Guilty Truth

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 11:36 AM PDT

Before Clymer and before Haynes service manuals, there was J.B. Nicholson and Modern Motorcycle Mechanics. Nicholson, together with his brother Lawrence, opened Nicholson Bros. Motorcycles in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1933. To this small city in the middle of the Canadian prairie they imported DOT, Calthorpe and Douglas motorcycles and by 1935 the brothers had transformed the business into a fledgling mail order parts supply house.

But it was a 25-year old J.B. (Bernie) Nicholson who published what could be considered one of the first comprehensive texts regarding the operation and maintenance of motorcycles of the day. In 1942 the first edition of Modern Motorcycle Mechanicswas distributed widely. They sold the book themselves, and industry giants such as Johnson Motors bought books for resale in their showroom. Floyd Clymer himself ordered hundreds of copies for resale through his motoring catalogs. Nicholson went on to revise his book six times, with editions appearing in 1945, 1948, 1953, 1965, 1969 and the final and seventh in 1974. Over the years more than 100,000 copies of Modern Motorcycle Mechanics books have sold from Canada to England, India, South Africa, Australia and beyond. Jam-packed with Nicholson's clear and concise service and maintenance information and ever-handy clearance and settings charts for several different makes and models the Seventh Edition Reprint of Modern Motorcycle Mechanics is 766 pages – just like the original. The book covers everything from setting the timing on a single-cylinder Lucas magneto to rebuilding the engine of a Harley-Davidson 45". You can purchase this and other books HERE.

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