The New Crocker Motorcycle Company: Reviving an Icon
(Page 2 of 4)
November/December 2007
By Margie Siegal
As the inventory of Crocker parts grew, the goal of building a complete replica motorcycle came closer to reality. A major hurdle was getting legal rights to the Crocker name. “There were some issues in the United States, but since we were serious about building a motorcycle and the other people only wanted to sell T-shirts, their rights were expunged. We are now the legal owners of the Crocker name in the European Union, North America and Japan. Australia is pending.”
RELATED CONTENT
Classics will shine at the International Motorcycle Shows in California...
True rarities, Crocker motorcycles have culled a dedicated following....
Most people wouldn’t think of touring a 1928 Norton Model 18 — let alone with their 10-year-old son...
Come to Ohio for the opening of "Malcolm!" and Vintage Motorcycle Days....
While the lawyers were doing their thing, Markus was reverse-engineering a replica Crocker motorcycle, which is now very near to production. “We aim to be true to the original, but since we have CNC machines, we can work to closer tolerances than Al Crocker could,” Markus explains. To that end, the new company has created some 1,300 Cad-Cam drawings and almost 100 castings for their replica Crocker. “The alloys we use are better than those available in the 1930s. We pin- and silver-solder the frames instead of brazing them [as on the original]. They aren’t coming apart. Barry Wardlaw of Accurate Engineering in Dothan, Ala., is building our engines. He says he has never seen a V-twin engine run this smooth,” Markus claims.
Speaking of engines …
Both the original and the replica Crockers have 61ci (1,000cc) overhead valve engines and a three-speed constant-mesh transmission. The new Crocker company plans to start with the second generation Crocker engine, which featured fully enclosed parallel valves, but eventually will also reproduce the first generation hemi-head.
The differences between old and new are mostly in the improved alloys and casting technology now available. The new heads are aluminum instead of the original’s cast iron — Markus believes problems with cracking and dropping valves were due to the foundry. In the 1930s, it was difficult to control the formation of hot spots and “cold shut,” a defect where metal does not completely melt together in the form.
The bottom end is similar to the roller bearing original but with improved lubrication, a tapered roller bearing on the primary side and a sprocket shaft adaptable to a Harley-style sprocket, allowing conversion to a belt drive.
The replica’s clutch is a multi-plate wet clutch, as in the original Crocker twin, and the transmission has the same massive gears as the original. The original selector forks tended to break, so Markus added a rib to the design of the forks, which adds strength without adding much weight. And they’re interchangeable with the originals.