Harley's Record Breaking 1936 EL

[panhead_jim]

Images of Harley-Davidson's first land speed record breaking motorcycle, the 1936 EL Knucklehead.



A Harley's First Land Speed Record

[Chris Haynes]

Petralli's bike was a 1937.

[panhead_jim]

Petralli's bike was a 1937.

Harley must have made a mistake on their own website, they listed it as a 1936...

[Peter Cooke]

The factory book "Archive Collection" also lists it as a 36.

[Chris Haynes]

The serial number says it is a 1937. By the way the original engine was trashed at Bonneville so the engine in it today is not the original. Somewhere in a back issue of The Antique Motorcycle is a story about the recreation of this bike by Jim Lattan. Jim actually came up with more original parts of the racer that it has on it in the museum today. The bike was loaned to various riders around the country for years and each one changed things on it. Jim also has the original 1937 engine that was destroyed at Bonneville. Joe Petralli made his run at Daytona on March 13 1937. This is well after the production of 1936 models that ended in mid 1936. I'll now start digging through magazines for a photo of the '37 engine. If memory serves it was 37EL1001.
PS The H-D Museum also passes off a 1905 H-D as Number one.

[dennis49]

serial number 37EL1002

[Chris Haynes]

serial number 37EL1002

I was close.

[c.o.]

It's funny how an AMCA club member can know more about a companies history than the company itself! I have no reason to doubt Chris on this one and it seems to me that I've read something about that 1937 business somewhere before.

[Duckrat]

Chris: check this out: http://www.sscycle.com/tech/viewtopi...=3364&start=20
--Greg Harrison/Antique Motorcycle magazine

[c.o.]

That was a very interesting thread Greg. Thank-you for posting it.

[RichO]

Hello, I was lucky enough to know Stan from 1975 till he passed. I was able to turn Jim on to Stan having the old Petrali cases under his work bench in Oregon. Al Lauer the old Excelsior and Indian dealer had most the body work to that machine here in Sacramento in the 40's and 50's. Stan had a photo in his Vellajo shop that was taken at Bonneville before it blew up and it didn't have any body work on it. It also didn't run a transmission but a jackshaft arrangement. When Stan raced the bike for Schuler (the cam guy) on the Socal dry lakes it had just the small upper handlebar fairing mounted and ran a Panhead. The bike got the record in blue but was later painted yellow. I have all the photos from Joe's personal photo album given to me by his son David. I penned the most recent article for the AMCA magazine and his niece runs a costume shop a couple of blocks from my home. I was lucky enough to find family photos they didn't have of Joe and his brother when they were only a few years old from someone who seen them thrown away . They used to live just around the corner from my old house. I was able to invite over twenty members of the family to our meet banquet in 2003. They returned the favor by inviting me to their family reunion and showed me the minature bike Joe built for his son david when he was quite small. Jim built the recreation so Jeff Decker could have a full size model to do his bronze off of. Come to Dixon this June as we'll have a new great four panel display about Joe and three or four other Sacramento motorcycle greats plus two old local m/c clubs and old area m/c dealers from 1920's to 1950's.

[fillibuster]

Hello, I was lucky enough to know Stan from 1975 till he passed. I was able to turn Jim on to Stan having the old Petrali cases under his work bench in Oregon. Al Lauer the old Excelsior and Indian dealer had most the body work to that machine here in Sacramento in the 40's and 50's. Stan had a photo in his Vellajo shop that was taken at Bonneville before it blew up and it didn't have any body work on it. It also didn't run a transmission but a jackshaft arrangement. When Stan raced the bike for Schuler (the cam guy) on the Socal dry lakes it had just the small upper handlebar fairing mounted and ran a Panhead. The bike got the record in blue but was later painted yellow. I have all the photos from Joe's personal photo album given to me by his son David. I penned the most recent article for the AMCA magazine and his niece runs a costume shop a couple of blocks from my home. I was lucky enough to find family photos they didn't have of Joe and his brother when they were only a few years old from someone who seen them thrown away . They used to live just around the corner from my old house. I was able to invite over twenty members of the family to our meet banquet in 2003. They returned the favor by inviting me to their family reunion and showed me the minature bike Joe built for his son david when he was quite small. Jim built the recreation so Jeff Decker could have a full size model to do his bronze off of. Come to Dixon this June as we'll have a new great four panel display about Joe and three or four other Sacramento motorcycle greats plus two old local m/c clubs and old area m/c dealers from 1920's to 1950's.

Wow, Rich, Wow! and kudos to your work in the AMC mag also! I remember having read it, and wish we had a subject index to help find any other particular works on subjects like yours.
Was amc mag's last Petrali report over 2 issues or 1? I think I loaned one out, and am sick over losing memory of whom I loaned it to.

[23JDCA 808]

http://www.hoglegend.com/Photos/bonneville.html

[panhead_jim]

It's funny how an AMCA club member can know more about a companies history than the company itself! I have no reason to doubt Chris on this one and it seems to me that I've read something about that 1937 business somewhere before.

That's why I post all my articles on here. Nothing gets by these guys.