1920 Sport Twin Pictures

[denismccarthy]

Hey Guys

We just got back from The Harley-Davidson Museum Saturday. Had a great time and took loads of pictures. Here are the Sport Twin pictures. Martin, these are the pictures that I tried to send you last night... Their Sport Twin is a unrestored cut-away model. Enjoy!!

[denismccarthy]

And a few more!

[MartinK]

That's great. Thanks alot Denis!

the nuts for the front fork looks parkerized as well as the lower link, while the other fork hardware looks nickel plated?
the hub lockrings look parkerized as well?
Some of the restored sport images I've seen have nickel plated nuts, some have parkerized. And it is hard to tell from the spare parts catalouge. I am bit confused I must say..
Louie, is it possible you could check some front fork nuts on yours?, I would appreciate it very much.

Regards,
Martin

[denismccarthy]

Hey Martin

It was such a interesting tour. I wish you could have been with us. Our guide, Bill Rodencal, the Museum's Corporate Archives Conservator, was so helpful for the millions of questions that I fired off to him (sorry Bill!!). One poignant note that Bill put forward to us was... "Just because they might have run out of parkerized nuts or washers, do you think they would have stopped the line? No.... They screwed on whatever they could find to finish the job...." What that meant to me was, some models, even the same year, may have different hardware, from the Factory. So, don't let anyone tell you... "Oh no.. thats wrong... they didn't do that..." My answer to that is... "How do you know that? Were you working for Harley-Davidson in 1920? Were you working "The Line?"... The Factory was not a perfect computer. We need to keep this in mind when we do our Restorations... From all of this I would say its probably best to follow the Harley-Davidson Museum's unrestored motorcycles as a guide to restore our Harleys. How can you argue anything from a unrestored machine? Thats the way they built it! Thats it...! Everything else is fluff! (In my opinion!)

All things aside, and really, this is all fun,... I really enjoyed my chance to go through the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Museum. If you ever get the chance, go. Go! Its worth it. You will really have a great time! There is just so much American Motorcycle history there!

I'm getting all of my tour pictures together for you guys now, so stay tuned. I'll post up our tour pictures in a day or two. Some really cool stuff!

Hope everyone has a great evening.

Take care!

Denis

[Tommo]

Denis,
I think you'll find elsewhere on this forum evidence that a lot of the so-called unrestored bikes in the HD museum have in fact been restored over the years.
Your above photos say 1920 but the tank has the 1921, for the flat twin, tank transfers.
All my research points to the 1919 and 1920 flat twins having the attached tank transfer.
Be very cautious about accepting everything in the HD museum as being 100% correct.

[denismccarthy]

Hey Peter!

I'm so glad you are following this... I agree!! I was thinking the same thing my Friend.. During my research, I found period Harley-Davidson photos showing the early Trade Mark tank decal. The article clearly indicated "1920 Sport Twin" in the photo.. So check this out...







So whats up with that?? Do you think that at some time someone put on a 1921 original tank on this 1920 frame? Why would it have a earlier head badge? Something is most likely not right here. In my opinion... Very Interesting guys!! What do you think?

[Chris Haynes]

So whats up with that?? Do you think that at some time someone put on a 1921 original tank on this 1920 frame? Why would it have a earlier head badge? Something is most likely not right here. In my opinion... Very Interesting guys!! What do you think?[/QUOTE]

I don't know the serial number of this bike. It could be a very late 1920 and the '21 stuff was being phased in? Also many times the factory photos are of prototype of very early production machines and things change.

[BNSONS]

Denis,
I think you'll find elsewhere on this forum evidence that a lot of the so-called unrestored bikes in the HD museum have in fact been restored over the years.
Your above photos say 1920 but the tank has the 1921, for the flat twin, tank transfers.
All my research points to the 1919 and 1920 flat twins having the attached tank transfer.
Be very cautious about accepting everything in the HD museum as being 100% correct.

I’ll agree with that, but the color in your picture might be a little off.
Dave

[denismccarthy]

I’ll agree with that, but the color in your picture might be a little off.
Dave

Hey Bnsons,

What color are you reffering to? Looks like in your pictures you are making new tank decals? Are you in the process of restoring a Sport too? Just wonderin...

See ya

[BNSONS]

Hey Bnsons,

What color are you reffering to? Looks like in your pictures you are making new tank decals? Are you in the process of restoring a Sport too? Just wonderin...

See ya

I was refering to Tommo's picture of the decal with the greenish shield. No Dennis I’m not lucky enough to own a sport twin nor do I care to make Decals, the ones I have pictured are orig. ones which came from Molenaar H-D years ago when Harry Molenaar used to buy out wholesale lots of obsolete parts from the factory. When transfered they have more of a golden shieid of course that might depend on what color there transfered on to.
Regards Dave

[Tommo]

Dave,
I don't think my decal is an original although it has "The Colourtone Decal Co. Los Angeles, Calif" on the back of it.
I was only using it to demonstrate the style rather than the colours and would not make any claims as to how accurate it is.
Sorry if I caused any confusion.

[Chris Haynes]

Many of the museum bikes were restored. Others are prototypes. For example if could be 1 1919 in 1920 trim. I have factory photos of many bikes that are actually a year or two older than what they are trimmed out to be.
Download this photo, blow it up and check the numbers on this 1954 prototype.

[LouieMCman]

I've never seen a 1920 original paint Sport with the shield tank decal, I have seen restored ones which I believe are wrong. My original paint 1920 has the script Harley decals.

Here are pictures of my 1920 owners manual with copyright 1920 clearly printed on the front and pictures of the bike in the center foldout lubrication chart that show a 1920 with script decals.

How much more proof do you need that 1920's had the script decal? Let's see your proof that disproves this original factory publication.....

[Tommo]

I've got that book also but although it says "Copyright 1920" it covers the 1921 Sport Twin
Most of Harleys manuals/parts list were produced in August so a book printed in August 1920 was intended for the 1921 model year.
Go to page 5 and see the reference to 21WJ and 21WF models and if you carefully read the handbook you will find many further references to 1921 models
I've attached page 5 for all to see

[LouieMCman]

So do we know when they started making the 1921 model year bikes? Before the books were printed in August? Or did they use a 1920 model for the picture?
And there's still the question of an original paint 1920 with shield decals, has anyone ever seen one?
It's going to be hard to convince me since I've had three Sport models total, two being original 1920's neither with shield decals.......