Pushing the 35 year rule: a 1990 Harley Electra Glide Sport (FLHS)

[chuckthebeatertruck]

Starting in 2020, I noticed that on pretty much every National or Chapter road run I went on there were always 10-15% of the riders on modern, late model machinery. As I understand things, if you are over the age of 65, the National allows you to ride whatever you like on a road run, regardless of whether it meets the AMCA's 35 year rule.

Personally, I think this rule is silly and shouldn't be part of our club. Our rules are generous and bikes as new as 35 years old are fully eligible for all sorts of AMCA activities from judging to road runs. There are tons of late 1980s bikes available from all sorts of makers - so running a 35 plus year old bike on a road run should not be a challenge for an AMCA member.

But, what if you don't have a 35 plus year old bike you trust? Doesn't that mean spending $$ on a new machine?

Well, with this in mind, I was curious if one could put together a HARLEY road run machine for two people for less than $4,000 on the road with all maintenance, purchase price, tax, title, tags, and insurance for the year. I know you can do it with many Japanese makes without trying. I constantly see $1000 goldwings. But, can you do it with a full size Harley?

And, it turns out it is possible. Pretty much all 1985 to 1990 Electra Glides are more or less bargain basements bikes right now. There are many clean examples with low miles which can be bought for well under $4,000 and often under 3,000 with a bit of haggling.

This is the subject of this member bike build - a 1990 Harley Davidson Electra Glide Sport (FLHS). The FLHS was the base model in the FLT series -- it came without a full fairing, radio, or CB. The tourpak was optional. Otherwise, it is functionally identical to other Electra models that year.

I found this particular bike during my normal weekend scanning of Facebook Marketplace ads. This one was advertised at $3000 in Sheboygan, WI -- about 180 miles north of my shop. A quick back and forth with the seller told me why it was still for sale - the clutch had started to slip. The owner was waiting to have the clutch replaced so people could take the bike for test rides. I told him to not bother -- I'd take the bike as is for $2500. The owner seemed shocked someone would buy a bike without a test ride but agreed and we loaded the bike up after checking the title matched the frame.

After getting the bike home and on the lift; the cause of the slipping clutch became obvious. Both the cable adjustment and the pushrod adjustment were completely wrong. Someone had set them lso tight the clutch never engaged. Worse, they jammed the pushrod lock nut so they couldn't fix the adjustment. It took only a few minutes to repair and I found the clutch was turned a full two turns clockwise after all free play was eliminated! It never had a chance to engage!

With the clutch reset and the primary refilled, I next discovered the bike had a genuine Pingle petcock and a full K&N upgrade system under the OEM aircleaner. Woo hoo. The bike fired up instantly and there was no more slippage. A five mile test ride revealed a really solid bike with no bad habits or noises - -just really worn out, very old tires (20+ years!)

So, what did we get -- well, we got a 56,000 mile bike that is almost 100% stock. All replacement parts I can see appear to be HD replacement parts, not after market with the exception of the K&N air filter. Biggest deviations are the Eagle Iron add ons for the primary inspection cover and the fuel tank filler. And, someone added foot rests to the engine guard. Otherwise, the bike is dead stock and was even wearing Dunlop D402 replacement tires. As it stands, I would guess this bike would score somewhere in the upper 80s if it were put through judging. The few nicks and scratches on it will polish right out. The windscreen is amazingly scratch and stain free - which is nearly impossible to achieve after 35 years. Even the exhaust is the stock FLHS system and in terrific shape.

Mechanically, I can't find anything wrong besides a sticking rear brake caliper. And, the caliper appears to be still carrying the original brake pads nicely corroded in place. In theory, I just need to clean it very well; but I'll do the full rebuild as it is easy to do on these calipers.

As of right now; the total parts bill to get the bike rolling safely down the road consists of a rear caliper rebuild kit ($35), rear pads ($15), and a set of fresh Shinko 777 touring tires (half the cost of Dunlops) at $275 for the pair delivered. I have oil filers on the shelf and so much 15/50 on the shelf it actually sags a bit -- so no cost there.

All in all; I'm staring at $2500 purchase; $311 for tax, title, and tags, $52 for a year of insurance from Hagerty, and $325 for tires/rear brakes. That's just under $3200 all in to be on the road with fresh rubber . . .

I'll share some update photos as we tear into the bike and clean it up. Cosmetically, it just needs a good polishing.

Maybe I will have this one judged after all - just for fun.

But, hopefully, this one helps illustrate you can buy a lot of bike for peanuts AND be fully AMCA compliant without having to ride a "modern" bike at events.

[Peter Cooke]

Good score, that's a nice looking bike. And to my mind, all the better without the radio & CB. I like to ride without the extra noises.
I wish the prices here in Oz we're like that but unfortunately not. They pop up occasionally but are very few and far between. More likely to be British or Jap.

[JoJo357]

A decent deal Steve. Every once in awhile, if you're patient, you'll see those low mileage dressers show~up.


1990 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide<----

*M.A.D.*

[chuckthebeatertruck]

Good score, that's a nice looking bike. And to my mind, all the better without the radio & CB. I like to ride without the extra noises.
I wish the prices here in Oz we're like that but unfortunately not. They pop up occasionally but are very few and far between. More likely to be British or Jap.

Thank you.

In today's era; having all the extras in the fairing seems only necessary for judging purposes. Otherwise, our smartphones when combined with a helmet bluetooth module covers all the entertainment you would ever want for far less weight and trouble than a 35 year old cassette deck and CB radio. That you can control your smartphone by voice means it's redundant to have the handlebar mounted switches if the entertainment is that important to you.

By not having all that stuff -- a really noticeable amount of weight comes off these big twins. So much so I was able to load and unload the bike myself. That's pretty good going for a bike that's about 750 pounds wet!

[chuckthebeatertruck]

I was doing my favorite exercise of "adjust for inflation."

I bought my first street bike almost exactly at the same time this FLHS was being sold on the dealer floor. I paid $500 for my first bike; then another $100 for tags and title; $75 for insurance for the year; $75 for a front tire and an oil change, and $75 for my first full face helmet. That was $825 on the road back then.

Interestingly, it works out to just under $2000 in 2025 dollars.

So, for not too much more than I paid all in for my first bike; I could have had one of these EVO wagons today ;-0

Then again, at 16, I would not have considered an FLHS.

Flash forward 35 years and an FLHS sounds like a way better idea than my first 400cc street bike!

[chuckthebeatertruck]

The past weekend saw us start to tear into the FLHS, now nicknamed Methuselah, get a lot of attention.

My first order of business was seeing whether our now ancient High Position Motorcycle Lift would really handle the full sized FLH. Unlike a table lift; the high position grabs the frame like a fork lift so you can work on both wheels at the same time without an additional jack on the table. The downside of this convenience is that the lift is not as stable as a table lift if you need to do heavy work. All that said, I never had a bike exceeding 600 pounds on the lift. It did very well with the 725 pound FLHS on it -- no real difference to having a lighter bike on it.

With that done; I worked my back to front. I normally go front to back; but the rear wheel requires a lot more effort than the front on this bike. Not only do you have to deal with the rear drive belt guards, I also had the seized rear caliper to deal with. With the bike on the lift, it took seconds to release the saddle bags and get a good look at the rear. There was nothing to fear -- everything in the rear was exactly as it left the factory in May 1990, with two exceptions: 1) the rear tire had been replaced at circa 25-30K miles and 23 years before! and 2) the silencers were replaced at some point with -96 FLH silencers. No worries on either count.

Inspecting the rear belt showed no abnormal or concerning wear. The pulleys are good and pebbled after 56,000 miles; but there's no reason at this time to drop the swing arm and primary to change the drive belt.

The rear caliper, however, was very crusty. It was wearing it's OEM pads worn down to the backing plate. They and the piston had corroded at an angle and were not fully engaging nor releasing. I found out why really fast when I popped the reservoir cover. Someone had mixed DOT3 glycol fluid with the OEM DOT5 Silicone fluid. It had seperated into layers and was not compressing correctly. I washed the system out with alcohol and then disassembled the rear caliper. It needed to be heated to about 275 degrees before the bleeder would release and before the piston would come out despite 180psi being applied! It was that corroded. But, the caliper bore was amazingly fine and all the damage was to the piston. Yippee. It took minutes to rebuild the caliper and put everything back together. Bleeding the brake also proved totally fuss free. Success!

With that done; I moved on to the rear tire. I finally bought myself a tire changing machine -- and wow was it a god send. It took minutes to demount the tire without any fighting - at all. It then took minutes to mount the new tire and air it up. While I was there, I removed the rear wheel seals and cleaned/inspected/packed the wheel bearings. Everything went back together and my handy new belt tension gauge made the rear drive belt adjustment a 1 minute affair.

I then moved to the transmission and oil tank. Both were draining the whole time I serviced the rear wheel. Oh my was the transmission fluid in poor shape. Moisture had gotten inside and turned the lube into a milkshake. It still worked; but it was stinky and not right. 17 ounces of correct fluid suddenly had me finding neutral on test rides ;-) There was nothing to report about the oil change. I did flush the oil tank - probably for the first time in its life. A fair amount of crap came out; but nothing alarming or unusual for a bike that likely hasn't had the tank cleaned in 2 or 3 decades.

Moving to the front wheel - it was no more drama than the rear -- maybe less. Tire off, demounted, and a fresh hoop mounted in under 30 minutes. It almost took longer to clean and pack the bearings and balance the wheel.

All that done; the bike fired right up. We went to the gas station; put in 4.1 fresh gallons and took off on a quick 35 mile run. The bike was entirely fuss free and LOVES the new Shinkos. I stopped a few times to check things on the road and got more comments on Methuselah than I have on any bike I've taken out this year. It was almost overwhelming the number of "nice bike" and thumbs up I got from folks. I'm just not used to that -- and certainly not when riding a 1990 (Nineteen NINETY). I don't think I've ever actually had a bike this new - ever.

Anyways, now that we have a runner, it was time to look at cosmetics.

The bike was filthy - the motor just covered with a layer of grime and road mess. The paint work was simply unloved and had lots of scratching all over - but the chips were mostly on bag edges which is pretty common. The alloy bits were also pretty heavily corroded; especially the primary and the timing cover.

However, none of the cosmetics were actually an issue. What the bike needed was a serious scrubbing and buffing.

I started by soaking the motor with foaming degreaser (GUNK brand) for 15 minutes, then brushed it hard with a semi-stiff horsehair brush. I used a softer horsehair brush and straight degreaser on the rest of the bike. I literally scrubbed everything and then hosed it off. Our asphalt drive was shining with the rainbow of shmutz coming off the bike.

We were 100% cleaner after (photos attached) -- but now you could really see the damage to the paint work. Splotchy and scratched . . .but nothing got below the clear coat save a few marks.

I started by buffing the body work all over. The attached photo shows my products of choice - Mequiar's Swirl Remover 2.0 for general cutting of scratches and RV-50 wax for the fiberglass bits; Turtle Wax Polishing Compound for really heavy scratches and Turtle Wax general paste wax for chrome and paint work over steel/alloy. It took about an hour to fully buff the body work - but 95% of the scratching and discoloration came out. Going over the bike with cleaner wax took out another 2% and the bike looks about as good as it would have rolling out of the dealership from 5 feet away. I'll share "after" photos in the next installment.

The alloy and chrome also got a once over. I used a mixture of Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish, White Diamond Metal Polish, Turtle Wax Chrome Polish and a Mequiar's power ball to go after the major corrosion. The light rust on the chrome came right off. The Primary took some effort, but the worst of the corrosion came off. I ran out of energy to tackle the timing cover or the rocker covers; but I know they will clean up and winter is long!

So, at this stage, here is what we know:
1) There really wasn't anything wrong with the bike. It was neglected and had a poorly adjusted clutch.
2) There's no reason to suspect the bike will need anything beyond oil changes for another 20-30K miles
3) The tin work and alloy is in way better shape than it appeared and just needs some love.
4) This bike is likely to bore me to death

[chuckthebeatertruck]

And here are some after photos of the cleaned up motor/transmission

[chuckthebeatertruck]

And, here is the corroded primary and some of the cleaning products

[chuckthebeatertruck]

Finally, keep in mind that I am on the road with tags and insurance -- and we haven't even cracked $3200. That's not bad going for a full size, Harley touring bike which is eligible for ALL AMCA events from judging to road runs to chapter rides.

[KNUCK]

Nice bike and glad for you but at some point this 35 year rule of the AMCA needs to freeze. In 2030 will we really call a 1995 Harley with a computer an antique? First fuel injection on an HD I believe was controlled buy a computer in 1995.

[chuckthebeatertruck]

Nice bike and glad for you but at some point this 35 year rule of the AMCA needs to freeze. In 2030 will we really call a 1995 Harley with a computer an antique? First fuel injection on an HD I believe was controlled buy a computer in 1995.

All of these time limits are subjective. There is no criteria but what someone makes up and someone else agrees to at that time.

Subjective things tend to evolve whether we like them, and often in ways we do not enjoy.

Subjective things also tend to be redefined by future generations and I personally expect the AMCA to change dramatically over the next 15 years.