Found some fun personal pix, some from 70 YEARS AGO!!!
by: oldchopperguy - Sept 6, 2018 21:20:54 GMT -5
Post by oldchopperguy on Sept 6, 2018 21:20:54 GMT -5
It's 1961, and "Old Blue" begins life from a tattered 1957 Harley Davidson FLH Duo Glide... No pix of the original stocker ever taken.
First build... Just a start... Motor bone-stock. Amazing "factoids" about the old Pan-Heads: Up to 1954 the FL 74 CID (1208cc) motor put out 9.44hp @ 5K rpm. About the same as a Chinese 150! In 1955 the improved FLH version of the SAME motor put out 60hp @5,500 rpm. A whole LOT better "raw material" to work with... LOL!
I already had the Goodyear Grasshopper tire on the rear which turned out to be a FANTASTIC all-round tire with its semi-knobby round tread running smooth on the road, yet having traction on all surfaces. An old ancestor of modern multi-use tires! The true knobby front tire just happened to be on the 19" rim when I got it, and looked AND rode pretty bad... LOL!
The seat was a Bates 2-up leather buddy seat made for a Sportster. Comfortable, but NOT the right look for a chopper... The rear fender was the original front fender turned backwards. OK, but still amateurish. Heck, I still had the FLOORBOARDS on the old gal!
Oh well, it WAS a good start.
OK, NOW we're getting somewhere!
Much refined, the old gal was now "coming of age"... Stock motor was now rebuilt with bored jugs, shaved heads, big valves, ported/polished, 1/8" overbore with Venolia pistons and 3/4 cam. Horsepower upped from stock 60 to a healthy eighty-five. NOW we're getting more than 1hp per cubic inch, and some FRISKY performance! My boy-wonder Ray was indispensable in all builds... He REALLY got a hoot out of doing the first burnouts and smoking donuts! The neighbors were NOT as enthusiastic as Ray and I were... LOL! Note: no seat at all... LOL!
Just got her running... not even a plate on her yet... But STILL had that unsightly front knobby.
__________________________________
NOW... Licensed and on the road! I'd forgotten "Old Blue" was originally "Old Red"... Ford "Poppy Red"...LOL!
This second build was now refined. A chopped H/D sidecar fender was on the rear. Stock Sportster muffs replaced the straight-pipes. Solo-seat and pillion-pad replaced the buddy-seat. A proper 19" Dunlop runnin' rib replaced the front knobby... THIS was classic Harley bobber at its best! Easy to kick-start, simple to maintain, quick as most cars, she'd go WELL past the century mark, and cruise any speed desired. An absolute JOY to ride.
The motor, though pretty well warmed up was still painted. No chrome, and while pretty frisky for a Hog, would only turn the quarter in the mid 14's @ eighty... Time to get SERIOUS!!!
_____________________________________________________
THIS is SERIOUS... Three times more money in the build than my Dad paid for our house... Little Jan "The Flying Squirrel" took these pix with my Dad's Polaroid camera race-day morning before heading for Oswego... Where I ran some mid-elevens (11.4 @ 129.4, 11.21 @ 122.3) and she ran her first mid-10 (10.68 @139.7) and I still have the tattered time-slips.
In this final incarnation, the bike had a full-on drag motor built by Triangle in Chicago, and all-chromed up. Their own foundry cast the cases and turned the billet stroker-crank and steel jugs. Stock spec's were 3.4" bore and 3.9" stroke. The new motor had a 4.3" bore with Chevy 409 pistons, and a monster 5.5" stroke for a 159.74 CID displacement. Compression was 13.5:1. Steppul's Dyno service in Chicago showed 256hp @ 2,800rpm.
For a time, I ran the fishtail straight-pipes but at the request of "many" I tried numerous mufflers. Finally, I took the bike to Triangle and they modded the stock Sportster muffs from the second build for street riding and the setup ran VERY well... And the sound was fantastic. At the strip, we pulled them and ran shorty straight-pipes. The carb was a dream to tune... All outside-adjustable and combined with the adjustable timer, open-exhaust setup took only minutes. I raced on straight Sunoco Blue 260 gas (or aviation gas if available).
One final funny memory was Ray and I putting the new motor into the frame... Ray said: "Ah, Leo, this motor don't fit in the frame..." Oh, Yesssss….. A trip to Triangle put the frame into their jig where it was cut and reshaped/welded to allow the bigger cases and taller cylinders to shoehorn into the old rigid frame. When you're 16, you don't think ahead all that well... LOL!
I can't say enough about Triangle and their drag-motors and transmissions. I wish they were still around, but their 1950's methods, while MARVELOUS, would not fit today's ways. To get this one even remotely street-drivable was a monumental achievement. The only Harley/Davidson parts left on the motor were the hydraulic lifters. Cases, jugs, heads, intake and carb were all proprietary Triangle parts.
The tranny was a Triangle full-drag setup. Teeth were selectively removed. Remaining gear-teeth were re-contoured to encourage forced-engagement rather than their repelling and grinding during no-clutch shifts. Then all parts were re-heat-treated.
I never had a problem ever with that tranny. Triangle promised it would withstand both no-clutch shifts, and, neutral-drop starts up to 350hp. They were good for their word. After two seasons, the only damage was a crack in the right-rear motor-mounting boss on the block. I had that heli-arced without removing the engine from the frame.
Old-school tech, old-school riding... We used the spinning rear tire as a "clutch"... Not the way it's done today, but it worked well, turning superb times.
While I liked to think the bike was about unbeatable, recent research turned up a mid-sixties STREET-DRIVEN California KNUCLEHEAD with similar custom-cases/cylinders that ran in the MID-NINES! Had I run against THAT chopper, I would have lost big-time!
And THAT is the story of "Old Blue"... Yes, I finally had an 11-second HARLEY-DAVIDSON chopper that could be street-driven. All that remained was to win enough to PAY for it... So long as she'd run mid-elevens with my 350 pounds aboard, THAT was a no-brainer! For those challenges that were "questionable" little Jan's 76 pounds always ensured a win!
Ain't life GRAND?
First build... Just a start... Motor bone-stock. Amazing "factoids" about the old Pan-Heads: Up to 1954 the FL 74 CID (1208cc) motor put out 9.44hp @ 5K rpm. About the same as a Chinese 150! In 1955 the improved FLH version of the SAME motor put out 60hp @5,500 rpm. A whole LOT better "raw material" to work with... LOL!
I already had the Goodyear Grasshopper tire on the rear which turned out to be a FANTASTIC all-round tire with its semi-knobby round tread running smooth on the road, yet having traction on all surfaces. An old ancestor of modern multi-use tires! The true knobby front tire just happened to be on the 19" rim when I got it, and looked AND rode pretty bad... LOL!
The seat was a Bates 2-up leather buddy seat made for a Sportster. Comfortable, but NOT the right look for a chopper... The rear fender was the original front fender turned backwards. OK, but still amateurish. Heck, I still had the FLOORBOARDS on the old gal!
Oh well, it WAS a good start.
OK, NOW we're getting somewhere!
Much refined, the old gal was now "coming of age"... Stock motor was now rebuilt with bored jugs, shaved heads, big valves, ported/polished, 1/8" overbore with Venolia pistons and 3/4 cam. Horsepower upped from stock 60 to a healthy eighty-five. NOW we're getting more than 1hp per cubic inch, and some FRISKY performance! My boy-wonder Ray was indispensable in all builds... He REALLY got a hoot out of doing the first burnouts and smoking donuts! The neighbors were NOT as enthusiastic as Ray and I were... LOL! Note: no seat at all... LOL!
Just got her running... not even a plate on her yet... But STILL had that unsightly front knobby.
__________________________________
NOW... Licensed and on the road! I'd forgotten "Old Blue" was originally "Old Red"... Ford "Poppy Red"...LOL!
This second build was now refined. A chopped H/D sidecar fender was on the rear. Stock Sportster muffs replaced the straight-pipes. Solo-seat and pillion-pad replaced the buddy-seat. A proper 19" Dunlop runnin' rib replaced the front knobby... THIS was classic Harley bobber at its best! Easy to kick-start, simple to maintain, quick as most cars, she'd go WELL past the century mark, and cruise any speed desired. An absolute JOY to ride.
The motor, though pretty well warmed up was still painted. No chrome, and while pretty frisky for a Hog, would only turn the quarter in the mid 14's @ eighty... Time to get SERIOUS!!!
_____________________________________________________
THIS is SERIOUS... Three times more money in the build than my Dad paid for our house... Little Jan "The Flying Squirrel" took these pix with my Dad's Polaroid camera race-day morning before heading for Oswego... Where I ran some mid-elevens (11.4 @ 129.4, 11.21 @ 122.3) and she ran her first mid-10 (10.68 @139.7) and I still have the tattered time-slips.
In this final incarnation, the bike had a full-on drag motor built by Triangle in Chicago, and all-chromed up. Their own foundry cast the cases and turned the billet stroker-crank and steel jugs. Stock spec's were 3.4" bore and 3.9" stroke. The new motor had a 4.3" bore with Chevy 409 pistons, and a monster 5.5" stroke for a 159.74 CID displacement. Compression was 13.5:1. Steppul's Dyno service in Chicago showed 256hp @ 2,800rpm.
For a time, I ran the fishtail straight-pipes but at the request of "many" I tried numerous mufflers. Finally, I took the bike to Triangle and they modded the stock Sportster muffs from the second build for street riding and the setup ran VERY well... And the sound was fantastic. At the strip, we pulled them and ran shorty straight-pipes. The carb was a dream to tune... All outside-adjustable and combined with the adjustable timer, open-exhaust setup took only minutes. I raced on straight Sunoco Blue 260 gas (or aviation gas if available).
One final funny memory was Ray and I putting the new motor into the frame... Ray said: "Ah, Leo, this motor don't fit in the frame..." Oh, Yesssss….. A trip to Triangle put the frame into their jig where it was cut and reshaped/welded to allow the bigger cases and taller cylinders to shoehorn into the old rigid frame. When you're 16, you don't think ahead all that well... LOL!
I can't say enough about Triangle and their drag-motors and transmissions. I wish they were still around, but their 1950's methods, while MARVELOUS, would not fit today's ways. To get this one even remotely street-drivable was a monumental achievement. The only Harley/Davidson parts left on the motor were the hydraulic lifters. Cases, jugs, heads, intake and carb were all proprietary Triangle parts.
The tranny was a Triangle full-drag setup. Teeth were selectively removed. Remaining gear-teeth were re-contoured to encourage forced-engagement rather than their repelling and grinding during no-clutch shifts. Then all parts were re-heat-treated.
I never had a problem ever with that tranny. Triangle promised it would withstand both no-clutch shifts, and, neutral-drop starts up to 350hp. They were good for their word. After two seasons, the only damage was a crack in the right-rear motor-mounting boss on the block. I had that heli-arced without removing the engine from the frame.
Old-school tech, old-school riding... We used the spinning rear tire as a "clutch"... Not the way it's done today, but it worked well, turning superb times.
While I liked to think the bike was about unbeatable, recent research turned up a mid-sixties STREET-DRIVEN California KNUCLEHEAD with similar custom-cases/cylinders that ran in the MID-NINES! Had I run against THAT chopper, I would have lost big-time!
And THAT is the story of "Old Blue"... Yes, I finally had an 11-second HARLEY-DAVIDSON chopper that could be street-driven. All that remained was to win enough to PAY for it... So long as she'd run mid-elevens with my 350 pounds aboard, THAT was a no-brainer! For those challenges that were "questionable" little Jan's 76 pounds always ensured a win!
Ain't life GRAND?
And DO get those bars solid! We want you around for a long time to enjoy the ride!
SO many years between "Grocery-Getter-Girl", the old Harley and meeting Betty it's like an entire lifetime... And then, 35 MORE years added to that!