58' FLH Hand Shift

[sieber60]

Can anyone tell me how many 58' Hand Shift FLH's were produced and any value opinions there are out there? This bike has been sitting for a long time (not original paint) and would need a fair amount of work. Has good VIN and line bore numbers.

Thanks
John

[duffeycycles]

Hand shift 195 est. Hand Shift & Foot Shift are all FLH engine #

[sieber60]

Thanks, duffeycycles,

Right, I understand about the numbers. I was just curious about how many Hand Shift bikes were produced. I didn't see where Palmer broke it down.
Still curious on value opinions.

John

[duffeycycles]

Palmer doesn't because they are estimates not facts. All Duo Glides were low production years with far less sales with hand shift.

[sieber60]

Okay.. Thank you!

[otis71]

I have a 64 hand shift. Though maybe a little bit more desirable for some I don’t think that makes it extremely more valuable. Too easy to convert a foot shift over and nothing was stamped in the vin to know either way.

[sieber60]

Agreed, Thank you for your input.

[55tmm]

There wasn't any hand shift FL ?

[Saddletramp]

Rick Conners data suggests '58 production totals as:
Model FL: 1,591
Model FLF:1,299
Model FLH: 195
Model FLHF: 2,953

[Saddletramp]

At the risk of answering my own post, sorry Siebro60 and 55tmm. Duffy gave us the bare numbers. He didn't say why or what. Rick Conner didn't either. As Duffy said, and many others, production numbers are just an educated guess. I'm sorry, I would love to take these as gospel, but you know how it goes.

[58panman]

My understanding is that there were 195, but the flhf, f was silent in the serial number (not stamped on the case) as was indicated by Palmer in his first book. From what I read there wasn't a way to determine which serial numbers were hand shift.

[jorrow]

Ive been told that the majority of hand shift bikes were FLs, that were ordered by the police depts who rode from the 40s into the late 50s, but this is from information passed onto me from a former officer who lived that era, I cannot verify.

[Buster]

I have an original 1976 FL with factory hand shift. Pretty sure it was a police bike.

[jorrow]

The factory book "the Legend Begins" breaks down handshift from footshift production starting in 1956, with handshift FLs greatly out numbering FLHs.