The Barn Job Owner

Yes, you are right about the Barn Job being an impressive bike to look at. When Clem built the frame section that Incorporated the fuel tank right in the top of the frame it looked like Jewelry, it was the most amazing thing to look at. During the time we raced as a team I watched the things he could do with a lathe and mill and he was far ahead of his time in developing racing parts.

He machined the first set of billet pistons I ever ran and that was in the mid fifty's, the flywheels had to have added weight and I believe he used round pieces of Tungsten. He had moved his lathe to my garage and while we raced as a team I got to watch the first big change to the Barn Job and there were many more changes as the years went by, that bike was in the change mode much more than it ever ran down the drag strip. Interest point, the Vincent had a unusual Cam set up and no one made a race cam for it in those days, so Clem built his own cam grinder to change the lift and such.

I had no experience riding a foot shift bike and I rode that bike a few times until it bucked me off one night at Lions Drag Strip. It was so small and had so much power it scared the sh+t out of me, wheelie bars would have been great to had on the bike at that time. I always admired Jimmy Lieneweber for riding that bike. Jimmy would meet Clem at Irwindale and ride one or two runs and then time would past as Clem made changes, maybe as much time as a year and then, there they would be back to the drags and Jimmy would get on that Monster again after all that time off of it and ride. They made an awesome race team and could be a little on the comical side at times.