Founded in 1932 as a speedway motorcycle manufacturer in America, The Crocker Motorcycle Company utilised powerful V-Twin engines. It was not until 1936 that The Crocker Motorcycle Company produced its first powerful street motorcycle, which was more of a modern styled motor scooter than a full bred motorcycle. Although the original company ceased production in 1942 a new company was formed in 1999 to manufacture replicas and full Crocker Motorcycle kits.
Al Crocker, the founder of The Crocker Motorcycle Company, produced 30 of his speedway motorcycles before shifting his company to the creation of their V-Twin road machines. Most original Crockers were produced to order and most of these featured a 1,500 cc V-Twin engine. The Crocker Motorcycle Company held the record for the largest capacity motorcycle engine until 1998, when Yamaha took that title away with a 1,600 cc engine. Yamaha also lost that title shortly afterwards when Triumph took that title from Yamaha with their 2,300 cc Triumph Rocket III.
The Crocker Motorcycle Company had manufactured over 200 V-Twin motorcycles by the time they ceased production in 1942. The parts that were left after The Crocker Motorcycle Company shut their doors was, roughly 100 motorcycles worth, were sold to Elmo Looper restored them. Thanks to Elmo Looper, 68 examples of The Crocker Motorcycle Company's V-Twin Motorcycles still exist.
There are no real records of the total production of The Crocker Motorcycle Company, but Charles "Chuck" Vernon and Johnny Eagles, started a registry of the motorcycles and based on their information the estimates were of about forty to fifty speedway motorcycles that were produced along with 50 of The Crocker Motorcycle Company's scooters and the remaining amount of 100 was left to their line of V-Twin powered motorcycles.
Albert Crocker, was forced to cease the production of his motorcycles due to the lack of materials during the war and the fact that although Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycles had managed government contracts, The Crocker Motorcycle Company had not. Albert Crocker and The Crocker Motorcycle Company did however receive an aircraft contract from the government and in determining that it was a more lucrative business, The Crocker Motorcycle Company ceased motorcycle production and became Crocker Manufacturing.
The remains of The Crocker Motorcycle Company were sold later to the Borg-Warner Corporation who maintained the rights until 1997 when the new Crocker Motorcycle Company started producing their replicas and full kits.
Due to their rarity it has not been uncommon to see a Crocker Motorcycle go up at an auction for more than $200,000.
The New Crocker Motorcycle Company was started by Markus Karalash as a hobby for producing limited parts for The Crocker Motorcycle Company restoration.
The New Crocker Motorcycle Company was incorporated in 1999 as a producer of replacement parts to allow for restoration of original the Crocker Motorcycles.
In 2001 a fellow collector of The Crocker Motorcycle Company motorcycles along with Markus put together a plan to create kits for two of the original Crocker Motorcycles, the small and big tank models.
The New Crocker Motorcycle Company has a facility which is using the latest in technology to manufacture replicas of the original parts. The New Crocker Motorcycle Company will also release their kits in the later half of 2007 thanks to an in-house engineer, 1,400 CAD drawings and almost 100 precision castings of the original components.
Original Authors: Nicholas
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 04/06/2008
