Monday, December 8, 2008

Crocker

Perhaps the most premium performance motorcycle company ever to come out of America, was Crocker. I like to think of Crocker as the American answer to the Brough Superior or the Vincent Black Shadow. Albert Crocker worked at Thor motorcycles before becoming an Indian dealer. He built motorcycles around Indian's 750 Scout engine. The company then moved to building a 500cc single racer. The racers were well developed but were underpowered. After the singles Crocker produced their infamous V twins.

The Crocker V twins featured an overhead valve layout, with hemispherical combustion chambers, in other words it had a "Hemi" (long before Dodge ever did). The 1000cc twin had considerably more power than Harleys and Indians of the day. Displacement was increased to 91cid (about 1500cc's) making it one of the largest production motorcycle engines for decades. The V twins lasted from 1936 to 1942. After World War II Crocker ceased production.
In 1999 a "new" Crocker arrived. A company that began making parts for vintage Crockers. The C4 Concept was introduced in 2007(?).

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