Home

Dave Hennessey - 1954 KH

Click on the pictures to see larger pictures

You Be The Judge

AMCA OLEY SWAP MEET 2019 - This bike will be VIRTUALLY JUDGED sometime on FRIDAY. If you are at Oley, you are encouraged to participate in judging this bike. No experience necessary! Come learn about the AMCA Judging process! Come nit-pick my bike to smithereens! Stop by the OSKRG vendor spot to find out the virtual judging time and location (probably 3pm in the building with the registration desk).

Can't make it to Oley? No problem. Get your eagle-eye in focus and go through the photos below. These are presented in mostly the same order as the AMCA judging sheet. Pick those nits! Write down what you think is wrong. After Oley, I'll publish the AMCA's judging of my bike - you can compare your judging results with those of the AMCA/OSKRG judging team.

My Two-Stage Restoration Plan

Restoration Stage 1 - April 2019 - The bike is running. Temporary paint job. Some details to take care of. Will be ridden for 6 months or more to discover and fix any bugs. AMCA judging (Oley 2019) to find things that I overlooked or didn't even know about.

Restoration Stage 2 - Sometime in 2020 - All bugs squashed. Professional paint job. AMCA judging to verify I've done everything correctly.

Note: The engine has many KR parts installed, and they will stay that way. I promised the previous owner that I would preserve some of this bike's racing heritage. Also, it's pretty peppy.

*   KR Cylinder heads (#7) with racer-modified cooling fins
*   KR Double Valve Spring Conversion Kit (1955-later)
*   KR Valves (they are huge!)
*   KR cams - early 1960's E grind

Note: Dennis Corso reproduction exhaust. Note the Y pipe does not have a “saddle” This was probably the last K/KH exhaust system he sold before operations were transferred to The Gas Box.
Note: Temporary 6006 headlamp. Correct “Cycle Beam” available.
Note: Temporary badly scratched HD-125 red lens will be temporarily installed. NOS HD-125 red lens available.
Note: Last-minute surprise on the formerly working generator. The armature was burned out. Then the field coils proved to be funky. A shiny new D-R 1118307 regulator will appear, but the wires won't be connected until the generator gets straightened out.

I met Forrest in 1989, but didn't start pestering him to sell me the KH until around 2003. Once or twice a year, I'd call him and ask, but each time the answer was “No, I'm not ready to get off it yet”. One day in March 2014, I got a call, “How much will you give me for it?”
I went and looked it over, and made an offer. Since it had taken ten years to get this far, negotiations continued at a leisurely pace. Two months later, a deal was struck, and the KH went across the river from Maryland into Virginia.

This Barnster® had slept in his basement since about 1990. Changing the fluids, thoroughly cleaning the carburator, new magento points and condenser, and some minor work, and there was "Fire In The Holes". The gas tank was thoroughly rusted inside, and the name badge mounts had been removed from the outside, and the dimples leaded in. I "got the lead out". Jim Garrett kindly measured his name plate mounts, and George Downes fabricated some new ones, and mounted them on the tank. POR15 on the inside, Rustoleum rattle-cans on the outside, and the bike was ready to ride.

Work was suspended temporarily, as a 1962 XLCH Barnster® was acquired, brought home, and made road-worthy.

Scott Lange provided a top triple tree that has the switch-mounting "ears" intact, and pretty soon the original headlight, fork tins, switches, flippers, and instrument cover will be mounted. The rest of the bike will get "rattle-can red" while I seach for some uncut fenders, a 1954 frame, and many, many other original parts.