcycles so fast and so capable they terrified the higher-ups at Harley and Indian. This is the story of Crocker Motorcycles. Now, when you look at the truly legendary motorcycle manufacturers, the ones that have left a lasting imprint on the industry, there is a common thread. Almost all of them were started by racers, not businessmen, which would usually be their downfall. Crocker was no different. As the 1900s got going, the American motorcycle industry was really a fun place to be. There were startup companies popping up, but there was also the fact that the more established brands like Harley and Indian, they were making more and more capable production and race machines. And at this time, racers were willing to risk it all to push these motorcycles to their absolute limit. Albert Crocker was a young engineer and motorcycle racer at this time, and he lived in this world. It's difficult to really fully understand just how dangerous American motorcycle racing was. It didn't take long for board track racing to have its sort of mili-mili-a moment. That's the wild endurance car race that was banned in the 1950s because of a significant crash that killed multiple spectators. For board track racing in 1912, four young boys spectating the race were killed when Eddie Hasha lost control of his Indian race bike at some 90 miles per hour, sending it flying into the crowd. Eddie himself would die as well. Just a few years later, motor-drome racing, or murder-drome as the journalists were calling it, would begin to shut down across America. Interestingly enough, Albert Crocker would marry and start a family with Eddie's widow years later. Crocker moved around through the 20s. He mainly ran Indian dealerships, and he moved to Los Angeles in 1930 to set up shop selling used Indians and Harleys. His engineering prowess and racing experience was put to good use when he began developing racing accessories for these motorcycles. He would even sell his patent for a steering damper, which was pretty innovative stuff for this time. Motorcycle racing in America was changing at this time. Sprouts Elder had brought speedway racing to the U.S. from Europe and Australia, and it exploded in popularity. Seeing an opportunity, Crocker built a speedway frame and reworked an old Indian Scout engine with an overhead valve conversion to meet AMA's new 500cc rules. It ran on alcohol and made serious power, outpacing the Rudge bikes that had been dominating at the time. Only a handful of Crocker overhead valve kits were ever sold to the But Albert Crocker knew that the converted Indian engines were just too heavy, so in 1933, he and Paul Bigsby decided they were going to set out to develop their own single cylinder overhead valve engine for racing. That's right, they designed and made an engine from the ground up. Now it's true that these were different times, but that doesn't make it any easier. It's pretty incredible when you think about this. This engine was lighter, it was purpose-built for speedway racing, and it turned out to be incredibly successful. When the Crocker speedway bike debuted in 1933 at the Emeryville, California track, it won 9 of 12 heats in one night. Al Crocker was called up to speak and he simply said, they, that is the bikes, were good, but they would be better. Only about 31 of those speedway models were built. Crocker lacked mass production capacity, but he kept tinkering, even building a couple of chain-driven overhead cam engines in 1936. He ultimately left speedway behind. Instead, he decided to take what he'd learned thus far and apply it to building what would become the most desirable and one of the most iconic American motorcycles ever, the Crocker V-Twin. Crocker set out to build the first American overhead valve big twin in the US, and by 1936, he'd done it. A 45 degree V-Twin with hemispherical heads and a bulletproof three-speed gearbox. The first batch used cast aluminum fuel and oil tanks, known as the small tank bikes, and Crocker allowed customers to order custom displacements and tune levels, much like Brough Superior in England and even Vincent. These were meant to be kind of bespoke. Typical engines were 61 cubic inches or 1000 CCs, making about 55 to 60 horsepower, which is a full 50% more than Harley or Indian at the time, and the top speed was over 110 mph. Nothing like this had ever come out of America. The only motorcycles going this fast at this time were pretty much Brough's over in Great Britain. Crocker was so confident in his bike's performance, he offered a money-back guarantee. If you got beat in a drag race by a stock Harley or Indian, you could get your money back, but nobody ever collected. Probably because nobody like me was buying a Crocker, because I'm pretty sure I probably could have lost to anybody. By the time Harley released the revolutionary Knucklehead, as it's called now, that motorcycle was the very best that Harley could make at the time, and when it came out, it was already slower and heavier than the Crocker. The V-Twins were made in tiny numbers, likely fewer than 72 were made in total, and every bike was hand-built. Crocker kept refining his castings, especially the heads, switching from exposed to enclosed valve trains, and constantly improving combustion chamber design. He planned to expand, but the economics just didn't make sense. His bikes were simply too expensive to produce at scale, and by 1941, with World War II looming, production ended. It was short, but for those lucky enough to own and ride these bikes, boy was it sweet. I've always found Crocker and the Crocker story a bit mysterious. How was it that these bikes were so fast and so powerful, and how did this tiny, really nothing company just kind of come out of nowhere and make a true production motorcycle that was blowing Harley and Indian out of the water in terms of performance? I mean, these were true superbikes for their time, and they are the first American superbikes. Now, the first thing that I think you should understand is that though these motorcycles did share some components with other motorcycles, and there were, you know, bits and pieces that kind of made them parts bin, at least in some people's mind. In all reality, these were built from the ground up for performance. You know, the important stuff is what Crocker made. Matt from the Wheels Through Time Museum points this out in some of his really great videos on these motorcycles. All of the important stuff, the engine, the transmission, the brakes, fenders, frame, like pretty much everything that matters was handmade by Crocker, and especially the engine and the transmission. This entire power plant was built, designed, and made in-house, and in this sense, these motorcycles were actually more like Vincent's pre-war big twins than, say, Brough Superior, because those really were parts bin motorcycles. This is really what makes Crocker so legendary. He actually made these. Crocker engines were paired to a lightweight frame with the engine actually used as a stressed member, and it's here that Albert Crocker was able to make his motorcycles stand out from even Harley's advanced knucklehead bikes. Crocker knew that the secret to power from his experience in racing was to make the motorcycle lightweight, but especially for the engine, to have it be overhead valve. Advanced overhead valve setups allow for higher revs and thus more power. Larger valves, better airflow, and man, when you hear this motorcycle, you can just hear it. When you listen to, say, a knucklehead bike from this time, or one of Indian's big twins, compared to one of the Crocker big twins, you can just hear the power. It's in this sense that Crocker motorcycles felt much more like post-war bikes than pre-war bikes. They were so advanced for their time. Now, Harley didn't like Crocker. It didn't matter that Harley was selling en masse and Crocker was selling pretty much just a few bikes per month. Who wants to be called out like this? Crocker was essentially advertising that he'd be so embarrassed to see a stock Harley or Indian beat his bike in a race that he would just take the bike back. There are rumors that Harley even tried to cut off Crocker's connections with suppliers for certain parts, and yet even Harley would let this motorcycle influence them. It's not just that drag racing in America for motorcycles owes its roots to the legendary Crocker big twins. Even the styling would influence Harley. This compact, muscular stance that these motorcycles had. The shiny engine showcased as really the standout feature of the bike. That's something Harley would latch onto. The small teardrop gas tank. It's difficult to overstate just how influential these bikes were on American motorcycling going forward. Crocker's brief run left a lasting mark. He built the fastest, most advanced, most sought after motorcycles really in all of America for his era. Today, Crocker's stand right alongside Brough and Vincent motorcycles that have rightly earned this kind of mythical status. This is why if you've ever perused articles about the most expensive motorcycles ever sold at auction, you might know that Crocker's are some of the most expensive collector bikes in the world. I mean, in good condition, these fetch close to a million dollars. One of the best examples though is housed at probably the best motorcycle museum in the world, the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. So if you guys want to see one of these motorcycles up close and maybe even hear it get started and ridden around, that is the place to go. Most of the other Crocker's that are out there in the world are hidden away in personal collections. Now, I don't know if you've noticed this, but when a beloved legendary motorcycle company dies, often they come back. Triumph, MV Agusta, BSA, even Brough Superior. Well, you might not know this, but Crocker is actually technically still around. In 1997, a group of Crocker enthusiasts, including collector Michael Schacht and engineer Marcus Karolash, I'm probably saying these names wrong. Anyways, they began work on what would become the new Crocker motorcycle company based in Los Angeles, just like the original. Now, this was so much more than just slapping, you know, an iconic motorcycle company's logo on some new lame retro bike. The new Crocker team obtained rights to the name and also the original blueprints, and they set out to do something nearly impossible in the modern motorcycle world. Hand-built motorcycles, the way that Albert Crocker did, made the same way that Albert Crocker made them, one at a time with meticulous attention to historical accuracy and mechanical excellence. The reborn Crocker company began offering recreated versions of the original Big Tank and Small Tank V-Twins, as well as the earlier Speedway Singles. They were built using castings taken from original molds, hand-machined engine cases, and vintage correct metallurgy. Now, the goal was not to make a modern reinterpretation, but to recreate the original machines as faithfully as possible, often using techniques that mirrored the 1930s production methods. Each gearbox, each engine, each frame is built in-house, every bike is numbered and custom-built for its owner, and every part, right down to the fittings, can be traced to those original designs. Some call them continuation models, which I think is pretty cool. Others would say that these are probably the most faithful motorcycle recreations ever attempted. These aren't retro bikes, they're actually old bikes. Prices for these new Crockers really reflect the labor a new V-Twin can cost north of 100k, and they've made quite a few. Buyers for these aren't looking for mass-produced machines, they're looking for something special, you know, a close experience to that mechanical sort of time machine that is almost impossible to get now because they're so rare. Crocker today is all about legacy, and preservation, and passion. They also continue to support and restore original Crocker motorcycles, which I think is really cool. In many ways, they're sort of like a caretaker of this American legend. I personally think this is the coolest brand revival I've ever seen. It just feels so much less consumeristic and corporate than what we usually find with old motorcycle marks being brought back. Most of the time, these brands are revived just to use the name, not to actually respect and preserve it, despite what the companies try to tell you. Crocker never really had the chance to grow into a global brand that would compete head-to-head with Harley or Indian in a meaningful way, but I think what I've found from reading about companies like Crocker, and Brough, and Vincent, and also, you know, on the four-wheel side of things, companies like Duesenberg to make mass-produced vehicles, the whole appeal is what these companies could create, not in spite of, but because of the fact that they weren't big corporate companies with mass production and just all the bureaucracy. It is kind of sad that the of small startup motorcycle companies are all but gone. Companies like Janus, I think, are really the exception. It's been said that starting a motorcycle manufacturer today means that you have to have at least $100 million. That's the capital that you need, but I wonder if that's true, and I wonder what the next company will be to show up with impressive, handmade motorcycles, because I do think that there is an appeal to this kind of thing still, and I do think it's still possible. Alright, thanks for watching, guys. Comment below if you've had any experience with a Crocker motorcycle. I'd love to hear from you, and we'll see you guys in the next one. Ride safe.