Vintage motorcycles at the LaJolla Motor Car Classic (concours de elegance)

Jeremy http://blog.1aauto.com/ has a funny caption-comment for this bike, Steam power, Check! Wooden wheels, Check! Dangerous... you don't even know!

1897 Rambler Tandem

The 3 seater- propeller driven- 1913 Thor pacer bicycle mated to a Henderson motorcycle engine with a propeller

Strange arrangement of controls... why the rider in the back gets to adjust the speed, but can't see if the bike and riders are likely to run into anything... that doesn't seem like the best idea.

Click on the above for a big full screen version

Look close at the chain, it's the only one I've seen like it. I wonder why they thought this double roller type would be better than a single link and roller

The San Diego Firehouse Museum

They pull the trucks out for events that rent the location for a party, and put them back in with tow trucks... but notice this old engine has WOOD rims, and enormous tires. But those wood rims are still solid. Any guess at how old they must be? 80 years old is my guess

For the comparison between this horse drawn model and the front wheel drive model that replaced the horses: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/1913-christie-front-drive-steam-pumper.html and

Notice on the wall is a catch hoop.

Above and below are the same building, but the times are before and after telephone poles. Maybe before and after city electric was run?

Odd looking fire engines, the one to the left in the above image is the 1913 Christie Front Drive Steam Pumper, for a couple of galleries of what they look like when restored, and in color: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/1913-christie-front-drive-steam-pumper.html

and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/1913-christie-front-drive-steam-pumper.html

I've posted about the passing of the horse drawn fire apparatus before, it's a significant milestone in the change of civilization to motorized vehicles and there are only two photos I've ever seen that herald this change of era's. This one, and the other I posted a couple years ago

A fire bucket, for the bucket brigade... I think the below painting is cool, very civil war era

A bit of Americana history here, these plaques were the soprt of thing that would be mounted on homes and businesses in big cities in the East, like Boston, Philidelphia, etc etc. They signified the fire insurance company that had been paid to reimburse the fire department if they had to extinguish a blaze. If the building on fire didn't have a plaque, maybe the fire department wasn't going to get piad fopr the work, I don't know, just speculation. Anyway, these two plaques are from dozens that have been collected and are displayed at the firehouse museum, they were labeled 1850, Cincinnatti

Among the many collections on display at the museum are patches, pins, hats, helmets, parade attire from the 1800's, black and white photos of the late 1800's and early 1900's, badges, fire plugs, fire hose nozzels, and news clippings... plus the McCurdy models in the next post