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| Fred invented the Cycle Sound radio housing in 1978 for my Windjammer Fairings (updated Feb 28, 2015) | |
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| Fred Hoese | | |
| Fred hailed from the San Antonio Texas area. In his younger days, he did secret projects for Southwest Research. Like many of us, he began riding on motorscooters. Powells, actually. Sometime in the 1970s, Fred decided make things for motorcycles. Carol, my future wife, spotted his "Cycle Sound" radio housing for my Windjammers at a tradeshow in 1977. Fred's Cycle Sound was much better than my "Instrument Module" so I suggested that we market his design instead of mine. | |
| Fred pointing at his Cycle Sound | |
| This turned out to be a good relationship for both of us and we became life-long friends. For many years, we would meet in Colorado to ride and talk. Fred Hoese was one of the smartest people I have known. | |
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| Above Telluride, Colorado in 1980 | | |
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| Later, Fred developed Leather Lyke Saddlebags. His two sons, Brian and Clint operate the company today. | | |
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| The Portland Scooter Show | |
Motorscooters brought us back together in the late 90s. Fred told me about the Portland Indiana motorscooter show and swap meet. We should meet there, he said. That sounded good to me. Portland instantly became the high point of my year. From then on, Fred and I planned our summers around meeting at Portland. | |
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| | | Old men and rusty parts I took Carol to the Portland swap meet once. All she saw were old men and rusty parts. Fred and I thought we were in some kind of heaven. | | | |
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Fred knew his rusty parts Scooter people counted on Fred's knowledge. Fred was especially fond of Mustangs. Here he was helping younger fans to understand the details of an early Mustang. | |
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| Fred with a rare and wonderful discovery: a Cushman Truckster engine. The blue bike is Fred's Cushman Eagle. He might have begun building this bike with nothing more than a rusty motor like the one on the left. It takes a lot of work and scrounging to make a bike like this... but that is what guys like Fred do for fun. | |
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| 1944 Cushman Airborne Scooter chassis: A Real Treasure in 2002 How many people would recognize what we were carrying? Any of the old scooter guys at Portland would, actually. It seemed like everybody at Portland began riding on old American scooters. But the best part of Portland was the corn: | | |
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| Indiana sweet corn The high point of each day at the scooter show was eating sweet corn dipped in butter. | |
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| Hot Indiana afternoons were for sipping beer and telling stories Fred and I were planning to meet at Portland in July of 2014, as we always do, when he called to tell me that he had a brain tumor. We missed Portland. The cancer finally got him Feb 27, 2015. Over the years of our friendship, both Fred and I came to believe the Bible and the message: "The only way to the Father is through Jesus" It is going be difficult for those he has left behind. Fred cast a big shadow. He enjoyed his toys. But he loved his children and wife, Margaret. | |
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As good as life was on earth for Fred... his marriage, the corn-on-the-cob and his motor scooters will be nothing when compared to where he is now with the Lord. | |
| Posted Feb 27, 2014 updated Feb 28, 2014 | | |
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