Story: Diana Waters • Research and photos: Robert Elliott
Having developed a level of skill in riding and maintaining his new 1913 Thor motorcycle since his purchase of it, twenty-year-old Milton, “Jack”, Baltzly teamed up with his mate Harry Reece to make an ambitious cross-continental journey by motorcycle, east to west, starting from their home town of Canton, Ohio, USA. Both men owned the same model 7-horsepower Thor motorcycle.
By May 30th 1914, they had reached Indianapolis, Indiana. Continuing their westward traverse, they made their next stop at Marshall, Illinois, having covered about 140 miles in a single day. Using the Lincoln Highway, they progressed to St Louis, Missouri, stayed one night, then rode another 160 miles the next day, to reach a farmhouse in Kansas, where they stayed overnight.
It seems they didn’t reach the Pacific coast before beginning their return journey, Harry having turned around after reaching Litchville, Dakota, a point about halfway across the continent. The weather was a likely factor in the decision not to continue onwards to the west coast. Summer had yielded to the coolness of fall and any rider knows how cold it can get whilst on the road, even on a mild day.
By the time Harry reached Carthage, Indiana, on his return journey, he’d covered 4,752 miles – a remarkable distance for a motorcycle at that time, especially considering the bike had not had any mechanical problems at that point. About 110 miles east of Carthage, Harry had some chain problems, the first and only bike trouble he’d had on the whole journey. By early October he’d safely reached home in Ohio.
The absence of mechanical issues reported with either bike is especially notable when the state of the roads of the time is considered. According to the “Carthage Citizen” account, there were many “corduroy” dirt roads, grass trails across open prairie, and clay roads which became treacherously slippery when wet. Sealed roads were rarely, if ever, encountered. Both riders fell a few times due to poor road conditions, but avoided any significant damage to machine or man.
Almost a century later, Milton’s Thor was advertised for sale on eBay. The bike’s owner by then was Milton’s son, Peter. Robert Elliott, of Adelaide, South Australia bought the bike sight unseen, and phoned Pete the next day to ask for information to assist him in restoring the machine to its former glory. Pete reported that his father’s Thor no longer had its “ah-ooh-gah” bulb horn and its home-made tool box, fabricated by Pete’s father, Milton had gone missing some time ago too. The carrier rack on the rear mudguard was also a home-made accessory. The history of the bike’s oversize headlight and home-made brackets wasn’t known.
Originally, the bike had had white tyres and bright white paintwork. White had been the colour of the motorcycles of the Thor racing team, which had had some success, so the Thor Company figured that an all-white model would appeal to consumers. In response to the oft-asked question of how to keep a bridal-white motorcycle looking clean, the owner’s manual suggested the use of “Ivory” brand soap. By 1915, unsurprisingly, the white option was no longer available.
Pete’s father, Milton, died in 1938 at the age of only 46, when Pete was thirteen. Pete said he started riding his late father’s bike when he was just sixteen, sneaking out of the family property through the woods at the back. Pete rode the bike a fair bit, he said, but stayed away from his own street so his mother didn’t catch him. “It’s good for 55 mph, the way it’s geared”, he told Robert.
Pete recounted that he joined the army at the age of nineteen, so the bike was then stored at the home of his elder brother, “Bud”. When Bud passed away, Pete retrieved the bike, which had, by then, sat, unused, for about 50 years in a tin-roofed shed. Bud had, at some point, repainted the bike with house paint and hand-drawn the Thor logo on the tank with a house-painting brush.
Pete reported that he had a photo of his father, “Jack” (Milton), with the Thor, taken just after he’d returned from one of his cross-country expeditions. He sent a copy of the photo to Robert. Pete, who was 89 years old, sadly, passed away before he could send a promised trunk-full of images and other historic material to Robert.
Restoration
The Thor needed a lot of work to achieve its full restoration. As Robert was working long hours at that time, he enlisted the help of fellow motorcycle club members and local engineering companies to carry out the foundational work. Using a combination of original, but worn-out parts as patterns, Thor parts-book drawings, and his own CAD drawings, the bike’s components were duplicated or repaired. Robert found fellow Thor owner-enthusiasts from around the globe to advise him on restoration specifics. Contacts were made, via the Internet, with aficionados from places as diverse as Western Australia, the USA, and Spain.
Struggling to find a source of accurate transfers/decals for the tank and headstock, Robert visited “Wheels Through Time”, an American motorcycle museum, while on a business trip to the US. The museum’s proprietor, Dale Walksler, let Robert take measurements and photos of the decals of his original 1913 Thor Model U racer, and back in Australia, Robert had decals replicated as water-slide transfers, in keeping with the originals. The bike is now all but new, mechanically and aesthetically; restored to ride. Scammells Auctioneers will be presenting the bike for sale in their August 2022 Motoring Auction.
