Old Harleys and Horses

Old motorcycles and horses have always been part of my life.  I rode a horse for the 1st time at about 3-4 years of age with my mother and we always had horses growing up.  I worked at the race track while in High School and had two horses at that time.  When I was 17 I traded my Quarter Horse for a Honda CL 185 and it was all over then.  Funny thing is that at I'm in my late fifties now and I live on a horse ranch and still love old bikes....  If push came to shove it would be the old motorcycles over the horses even now.

My 1928 Harley J engine, it looks pretty nice but its stuck so that is always interesting.  For an engine that is almost 90 years old its not bad

1928-1929 Harley Davidson Sport Solo Tanks

I ordered these replica Harley Davidson Sport Solo tanks from Replicant Metals along with all the tank fittings.  It will be a good boost to see the tanks on the frame.  I have heard that these reproduction parts are very high quality and I will report back when I get them.
These are the same tanks that were used on the last post for the black '28 Sport Solo JD

I got this picture from the Replicant Metals site, it is a 1928 Sport Solo built by Kip Kern

Down The Rabbit Hole..............AGAIN

1928 Harley Davidson J

 

Well I've managed to tumble down the rabbit hole again !  I sold my '46 Chief and my Knucklehead projects basically because I had built both before and I got bored.  I have always wanted to build a 1920's JD so here I go again.

 

I found a nice clean '28 J motor which is the 61" version and a good frame from Eldon Brown in Canada.  This stuff is getting harder and harder to find so I bit the bullet and bought them.  I'll have it all in a few weeks ( I hope ! ) and will start posting some progress pictures at that time.

 



Harley Davidson 45 C.I. OHV Prototype

This is the only known surviving example of a 1941 Harley Davidson O.H.V. 45 cubic inch motorcycle.  The O.H.V. idea was not new to the Factory and had been used on racing motorcycles and hill climbers.  It cost as much to build the O.H.V. 45 as a Knucklehead and remember we entered World War II on December 7th, 1941...the bombing of Pearl Harbor which changed this whole country in a heart beat.

The three engines were stored in the Knuth warehouse in Milwaukee during WWII. After the war H-D sent some guys to inventory the warehouse because they had no clue what was in it. One of these guys liberated the OHV 45" engine and took it home. The Motor Company found out and demanded its return. The guy skipped town and took the engine with him.

Later it was discovered that he was working for a H-D dealership in the south and had installed the engine in a bike. H-D told the dealer to turn over the engine or he would loose his ticket. The dealer turned the engine over to the H-D District manager, who took it home and stored it in his garage.

Years went by and H-D again forgot about the OHV 45". The district manager retired from the company. He then contacted a great Harley race mechanic he had known for years who was now in California doing a bang up job porting and installing big valves in current model H-D heads. He sold the engine to this man who in turn sold it to a gentleman who deals with old bikes in Santa Paula, CA. It gets a bit foggy from here .... evidently the gentleman sold the engine to Carmen Brown who built it into a motorcycle.

That's a great story and may or may not be entirely accurate................