Jim
Gianatsis photographed Asterisk for the 2014 FastDates.com Calendars with models Kinsey Ray (blond) and Sabella Shake (brunette), at the Gianatsis Design Design Studio in Woodland Hills, CA
Crocker Motorcycle Company
Torrance, CA, USA
Phone: 1-323-306-0690
CrockerMotorcycleCo.com
ALBERT CROCKER BIOGRAPHY
Al Crocker's name is well known to motorcycle enthusiasts, especially to connoisseur collectors. He is considered a legend, for the standards that he set, the moving art forms that he developed using chromium, aluminum and steel; for the races he won and for his associations with many famous motorcycle companies and people. He is also renowned for taking on and besting the big-name motorcycle manufacturers of his time.
Al Crocker was born in 1882 and graduated from Armour Institute, part of Northwestern University, with an engineering degree. His first employment after university was with the Aurora Automatic Machine Company, working in the motorcycle division, Thor Motorcycle, engineering new product. Even though he was an engineer, he loved motorcycles and racing. He competed in and won many endurance contests, riding the famous "White Thor".
While racing, he met Oscar Hedstrom and Charles Hendee the president and chief engineer at Indian Motorcycle of Springfield, Mass. A close friendship developed between Crocker, Hendee, and Hedstrom. That friendship evolved into a full-time position with Indian for Al Crocker.
Al Crocker's personal life was to be deeply affected by the 1911 incident in which bike racer Eddy Hasha was killed. Al Crocker met Eddy Hasha's widow, Gertrude Jefford Hasha, in 1919, while both worked at the Indian branch in Denver, Colorado. They married in 1924, and had one son. Also in 1924, Al took over the Indian dealership in Kansas City. The dealership functioned as distributor for several Mid-west states.
When the west coast called Al Crocker, the Kansas city operation was sold to "Pop" Harding, whose two sons, Earl and Roy continued the business for many years.
After the sale, Crocker bought Freed, an established an Indian dealership. Al Crocker and Paul Bigsby must have spent many of their off hours designing and developing their own bikes, for in 1931, they turned the racing world on its ear when they introduced their dirt track racers.
The first reviews were absolute raves, recounting how "... two American-built night speedway racing engines swept the boards...9 first places and 3 second spots out of 12 starts..."
Al, the very capable designer and engineer, had invented the Crocker 30-50 cu. in. single-cylinder speedway bike that was the bike of choice of many of the best riders on the Pacific coast when speedway racing was at its height. He ultimately built about thirty speedway bikes, and gave the big-name speedway bikes a lot of tough competition.
In the mid-1930's Crocker and Bigsby began to realize another dream; to build a heavyweight, high performance, overhead valve, v-twin motorcycle. Al Crocker knew there was a good market for high-speed touring bikes, but even he was surprised that he had more orders than he could possibly fill for the Crocker Twin. This was definitely the best motorcycle produced in this country at that time. The great Crocker V-twin motorcycle of the 1930's was a stellar performer. "...on the road nothing else could catch it."
But as this was during recession years it became increasingly difficult to produce vehicles in small quantities and he ended production of these machines. Many are still in existence and are of the most highly prized collectable motorcycles of today. Crocker parts are still sought after and coveted. The most recent, conservative estimate of the value of the original Crockers hovers around $300,000 - $350,000 USD in restored condition.
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