1926 Harley Davidson Model "B"

[denismccarthy]

Good evening bike nuts. I posted this question over at the parking lot.. But wanted to stick it over here too. Have any of you restored or have any intel or parts for a 1926 Harley Davidson Model "B"? I'm excited to tell you we have one on the way to the Museum! We purchased it recently from a auction, and from pictures, it looks very complete. But as always, I would be happy to hear any info you guys have on the machine... You can never have too much information before you start a restoration. Its kinda a funny looking bike.. Jeff (The Director of the Museum) told me that he believes this model was designed to take the place of the WF Sport Model which is hugely interesting to me since I'm restoring a 1920 WF as we speak... How cool would it be to be able to display the 1920 along with our new 26 "B"? Yes sir! So please let me know if you guys have any info, parts, or anything else for that matter regarding this piece of Harley History!

Thanks as always

[LouieMCman]

I've not heard that the "A" or "B" model was created to take the place of the Sport. I've ridden a buddy's "B" model and it was even more gutless than my Sport. I can't believe they would make a single in place of a twin when Americans wanted the larger V-twins. I think what killed the Sport was that the Indian Scout was outselling it badly. The ads say the Sport was powerful and vibration-less. Well the got the smooth part right any way.

[denismccarthy]

Hey Thanks for the reply Louie. Yea this is very interesting to me because I'm finishing up on my 1920 Sport. But think about it though... The WF was the "entry level" bike for Harley between 1919 and 1923. And from what I have read they really shut down production of the WF in 1922, and for 1923 used what was left over to make the 23's. I have the production numbers at work... I'll get them for you tomorrow... So (me guessing) their engineers already had the line drawings for the 26b on paper before they halted the WF. Do you know what they had between 1924 and 1926? I haven't looked into that gap yet. I'm just now starting my research on the 26b. And I agree with you, the Scout had to be a major player in their (Harleys) decision to scrap that design. So they came up with a totally different design in the "entry level" 26b. Isn't it interesting too that we are now starting to see smooth tanks.. The hard angles are now going away... Very interesting!

[dlm32]

Barber Museum

Denis,

That's a great Motor Week video. Thanks for posting it. It's great to have a world class motorcycle collection here in central Alabama! Thanks to George Barber and the museum staff for putting us on the map!