Growing up as far from the So Cal scene as is geographically possible in North America in the 60s all we had were magazines. Tom McMullen had started a catalog called Chopper Guide to showcase his products from AEE. There would always be several articles on featured bikes and a few build ups (using AEE products of course). The rest was the products. Tom had bought a knucklehead off of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and smashed it up. After he got out of hospital he rebuilt it and called it Mindbender. It was the first feature buildup in the magazine. I was blown away by the bike. He later built the Corvair trike and finally drew up the plans for Big Twin, but by that time most of Tom's time was running AEE and an employee Dave Brackett built the Big Twin. These bikes really hit me hard. It was the times, age - everything all rolled up at once. The new stuff from OCC, Jessie James, Billy Lane doesn't do much for me at all.
Mindbender next to the Corvair trike
Corvair Trike at Oakland Roadster show
Big Twin at Oakland in 1970 - it won best bike. Two Sportster engines, the left hand one has the barrels and heads reversed so the carb sticks out the left hand side. The engineering here alone made me drool. A Ford C4 transmission and a Harley 45 Servicar rearend with torsion bar suspension. All of Tom's/AEE's bikes were painted by Molly (RIP) and were stunning and flawless to me.
These are definitely dated to today's trends, but when these were new they made one heck of an impression on me. Much like seeing my first CB750 in early summer of 1969. Same impact.
