Saturday evening post

[flat-happy]

it is a spoke wheel with hubcaps on it

[Mr. Big]

Good eye. I have an about 14" x 17" poster of that Post cover here, and maybe the artist was just trying to express the light reflecting off the bags and seat, but they're definitely the color of a brick, as is the non-reflecting fur cover, a solid brown. Not like the replica bike. Hmmm...

Well, Michael has raised his hand as the crafter of the seat and saddlebags so I'm assuming he can tell us the decision behind the selection of the leather color for the replica. And while I'm at it, I'm curious about a couple of other things. Is the front wheel a solid rim? Or some kind of period piece that was available back then? The front wheel is not visible in the Post pic so I was wondering why not a spoke wheel like the rear. And the gas tank seems to have a "crease" above the shifter gate? Or is it just a reflection? Well crap, the more I stare at it, the more it looks like a reflection.....I've got WAAAAYYYY too much time on my hands...

[rbenash]

Wow interesting twist to this thread So how many Tex bikes are there now, 3? I'm loosing count Here I thought it was the original, just restored. Great info.

[flat-happy]

now one will get the patina treatment and stored in a barn for a couple of months and turn up on the tv show "pickers". first time a 1950 panhead without a senior first will break the $20000 mark.

[Chris Haynes]

I guess two different builders were recreating the same bike at the same time. Alas I guess neither one is the original Tex bike.

[Sargehere]

..."aren't the seat and saddlebags brown leather in the Post pic? Or is it just my failing eyesight? Seems like a big miss if they are."

Good eye. I have an about 14" x 17" poster of that Post cover here, and maybe the artist was just trying to express the light reflecting off the bags and seat, but they're definitely the color of a brick, as is the non-reflecting fur cover, a solid brown. Not like the replica bike. Hmmm...

[Mr. Big]

Asked and apparently answered on the eBay listing....

"Q: The bike you are trying to pass off as an original was created by Mil Blair in Los Angeles. Tex was painfully recreated by Mil over the past few years. It was entered in the January Las vegas autction but did not meet reserve. Bear in mind that if someone does buy this from you believeing that it is the original bike, then finds out that it is a recreation you may find yourself in hot water. Good luck, Feb-13-10
A: This bike was built by us over the last year..It was US that had it at the Vegas auction..Mil Blair had nothing to do with it..Get your facts straight or you may find yourself in hot water..."


Also, aren't the seat and saddlebags brown leather in the Post pic? Or is it just my failing eyesight? Seems like a big miss if they are.

[Edd]

Can't believe all the bad press over a good looking bike.

I saw this bike at Super Swap in Syracuse last week and I found only one thing bad.
It wasn't parked in my garage.

Ed

[Sargehere]

Is there some reason my posts do not get to the AMCA forum? It seems like I am always farting in the wind when I post messages so I guess I will just keep my thought to myself from now on--

That one did, Michael! Keep farting! We like what comes out! Well, you know...

[Chris Haynes]

Found the magazine article about Mil Blair & his building of the TEX bike.

In Earlyriders issue one.

Comparing the photos maybe 2 different bikes, all the seat & bags are different also no tank emblems on magazine bike like original Post picture

To me Mils/ Earlyriders is a much better job

I was talking to Mil last year and he was building a TEX bike then. Not 30 years ago.

[Paquette]

Is there some reason my posts do not get to the AMCA forum? It seems like I am always farting in the wind when I post messages so I guess I will just keep my thought to myself from now on--

[Sargehere]

Funny, the sellers of this thing call it the "infamous bike of the century."
The word infamous, to me, means, "famous for all the wrong reasons," exemplified by FDR on Dec. 8th, labeling "December 7th, Nineteen hundred and forty-one," as "a date which will live in infamy."
Geez, I wonder just how many folks this bike has killed? Riders, or just pedestrians who got in its way?
And, all the time I looked at that photo of the cover, I didn't notice that it had no 1947-50 'redball' tank emblems. Whether the original did or not, it may have just been the Saturday Evening Post's way of not copying Harley-Davidson's trademark to its cover.

[Greg H]

Mil has been working on a copy Of the Tex bike for several years. So I guess there will now be two of them.

Found the magazine article about Mil Blair & his building of the TEX bike.

In Earlyriders issue one.

Comparing the photos maybe 2 different bikes, all the seat & bags are different also no tank emblems on magazine bike like original Post picture

To me Mils/ Earlyriders is a much better job

[Blupacer]

Stevan Dohanos Print

Herb
Harley did sell a framed 25x37 numbered print of Steven Dohanos original illustration in 1988 part number 99506-88vf for $259.95
Steve

First off, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and that person is me. After all, one might say, look what Herb did to that nice Panhead in his avatar.

At least Tex didn't make a chopper out of his!

That is true, but I never cut a mount or bracket off the frame and the bikes were junked before I got hold of them anyway (including a 36EL chassis). And when I wised up and came out of my deranged chopper mind-set in 1973, I built it back to stock "50FL" specs.

With true confessions out of the way, I always loved that Tex Panhead Life cover. It's very well done. My old pal Larry bought a framed repro copy back in the late 1970s, altho I can't remember who or where he got it from. I almost think the Harley dealer. Someone must know that.

But sometimes maybe art doesn't translate well into reality. I guess what I'm saying is that the stuff I can't stand on the repro Tex bike (cheap jewelry effect, weird slicer apparatus on rear fender, etc.) were things that never bothered me in the Life cover painting. But seeing them on the repro job was like a slap in the face, since I once had a long love affair with Panheads.

Comparing it to a beautiful woman, the Tex bike reminds me of a certain modern type with overdone silicone enhancements, road-map size tattoos, multiple body piercings, and ghoulishly long fake fingernails. She might still be beautiful, but she has lost a great deal of her original natural charm.

And the stock 1950 Panhead was a great charmer, with aesthetics that rival the EL models of the 1930s, in my opinion. Things went downhill from there, only reversed in recent decades by good stylists in Milwaukee.

Just my 2 cents. A guy should build his bike any way he wishes and shouldn't be criticized for doing that, esp. if he is recreating a historical bike like this Tex job.

[Sargehere]

You have to be so careful when trying to replicate an icon like the Tex bike. I looked and looked, trying to explain to myself why the rolling copy didn't quite square in my mind with the one on the Saturday Evening Post cover. I could only make out a couple of differences, but the thing overall just doesn't seem to "fit(?)"
It's only tiny things. Maybe the fur on the seat is brand new, and "too long." So the shape of the seat is hidden. It needs to be mashed down a bit from use. Or maybe trimmed by a barber (or a dog groomer!). And the white shifter ball, red star in a blue ring, is pointed in the wrong direction. That's really a distraction that registers subconsciously with your eye, even if you don't realize it. And the T E X letters, even if they are perfectly scaled, just look too big. And shiny and new.
The whole bike, really, is jarring in the shininess, where the one on the cover looks worn-in and comfortable. The artist probably look slight liberties with the proportions, to get it to look so low, with those three kids looking it over, a bit like how the real one might look with about five pounds of air pressure in its tires, "squatting."
I just take an interest because the original apparently inspired the nickname that came with my own 37UL when I found it, so I always loved the cover. The repli-Tex, not so much. Just my two cents!

PS I agree with you, Herb: the "fat donuts," 5.00x16s from 1940-onwards, ruined the ideal looks of the late-30s Harleys. 'Took what had been lean bikes that screamed "motorcycle" and ushered in the garbage barge looks. I like the looks of them wearing 4.50x18s best. That why we have freedom of choice. To each his own, eh?