The original adventure riders (and bikes!)

great pics, thanks for sharing them!

You did it again, Wes. I come in on a Monday morning and you've banged out a post that literally has me reading with my mouth hanging open.

Amazing photographs. It's surprising to me that the photography of that time was good enough to capture those action shots. You guys bitch about who's got the smallest digital camera. These guys were probably lugging around some kind of large format Graflex and a tripod, ferchrissakes.

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing these pictures with us. I'm forever in your debt. You, your brother and your trials bikes are invited to ride around my living room any time.

Wes, excellent photos...loved them. Makes us all look like wooses..

WOW! Great pics, thanks for sharing.

Two things that may have made the 1950 HD popular were OHVs, and the second year with the HydraGlide front fork, which replaced the old springer front end.

Great photo-journey!

It makes you really appreciate this forum... Not only because of threads/pics like this one, but because of the community. Those guys Adventured as a group. They pushed each others abilities, photographed the heroic moments (and the defeats too), repaired and modified each others bikes, benched raced when not riding and shared a bond of experiences that I'm sure exists even today.

Kind of like the group here at AdvRider.

Thanks for these pics... and thanks again to everyone here for continuing the tradition!

Great photos, incredible riders. Thanks!

Men and Scoots...

Life is good!!!

DW

Superb.....!!! Kinda puts the exclamation point on living in the rocky mountain area.

Superb....!!!

Kinda puts the exclamation point on living in the rocky mountains.

This is one of the best reports ever seen here, and definitely worth keeping available. I have contacted Baldy and the other mods about a Hall of Fame spot for it.

Thank you so much. Threads like this make Advrider the best there is.

Hey Thanks for sharing that treasure with us. Great photos, those boy's were real riders for sure.

Great Post
How many of these guys are still alive?
Im planning a trip to Steamboat and would love to hear theyre stories. My grandad was an adv rider and long distance as well in the 30s 40s and 50s. The stories of riding from Shreveport to race Pikes Peak and then riding home are simply amazing. Trailer what trailer. Not to mention the only support you had were the buddies the rode out with you. Ah the day7s of iron men and wooden ships.

Heres to the Webers

That is just a truly awesome collection of photos!!!!!!!! You should put those together in a book! Or maybe a calender. Just amazing. Thanks for posting em.

I bet if those guys could jump on one of our modern bikes they would be doing amazing things on par with about anyone who rides with a lot of skill today, but I wonder if (m)any modern riders today could get on bikes like that and ride them the way they did back then? Anyone up for trying to take a 74ci dresser up on some single tracks, in winter?

What a rare treat to see such a collection of outstanding photographs of such an outstanding buncha loons. Thanks so much for posting them, Wes!

I'll even feed you after you trash our house!

To equalize with these guys' efforts with today's advanced technology bikes and equipments we should all to go to Dakar rally or something like that.
$16K shiny bikes in the garages equipped w/gpses, heated handles, ABS, tubeless tires, road side assistances, cell phones, sat radios, electric heated suits up to teeth and looking these pictures....still we call ourself adventurers?

Out-fucking-standing. inspirational. I hope you dont mind but I snagged a few to use on my desktop.

Ha ha ha! So did I. Only I stole 'em and didn't ask! HAAA!!

My computers can't load all that,but what I've seen is amazing - makes us these days look like a bunch of wimps.

The British bikes are BSA B31s,or maybe B33s,but by the look of the barrel at least one is a B31,that's the 350,the B33 was a 500.The plunger frames date them to about say 1951.

We were taking our BSA singles off road in the 70s,we would go everywhere on them,I remember lifting them over barbed wire fences.I had heaps of them.When my plunger frame was run over I put the engine in a 54 Goldflash swing arm frame.