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Being that it's Valentines Day and I've already gone through the obligatory Hallmark holiday B.S. with my wife, I thought I would pay some tribute to the best motorcycle I have ever owned.
I got this motorycle in the late 80's and I can thank Bruce Palmer for inspiring me to consider a Pan. I was at a swap meet, telling Bruce that I was in the market for a newer H-D dresser. At the time I didn't have a rider because all of my bikes were dismantaled antiques. He wondered why I would want a new Harley when a panhead would do the same things only with more class. It was an epiphany for me, like a ray of sunlight comming through the clouds. Also, swapmeets were knee deep in panhead parts in those days. I went looking for early pans, asking everyone I knew. A friend of mine came up with a good lead that he got from a a drunk in a bar. This good ol' boy had a chopper that he didn't know what to do with and he was going through a divorce so it was excess baggage. I tracked this joker down and made the deal before he could change his mind. We had to go all over town to find all of the parts and I had to pay a bike shop storage fees for the motor that had been there for 2 years.
Once I got it home I could see what had been done to it. It was a backyard chopper that was built from one bike. The frame, engine, and transmission were right to each other but a lot of garbage was thrown into the mix. The big bonus was that the engine had never been opened up and it was still standard bore.
I knew I wanted to restore it so I went about finding the right '51 parts. The 1980's was the best time for doing this because swap meets were becoming very popular and old bikers were cleaning out years of accumulated parts. For instance, I got the rear fender for $25, adustable trees for $50, speedos for $5. Boy, do I miss those days. It didn't take long to find everything and the beauty part was that most of it was genuine H-D. Putting it together was a lot of fun and it really quite easy compared to that miserable KJ I was working on at that time. After a few motor set-backs I had it running. I learned not to set a motor up too tight but with careful break-in and patience it just ran better and better.
It did sidecar duty for a few years, we had a terrible accident together, it took my wife and I on beautiful morning rides to the beach, and it has never, and I mean NEVER left me on the side of the road. This bike has the best karma of any motorcycle I have ever owned.
Now it's getting a bit tired and that turquois color is getting a bit embarrassing so I think a trip to the motorcycle spa is in order. I plan to do a presentable restoration with an emphasis on riding quality. I think motorcycles of this vintage showed Harley Davidson at it's best and anyone who has an early rigded pan should be proud to have one of Milwaukee's finest.
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