Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Fred Quinn tearin' it up

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Flathead, Fred Quinn was my dad. He passed away in 1982. He was a pretty wild dude all his life. Very cool to see the old pic. Thanks Skip Quinn

Flathead Jedd said...

That's very cool Skip. I love it when we get some back story to some of these pics. If you have a story or photos to share we would love to hear from you. Your Dad sure looked like a wild man!

Anonymous said...

Flathead, Back in the day they called him "Hacksaw" because he was always making the race bikes lighter and inventing stuff. He got disqualified once because he put a hand clutch on that WR in the pic to get better starts. He shifted useing a kill button. He also drag raced bikes. He built a fuel injected drag bike and test rode "The Thing" a double engine Knucklehead that is still running today. Sorry, I could go on for days with his stories. I will try to get some pics to you bros. Thanks Skip Quinn

Anonymous said...

Hello there...

I rode with Fred Quinn and his buddy Dick Martell. They had a shop on east 12th Street just east of High Street in east Oakland. I also rode at Belmont: 127y. I was in the pit crew for Garve and John Nelson...those were the days!

George Delacruz
Benicia Ca

Anonymous said...

George-

Do you have any pics or anything of Garve and John Nelson? They are my cousin's...there isnt too many people out there that really knew these guys anymore!

FXDSKIP said...

My mother Rose Quinn has many pictures of Garve and John. They were good friends of our family. Skip Quinn

Anonymous said...

FXDSKIP-
Sorry it took me so long to get back with you. I would love to see some pics of them if you have any that have been scanned! Also, do you live in the bay area? If so, do you know how I could get ahold of Garves daughter Debbie?

Thanks, Ryan.

FXDSKIP said...

Ryan, I still work in San Leandro but now live in Modesto. Deb and I were great friends all thru High school but we lost touch after. Are you close to San Leandro? Thanks Skip Quinn

Anonymous said...

Skip,
No, I live in Indiana. John and Garve were my 2nd cousins, and I never even met John. Garve used to fly to Indiana quite often in the late 70's and into the 80's and early 90's so I met him several times. As far as his daughter, I have never met her. I tried to get some contact information awhile back with no sucess. I was able to get ahold of Garves wife (Bonnie), but she sais she didnt have any contact info for Deb.....sounded like the family was having some fueding going on. I actually tried finding Deb on Facebook, but I dont have a clue what her last name is (Lawless was the last that I could find). What high school did you guys go to? ....it m ight help me find here on FB!

Thanks, again!!! Ryan

FXDSKIP said...

Ryan, Deb and I went to Castro Valley High School. My Dad used to work on Garves Planes. When Garve learned to fly we had a big party at our house for him. When I was about sixteen I asked Garve to sponsor me racing motorcycles. He told me that he only sponsored riders faster than him. Needless to say he never sponsored me. I will ask my mom for some pictures. If you track down Deb please tell her Hello for me. Thanks Skip Quinn