A pic some of you Harley rider might like

[Popeye]

One of my friends is really into WWII Military items. He has quite a few Military rifles. He is also into and rides Harley's. Last Tuesday we drove down to Va..It was a 17 and a half hour round trip. Where we picked up his 1942 WLA Flat head. The bike took a year and a half to reconstruct back into a new bike.The bike is a total rebuild. It is 100% back to it's original configuration. The rifle scabbard of the front fork holds a Thompson Machine gun. :Amflag2:
8523
8524

[Fodder]

That's fantastic. Well done.


RB

[jocko]

a labor of love. super job. They have a halfdozenlike that in the HD museum in Milwaukee...

[Barth]

Clearly a Tommy gun need to be added...
http://images.military.com/road/pics/rw_show_070205_1m-1.jpg

[Popeye]

It is a very cool old /new bike. It sure makes you appreciate the new bikes with the hand controls and foot shifter, electric start and EFI.Riding it is a whole new game with the foot clutch and tank suicide shifter. There is quite a learning curve to riding and starting it. :D

Barth he has a dummy Tommy gun that goes into it for now for parade duty, but knowing him it won't be long before a real one is in there. ;)

[Barth]

It is a very cool old /new bike. It sure makes you appreciate the new bikes with the hand controls and foot shifter, electric start and EFI.Riding it is a whole new game with the foot clutch and tank suicide shifter. There is quite a learning curve to riding and starting it. :D

I had a friend in highschool that rode a flathead 80 with a jockey shifter and suicide clutch.
Sported a 12" over springer too.
He let me ride it once.
I road it down the street.
Carefully turned around.
Rode it back to him and gave it back.
I learned real quick why it's called a suicide clutch.

[Barth]

Things have standardized with motorcycles.
I myself in highschool owned a BMW 500 and a Triumph Tiger 650 as the same time.
Back in the day,
the british bikes had the foot shifter and rear brake controls swapped
compared to American and Japanese models.
I'm dyslexic and road both effortlessly on a daily basis.
Freaked my friends out though...

[Popeye]

Yea Barth it's cool but I sure wouldn't want to ride it very far, or in heavy traffic where a lot of shifting were involved. As far as Springer front ends go they look cool but I was never all that crazy about riding a bike with one. JMO but I always thought they felt front heavy and never had a very positive feel of the road to them. Extended springer front ends are brutal. That's the thing I really like about my road king it has a great balance to it with great feedback ,and where you decide to stick it is where it's going to go. I've had it to the Tail of the Dragon and Cherahola Skyway twice and as long as you don't touch down a crash bar it'll stick providing I do my part.

[RevRay]

Very nicely done. I love seeing old things being renewed. I'm not mechanically gifted, so the only renewal work I'm ever involved in is of a different kind ... unless simply signing a check counts.

[muggsy]

I'm looking for a little renewal myself. :) Definitely a job well done.

[jocko]

Yea Barth it's cool but I sure wouldn't want to ride it very far, or in heavy traffic where a lot of shifting were involved. As far as Springer front ends go they look cool but I was never all that crazy about riding a bike with one. JMO but I always thought they felt front heavy and never had a very positive feel of the road to them. Extended springer front ends are brutal. That's the thing I really like about my road king it has a great balance to it with great feedback ,and where you decide to stick it is where it's going to go. I've had it to the Tail of the Dragon and Cherahola Skyway twice and as long as you don't touch down a crash bar it'll stick providing I do my part.

two of the Heritage sofetail springers, and indeed the front end was heavy compared to the hydraulic front ends, but the nice thing about that springer though was if u grabbed a handful of front brake it did not hydraulic like the hdraulic front ends, the dipping part was just not there. Only issue I ever had with those two Heritages with the heavy front end that about every 15K miles u had to replace the head set bearing for the heavy front end just beat a dent/groove in the bering race and u could get front end vibration real bad. Just to heavy of a front end systrem for the bearings to absorb,I guess, but my dealer told me that they never had any owners have problems like my wifes bike did due tothe fact that most never road them over 5K miles period. Her one Heritage spring had 37K when she traded it and the last one has 35K when she sold it privately. Personally I really liked that bike. They dropped it out of there line a few years back I think due to pricey, that front end is a very pricey front end..:Amflag2:

[Barth]

two of the Heritage sofetail springers, and indeed the front end was heavy compared to the hydraulic front ends, but the nice thing about that springer though was if u grabbed a handful of front brake it did not hydraulic like the hdraulic front ends, the dipping part was just not there. Only issue I ever had with those two Heritages with the heavy front end that about every 15K miles u had to replace the head set bearing for the heavy front end just beat a dent/groove in the bering race and u could get front end vibration real bad. Just to heavy of a front end systrem for the bearings to absorb,I guess, but my dealer told me that they never had any owners have problems like my wifes bike did due tothe fact that most never road them over 5K miles period. Her one Heritage spring had 37K when she traded it and the last one has 35K when she sold it privately. Personally I really liked that bike. They dropped it out of there line a few years back I think due to pricey, that front end is a very pricey front end..:Amflag2:

OK, what the hell did you do with the real Jocko?
Is your wifey typing for you?
Did you suddenly discover spell check?
Spill...

[jocko]

heh, giuve me some credit, a bird sometimes does find the worm. Just sayin

reread my post thou7gh, I did find one error asu might callit but for me it is normal, so I pass right over it. My spell check is set up that if I get close to it, then it just ok's it and moves on.:Amflag2:

[Barth]

heh, giuve me some credit, a bird sometimes does find the worm. Just sayin

reread my post thou7gh, I did find one error asu might callit but for me it is normal, so I pass right over it. My spell check is set up that if I get close to it, then it just ok's it and moves on.:Amflag2:

Just giving you the hard time that freinds are required to do - LOL!

[340pd]

Absolutely beautiful.
Correct me if I am wrong, but is not the throttle on the left side, on that bike, to allow the Thompson to be held, and fired, from the right hand?

[Barth]

Absolutely beautiful.
Correct me if I am wrong, but is not the throttle on the left side, on that bike, to allow the Thompson to be held, and fired, from the right hand?

I don't know for sure.
I don't think so.

Throttle was on the right.
Left hand shifted the hand stick shifter.
Those had a tank shifter.
Later the shifter was behind and below you.
We called them a jockey shifter.
I think the front hand brake lever was on the left If I remember correctly?
Left foot worked the suicide clutch.
Right foot the rear brake.

You were plenty busy with all limbs just riding the damn thing.
IMHO - somebody on back would have had to run the Tommy gun.
Not the rider.
I think the Tommy gun was for the rider after he stopped and got off the bike.

I also think I may be revealing too much about myself at this point.
Maybe I'll just shut up now before someone caches on...

[Bawanna]

Kind of similar to driving my van back in my smoking days with no feet. Drink coffee, smoke, and make all the things happen that make it go and stop and signal etc, sometimes challenging but you adapt to it and pretty soon it's almost normal.

I rode a few of those bikes with the shifter and brake reversed, it was very weird, not sure I could ever do it long enough to be normal, and it would be horrible to switch back and forth.

[jocko]

I always thought the throttle was on the right side, but I always thought Hillary was a woman to...Just sayin

[RevRay]

OK, what the hell did you do with the real Jocko?
Is your wifey typing for you?
Did you suddenly discover spell check?
Spill...

He was obviously writing about something near and dear to his heart. We always tend to be more careful with things we truly care about.

[Barth]

He was obviously writing about something near and dear to his heart. We always tend to be more careful with things we truly care about.

I was actually thinking the same thing.
A topic so important naturally gives a heightened sense of clarity and focus.

[jocko]

good point guys.

[Popeye]

To the best of my knowledge The throttle has always been on the right on Harley's. Indians I believe used the left hand throttle so soldiers could shoot pistols with there right hand. It might have sounded like a good idea at the time ,but trying to hit anything with a pistol was a dream at best off a moving motorcycle. Indians were not as popular with the military in those days. I believe it had more to do with them unable to meet the demands at the time so most Military bikes were Harley's. There might have even been a few Excelsior Henderson's thrown into the mix also. I have shot a Thompson many years ago, and trust me you would not want to try to shoot one off a moving motorcycle one handed as it would probably end up smacking you in the mouth and knocking your Chiclets out. Some troops carried M1 Garand's on there bikes and I would imagine M1 carbines also. When you think about it they probably carried everything they could get away with at the time on those bikes. Those WLA Flatties were the original Bobbers and Choppers after the war ended and they were very tough bikes.

[jocko]

ur right on the Injun bikes popeye.