Back to a Harley !!

[hdonlybob]

I have recently posted how my recent heart Ablation, as well as Pacemaker has made me feel at least (15) years younger....
Well, I had to give up Harley riding after (53) years on them...due to my heart problems, as well as some others...
Gosh, I feel so good now, that I booked into Sturgis Bike Week this next year.. all set in a nice little cabin in Keystone...and my youngest Son, as well as Granddaughter are going with, along with their spouses...
Only problem was the cost to rent a Harley...geesh.... forget it..
So I decided to buy one now, while the winter deals are good, ride this summer, then sell it when I get back..hopefully for even money..
After ~(2) weeks of hard looking, I bought this 1981 Shovelhead FLT...
Only 19 degrees out tonight, but went and picked up up.. so it is now HOME in my garage..
I am one happy (73) year old Biker Dude !!

 

[hittman]

Congrats and good for you Bob!
Nothing like the freedom and relaxation of having the wind in your face.
Nice looking old shovel ..... one of the classic looks of a Harley.

Here's some I have or had from time to time.

 

[Don Lovel]

I sold my 93 FXR to a guy who runs a chain of tattoo shops on the islands in Hawaii. He keeps a stable of bikes for his mainland customers to ride while visiting. Glad to know where it is and one day maybe I can go ride around the big island on it.

 

[WAYNO]

I have recently posted how my recent heart Ablation, as well as Pacemaker has made me feel at least (15) years younger....
Well, I had to give up Harley riding after (53) years on them...due to my heart problems, as well as some others...
Gosh, I feel so good now, that I booked into Sturgis Bike Week this next year.. all set in a nice little cabin in Keystone...and my youngest Son, as well as Granddaughter are going with, along with their spouses...
Only problem was the cost to rent a Harley...geesh.... forget it..
So I decided to buy one now, while the winter deals are good, ride this summer, then sell it when I get back..hopefully for even money..
After ~(2) weeks of hard looking, I bought this 1981 Shovelhead FLT...
Only 19 degrees out tonight, but went and picked up up.. so it is now HOME in my garage..
I am one happy (73) year old Biker Dude !!

Good for you! Great bike! I'm kind've going the other way. My knees are so arthuritised up, it's getting difficult. Don't know how much longer I can ride. It's not that I can't ride, it's winter riding that is difficult. I used to make fun of fair-weather riders, and now that I'm becoming one, I don't want to be two-faced.







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[hdonlybob]

Thanks for the nice comments...
I should have stated that this is my last Whoo Haa for Sturgis....been there many many times over the years..started in the late 60's.....
My knees as well as back won't tolerate too much, but WTH I am up for it one last time.. Also love all the pictures posted above.. my last Harley was a 2005 Road Glide...loved it.. over the years I had a 1970 Shovelhead FLH, so am really excited to go back in time with this Shovelhead FLT..
Cheers,
HD

 

[Heliman]

Hey WAYNO, where’s the training wheels??? On the bicycle. :wink:

Dave

 

[WAYNO]

Hey WAYNO, where’s the training wheels??? On the bicycle. :wink:

Dave

Could be getting closer. 8)

 

[Cholo]

hdonlybob, that's a nice old Shovel! I still have the '80 FXEF I bought new. I think it still looks pretty good:



WAYNO, I sure remember you posting the bicycle pic years ago. Too funny! :mrgreen:

 

[roashooter]

did it come with the accessory trailer for getting it back to the shop???....

 

[hdonlybob]

WAYNO,
I hear ya...
Here is what should change my home picture too..
Cheers,
HD

 

[bobski]

air cooled bowling ball engines.
good luck!

 

[Bull Barrel]

Harley...making noise from gasoline since 1903.
Now ya gotta go back out and buy a new uniform. And a chase truck. And skull decals.

Welcome back!

 

[bogus bill]

I miss riding. I had a 1963, 1964 and a 1969 all full dressers years ago plus Royal Enfields, Moto Guzzis and Triumph and a Suzuki. Both I and the wife are big, too big to ride comfortably together and I haven't rode since the 1980`s. Started out with a Whizzer as a boy in the early 50`s. Once in the late 1960`s I rode just over a 1,000 miles in 24 hours. Never rode a motor to Sturgis but I rode the last sponsored Harley Davidson run to Death Valley. If money wasnt a factor I would get a Harley again, "Just because". I have also cracked up a few and it`s a miracle I lived through a few incidents. Once had a hopped up fool try to run over my partner and I from behind. Be safe!

 

[Bull Barrel]

Bill, what kind of Guzzi did you have?

 

[wwb]

Never been a H-D guy, although I did consider a Buell a few years ago. But it's 2 wheels, and 2 wheels beats 4 wheels (except in the winter), so RIDE ON !!!!

 

[bogus bill]

I think it was a 1969 V 700. Maybe it was called Ambassador? I think they went to the V750 in 1970. I recall the Glendale PD had them but the importer was there or Burbank. It was a V sideways twin. Once you got it up to speed I believe it could do 90 all day. do recall my front brake wasnt that good but mine never gave me much trouble. If I recall the distributor was "Johnson Motors". Sammy Pierce the old Indian Motorcycle expert was around Pasadena. I also owned I think, the last Indian-Enfield made. It was a 700 cc Royal Enfield 1958. That year they dropped the Indian name. Right after I owned a 1965 750 cc Royal Enfield Interceptor. Later I bought a basket case 1967, sold it to a friend that restored it. I once got racing a hot dodge or Plymouth on the Highway 14 between Palmdale and Castaic junction just before they officially opened the freeway about 1968. I broke the tach and the smith 120 mph speedo. Had to do a top end on it too afterwards. I know I had to be doing a 135 or 140 or so laying down on it on a downhill grade that time. Once I and my buddy were riding after work one night about 03:30 AM on I think from Santa Monica to downtown Hollywood on Hollywood Blvd and or Sunset strip . The streets were deserted. Some guy in a Buick Riveria (about 1968) started racing me from light to light. Finally he pulled over to check out my bike and shake hands, then he tells me it wasn't his car! I think the Hollywood PD is still looking for us!
Once that same buddy and I got off work at midnight Burbank Lockheed where we both were guards. We decided to go for a ride and not go straight home. Our uniforms were the same as the local PD. We were putting side by side talking, I think on Glendale Blvd. There was no traffic at about 02:am. I heard a car drop a gear behind us, the road sort of lit up with his lights as he raced wide open to run us over! My buddy Bill and I had rode so much together we knew what the other would do. Bill was a ex motorcycle cop and a good rider. We both was able to avoid him. It was a hot night and the guy had his windows down and he also had a woman with him. He went right through us wide open. I seen the woman had her hand to her mouth screaming. We were probably doing about 35 talking side by side, the guy was wide open and flooring it. There was a red light about two blocks ahead and he went through it wide open, maybe 90 or a 100! He got away. There also was a report in the paper where he tried it with someone else and for motorcycle`s to watch out. A few nights later my buddy was riding home again and he tried it on my buddy again. My buddy had to ride up on someones lawn and lay it down. I also got off the same time, was riding home and came up on my friend talking to the police about it. Thats it for now, I could type storys here the rest of the day.

 

[bogus bill]

When you ride a lot you always see some amusing things. I recall that last Death Valley run about 1968. There was a outlaw black club called "The Chosen Few". A little black girl asked her big boy friend at a gas station for a couple bucks for some goodies at a gas station. He made some surly remark about her walking home. She sez, "Yo brung my black azz hyar, an yo is gonna take muh black azz home! With that she jumped up a foot or two and knocked him down!

 

[Colonel Daddy]

WAYNO,
I hear ya...
Here is what should change my home picture too..
Cheers,
HD

Told my Doctor I was gonna put "Apes" on my walker. He frowned! :mrgreen:

 

[hdonlybob]

WAYNO,
I hear ya...
Here is what should change my home picture too..
Cheers,
HD

Told my Doctor I was gonna put "Apes" on my walker. He frowned! :mrgreen:

THAT IS FUNNY....
I did weld some Harley Apes onto my snow blower a few years back, as they were too low for my back problems... !!! Worked really well..

 

[bogus bill]

I bought a 1969 full dress FLH from a friend that had just bought it new, had a heart attack and his doctor said no more riding. I didn't need it, already had another similar in my garage plus maybe the Guzzie. I bought it because he sold it cheap and had low miles and was loaded. That said it was the end of December 1970, I probably already had hundreds of thousands on bikes, mostly harleys, it was cold so waited a few weeks to try it on a longer ride when it got warm. (No novelty). I met my buddy and wife who also had a 1967 dresser and we went for a ride. It got dark and we were between Magic Mountain and Pirue. Bill passed some other bikes and got ahead of me in traffic. I had just got my first set of eye glass`s that day or the day before and wasn't use to them. I seen a opening and went around them too. Then I started around a vehicle and the devil speeded up! I speeded up too and got a high speed wobble I hadn't experienced before on that bike. Since the car was on my azz and I had read that you might get through a high speed wobble some claimed to go even faster to get through it. I tried that. Do`nt you. I came into a curve at 100 mph. It looked like a hair pin with my new glass`s, I panicked, hit the binders in a curve, Never, never do that! I took out a 45 mph sign and tumbeled off the high embankment out into the black space at over a hundred. Later we found my cowboy boot up in a tree! If I was knocked out it was only for a few seconds as I still recall flying through black space, hitting something and coming to laying in pricky stuff with people hollering above me in the dark. Some got down to me. I was laying on a old abandoned RR track that ran below the road, maybe 60 feet below the highway.
One of the cyclists I passed caught my buddy right near Magic Mountain, said go back, your buddy got killed! Buddy Bill showed up and I asked the crowd to step back, wanted a private word with my friend. I palmed him my S&W model 60.
A CHP showed up and then a ambulance. They had people on top pull me up the cliff on the stretcher with a long rope. I get to Golden State Hospital in Newhall and here comes the CHIP again. He chased the nurse`s out, wanted a word with me alone. Sez, what did you hand your partner? Someone told me you handed him a plastic envelope! Wont have any druggers on my highway! I said I handed him my pistol, a stainless model 60. I suppose it looked like a plastic bag in the moonlight. "Was it loaded"? I gave him the required lie and said no. You gonna write me? Naw. Your suffering enough. I had a broken leg, hand, ankle, nose and maybe 50 stich`s on my head and face. Everything that ever happened bad to me was always in December. Merle Haggard wrote that song, "Lord help us get through December and everything will be alright" just for me.

 

[CGDustDevil]

That's a dandy looking ole Shovelhead!! I wish you the best of times on it!

So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time (Randy Meisner, Glenn Frey, Don Henley)

 

[Bull Barrel]

Bill, the V700 was called the V7. In 70 they made it a 750 and that was the Ambassador. The 850 in 72 was the El Dorado.
And the engine wasnt sideways...it is the way the V was meant to be. (See my tag line) ii have two Guzzis.

 

[bogus bill]

Thanks BB. I haven't seen one in many years. Bought mine used. My buddy bill had one also, a year or two newer than mine. Mine was the 700, his the 750.

 

[hdonlybob]

I also messed around over the years building a few trikes..
Here is one of my favorites...It was stretched out to almost (15) feet.....rode like a dream, but still not two wheels...
Anyone recognize the custom made engine in it ??
Cheers,
HD

 

[bogus bill]

The Brough Superior was suppose to be the ultimate! T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) was killed on one. Those old British bikes seemed to have soul when you rode them. I recall buying a nice Triumph T-110 for I think, $180`s! It was I think, a 1957. In about 1968 my GF had seen it advertised in the morning paper. I went and bought it from some older guy that had almost got hit on it. He had painted the fenders bright orange to be seen. He signed the title wrong and I had to go back. The guy said, "I could have sold that bike a dozen times since you left!" I always wanted a Ariel 4 Square but never got one.
Just seen that post above. No, what kind of engine is it?

 

[Bull Barrel]

A friend of mine has a vintage Brough Superior.

He sucks! (That is a term used to say I am jealous)

Yeah got my Guzzis used, too. Guzzi riders are too cheap to buy new.
Both of mine were 1 of 100 imported.