The Ferrari of
Motorcycles
I only
met him twice, and both times it was sort of an accident. I was down
at Ernie's helping to tech inspect cars before one of the Monterey
Historic races. That would have made it the first weekend in August,
though I don't recall the exact year.
Ernie
had known Steve Earle longer than I had, and it was a sign of respect
by Steve that he allowed Ernie to hold a pre-event inspection two
weekends prior to the Historics. This was a big help to those of us
who could take advantage of it. It helped ease the congestion
surrounding inspection at the track just before the race weekend, and
also gave participants a chance to make corrections before finding
out at the event itself that something was wrong and then scrambling
around trying to make a correction at the last minute.
I never
brought my own car to these. With Ernie as my mentor he quickly
gained confidence in me to the point that he would say “I can tech
your car by phone,” meaning he was sure that I had verified both
its safety as well as conformance to the rules. At some point during
the pre-inspection day he would surreptitiously slip me the required
sticker, and then would sign my log book when we first connected two
weeks later in the paddock.
For me,
volunteering at pre-tech as well a number of times at the event
itself was an education. I learned a lot about how different builders
solved various technical problems. I also quickly found out which
owners were themselves both knowledgable and skilled. Some cars were
so clean and solid you could eat off the floor, while others were so
obviously a lackadaisical attempt to slide by with a minimum
slap-dash approach to both safety and rules that I'm still amazed
that anyone would think they could pass the most cursory look. I'm
also amazed at what some people think is OK in terms of safety. I
quickly came to think the three scariest words in an ad for a race
car were “ready to race.”
Ernie's
place was a tribute to his cleverness. Though his career never made
him much money he managed to design and build a three bedroom, two
bath house with space to work on cars, first in front with a pit so
he could get underneath, and later a 1500 square foot shop behind the
house. I really need to devote at least a full blog entry to the man,
but for this one it is only necessary to say that the inspections
were held out front on a parking pad, followed by grilled hot dogs
back by the shop later in the day. We would pitch a couple of bucks
into a kitty and Ernie would do the cooking honors. It was always fun
to see a bunch of pretty exotic machines trailered in and parked in
front of the house over the course of the day.
Almost
no one actually drove to the house, as most of the cars were not
street legal. Ed Archer was an exception. His racer was and remains a
bright yellow Ford Model T Speedster, and Ed embraces the part fully,
dressed in white coveralls with goggles, boots, and a leather helmet,
and sporting a handlebar mustache right out of the era for the
car.
The car had
died a few blocks from Ernie's house so a couple of us went to
collect him...somewhere around De Anza and Stevens Creek Boulevards
in Cupertino. Quite a show.
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| What year is it? |
Anyway,
while I had my head buried under the lid of a GT40 I heard something
that was clearly not a race car and yet still made the hair on my
arms stand up and take notice. Banged my head on the car as I popped
up to stare at an apparition...a guy wearing boots, leather chaps, a
leather vest over his shirt, and a leather beret...astride a Vincent
Black something...whether a Black Shadow or Black Lightning I
couldn't say as the bikes to me were ghosts I knew only as whispers
in the darkest of nights...so exotic they made the early Ferraris I
was
familiar with seem almost commonplace.
 |
| Pure mechanical jewelry |
I knew of Vincents only through articles almost as rare as the bikes
themselves. I had never seen one.
Dave Molloy turned out to be a neighbor of Ernie's from a couple of
blocks away. Along with Llew and Bill Kinst these guys made up a
weird little underground classic vehicle hotbed in a tiny corner of
unincorporated Santa Clara county called Monte Vista. The few blocks
around Errnie's house were a strange mixture of residences and car
related businesses...mostly body shops. It turned out that Molloy not
only lived there and owned this magnificent beast, but actually ran a
Vincent restoration business out of his place.
The very idea of someone stocking parts to restore Vincents nearby
was so implausible...but then Bill and Llew were doing something
similar though not as totally focused, mainly but not always
involving Porsches of one type or another. Dave invited me over to
see his setup after the tech session ended. His two car garage
contained three customer bikes in various stages of restoration,
along with shelving units stacked with neatly labeled boxes of parts.
Everything
on a Vincent is pure jewelry...the motor alone is eye candy.
What isn't polished is beautifully painted, and every piece is
sculpted to look as well as it functions. Like virtually all Italian
cars from the same era the pride of the manufacturer is apparent
before you ever fire it up. But the fact that it is British and not
Italian is so startling that you find it hard to believe. I love
British cars and bikes, but everything out of England in the years
after WWII always is so...agricultural you think it must be steam
powered. It was a privilege just to be allowed into Dave's shop.
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| Love and passion in every polished and machined part |
A few years later John Lewis and I were chasing a pretty special
train along Interstate 80. Whoops...there he is again. I told you he
would keep popping in and out of my stories. Though I was closer to
Ernie and John was never a role model ( his mechanical work was
embarrassing), he was much more...entertaining than Boss
Mendicki...though Ernie had his own great stories and personality as
well.
What
we were chasing was the Western Pacific restored F3 diesel which in
the late 1940s had pulled the famous California Zephyr passenger
train.
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| Typical of most Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) stations More are being restored now than torn down, though only a few, like this, are still active rail passenger depots |
After
the train left we decided to walk across the tracks to a little cafe
on the adjacent main street. The pretty waitress's name tag said she
was called “Sierra.” Being of a certain age I was pretty sure I
remembered when unusual names like these first made the scene, and
told her I thought I could guess when she was born...1972. I hit it
right on the head, which surprised and pleased her, until I made some
idiotic comment stating I could also guess what her parents were
smoking the night she was conceived. That definitely did not
please
her. Should have quit when I was ahead.
But I had little time to recover as just at that moment the door to
the cafe opened, and in stepped a guy wearing...boots, leather chaps,
a leather vest over his shirt, and a leather beret. Really?
“I
know you,” I said confidently.
“Not
a chance,” he replied. I couldn't remember his name, so the best I
could come up with was:
“If
I say the name Ernie Mendicki, will that get your attention?”
“Who
the hell are you?” he asked, somewhat incredulous.
Once we completed that dance he invited John and me to his new digs
outside town, near a little place called “Chicago Park.” A bigger
shop, more Vincents, but the same attention to cleanliness and
detail.
Sometime
later I learned that another member of what I came to call the
“Cupertino Mafia” even though he lives in Los Altos, also has a
Vincent. Gary Hubback has stuff stashed away in various “rooms”
in his two story shop as well as a couple of other roofed lean-tos.
His is a story for another day, but recently I was at his place and
asked to see his recently completed restored 32 Ford 3 window coupe
hot rod. There sitting just beyond was...this jewel.
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| Gary's Vincent Sitting just byond his latest restoration... 32 Ford 3 window coupe hotrod |
Then
there's also the one Don Bell has and which Llew and I tinkered on
one day. I wouldn't say the bikes have become exactly common, but it
does seem that the folks I know in the car world also have an
affinity for special two wheeled machinery as well. But it started
with Molloy, who apparently is still there outside of Colfax, and
still working on these wonderful machines. He's about halfway down
this page: http://www.thevincent.com/vin-suppliers.html
Oh, in case you're
interested...a nice one will set you back about 100 large. Pretty
reasonable compared to a 250TR.
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