Flocking Ecstasy

There is so much going on with this 1966 Electra-Glide and it's display it's almost hard to figure out what is what. Mirrors, lights chains, tinsel garlands, signs, trophies, drapes, skulls, devil heads, coins, and confetti.... and then there's the bike. How about that flocking paint job! (Purple Velvetex). Read what you can on the sign. It makes for one busy photograph, but it must have been fun to see in the flesh.

What to do with a '79 up Ironhead

When the 1979 Sportster came out very early in '78, I like many tradition Harley fans hated it. It's new frame may have done things better, but it was a lousy platform for a custom. The first thing that struck many was the triangle section under the seat making it now look like every other (mostly from Japan), motorcycle . The seat was too flat across it's top, and then there was those pipes! Sure almost everyone replaced pipes on a new Harley, but this one proved difficult due to the location of the rear brake reservoir. Soon custom catalogs advertising pipes had the now famous disclaimer, fits all years except '79.

Perhaps ugly ages more gracefully with time... or maybe it's just the slick studio photography? Later, I sort of liked this look. Even the weird pipes kind of grew on me. This two page center spread ad is from the May 1978 Street Chopper.

The brake reservoir location, pipes, and this style of battery/oil tank cover only lasted a year. It seemed like each following year, Harley would slightly modify the Sportster to try and make it once again more appealing to the traditional Harley buyer.

The once unpopular 1977-'78 XLCR. Harley recycles everything. If I'm not mistaken, the fiberglass front fender is the same one that was advertised in the parts and accessories catalogs many years before this model was offered.

As time passed and XLCR's became collectible (nobody liked them at first either), I thought these later Ironheads would be good raw material for XLCR type bikes. One big plus, you could do them up anyway you wanted without messing up a collectors item. (My personal idea/concept was always to be more like a XR750 with no fairing and traditional spoke wheels). I wasn't the only one. A few years ago at El Camino, I saw XLCR clones made from '79 and later XL's.


This bike (from last week's Long Beach Swap), prompted this post and is fairly close to my vision of what a cool street tracker would look like. It turned out to built by the guy that does the CR clones and was done up from some of his parts wheeling and dealing. It would be really cool to use a pre-cone motor with magneto in one of these frames for an even more authentic look.

Maybe Harley is smarter than we think. It's history seems to be littered with models that were not first liked or didn't sell well, that later become very sought out. 1971 Boat tails and 1983 XR's come to mind.

The story of the first FXR's is pretty similar, and I didn't like them at first too.

Young Punk

Ruby Duby Doo! I wasn't aware of this early Hopper film until seeing some images on the Nostalgia on wheels blog. A quick search turned up this cool poster. That's DH on a glide fitted Knuckle.

Historic Interest

I was never a fan of Mr. Presley but, these photos are historically interesting of the MotorCycle kind.

Elvis Lover Keeping company aboard a '58.


Elvis Copper Why he's on a 60-64 police Duo-Glide is beyond me?


Elvis Chopper Too bad it's fuzzy. This one is confusing. At first glance, it looks like a '81 Wide Glide with a "Frisco Style" Sportster tank, but he died in '77. Because of the camera shake, it's hard to tell if that's a drum or disc brake or a wide or narrow glide. Anyone know about this bike?


Elvis Dresser Here on a rarely seen '71 Sparkling America (white with red and blue accents), Electra-Glide. Sadly, his young lady friend died in a car accident one year later.


Elvis Wheeler Very seventies on a Stires Trike (Roth rip-off). Wheeler was the slang for trikes.


UPDATE! Hiro_67 sent a link in the comments to this photo on Flicker. It's a 66-69 shovel with a wide glide fork (maybe slightly narrowed?), with a Sportster drum brake laced to a 21". The tank is also from a Sportster, but the real surprise is that since the struts are straight, the rear fender and struts look to be from a Sportster as well. You don't or didn't see that very often. Pretty Cool, Thanks Hiro!

Cops and Choppers

Cops interacting with choppers, a never ending struggle. Bill Ray LIFE photos from 1965.


This shot brings up a couple of things. 1. It's 1965 and that's a brand new first year Electra-Glide, so the biker could be getting one of his first up close and personal looks at Milwaukee's latest. 2. Some cops really dug their rides and took pride in their machines. The non standard chrome kicker lever, brake lever, and regulator cover means someone has customized this ride. Now I doubt the department would spring for such options (many P.D.s went for blacked out standard models), so what it may suggest is, the cop owns this bike and leases it to the city. This was once a fairly common practice with many Police Departments.

Cops, Then and Now

Then
LIFE March 1949, Los Angeles Coliseum. Photographer: Loomis Dean

Note the bottom left, you can see another photographer's hand holding his camera. Also notice the bottom right (LIFE logo),where the photo has been torn. Life Caption: "Los Angeles has world's biggest motorcycle police force, here lining up for review". Looks like 9 rows of 24. That would be 216 if thats all of them?

Maybe one of you can try counting them. I wonder how many of them have survived or how many were later bobbed and chopped? While they were getting their picture taken, it would have been a good day to be out on the streets raising hell.

"Los Angeles motorcycle police force during full scale inspection of cycle corps".

1949. That would mean a mixture of Knuckleheads (possibly some Flatheads), 48 Pans with springers, and '49 Hydra-Glides. Where's the Meter Maids and Servi-Cars?

Now
Exact date and location not known.

A modern day line up of Twinkies just doesn't get me as excited. Yeah, I know, I stacked the deck in favor of the oldies.

It may be a regional bias but, a proper Police Special is painted Black and White, or as H-D liked, Silver.

More Fun From Lincoln Park

Here's the other 1948 Lincoln Park photos from Harry Sucher's book. They are some of the coolest racing shots I've seen from that period and the first reason I believe the date was wrong on the Don Fera photo caption in the previous post.



This VL appears to be fitted with WL tanks. I'll bet these guys rode these machines on the street and raced on weekends. This and the Knucklehead in the above photo are good examples of how race bikes influenced the 'California Bobber' look.

A Lost Opp

The year, 1993. I was at the El Camino Vintage MC Show checking out the bikes when a quiet elderly gentleman near a restored Harley VL For Sale, commented to me, "I didn't know they were so valuable now... I guess I better go home and put a lock on the garage."

The bike he was commenting on. I believe the price was about $10k.

He went on to say that he use to race VL's, still had a few plus a garage full of VL parts. He then said there was a picture of him taking a jump in Harry Sucher's The Milwaukee Marvel book. I told him I had the book and knew the photo he spoke of. We talked briefly and he handed me a card with his contact info.

Of course I knew this photo... It's so cool. The year stated is likely incorrect. There are some other similar jump photos in the book on the same course and by the same photographer, but dated 1948. Also, the rear wheel is a 16" and they weren't available until the '40s.

I should have struck when the iron was hot. As time passed, I felt more uncomfortable about contacting an elderly man that I really didn't know.



I'd guess he has long since passed and I blew a unique opportunity to learn some M/C history first hand. Still, it was nice to have met and chat with one of M/C's old timers.

Anybody out there who knew Don Fera, know what happened to him, or his bikes?

Finding Ben Hardy's Shop?

After putting up the last post I thought, why not look up the spot where Ben Hardy's shop was located? Could the building somehow still exist?

I knew the address since the article in Roth's Choppers magazine gave it at 1168 E. Florence in Los Angeles. A lot has changed in the last 40 years, but I figured, Google Map it with "satellite view" and see what comes up.

The letter "A" marks the spot, but it didn't look good. It sort of looks like a parking lot. I hoped (as sometimes), Google's addresses are off by a little bit. The place to it's left looked promising, so why not take look with the "Street View" option?


Boy was I surprised when this came up! What I thought was an empty parking lot turned out to be the roof. The place next door has the much lighter roof when seen from above. Ben's old shop's roof is darker but is reflecting the sun at this angle.

This place needs to be declared a National Historical Monument... of the MotorCycle kind.


For kicks, I tweaked it in Photoshop for a side by side comparison.


Afterwards, I looked up another Famous Monument. I erased the street name so as not to give it away too easily. Any guesses? I.R., I'm sure you'll know, and Moldy, If you read this, don't tell.

It's too bad places like these can't somehow be preserved for what they once were.

I wonder, do today's occupants realize their significance?

BLACK M/C HISTORY MONTH

February ain't just about Valentine's.

Looking sharp in the '30's.


Brother Ben. Perhaps one of the most influential builders ever.


Ben on a '65 H-D that is very likely an ex-police bike. There's another inside the shop's left window.


LA Choppers. From the style of their bikes and their location, I'm sure they knew Ben. This club still exists. I love their colors. I've seen a few members at the Long Beach swap.


EBD's. Probably the most famous of all the black clubs.


Gerald “Fat Daddy”, “Bubba”, “Gerry”, “J.R.”, Biddle. Member of the "Crazy Pharaohs" Port Washington, NY on a well dressed '68.


Bessie Stringfield. Google her.


Good looking group. Note the pin stripes on the second bike and the bobbed fender on the fourth.


Can't hide her feelings sitting on that brand new boat tail.


Sugar Bear. Doing them long, long time.


Can she actually get that Fro in the helmet? Brings a whole new meaning to "Helmet Hair".

So how come Black History Month is celebrated in the shortest month of the year?
"The Man" just keeps stick'in it to the Brothers and Sistahs.

The New "Down Under" Look

For a long time, I figured H-D came out with the oval mirror around '71 since the owners manual for the '70 Electra-Glide shows round mirrors. This page from the '70 accessory catalog, shows the long stem oval's part numbers are from'67. What really surprised me, is the (new for '70), short stem mirror was originally designed to be mounted on the under side of the lever. These are the adjustable (slider), types that can be used for left or right.

In the late '70's, I had a friend that ran his this way to be cool. I don't think he knew that's what H-D had intended.

That's what I dig about this stuff. You can always learn something new.

World's Fastest Motorcycle!!

At one time. I believe the record was set in 1969. Sportser powered too. Another gift courtesy of Big Scott.

"Keep on Chuckin"

Big Scott gave me these. They came with the '70 custom dresser he had. To refresh your memory go to:

http://motorcycleart.blogspot.com/2009/05/1970-nok-new-old-kustom.html

Pack Rats

Talk about a Garbage Wagon.

I remember when a rat bike was just an old bike (sometimes chopped), that was greasy and grubby with maybe a few odd pieces that were usually functional.

Now it seems it's mostly about piling on useless junk. Sorry but, I don't see what's cool about that!?

The Sportster

...That Never Was

Where would they have fitted a generator?

The KL model was originally planned for release in the early 50's. Instead, the poor performing K model was rushed into production to fill it's gap. The high cam KL was continuously plagued by overheating problems, so the later (1954), experimental XL overhead design superseded it. At one point both the KL and XL were being tested side by side. Harley originally didn't want an overhead design based on the old flathead four cam bottom, but it worked and it's performance pretty much surprised everyone. What shouldn't be a surprise is that the XL's top end was designed by the same guy (Charley Featherly), who had done detailed work on the Knucklehead and later the Shovelhead. Since early Panheads had trouble with their aluminum heads, he stuck with iron like on Knuckles. Charley also thought that the valve covers on Pans held too much heat.

An Indian for Irish Rich....

and other Indian Motorcycle lovers... well sort of... it's the P-61 American Rocket

For 1951, it's quite the Hot Rod. Although it looks the part, it's really too heavily modified to be considered a Bobber. Pierce hoped it would become a factory model.


I like the "H-D parts dept." gag.


Old time cyclist seem to always come up with clever slogans for putting down other makes.

For more on this scooter click on this:
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2009/09/american-rocket-p-61.html