H
aving a passion for motorcycles (or anything for that
matter) can keep us young at heart long into a time
that many of our generation used to think was nothing
more than waiting around for that call home to our maker.
George Nachtsheim, motorcycle builder and racer, shows us
how being young at heart can truly be the best state of mind.
George got his start with motorcycles after graduating
from High School. While working for Autonetics division of
North American Aviation in southern California in 1959, he
purchased his first motorcycle, a 1949 BSA 500cc model
B33, plunger frame with cast iron barrels and head. He knew
nothing about motorcycles at that time except that he wanted
to have one! This one was a beauty, candy apple red with lots
of chrome! It took him two days on the street in front of his
house to learn how to ride it. (If this happened to him today
instead of 1959 he might have taken an ABATE or Motorcycle
Safety Foundation Class to get him started)
That bike turned out to be a street rider, dirt bike and drag
strip racer before he traded it in for his first brand new bike,
a 1961 Triumph Bonneville that was Robins Egg blue and
silver. He bought it from Bellflower Triumph in Bellflower, CA.
and remembers that the salesman that sold it to him was the
famous “Flying Flea” Sammy Tanner; national #7 flat track
and TT rider.
George remembers putting 500 miles on that motorcycle
in the first week he had it so that he could get it back to the
dealer for the 500 mile checkup on the Friday after he bought
it. On Saturday morning he was packed and off up Highway
101 on that Triumph to his home town of Portland, Oregon.
desert racer without any front brake! At one point he became
enthralled with the class “A” Speedway bikes and found a
complete and original 500cc JAP speedway racer. He never
got good enough to actually enter any races with it but boy did
it attract attention on the local sand lot! 16 to 1 compression
running on straight methanol, no transmission only a clutch,
total loss oil system, a foot peg on the right side only with a
hook to hold your knee in and no way that you could hold the
front wheel on the ground during acceleration. In 1962 he and
a friend bought another 500cc JAP engine and stuck it into an
old Ariel Red Hunter frame and ran it at the local drag strip,
they took a couple of trophies with it in their class.
During the 1961 - 1963, George got into street bike drag
racing at the Lions Drag Strip in Long Beach, CA. Danny
Macias, who was the head mechanic at Bellflower Triumph,
did the tuning on his bike and taught him a lot about making
Triumphs go fast. In 1963 he traded the’ 61 Bonny in for a
new unit construction 1963 Bonneville. These were all white
and the first year for the unit construction 650cc. Triumph
had found all of the unit construction defects in the 350cc
and 500cc unit bikes that they had been making since 1957
and incorporated the upgrades into the ‘63 Bonny so it was
relatively trouble free.
In 1963 he went to work for Norm Reeves BSA I Honda
dealership in Lakewood, CA as a mechanic in their service
department. Jim Hunter of BSA Gold Star fame was the
service manager at that time. He was one of the most
cantankerous people that George ever had the pleasure of
working for but he was one hell of a mechanic and George
benefited from his mentor.
During this time he lived and breathed motorcycles and had
Just as the 1964 models were hitting the showrooms a
quite a few memorable bikes, from a 250cc Maco dirt bike
friend
of his begged him to sell him his ‘63, so he did! He
setup to run on straight methanol, to a 90cc Honda dirt bike,
then
took
that money and bought the first 1964 Bonneville
to a 500cc Matchless G80 flat track racer that he turned into a
www.thunderroadscolorado.com
September 2015
Thunder Roads Magazine® Colorado 9