This American founded the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally — here's his story
The South Dakota event has grown far beyond its original numbers.
Doug Wothke knows old motorcycles and how to keep them running.
The Alabamian has ridden classic bikes around the world four times, starting in 2006 on a 1948 Indian Chief.
Indians and Harley Davidsons from the early part of the 20th century are his favorites.
He has a collection of over 70 bikes and stores of parts for them.
AMAZING HOARD OF OVER 50 MOTORCYCLES BEING AUCTIONED
Doug Wothke's collection includes dozens of rare bikes and parts. (VanDerBrink Auctions)
He and a colleague recently purchased the estate of California motorcycle builder M.F. Eagan, who worked with the likes of custom bike artist Von Dutch and Steve McQueen, which filled nine shipping containers with historic parts, bikes and memorabilia.
What they didn't keep is now being auctioned at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia on November 5 by VanDerBrink Auctions.
"It feels good to take those parts out of storage and put them back into the wild for the next generation of builders," Wothke told Fox News Digital.
Some of the parts are what's known as "new old stock" that are all original and still in their crates.
The auction includes new old stock headlight lenses and spark plugs. (VanDerBrink Auctions)
They include a box of headlight lenses for the World War 2 Harley-Davidson WLA military motorcycle and spark plugs from the same era.
This 1912 Harley-Davidson Model 8XA has a 30 cubic-inch motor. (VanDerBrink Auctions)
The highlight among the motorcycles is a 1912 Harley-Davidson Model 8XA that was functional when stored away and had already received a pre-auction online bid of $30,500 at the time this story was published.
The Harley-Davidson Servi-Car was designed as a utility task vehicle. (VanDerBrink Auctions)
A three-wheel 1939 Harley-Davidson Servi-Car is a forebear of today's utility task vehicles. It was designed to either have a body installed for use as a delivery or mobile vending vehicle or be towed behind a car, so when a garage returned it for service the mechanic would have something to ride back on. A spare motor and transmission are on the docket alongside it.
Doug Wothke rode around the world on a 1948 Indian Chief similar to this one. (VanDerBrink Auctions)
There are also two 1948 Indian Chiefs similar to the one Wothke spent half a year riding around the globe, and it sounds like a good mechanic can keep them running forever.
"The transmission broke when I was in eastern Siberia and I found a guy with a machine shop," Wothke said. "He spent two days fabricating a part for it, and it's still in the bike."
Wothke had the broken frame of another motorcycle repaired in Iraq in 2010 and said the welds have held up since.
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"People are basically friendly and helpful anywhere you go," he said he's discovered on his journeys, which now include guiding tours for other riders.