Hi again! Time for the next story.
You guys may remember some of my bikes like Woodscrews (An Evo abortion that turned into a full re-do) and my FX/Knucklehead-framed cone motor thing.
My master plan was to start working backwards and just keep getting older and older shit, but it didn't work out, because my next bike should have been either a genny Shovel or a Pan, depending on whether you consider the genny a different engine from the cone Shovels. Here's how it got fucked up: Kevin (buckman50) did me a solid and brokered a deal on a BT flatty between a guy he and Jason McElroy (Jason McElroy) know. (He's now one of my friends, too.)
Kevin's friend is a pretty old guy, but he's not too bad on the computer. He scanned what is (I think) one of the only pictures he had of his bike and sent it to me. He told me the bike was super-old and crusty. If I took my notes correctly, he said he bought it in 1970, and began chopping in 1973 when he had to tear the engine down for a rebuild. The bike was finished in 1978, and the trophy I have is from 1981. The bike was ridden 1,200 miles, and blew a head gasket. It was replaced, and the bike was parked in a barn. Here is the only photo the seller had to send me:
About two weeks ago, I called up Hutch (hutchjr7) and asked him to borrow his trailer. Hutch knows if something doesn't fit in the truck bed, I am moving something long... so he correctly surmised that I had a bike deal brewing. A few days later, Hutch and I took a very long road trip. We came back with this:
We also got the trophy and one of the plaques that is in the first photo. It's amazing the guy had that stuff still! The bike is foot shifted. Frame appears to be a very, very molded straightleg Pan - look at those squared sections! Trans has a date code of 1960.
I got my title back today, so she's really mine now. 1937 ULH paper. It came from a no-title state, so it moved on a transferable reg - from 1988! I'm not a numbers expert, but these fuckers look pretty good to me. Bellies match. 13-fin jugs.
The fella I got it from was awesome, as was his wife. Really good folks. We stayed for lunch and shot the shit with them. I'm gonna show this thread to the guy who built the bike. My hope is that he jumps on here and joins our community. He did a really, really good job building this bike - I'll be giving you guys glimpses at some of the work he did many moons ago, but it's all quality - not the usual hokey chopper bullshit of that era.
My goal is to get the bike operable again. I want to clean it up - just scrub the crust off it - and ride it around. I'm going to change as little as possible. This thing really is a rolling piece of history, and I want to leave it as close to original as I can get away with.
Here, dig this tank mural:
So, I am a little financially light after having bought this bike, of course, so I will probably move kind of slowly on it until my wallet recovers. Still, though, I want to get it rolling by the end of the year if I can. Happily, it was built very well and is overall in pretty good shape. More on that to come.
Hutch and Pete (lugie) have both helped the shit out of me so far with this. Hutch always says "If it's free, it's for me!". Fortunately, he had scrounged some angle brackets at some point in time. He brought them over one night, and I was able to solve my first problem with this chopper - how to put it on my goddamn table!
Then Hutch schooled me a little bit on magnetos. After a little work, we had a video worth watching. (Shamelessly stolen from his IG)
So I have a list of things to do. I have to adjust the tappets; the covers were up when I got the bike, and the motor mount was missing a top bolt, and the exhaust was half-disconnected. I think it got most of its head gasket replacement, but the job went unfinished. Obviously it will have to be re-timed. The springer doesn't spring for whatever reason, so I gotta take that thing apart and clean it and lube it. The rear wheel has a broken spoke. And then the usual old bike shit - tank, carb, fluids, rubber.
I got a new camera rig for work, so I am going to try to be good about taking lotsa photos so you guys can follow along with me.
Wish me luck, and if I am doing something stupid to this bike, let me know. "Original" is the theme here.
You guys may remember some of my bikes like Woodscrews (An Evo abortion that turned into a full re-do) and my FX/Knucklehead-framed cone motor thing.
My master plan was to start working backwards and just keep getting older and older shit, but it didn't work out, because my next bike should have been either a genny Shovel or a Pan, depending on whether you consider the genny a different engine from the cone Shovels. Here's how it got fucked up: Kevin (buckman50) did me a solid and brokered a deal on a BT flatty between a guy he and Jason McElroy (Jason McElroy) know. (He's now one of my friends, too.)
Kevin's friend is a pretty old guy, but he's not too bad on the computer. He scanned what is (I think) one of the only pictures he had of his bike and sent it to me. He told me the bike was super-old and crusty. If I took my notes correctly, he said he bought it in 1970, and began chopping in 1973 when he had to tear the engine down for a rebuild. The bike was finished in 1978, and the trophy I have is from 1981. The bike was ridden 1,200 miles, and blew a head gasket. It was replaced, and the bike was parked in a barn. Here is the only photo the seller had to send me:
About two weeks ago, I called up Hutch (hutchjr7) and asked him to borrow his trailer. Hutch knows if something doesn't fit in the truck bed, I am moving something long... so he correctly surmised that I had a bike deal brewing. A few days later, Hutch and I took a very long road trip. We came back with this:
We also got the trophy and one of the plaques that is in the first photo. It's amazing the guy had that stuff still! The bike is foot shifted. Frame appears to be a very, very molded straightleg Pan - look at those squared sections! Trans has a date code of 1960.
I got my title back today, so she's really mine now. 1937 ULH paper. It came from a no-title state, so it moved on a transferable reg - from 1988! I'm not a numbers expert, but these fuckers look pretty good to me. Bellies match. 13-fin jugs.
The fella I got it from was awesome, as was his wife. Really good folks. We stayed for lunch and shot the shit with them. I'm gonna show this thread to the guy who built the bike. My hope is that he jumps on here and joins our community. He did a really, really good job building this bike - I'll be giving you guys glimpses at some of the work he did many moons ago, but it's all quality - not the usual hokey chopper bullshit of that era.
My goal is to get the bike operable again. I want to clean it up - just scrub the crust off it - and ride it around. I'm going to change as little as possible. This thing really is a rolling piece of history, and I want to leave it as close to original as I can get away with.
Here, dig this tank mural:
So, I am a little financially light after having bought this bike, of course, so I will probably move kind of slowly on it until my wallet recovers. Still, though, I want to get it rolling by the end of the year if I can. Happily, it was built very well and is overall in pretty good shape. More on that to come.
Hutch and Pete (lugie) have both helped the shit out of me so far with this. Hutch always says "If it's free, it's for me!". Fortunately, he had scrounged some angle brackets at some point in time. He brought them over one night, and I was able to solve my first problem with this chopper - how to put it on my goddamn table!
Then Hutch schooled me a little bit on magnetos. After a little work, we had a video worth watching. (Shamelessly stolen from his IG)
So I have a list of things to do. I have to adjust the tappets; the covers were up when I got the bike, and the motor mount was missing a top bolt, and the exhaust was half-disconnected. I think it got most of its head gasket replacement, but the job went unfinished. Obviously it will have to be re-timed. The springer doesn't spring for whatever reason, so I gotta take that thing apart and clean it and lube it. The rear wheel has a broken spoke. And then the usual old bike shit - tank, carb, fluids, rubber.
I got a new camera rig for work, so I am going to try to be good about taking lotsa photos so you guys can follow along with me.
Wish me luck, and if I am doing something stupid to this bike, let me know. "Original" is the theme here.