Can you Date this VL?

Hey Guys, This is a picture of the local dealer in Waverly, NY circa, 193?. William Dimmick, the owner, who's on the the right, and his unnamed buddy have just returned from Maine and a successful Moose Hunt. And something else, not sure what the rack on the top of the pile is. Anyway, I'm trying to date the year the photo was taken. I'm pretty sure the bike was new, or nearly so, when they started out. An interesting fellow, to say the least. By the time I got interested in Harleys, his son was running the store, and he just hung out there, talking about the good ole days. In his youth, he went over to Hammondsport and worked with Glen Curtis. The story goes that motorcycles were o.k, but when Glen started experimenting with aeroplanes, he came back home!
Any and all help with dating the pic would be appreciated.
Thanks, DD

dick

when enlarged i can barely make out a 5 in the lower right corner of the license plate.

1935?

john

The airflow fenders and the Flying Diamond on the gas tank makes it a 1934/'35. I can barely make out the diamond on top of the rear fender which nails it as a 1934.

The other rack is very small caribou ... Which would have probably come out of Quebec, Canada, or thereabouts.

Mark

Just a moose or two, and a caribou,
and a bison cow or so,

.... by one version, anyway.....

is the term'' small caribou rack'' a harley trade name or like knuckle ,pan some thing that the public started.
jib

ok, can we do the joke about "look at the rack on that" now?

Well, this thread went totally out of control Doesn't make no never mind to me, I found out what I wanted to know. However, I'll never be able to think of motorcycles and racks in the same sentence with the clean pure mind I once had
DD

Frankinstien,
Do you have any more great photos like that?

Sorry Chris, I just lucked into this one photo. It hung in the dealership on the wall for years, (along with the Moose rack), and somehow this copy turned up in the local Waverly newspaper awhile back. By the way, a friend bought the window glass seen in the top of the picture with the printing on it. It had been enclosed with a facade for years, he found it and fished it out somehow without breaking any of the panels.
This was one of those great old dealerships that was forced out of their franchise in the early 80's push for the glass and tin boutiques. I think he started up with Harley in the 'teens.
DD

I'M GLAD TO BE OLD ENOUGH, BUT STILL YOUNG ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT SHOP AND PHOTO. THANKS FOR SHARING IT.

X-WLCH, If that's the case, you probably tripped over one of my bottom ends waiting for Ted to "get around to it".
DD

What a great picture. Thanks Dick. I'm thinking it's a 1935, short grips on bars and 35 style air scoop.

I'd say '35 as well. I don't see the diamond on the rear fender like Chris does. A '34 would also have the 'diamond' painted on top of the tank, and I can see clearly, the tank does not have the diamond on top. If we could see the gas tank behind the shifter, we'd be able to tell for sure. '34 has no other shape on the side of the tank other than the sticker, '35 has a painted panel in front of the sticker.

I say '35.

The '35's have two toned fenders.

I just revisited this post to refresh my memory as to the consensus on the date taken. I'm framing up a copy to give to a friend for Xmas. In doing so, I noticed the fender on the bike in the window appears to be two toned, as would be the case for a '35. So, I'm going to call the picture as being shot in 1935.
Thanks again for all the help.
Chris mentioned having any other photos, only one comes to mind. A picture of my Dad and his motorcycle buddies in the US Navy Band at the Navy Yard in Wash. DC, in the early '50's. No Harleys, but a Vincent, Norton International, (Dad), Triumphs Matchless, etc. about 7 bikes in all, all lined up in a row, everyone with what we would call a sh**t eating Grin, Garrison Caps at jaunty angles, a bunch of guys enjoying the Fraternity of motorcycling on a Spring day. Unfortunately, it's been lost somehow.
DD

Hi,

I know this is an old post but it looks like you are still active on the forum so I wanted to share a bit on your photo and help with your dating of it.

I stumbled across this post while looking for pictures of the old HD dealership in Waverly, NY. I have lived in Waverly since I was 5 years old and remember the shop from the 70's when I was a kid and Mr Dimmick would fix our bicycles for us. I'm 50 now so the 70's is about as far back as I go on this.

I did a bit of research on this from the photograph and it looks like everyone that said 1935 was on the money. In looking at the photograph I noticed the poster in the window:



I enhanced it a bit:



I saw it said "Transcontinental Record Smashed!"...77 Hours 53 Minutes.

So starting with that I found that poster here:



On the site it stated:

Dot and Earl were both riding and winning in Endurance Run competition in the early 1930s. In 1935 The Robinson’s set two transcontinental records, New York to Los Angeles. Earl set the solo record on a 1935 HD 45, at 77 hours and 53 minutes, and He and Dot set the sidecar record at 89 hours and 58 minutes.

Here is the link to that page:

http://www.gouldingsidecars.com/Historical.html

So it looks like it had to be 1935 or later that the photograph was taken. Not to say it could have been taken in 1965 as Dimmick probably left the poster in the window for 30 years LOL.

I remember those two greasy doors to the right in your photograph and they seemed to look the same in the 1970's! It was an interesting place and one of the owners of Ithaca HD was telling me that Harley looked the other way for years and asked him several times to remodel and he said no. So one day Harley asked him if he would paint and he still said no. They asked him when the last time it was painted and he replied " Well it was built in 1909 so...let's see...that would make the last time it was painted 1909!". Don't know if it's true but it's a cute story.

This is a great picture and I remember those antlers hanging on the wall in there. Thanks for sharing!!

No-one else has said it, so I will..... love the riding kit, especially the younger one's coat...

No-one else has said it, so I will..... love the riding kit, especially the younger one's coat...

He appears to be wearing a Harley-Davidson accessory rain suit.

bucolic, Thanks for sharing the additional info about Dimmicks. Ted would comment from time to time about his hassles with H-D about "cleaning" up his act. You may remember the one time when the front room actually did get cleaned up some and the counter placed crosswise in the showroom. That was his Son David's doing, he went through the place one summer and cleaned up some.
Thanks,
DD