auction sale result - harley racer

[HarleyCreation]

Sarge, I already tried to make it clear, this was a contemporary race machine, that's why it has the modern throttle twist, because race rules require a spring return throttle, I'm sure the carbs are Dellorto's with a remote float bowl, because they're on a crazy 'gas spilling' angle. Bonhams is obviously a owner or two away from the real story, so maybe they don't know sh_ _ .

Even if they "lost" the history of this freak, the auction house should know enough to describe the bike honestly: i.e. modern parts, repro components, etc. When they don't do that it raises suspicions.

[HarleyCreation]

"if i have to explain it you wouldn't understand"

Good one Fritz!

Or as I've said about early H-D: Until somebody explains, nobody will ever understand.

[8 valve]

auction result

yes Tom Faber is right,i built this bike to having fun on europeans race tracks to beat WR´s before getting the 8-valve upgrade
watch the video of the OHV freak bike,also have some pics inside the engine if somebody interested
Harry
founder of the Racedepartement Germany
http://www.myvideo.de/watch/3019587/...perimental_OHV

[HarleyCreation]

Harry's 8-valve "J"

yes Tom Faber is right,i built this bike to having fun on europeans race tracks to beat WR´s before getting the 8-valve upgrade
watch the video of the OHV freak bike,also have some pics inside the engine if somebody interested
Harry
founder of the Racedepartement Germany
http://www.myvideo.de/watch/3019587/...perimental_OHV

Harry:

Bitte, kannst du bei uns die Geschichte deine sehr interassant Freak acht-klappe modell "J" OHV "fun" bike erzahlen?

Ja, inneres & andere Bilder von diese Motor wird viel Spass zu sehen!

It would be great to hear the history of this job. Where and how you found the bike or parts; the build-story; and the performance you got out of it.

What was its solo top speed? How much speed was gained after the 8-valve top was plopped down on it? If you ever dyno tested it, how many revs did it turn wide open?

Grussen nach AMCA Deutschland und H-D Race Department Germany aus der USA!

[rwm]

his 8 valve top end looks like some sort of aviation top end. the heads come off of the cylinders.

[HarleyCreation]

his 8 valve top end looks like some sort of aviation top end. the heads come off of the cylinders.

Really?

Then it's even more of a curiosity and we need the full story!

What are you looking at to see that stuff?

This is what I've been saying. Once we know the truth and provenance of a given machine, then we can have fun learning its real history no matter if it was built yesterday or 80 years ago.

Like fabercycle said: "It is what it is."

PS: Is this motor an 8-valve or a 4-valve? The pictures are very small and reading the blurb again, it's rather vague and confusing in the details.

[Barry Brown]

some 30 years ago there was at least one JD , in Sweden I believe that had been converted to an 8 valve by dropping on a pair of Rudge 4 valve top ends. I recall reading that it was just about a direct fit. It always sounded to me like a great way to build a poor man's 8 valve as Rudge had a very successfull and well designed setup

[rwm]

some where i have a weslake jawa 4 valve pushrod head.i lways wanted to try it on a hack up jd cylinder. i just can remember where i put the 4 valve head

[Eric MATHIEU]

Open your eyes those are peashooter heads on the freak bike not 8 valve.
"Fast Harry" knows how to build cool race bikes with character. "The Freak" is fast as hell against the WRs but he kept blowing up the bottom end on those weak JD cases. Now he races "The Monster" 2 cam 8 valve. No one stands a chance even when he races with the Sidecar and his wife in it the other guys look like they are standing still (and I mean Norton Manx & stuff like that not our slow WRs)
Eric

[HarleyCreation]

Less "Freak" more "Home Brew"

Thanks Eric.

It's a relief learning those are Peashooter and not 4-valve heads. That makes it less of a "freak" (sorry for the demotion Harry) and more of a poor man's OHV "Home Brew." Altho I have never seen period pictures of one on a "J" road bottom, one can easily imagine some happy speed enthusiast of the day working in some shop adapting Peashooter or 30.50 Single components. This would give him an OHV V-twin when Harley was still only (c1926) building the nearly unobtainable 8-valve.

In little color book and elsewhere we have documented such Home Brews beginning in 1926-'27 when Oscar Lenz and Ralph Moore "picked up the pipe" and then modified Peashooter OHV components on a V-twin base, although the ones I have seen always used the 2-cam bottom. Then in 1928 H-D made a few such 2-cam/OHV hillclimbers before the 29-DAH motor came along, and Bill Knuth took it another step further with his "Knuth Special." But someone, somewhere, probably did what Harry did in his "fun" bike using a road "J" bottom and Peashooter OHV tops.

But since Peashooters were 21-inch and "J" motor was a 61-incher while the auction blurb says "74," what is the true displacement of this motor? What pistons are in it? What mods were made to the heads and how? What cylinders are on it?

This would be good stuff to know about an interesting modern Home Brew that must have provided lots of fun ("viel Spaß") while it held together.