FEATURE BIKES
26 Chopped Super Rocket
A righteous Limey lover’s wheel
36 A Pan for Show and Go
$3,000 worth of dual-purpose machine
44 Ripoff Proof Sportster
A multi-colored dainty jewel with a raucous voice
48 Chrome Moly Chopper
Dynosoar—A dyno mechanic’s dream machine
53 Power to the Knuckleheads
An updated, stroked antique
TECHNICAL
22 The 45 Magnum: A Lightweight Harley Custom
Half four five, half Sportster, all go
30 How to Make Your Molded Tank Removable
It’s like eating your cake and having it, too
32 How to Buy a Police Bike at Auction
No steals, but you could bag a bargain
34 The Secret of Buying a Used Bike
There are ways to find good ones cheap
40 How to Service Wheel Hubs
The basics of wheel hub care
SPECIAL
18 The Harley Engine: Imperfect Masterpiece
A stone-age monster with unbeatable track record
DEPARTMENTS
4 Sidestand
Your rights on mail-order parts
6 Headwinds
Trouble is, you don’t know you’ve been had until it’s too late
8 Point of View
Varying views on what makes a bike a bike
10 Readers Write and Wrong
Some thoughts from you
14 Readers’ Bikes
Quick looks at what’s shakin’
56 New Products
The latest things for guys long on green
You can tell it’s a Harley V-Twin
from a block away. Nothing else in
the world has that chuff-chuff sound
and the slightly uneven firing pulses.
And they don’t really rev. The rpm
just sort of builds, like a tractor.
Strong. Smooth. More power than
anybody really needs, and enough
torque to make shifting gears a mere
formality.
One of the big reasons Harleys
make excellent chopper material is
the appearance of that massive, hairy-
looking engine. Most other bikes
look a little bare in the engine de-
partment after you’re around Har-
leys for a while. The V-twin fills
the space between the frame with a
dynamic lump of over-engineered
metal that could power most cars.
What is it that makes the big Har-
ley V-twins so desirable for the big
biker? There are many more so-
phisticated designs on the market and
there are faster bikes being built ev-
ery day.
Basically, the Harley has a num-
ber of features that make sense for
the chopper man. The good points
are as follows:
1. Parts interchangability. The
factory doesn’t make radical changes
from year to year, so a fantastic
amount of bits and pieces fit a large
number of engines. This allows the
rider an opportunity to increase the
power and reliability of an older en-
gine series at a reasonable expense.
The fact that an older hog can be
rejuvenated also increases the value
and desirability of the machine. When
you try to find a 20-year-old engine a
part for a Harley, chances are you’ll c
locate something without too much n
trouble. Try the same thing with a s
20-year-old bike of another brand,
and lotsa luck. t
2. Reliability. They will run and I
run and run. One good example a
comes readily to mind: Pat Dale’s t
Motorcycle Shop in El Monte, Cali- c
fornia, uses a 1933 Harley 80-inch r
flathead for a parts chaser. This bike
is virtually stock. It’s in good shape, i
but nothing special is done to it in v
the way of maintenance. It starts c
easily and is ridden hundreds of miles t
daily. c
This machine has over 100,000 i
miles on it, and nothing major has i
ever broken. Needless to say, many z
offers have been made for this scoot, 1
but they are firmly turned down be- f
cause Pat needs a reliable parts
chaser. c
The older Harley engines were re- t
putedly more reliable than the later 1
models, simply because the older en- (
gines were stressed less and didn’t r
put out the horsepower of the newer ‘
models. Remember, there has been i
no real basic design change from the 1
older models—just refinement. <
Additional reliability comes from <
the H-D philosophy on actual con- >
struction of engines and bikes: If a
part fails or breaks, don’t re-design i
it—just make it twice as big. This
philosophy really works well if every- ]
thing is two to three times stronger i
than necessary.
Of course, this approach guaran-
tees an incredibly heavy and physical- ]
ly large engine. It is also part of the '
reason Harley must adhere to the in-
line V-twin concept in design covered <
in the following point.
3. Functional engine shape. •
The very massiveness of the engine
absolutely precludes mounting it in
any other fashion. Compare the Har-
ley engine in actual size to, for ex-
ample, a Moto Guzzi. The Guzzi
has a V-twin, but it’s mounted per-
pendicular to the line of the frame,
with the cylinders sticking out quite ,
far. Can you picture an enormous
74 engine stuck sideways in ANY
frame? ;
The inline V-twin is the only de-
sign that will allow a narrow engine
design with a large displacement. As
big as a Harley is, when viewed from •
the front, the profile is incredibly
slender (dressers excluded)....