Posts
1449
Joined
6/18/2008
Location
Dallas, TX
US
Edited Date/Time
5/25/2018 12:23am
While losing money at the Mecum Auction in January in Vegas, I was magnetically drawn to an exceptionally cool Carmichael MXdN helmet at a Moto Armory display. For those that don't know, the Moto Armory is a collection of over 1,000 off-road motorcycles owned by Tom Reese. One of Tom's guys, Richard Southwick, kept cleaning my drool off the helmet and started talking to me about my restaurant concept (moto) in Dallas. He got me in touch with Tom, who invited me up to Illinois to take a tour and see if there was anything I would like to buy. Work kept getting in the way, but Richard stayed on me and then got Rick Doughty from Vintage Iron to give me a call. Rick quickly determined my kryptonite was Bob Hannah memorabilia. He used the Jedi mind trick on me about some Hannah helmets and the last works bike Hannah ever raced was there, and quoted me a price that I would never ever pay. Trips were planned, tickets were bought, and my partner in Merge Racing, Jim Lewis, and I headed up to Moline.
Being gullible to really cool moto stuff (and certain types of brunettes), I quickly lost my mind upon entering Tom's buildings. Did you catch how that was plural? Not building, buildings. Just a few photos.
The Jeff Ward Collection
Works Bike Row
Need a bike in a crate?
Real estate is really good right now, I am not losing money owning a race team, neither my wife or girlfriend were there with me, so it was time for the spending to begin! Some of my acquisitions:
Unless your name is David Pingree, I bet you never raced one of these...
And I am a sucker for helmets, so these just arrived in Dallas today. It is like Christmas!!!
And I was even able to get a couple of Hannah's helmets...
There was so much more there that you could spend weeks perusing. There dozens of plastic tubs filled with pro jerseys. Rick and I could not even count all of the tubs on the racks and guess how many jerseys. Tom walked up and we asked him. His answer was there are 2,000 jerseys. I stared at the racks and thought about it for 15 minutes, then woke up and went looking at more bikes.
If you are looking for something special, they have it. Email Rick Doughty at Rick@vintageiron.com.
A special thanks to Tom Reese, Richard Southwick and Rick Doughty. They were awesome hosts, and let me buy bikes that I dreamed about as a kid and could never afford.
Oh yeah, one more thing...
You didn't really think I left there without Hannah's last race bike did you?
Being gullible to really cool moto stuff (and certain types of brunettes), I quickly lost my mind upon entering Tom's buildings. Did you catch how that was plural? Not building, buildings. Just a few photos.
The Jeff Ward Collection
Works Bike Row
Need a bike in a crate?
Real estate is really good right now, I am not losing money owning a race team, neither my wife or girlfriend were there with me, so it was time for the spending to begin! Some of my acquisitions:
Unless your name is David Pingree, I bet you never raced one of these...
And I am a sucker for helmets, so these just arrived in Dallas today. It is like Christmas!!!
And I was even able to get a couple of Hannah's helmets...
There was so much more there that you could spend weeks perusing. There dozens of plastic tubs filled with pro jerseys. Rick and I could not even count all of the tubs on the racks and guess how many jerseys. Tom walked up and we asked him. His answer was there are 2,000 jerseys. I stared at the racks and thought about it for 15 minutes, then woke up and went looking at more bikes.
If you are looking for something special, they have it. Email Rick Doughty at Rick@vintageiron.com.
A special thanks to Tom Reese, Richard Southwick and Rick Doughty. They were awesome hosts, and let me buy bikes that I dreamed about as a kid and could never afford.
Oh yeah, one more thing...
You didn't really think I left there without Hannah's last race bike did you?
https://www.ebay.com/str/guntowncycleden
The Shop
Hopefully in the next 18 months.
By the way if you dont intend to ride the Green stripe Elsinore can i grab the third gear from you? toasted mine on the weekend haha
Dang, I was just about to google where your restaurant was! I’ll definitely have to make the trip to check it out when yall open up.
Pit Row
The way it was explained to me, when Tom bought the collection from Greg there were approximately 300 bikes. There are now over 1,000.
That's a hard "No" on the third gear!
did you get any JS259 merch?
Congratulations on scoring all that treasure, hopefully it will be on display when your restaurant opens up?
It's great when someone is able to fulfill their dreams, and even better when they can share it with others that have similar aspirations.
Best of luck with the restaurant, I'll have to visit the next time I'm in Dallas.
Post a reply to: Scored Big Time!