47 knucklehead on eBay

[fxcw64]

Don't get me wrong the reason I know the prices are dropping is because I am watching intently and I plan on owning a Knuck or early Pan but not gonna pay these prices .....I'll wait -when I can buy a 37 Plymouth Coupe 6500$ or know where there is a 35 Olds with suicide doors for 10 Grand its a no brainer - I picked up a 35 IH C-30 for 900$ with surface rust roof will have a roof over my head and when I slip a 4btu cummins in it with a Allison tranny -I'll just use that to pick up my BIKE......... LOL HAHAHA Its all good we get to watch all this and it makes for good conversation !! I just hope one day someone gives me the chance to own one and I would keep it as close to original as possible meaning no partout for profit or cut up to make a backyard chopper !!

I like em the way Sylvester dreamed them up....... ,speaking of the Knucks but interestingly I don't believe they were called Knuckleheads until the late forties -I defer to someone more knowledgeable ,-- I believe he died in 1943 unfortunately !!!! Da Man

But I have been stuck in the 30's n 40's with all my dream toys ...........

[droptopford]

...... ,speaking of the Knucks but interestingly I don't believe they were called Knuckleheads until the late forties -I defer to someone more knowledgeable , ..

I wasn't around then but my Dad was. He owned several of those bikes before I was born and always referred to them as his "74 Overheads".

[Jerry Wieland]

Don't get me wrong the reason I know the prices are dropping is because I am watching intently and I plan on owning a Knuck or early Pan but not gonna pay these prices .....I'll wait -when I can buy a 37 Plymouth Coupe 6500$ or know where there is a 35 Olds with suicide doors for 10 Grand its a no brainer - I picked up a 35 IH C-30 for 900$ with surface rust roof will have a roof over my head and when I slip a 4btu cummins in it with a Allison tranny -I'll just use that to pick up my BIKE......... LOL HAHAHA Its all good we get to watch all this and it makes for good conversation !! I just hope one day someone gives me the chance to own one and I would keep it as close to original as possible meaning no partout for profit or cut up to make a backyard chopper !!

I like em the way Sylvester dreamed them up....... ,speaking of the Knucks but interestingly I don't believe they were called Knuckleheads until the late forties -I defer to someone more knowledgeable ,-- I believe he died in 1943 unfortunately !!!! Da Man

But I have been stuck in the 30's n 40's with all my dream toys ...........

Harley called them Overhead Valve Deluxes. Jerry

[exeric]

I wasn't around then but my Dad was. He owned several of those bikes before I was born and always referred to them as his "74 Overheads".

I've always wondered when the 'Knucklehead' tag came into biker lingo. I have to speculate that it didn't come until after the 'Panhead' because they were both OHVs, and regarded as OHVs by H-D. Harley never used that colloquial lingo in any of their literature, so it obviously came from bikers, and I suspect from the huge motorcycle post WW2 enthusiasm. I've heard that no one knows where the iconic term "Drag" racing comes from, but again I think it just came out of gatherings of lots of people who were enjoying something and words got invented, and exchanged. I think it's just that simple, but impossible to trace. I would be very interested in what other people think about where the Knucklehead word originates from.

[vph-d]

As I remember it, newspaper 'for sale' ads in the Chicagoland area in the 60s would state 1941 74 or 62 74 for sale. There was no reference to Knucklehead or Panhead.
vph-d

[ChiefTwoKicks]

here's a thought... the VL and possibly the UL series were valued as good bikes back in the day, then came the '36 OVH heavyweight Harley. As good as the VL was (and the UL series) was, Harley introduced the OHV, mostly to compete economically with the traditional flatheads.
Of course the times were changing, But the dependability of the flatheads (admittedly lacking an abundance of power), reined supreme. Most automobiles were also flatheads. Its just how things are ! The mid 30's was a vary changing landscape in many various aspects of the lives of our forfathers. All mechanical things were advancing rapidly. Planes, Trains, and automobiles (including motorcycles). Trains went from steam power to Diesel, Planes went from wood and fabric to aluminum. on and on...

Harley took a huge risk, and produced an OVH machine. Their risk paid off BIG TIME. Although Harley didn't reap the benefits of its new big bike OVH right away, the popularity and performance, of the OHV captured the market. Automobiles too. It was all about how fast can you go... Progress. Howard Hughes set all kinds of speed records with his airplanes. The die was cast.
Faster, faster, and faster than that !!

I remember when VL's were the bike that everybody wanted. Dependability, looks, performance. and lots of them around, when many riders switched to the more powerful OVH. Many of the diehards who had the flatheads would say something like this... "You'd have to be a Knucklehead to buy one of those".

We all know Indian never bought into the hype (they were also losing market share, too) and that alone contributed to the slow demise of the brand.

Just my own observation... I have no actual facts to the above line of BS... but I'm sticking to it. C2K