Saturday evening post

[BNSONS]

I believe the wheel covers are s/s at least the orig ones were. As with everything that part is also getting repoped. I do like your covers flat-happy.
Dave

[HarleyCreation]

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?

Ain't it the truth. Those so-called 5:00x16 "comfort producers" also produced a backlash reaction against what had formerly been a very sporting motorcycle. Like you say, one trend went in the garbage wagon ("best accessorized") direction until it became ridiculous.

Other guys revolted and started riding Brit bikes. Then came the bobber and chopper craze. A few smart ones realized you could slap 18 inch wheels onto the stock Panhead and make it into a sporting motorcycle again. My dealer "Bud" Pater in Racine told me to do that after I hit the bridge in 1973 and wanted a better handling bike.

Hey, good story about your UL "Old Tex."

[HarleyCreation]

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.

Think of the possibilities for finding special "barn fresh" machines fully documented in old issues of Enthusiast magazine, etc. The sky is the limit!

That chrome plated 36EL owned by that lady speedboat racer Florence Burnham should be showing up any day now!

Chris knows the one I'm talking about.

[HarleyCreation]

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.

I thought the same thing. Tex bike is a Currier & Ives type bike, a soft & cuddly bike, a Christmas tree ornament type bike.

The ratty Knucklehead with the beer bottles and Bozo sitting on it is an infamous bike. The Brando "Wild One" Triumph Thunderbird is an infamous bike. Pennington jumping the river with The Motor Cycle in 1896 is an infamous bike!

[HarleyCreation]

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

Thanks. That's the one, altho I was off by 10 years. Not cheap either. No wonder I didn't buy one. My pal Larry had his hanging in his living room and probably still does.

[HarleyCreation]

Another "Tex" Pan?

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--

Hey, don't leave!

What make saddlebags are on this "Old Herb" Pan?

This photo isn't the best, but shows the bag when they were still in good shape back in 1977. They have the desired slope or sag that somebody mentioned. IOW, the top doesn't come straight out, but slopes downward. Inside are pieces of wood; not sure if they came that way or not when new. Probably not.

They may have been white originally but when I got them in a parts cache in 1975 they were well-used but in good shape and an attractive gray-fellow-color. Also a matching Buddy Seat that is also on the bike. They really made the bike nice looking to me, complete, and with a unique ghostly personality that I never did understand but only felt. They also made the bike more practical too at a time when only old guys ran saddlebags.

Unfortunately the right bag fell off on the road between Woodland and Hustisford, Wis., and I never got it back. And I never could match it properly either. Losing it was a tragic event at the time and still is (sob!)

I still have the bike, but 30 years later the bags have lost many fringes and are pretty beat. The patina is well earned. Not faked. A well set up early Panhead doesn't need any gew-gaws to look and feel right.

The farmhouse in the background I rented in 1976-'78 for $25 a month while going to college at UW-RF. I built a ramp to get my bikes up on the porch. I had this Pan, a winter FL sidecar rig, and a 45 there. No car yet. That summer I rode this bike around Lake Superior. Later it took me up there for good.

[sveger]

Wheel covers old style

popular and rare then AND today----see the ones on my avatar? these were an earlier version and i don't think anyone is making repops of these ones

Flat Happy, you would be surprized what is not made these days:

http://frontstcycle.blogspot.com/sea...&max-results=7

Sverre
AMcN
http://AmericanMotorcyclesNorway.blogspot.com

[flat-happy]

side by side they aren't even close----good attempt though

[Chris Haynes]

Yeah, the new ones don't have nearly the amount of patina as Flat's do.

[c.o.]

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

Here's a bad scan of a photo from the article Greg mentioned. I assume it was taken in 1994....

[c.o.]

Hey, don't leave!

What make saddlebags are on this "Old Herb" Pan?

This photo isn't the best, but shows the bag when they were still in good shape back in 1977. They have the desired slope or sag that somebody mentioned. IOW, the top doesn't come straight out, but slopes downward. Inside are pieces of wood; not sure if they came that way or not when new. Probably not.

They may have been white originally but when I got them in a parts cache in 1975 they were well-used but in good shape and an attractive gray-fellow-color. Also a matching Buddy Seat that is also on the bike. They really made the bike nice looking to me, complete, and with a unique ghostly personality that I never did understand but only felt. They also made the bike more practical too at a time when only old guys ran saddlebags.

Unfortunately the right bag fell off on the road between Woodland and Hustisford, Wis., and I never got it back. And I never could match it properly either. Losing it was a tragic event at the time and still is (sob!)

I still have the bike, but 30 years later the bags have lost many fringes and are pretty beat. The patina is well earned. Not faked. A well set up early Panhead doesn't need any gew-gaws to look and feel right.

The farmhouse in the background I rented in 1976-'78 for $25 a month while going to college at UW-RF. I built a ramp to get my bikes up on the porch. I had this Pan, a winter FL sidecar rig, and a 45 there. No car yet. That summer I rode this bike around Lake Superior. Later it took me up there for good.

Great stuff Herb...... I dig the Pan....

I lost a right saddlebag once. I was pretty lucky though, I had turned off a main highway into a small town just before daybreak and after realizing it was missing a backtrack search was on! I was chopper piloting that morning and I needed them tools! I think I was real lucky the timing was before the rooster crowed and GaryH. and I found the bag sitting right where it dropped in the middle of the street! I should have taken the warning though. 20 miles or so down the road a rod seized and the sickle had to take a pickup truck ride!! It weren't my day.........

[HarleyCreation]

Great stuff Herb...... I dig the Pan....

I lost a right saddlebag once. I was pretty lucky though, I had turned off a main highway into a small town just before daybreak and after realizing it was missing a backtrack search was on! I was chopper piloting that morning and I needed them tools! I think I was real lucky the timing was before the rooster crowed and GaryH. and I found the bag sitting right where it dropped in the middle of the street! I should have taken the warning though. 20 miles or so down the road a rod seized and the sickle had to take a pickup truck ride!! It weren't my day.........

Cory,

You lucked out on the bag, but not the con-rod. Too bad.

I had gone maybe 15 miles before I realized the right side bag was gone. I stopped, walked away from the bike, turned around, and saw the NAKED spot where the bag should be. In a panic I went back and looked and looked with no luck. Someone grabbed it. The bolts to the mounting plate had come loose. I don't think I tightened them when I put the bags on.

I tried matching it with another bag and even added fringes, but it wasn't the same. That set was unique. I've never seen another set like 'em. But there must be. They couldn't be one-of-a-kind. Long fringes with conchos and roller buckles. And weathered and sagging to perfection. I sure would like to know what make they are.

I really loved that bike. It never let me down. Even the last time I rode it (or tried to) to the 95th, it got me home -- with a rod knocking like crazy!

[Rubone]

Herb,
Hard to tell from your pic but they look like well weathered Brookfield bags. They came in different sizes and long or short fringe either color matched or white. I have a couple of different ones kicking around here. The big ones are really big and look best on a Duo-Glide.
Robbie

[T. Cotten]

I have encountered "Brookfield" bags that were virtually identical to "Lyons" bags.
Since both names are also Chicago suburbs, I wonder if both were the same producer, who changed names when they re-located.

....Cotten

[HarleyCreation]

Herb,
Hard to tell from your pic but they look like well weathered Brookfield bags. They came in different sizes and long or short fringe either color matched or white. I have a couple of different ones kicking around here. The big ones are really big and look best on a Duo-Glide.
Robbie

I have encountered "Brookfield" bags that were virtually identical to "Lyons" bags.
Since both names are also Chicago suburbs, I wonder if both were the same producer, who changed names when they re-located.

....Cotten

Thanks for the info. These saddlebags were big but not overly big for an early Pan. They looked about right to my eyes and were a good fit to the rest of the bike. In the left one I carried my rain-gear and tire & chain repair stuff. The right one I left empty unless traveling. Of course since I was the only one with saddlebags at first, I got to carry the beer.

Frankly, I had never heard of "Brookfield" or "Lyons" saddlebags before. Goes to show how little I know about my own bike and that later stuff. But I have many interviews from guys from the Harley factory who knew Panheads. Good stuff if I ever work my way up to that era. Gotta live long enough, I guess.

These must have been white originally. And yes, they were well-weathered when I got them. They were probably some old dude's take-offs. They came out of West Bend, Wis. An ex-dealer gave a kid a bunch of old Harley stuff, including shop tools which I did not get. I loved that weathered saggy look. It fit the rest of the bike which was not much chromed and had all original used patina parts. I re-painted, but did not chrome or re-chrome anything. After my chopper "daze" I became anti-chrome and moved towards earth tones and flat black. I embarked on my own private Harley-land nostalgia trip long before the Heritage Softail came along.

I also had a pair of short-fringed saddlebags that were same size and similar in contruction. I used one of those to replace the lost right-side bag. But like I said, it was not the same and I never did recover from the loss and the broken heart that came with it.

Did "Brookfield" or "Lyons" bags have wood bracing inside of them when new? Do we know anything about the years and history of company? Were they in fact made in or near Chicago? I couldn't find anything on the internet.