except, we weren't on Shovelheads!


If your old enough to remember the days when Shovels were state of the art, and Pans were leaking oil all over the tarmac, you probably can appreciate my day. It started out when a group of 7 brothers headed out..... By the end of the day, two of the bikes broke down and left us stranded in a pile of tools, oil and sweat. We paid a visit to a brother who is stuck in the hospital, and a prospect dropped his bike in the gas station parking lot. LOL, yeah, that was pretty much any ole' Sunday.... 30 years ago. But it's been a while since I have been able to really experience the GOOD OLD DAY'S....... God, I miss them.

 

One thing about those "good old days" is it would show you who would "stick with it".

 

So your Twinkies broke down because of overheating and transmission mainshaft failures! Just how is that the "Good Old Days"?

Bikes broke down in the "Good Old Days" becuase riders failed to recognize that riders of Pans and Shovels needed to follow the routine maintenance procedures per the manuals well as checking fasteners and bolts on long rides because of vibration issues.

Might have been your "any 'ol Sunday...30 years ago" but it wasn't mine because the guys I rode with recognized the limits/limitations and acted accordingly.

Ran out of gas once on my 65 Pan (my fault for judging the distance to the next gas stop) and suffered a collapsed lifter on my rear intake on my 84 FLH (no way to judge).

Bikes today are definitely improved in performance as well as reliability, but this $ h it that old school is somehow related to what you are equating it to is pure b u l l $ h i t.

Please understand, this is not directed at you but just my point of view and observation from someone how has been riding HDs since 1965. I recognize that such opinions vary and are subject to interpretation.

 

The Shovel is Harley's finest mill. It represented the "Space Age" in America's motorcycle history, it was Apollo, Skylab, and beyond.

It was borne from the race to the moon. It was Kennedy's promise, and the first nail in the coffin of the Soviet Empire.

The Shovel represents all that is good in this shitty World.

 

HAHAHA!!! Your killing me.....
I LOVE SHOVELS. Best bike ever made.
Never said they were junk, or any such thing. Simply relating that many a time......decades ago, I was working on old bikes on the side of the road. Just because you, AND ME took care of our $hit, doesn't mean everyone did. And working on bike after bike today, produced wonderful flashbacks of the old days. But like most, you simply fixated on the small part of the story that peaked your interest. The part about visiting a bedridden friend, and dumped bikes....must have escaped you.
Hey, its all good. The Shovel with me and my wife in my avatar..... says more than I could ever say.

 

I feel what you're saying. Made a lot of friendships stopping to help a brother. Usually something minor. It was all part of the journey.
I miss those days of starting out with NO destination in mind. You can't (well, some can) even imagine some of the places we'd end up. Thanks for stirring up those old memories.

 

We didn't call them "Troubleheads" for nothing.

Still a fine engine that can make a lot of power.

BTW seen more motors laid down in service station driveways than everywhere else put together. Done it myself a couple times.

 

Well, I just rode out through the Beartooth and Bighorns on the way to Sturgis with my shovel. 2650 miles in total after a weekend before of 500 and a weekend after of 450, so in 2 weeks 3600 miles. My brother was with me on his 2015 UL. I'll say that I had some minor issues that saw me in an HD shop, a welding shop, and a small indy shop, but you know, it was great riding.. none of it was because of lack of maintenance, it was mostly because of being an old bike. At the end of the day though I felt more in-tune with mine than he did with his new bike. I like my 'ol FLT and when parked together I'm not sure who's bike gathered more lookers.. it was the older bike guys to mine and the girls and younger crowd to his (he's got the nuclear green one). A memorable journey that by the end had my brother talking up "how well that old bike did".

 

You guys are killing me, buddy did a 1500 mile round trip on his shovel with his son and 2 of his buddies on twinkies. Shovel guy was the only one with a tool bag and the only bike out of the 4 he didn't have to break it out for aside form the usual chain adjustment. Talk about stoked when he got home.

Flip side there was one very memorable road trip with 2 shovels and a 52 pan, photo album on that was labeled " This is where we broke down " , I lucked out mine only had a blowout on the rear but we redid the lowerend in a backyard on the 82 after it dropped the pinion shaft, the pan was tossing something off daily including a kicker rebuild , oil pump leak, lights, ect. and finally a rod knock shut that one down 200 miles from home. We still hit everywhere we planned and a few places we didn't.

Yeah it got trying sometimes but I wouldn't trades those years of memories for anything

 

I have a 2012 Ultra Limited and a '76 FLH side by side in the garage.
If there's oil under the '12, there's a problem.
If there's NO oil under the '76, there's a problem.