Beautiful Night

So its the nicest day and night of the year...80 plus degrees.

My buddy Mike and I decide to take a ride and hit a Bike Night up at a somewhat local Tavern. We haven't been out ridin' together since probably September. He meets me at a place near my house an we set out ... well almost...after way too many kicks his Pan fires up. I pull out of the lot on my 47 FL and blast down the road. A quick turn of the head and nope...he ain't there. I ride a little further thinkin' he got caught behind a car and will catch up...nope. I turn around and find him fuckin' with the bike at an intersection. we diddle around with it a bit and it fires up...he's thinkin' electrical...of course he made the mistake of asking my advice as to whether to turn back or keep going...I aways keep going...well another 1/8 of a mile and I look back and he's pulling off the road. I turn around again and find him with the seat off fucking with the wiring.

After a 2 minute consultation I decide to perform a Bypass...I run a wire from the Hot side of the battery directly to the hot side of the coil... I won't get into the twisted wire/rigging techniques used to perform this operation in the field but needless to say it was messy, yet effective. The bike fired up but this time the question wasn't asked. Mike decided to ride it back to my place and call his wife for a ride home...Ouch... (she didn't answer anyway) I offered my 57 Pan but he was too disgusted at that point and started to walk the mile up to the closest Tavern to wait on his ride. I said adios and enjoyed the warm ride out, and although 10,000 bugs decided to commit suicide in my face, it was a great ride. I returned home to find his Pan still in the yard and no sign of him...I guess I'll tuck it away for the night...

Pittsburg 1956

A new Servi-Car and a 6 year old Hydra-Glide.

41 FLTT - Pedal to the Metal

Parkerized, assembled and installed.

Checkered Past

Cool threads!

Panhead Rick From Jersey

If you ever wondered where I get a ton of the great old photos that I post...they come from Panhead Rick from Jersey.

Not only is he relentless in his search for the coolest fuckin' old bike pictures I've ever seen but apparently he is a great painter as well.

Rick has a little time on his hands right now and decided to paint Panheads and the like. He sent me these shots of his latest work. Check these out...Fuckin' cool!

We have hung out together at Oley PA, Panstock and the Brooklyn Invitational this past year and along with Richie Pan (Bikers, Hippies and Tattooed Freaks) are some hard riding great people to hang out with.

41 FLTT Progression

Making some progress... as noted in the previous post I am finishing up gathering parts (I hope) Parkerizing and assembling them.

1941 Clutch Foot Lever and Bracket

Comparing a 41-45 bracket with a 46 and later. Notice the grease fitting hole.

Clutch foot lever

I was already to Parkerize a nice clutch foot lever bracket for my 41 FLTT. I won't ruin old Parkerized parts cause they'll fit nice on an unrestored bike. So I found one that had been painted black years ago. I was ready to pop it in the glass beader when I noticed it was a friggin' 46 and later model...No grease fitting...Fuck... I searched high and low and could not find a 41 - 45 bracket that fit the bill. When I was about to resign myself to using the later one I checked one last place...a 47 knuckle project rolling chassis that I had slapped together years ago...as luck would have it I put a complete 41 - 45 foot clutch lever set up on it by mistake! The clutch lever is different also (no dog leg at the rear of the pedal). This one was perfect and had been painted flat black...no guilt in blasting and re-Parkerizing!