You can never have enough Norm Grabowski! From the grainy pages of Modern Cycle magazine, ca. 1965 (a follow-up piece  published after covering Norm’s epic Corvair-powered “Six Pack” motorcycle), by way of Nostalgia on Wheels. Below is Norm on the Harley before the sidecar, and following along after you’ll see it fitted with the Steib sidecar as it appeared in Modern Cycle.

Norm Grabowski on his custom ’54 Panhead Harley with special high-torque cams on a ’38 H-D rigid frame. This was later equipped with a Steib sidecar frame adapted by Mike Parti. –pic via Irish Rich

“Norm on his red metalflaked Pan chopper with the jugs and heads painted white, at the drags. Check out the sissy bar – it’s a combination beer can holder / “church key” beer can opener….too fucking much!” 

–Irish Rich  

Norm Grabowski is the kind of guy who goes nuts over things mechanical. If you read the Modern Cycle issue of May 1965, you’ll remember the story we did on his Six Pack, the ultra-smooth power monster consisting mainly of an Indian motorcycle frame housing a Chevrolet Corvair engine. Norm’s latest creation is certainly as far out as the last one, but at least this time he stuck mostly to motorcycle parts in creating it. Completed last Fall, the three wheeler was seen several times on television on the short lived series, My Mother The Car, in which the actor was a regular. Grabowski drove the melodramatic villain, Captain Mancini, around in the strange looking chair.  –Modern Cycle magazine, ca. 1965    

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A startling, if somewhat unfunctional package, Norm’s new three-wheelet really gets the stares. Norm started with a 1938 Harley-Davidson rigid frame and dropped in a 1954 74 cu. in. H-D engine, which he left stock except for special high torque cams. The sidecar is a Steib, with special adaption done by Mike Parti of Sun Valley, CA. This was a major undertaking as it involved relocating the ball joints close to the outrigger rather than near the frame of the bike. Paint on bike and sidecar is the same candy pearl orange used on the Six Pack. In all, a wild package.  –Modern Cycle magazine, ca. 1965    

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Intricate exhaust tours from engine across front of, underneath, and up back of the “T” bucket. Built by Huth Muffler of Burbank it includes an aluminum-sprayed Austin-Healy duplex muffler. Upholstery in black Naugahyde was done by Lee Wells. Paint and striping are by Dean Jeffries of Hollywood, CA.  –Modern Cycle magazine, ca. 1965    

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Barrels and heads on Norm Grabowski’s Harley-Davidson Pan have been metal sprayed with aluminum and case polished. Foot shift conversion was done by Boyd DeFrance of D & D Cycle in Burbank, who also dod a goodly portion of the other mechanical work.  –Modern Cycle magazine, ca. 1965     

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