So I won an auction for a 1961 Panhead, thats located on the opposite coast in Florida. Initially I intended to ship the bike, but as my more irrational side starts to kick in I'm thinking about rid'in the thing 2700 miles, for the adventure. The seller does not know the history of the bike but claims its in good running condition, doesn't smoke, shifts.....................etc.
Am I completely out of my mind, or can I make the crossing if I test the compression, check the tranny for metal particles.....................give it a good once over? What do I have to check to give myself the best chance? To make matters worse I've never riden anything that old. The bike has the original 6V electric and manual timing advance. How does that work, do just match the timing rotation with the throttle rotation?
And if I do decide to ship, can anyone recommend a shipping company?
K
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As far as riding the ol' gal, if you check it over and decide it's OK - goferit!
Manual advance - retard to start, once started advance some to maintain smooth idle, then at about 2k rpm, go to full advance.
Give the generator a good look-see. Make sure brushes & commutator are in good shape.
And finally, yep yer crazy! Fun, ain't it?
__________________ Chrome sucks.
Barges are for chopping. Otherwise, they might as well be Gold Wings!
Ride it! Beat it! Break it! Fix it! Ride it some more!
If you don't hear anything pretty soon, you can bet he's riding with no particular destination singing 'Born to be Wild' at the top of his voice...
__________________
If you ever think the modifications to your bike are complete, it's only because you haven't been out to see the new stuff you can get.
Not sure how this post made it's way to the top of the list, but I originally posted this in Jan 2006. I did the rational thing and shipped the bike. It's a good thing too, because it took me about a month to figure out how to start it. After replacing the battery, coil, condenser, points and plugs, it runs andstarts great. It also had a pretty bad tranny leak that required splitting the case and changing the drive shaft. Had I been able to start the bike,mechanicallyit would have made the trip.
Crazy thought
Chrome sucks.
