Motorcycle Investor mag
Subscribe to our free email news
David vs Goliath – round 2
Or the day Geoff's Harley killed a
giant road sweeper
(Rob Blackbourn, March 2025)
Some during my student
days my good mate Geoff was a pastry cook working
nightshift in Northcote (Melbourne) from around
midnight to 7.30am – I know because I worked casually
with him more than once during uni holidays. He also
worked a second 8.30am – 5.00pm job for a time as a
motorcycle mechanic for Dutchy Holland in Little
Lonsdale Street in Melbourne, just off Elizabeth
Street’s motorcycle-trade zone.
Consequently Geoff’s
time between getting home at 5.30pm and leaving for
work at 11.30pm was divided between dinner with Mum
and Dad, social life, and whatever sleep he could
manage.
His usual morning route from Northcote to the city on his Harley-Davidson WLA, via Clifton Hill and Carlton, brought him finally on to Royal Parade for a straight run down into Elizabeth Street. The latter was for years the city’s motorcycle mecca.
The fact that he was
sound asleep behind the handlebars one morning on
Royal Parade, with his gladstone bag resting
comfortably on the tank in front of him, didn’t
trouble the Harley one bit. The reliably spinning
18-inch wheels kept the bike stable and tracking true
while the factory-correct lack of a return-spring on
the old Linkert carby ensured his chosen cruising
speed was maintained.
That is until the Harley
encountered a Melbourne City Council Ebeling
road-sweeper completing a lap around the outside of
one of the numerous raised plantation islands that
separate Royal Parade’s central traffic-lane and
tram-track zone from the service-road lanes on either
side.
It seems that when the bike’s front wheel hit a drive-wheel on the sweeper (rotating in the opposite direction), the effect was to launch the bike and rider skyward. Geoff and his bag were tossed high enough to overfly the sweeper, quite a high machine, while the heavier Harley only flew high enough to crash front-wheel first into the side of the Holden ‘grey’ motor that powered the sweeper.
Geoff was surprised and a little confused when he woke up, finding himself sliding along the grass on one of the plantations with his bag still in place between his knees. The sweeper driver whose inattention had contributed to the accident, was also surprised and a little confused at the sudden impact and immediate loss of power – the Harley had crushed all life out of the Holden motor’s ignition distributor.
With some help from
Geoff (“You came out into the traffic lane so fast,
that I didn’t have a chance of dodging you, mate”) the
sweeper driver accepted that he was totally at fault
for not showing due care and attention.
Grateful that Geoff had
survived the incident pretty much intact, the guy
dived into the sweeper’s toolbox and gave him a hand
to straighten the Harley out sufficiently for Geoff to
be able to mount up and ride the last kilometre or so
to work. Geoff claimed a small victory from seeing the
heavy-duty salvage truck arriving to rescue the
stricken Ebeling sweeper just as he was firing up his
trusty steed and heading off.
***
Footnote: Ebeling
road sweepers
In those days, the early 1960s, we were still making
stuff in Oz. Claus Ebeling, a blacksmith who learned
his trade on the goldfields in Maryborough, moved to
Yarraville in 1885 to take over a forge and
engineering business that expanded and evolved to
ultimately produce the big sweepers after WWII.
They were powered by ‘grey’ Holden sixes or Y-block Ford OHV V8s. Usually in practice the side-panels of the engine compartment (as shown in place above) were removed, leaving the distributor on a Holden motor vulnerable to flying motorcycles.
Pic: City of Melbourne collection
Harley-Davidson
WLA on Wikipedia
-------------------------------------------------
Produced by AllMoto abn 61 400 694 722
Privacy: we do not collect cookies or any other data.
Archives
Contact