From Ricki, and here's the story behind the bike...
from the guy who built it:
The chopper was built from a 1953 panhead with a wish bone frame. A couple of neat features about it was the fact that it only had a rear brake. That's why he fabricated the long brake lever. The rear fender was made from an old continental kid of a 1953 Ford. That the thing hod rodders use to mount on the rear bumper to store a tire. All the filling was done with a brass brazing rod instead of bondo. It was raked 1 1/2" with a 15" over AEE springer. Making it 9 1/2 feet long.
If I ever hit a good dip in the road under hard acceleration she would do a wheely. Especially with the king queen seat with Debbie leaning against the back. A neat part of the seat was the built in storage.The picture of the switch panel with the heading keep it simple shows the fact that there were only three switches. Ignition, headlight on off switch, and a toggle switch for high and low beam. I later installed a cig lighter but never took a pic of that. The engine was painted several times my favorite was when the bike was candy apple red with gold metal flakes the engine was baby blue and white with all the bright work chrome plated. That was the last time I painted it. I dropped an exhaust valve at 110 MPH. The head of the valve stuck in the top of the piston and destroyed the engine. I traded the broke engine with a biker friend for a good, but some what questionable Shovel head. I say questionable because the numbers were ground off the block. I used a stamp kit and transferred the numbers off the pan head to the shovel. The only obvious problem was the first two numbers were the year the engine was built. So I probably had the only 1953 Shovel head engine. There's a whole nother story about that. If you look at the original paint on the right side of the gas tank it has HD air brushed into it. I had to have the tank repainted because I got pissed because it wouldn't start one day and put a big dent in the top of the tank with my fist.
If I ever hit a good dip in the road under hard acceleration she would do a wheely. Especially with the king queen seat with Debbie leaning against the back. A neat part of the seat was the built in storage.The picture of the switch panel with the heading keep it simple shows the fact that there were only three switches. Ignition, headlight on off switch, and a toggle switch for high and low beam. I later installed a cig lighter but never took a pic of that. The engine was painted several times my favorite was when the bike was candy apple red with gold metal flakes the engine was baby blue and white with all the bright work chrome plated. That was the last time I painted it. I dropped an exhaust valve at 110 MPH. The head of the valve stuck in the top of the piston and destroyed the engine. I traded the broke engine with a biker friend for a good, but some what questionable Shovel head. I say questionable because the numbers were ground off the block. I used a stamp kit and transferred the numbers off the pan head to the shovel. The only obvious problem was the first two numbers were the year the engine was built. So I probably had the only 1953 Shovel head engine. There's a whole nother story about that. If you look at the original paint on the right side of the gas tank it has HD air brushed into it. I had to have the tank repainted because I got pissed because it wouldn't start one day and put a big dent in the top of the tank with my fist.
glorious shit!
Thanx Ricki for the pix and story!
You know there's a lot of REAL good memories brought back from those pictures. I never road with a club, but had a lot of good biker freinds that I partied with and pound the pavement with. We had some really good times and were thhere for each other in a time of need.
ReplyDeleteHell yeah Dave, my Dad and I thank you.
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