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This excerpt is from Hodaka Motorcycles by VMX magazine editor Ken Smith. You can find reviews, videos, and more at the book’s page. Click to learn more! Designing the First Hodaka Motorcycle
With Hodaka on board to build the bike, Koepke had to come up with a design. Convinced a small-bore, lightweight trail bike was the ideal direction to take, Koepke discussed the possibilities with good…
This excerpt is from Hodaka Motorcycles by VMX magazine editor Ken Smith. You can find reviews, videos, and more at the book’s page. Click to learn more! Hodaka Motorcycles Steps Up
While PABATCO grew quickly with the success of its new models, there were a couple of significant events just a couple of years later. That growth, by the way, can be demonstrated by the blossoming of employee…
This excerpt is from Hodaka Motorcycles by VMX magazine editor Ken Smith. You can find reviews, videos, and more at the book’s page. Click to learn more!
Hodaka: The Final Years
In early April 1976, Ed Miley had meetings with others from PABATCO, Hodaka, Shell and from Sanko (Sanko was Alex Hata who was PABATCO's agent in the Orient). They were no-holds-barred meetings, laying everything on…
This excerpt is from Hodaka Motorcycles by VMX magazine editor Ken Smith. You can find reviews, videos, and more at the book’s page. Click to learn more!
Hodaka: The Early 1970s
Returning to the early '70s at PABATCO, they were well aware their products, such as the Combat Wombat, were not truly competitive with other new-model motocrosser releases at the time. Honda's CR125 Elsinore in late…
The first time I met the late Darius Harms (1937-2016), he didn’t have much to say. In fact, during the entire conversation with me he said all of five words.
Set the wayback machine to summer 2012. I was locating machines to photograph for my book, Red Tractors 1958–2013, and someone told me Darius Harms had an International 7288 and gave me his phone number.
Now I should have…
The Cub was a brainchild of the International Harvester machine, produced at a time when the company had a stranglehold on the market as the world’s largest maker of agricultural equipment. Introduced in 1947, the intent of the machine was to fill the needs of millions of small farmers who were still working their land with horses, mules, or by hand. The little tractor exceeded expectations, with…
In 1957, the American farm was changing. The great farm exodus was done, and less than 10% of the American population was farming. Those that remained were being segregrated into two groups: the high-technology larger farms, cooperatives and businesses that were capitalizing on new technology and farming techniques, and a shrinking number of small family farms struggling to stay alive.
The…
Photographer and author Lee Klancher shot this tractor for the Farmall Calendar 2017. Here he shares some insights into the process by which he brings these impressive machines to life.ABOUT THE TRACTOR
The massive Mogul 45 was one of International Harvester’s first serious efforts at manufacturing tractors. Their first model, the Type A, was built using a heavily modified chassis design…
1970 544 DEMONSTRATOR
Owned by Randy Van WyheThis is the first in a series of five posts about the Gold Demonstrator Series tractors.
Read Part Two: The 1970 656 Demonstrator, HERE.
The Gold Demonstrator program was used by International Harvester to market their machines in 1970. Similar special paint schemes had been used in the past as sales tools, notably the white letter series…
Photographer and author Lee Klancher shot the May image for the Farmall Calendar 2017. Here he shares some insights into the process by which he brings these impressive farm machines to life.ABOUT THE TRACTOR
The McCormick W-9 was one of the earliest IH high-powered field machines. While it’s 52 drawbar horsepower isn’t much by today’s standards, this was one of the most powerful machines in the…