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First HD

23K views 199 replies 32 participants last post by  Dan Boy 
#1 ·
Hey! Soo I'm building my First Harley Shovelhead chop. IT's my First Harley ever and im pretty stocked to finally be at this stage finally. As it has been a long time coming. Anyhow I find a decent deal as a Friend told me and i should grab it. I got a 80 Shovelhead with a brand new Kraftech frame. With boxes of parts like gaskets sporckets and what not. BAsically it is everythign minus a front end.

MY Dilemma is i didnt ask enough questions. Which i thought i asked tons. I get to meet the guy 4 Hours away from home. I look at the frame and say its pretty wide in teh rear huh. The guys tells me its for a 180 rear tire. Seems very wide to me. My question is should i be selling the frame off. As i think i need a 130 or 150 rear tire. Not familiar enough yet if 180 is a laughable rear width. Opinions graciously accepted. If i should sell the frame and start with somethign else then ill suck it up and do that.

Thanx for any input
 
#12 ·
Re: First HD fi

Wow alot if feedback. I'm sorry if I wondered this wrong. I wasn't wanting to buy a frame with a wide rear I assumed it wasn't until I got to the bike. Basically I want to build a bike with a standard width tire. But I ended up with this.
 
#32 ·
If I remember right a 180 is the widest you can go on an twincam without doing much, but I dont think a 180 will fit a shovel without all or some of the off set grief that comes with them there wide tyred things!......
That looks like a 130/140 tire you have mocked up in the pics and it looks fine to me so I think you'll be fine.

The wife and I have 8. I guess that makes me really suspect.
Doc at least you can blame the "crazy eight" on the wife!! Seriously eight cats? That's approaching "crazy cat lady"numbers.( unless you have a REALLY bad rodent problem, then it's justified)
 
#15 ·
Re: First HD fi

160 is the widest I've seen on a 4spd shovel. That said my brother runs a 250 with a 6spd RSD trans in a softail setup. 1977 shovel head motor.
 
#16 ·
Re: First HD fi

Id be reaching out to the frame manufacturer and checking if there is any inbuilt offset in the frame. If not you'd be OK but I'd run a 150 rear in it to help fill the gap as widened frames with skinny rears can look a bit "off", in fact its my fav width tyre in many ways.

If it has built in offset sell it and buy the frame you want.

I see you are in Canada. Are you 100% certain of the process you need to go thru to register a bike built from the frame up? By that I mean have you talked with DMV in person yourself, not the "expert" at the bar that "used" to build choppers back in the day and now drives a neon.
 
#18 ·
I will post pics tomorrow. But I'm thinking I'm gonna sell te frame as thatis the base to work with and I'm thinkin I'm not so happy with it. I would be happier with a frame that is a lil more traditional and be proper sizing and width for a narrower rear wheel
 
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