Team Parilla Project Bike and Story
The Parilla motorcycle you see above has had a long and strange trail, which has ended up with me, and I will try to tell you what I know about it. Back when I was a kid in elementary school in Southern California, I joined forces with a kid who became one of my best friends. In the fifth and sixth grades in early 1970's, we would venture into the garage behind his house and look at two motorcycles which were in there. One was a Honda-twin street bike, and the other a funny looking black motorcycle with a design of a "Dog" on the side of the engine.
I currently don't know were his father obtained the "Dog" motorcycle, but over the next few years, we were allowed to get it running, and even take it out into a near by dirt lot, and do some speed runs. In our teen years, this motorcycle often saw the dirt lot, and every once in a while, we had to hide from the Police due to the fact that this motorcycle was not street legal, and neither of us had a drivers license.
By the age of 15, both myself and my best friend had obtained our drivers licenses complete with endorsements for motorcycles, and along with a third friend, we all purchased motorcycles (all Honda) and the Parilla ("Dog" also called the "Raped-Ape" at that time because it ran like a Raped-Ape) was put back into dry-dock in my friends garage. The Parilla collected dust for the next several years as I sold my street bike after our third friend was very seriously injured in a traffic accident which nearly cost him his right leg (yes he was on his motorcycle at the time).
In 1980 I joined the Army for a three year hitch, and the whole time, the Parilla sat collecting dust in that garage. After my release from the army, I returned to my previous profession which was that of an auto mechanic, and my friend and I became room-mates.
In 1987 (I believe it was around 1987) my friend had moved on, and his parents were in the midst of a divorce, I received a call from my friends father asking me if I could fix the Honda twin (yup the one from the garage) so he could ride it as he had to move out of the house which had been sold. I was offered the Parilla in trade for my work on the Honda. I accepted the job eagerly not knowing what I was getting myself into with the Parilla.
Over the next few years, the Parilla sat in my garage, and I every once in a while tinkered with it, cleaning it up or putting air back in the flat tires, however I never really worked on it.
In 1993 I purchased a house, and moved the Parilla to its new home, and by 1994, I got the wild idea to fix up the old "Raped-Ape" and started to look into what I needed. The picture above was taken at the beginning of that quest, and you will notice that it is pretty complete (except for the missing Chain, Pegs, air filter, and Rear Brake Hardware).
It was several weeks later that I discovered exactly how hard this was going to be, as there were very few people that had even heard of a "Parilla" motorcycle. When I would ask people, they would try and correct my pronunciation telling me that it was pronounced "Aprila" (I would just shake my head, and know that I had reached another dead-end).
I started off by contacting a guy from Minnesota and gave him the serial number off of the engine, in an attempt to determine exactly what model Parilla it was (at that point, I thought I had an unknown year 175 cc Wildcat Scrambler), however I was informed that it was probably a 1957-59 Super Speedster.
It seamed that I was one step behind the necessary parts, as I called Cosmopolitan Motors (the United States importer of this motorcycle in the late 1950's and early 1960's), and was told that about a year before, they had cleaned out a corner of their warehouse, and sold every old Parilla part they had to some guy in Australia. The parts had included everything I would have ever needed including brand new seats and engine parts (you will notice that the seat and the petrol tank in the above picture are both aftermarket, which had been installed with the aftermarket gas tank prior to being obtained by my friends father all those years ago).
This is where the story gets interesting, in my travels, I have met several interesting and important people, one of which is named Conway Link he is responsible for bringing all the parts back from Australia to the United States, however reports of the quantity and inventory were slightly over-rated. No Seat for me, no gas tank, but there are numerous highly important parts. If you are involved in a project bike, I urge you to get in contact with him, as I get the feeling that the parts will not remain in his possession very long. ACT NOW or Forget it... (Check out Buy/Sell/Trade to contact him, and also check out his list of available parts.
During my hunt, I was able to locate several original shop manuals and speed tuning manuals for the old Parilla.
In 1995 and 1996, I got serious about the project and totally tore down
the engine, and had each piece cleaned and polished.
The Photo you see above was taken at the start of my quest, and the current engine looks much better, but is a long way from over. I am at an important cross-roads in the project, and must determine if I will be trying to restore it as original (doubtful due to lack of available parts), or convert it into a quasi-old-timer retro racing machine.