Crocker V-Twin - Specifications & Review

Company History

Crocker stands among the most revered names of American motorcycling’s pre-war era. In the 1930s, Al Crocker’s Los Angeles shop built limited-run V-twin motorcycles that out-muscled contemporary rivals, pairing hand-cast components with engines tuned for serious speed. While Harley-Davidson and Indian dominated in volume, Crocker pursued excellence through scarcity: fewer than a hundred road bikes left the shop, each blending racing know-how with a street-focused mandate. The famous ‘big tank’ models delivered brutal acceleration and robust construction that could handle California’s rough roads of the day. Customers often specified details, and Crocker’s willingness to tailor gearing, compression, and aesthetics prefigured today’s bespoke culture. The company also produced speedway singles, feeding the West Coast’s booming dirt-track scene. Wartime priorities and economics ultimately ended production, but the legend only intensified. Surviving Crockers now fetch stratospheric sums at auction, valued not merely for rarity but for the audacity of their engineering in context. Historically, Crocker is the archetype of the American hot-rod motorcycle: built in a city of dreamers, faster than it had any right to be, and infused with the kind of craftsmanship that can only exist when a small team obsesses over every casting and thread. For collectors and riders lucky enough to sample one, the experience is immediate—throttle, noise, and intent aligned like a punchline that still lands eight decades later.