I rode an 81 WideGlide for many years. It was the last of the AMF's and pre-Dyna (solid mounted, carbed, 80ci Shovel with early electronic ignition). I ran an Andrews cam, solid lifters, Bendix carb w/adjustable main jet and a set of drag pipes. It came with both electric and kick start, but the electric was pretty reliable. It was a good bike.

 

Can't remember exactly the year wide glides first came out but that spring i took a pic of a bike at daytona that someone had built. It was an earlier shovelhead that looked almost exactly like the factory wide glides that came out that fall even down to the paint job. That guy had to be pissed when he saw those.

 

1980 was the first year for Wide Glide and the first year for a Custom factory bike.

 

Oh contraire my friend. The 1971 boat tail Shovel was the first custom factory bike.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...Divnsfd&itbs=1


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love to see a pic of it (the bike...not yer mom)

 

I stand corrected; it is not the first custom factory bike. Thanks for the clarification. I always thought it was the first custom.

 

The pic below is not his actual bike but this is what it looked like when he brought it home.

He ended up putting an S&S with the domed screen cover and gray sponge like filter, Drag bars, removed the front fender, added Drag pipes and a bunch of other chrome parts. At one point he got a great deal on an Ingersol Rand paint sprayer at an auction so we painted the jugs an engine orange color. I guess it probably doesn't sound like it would look that good but it turned out pretty good. That's the way the bike sits now. I'll have to get some current pics of it next time I go back to Iowa. Surprisingly it was the only one in the area back then. People always pull up and comment on it when I take it out for a ride when I'm back home. That's why, when they brought the Wideglide back with flames in 2010, I had to have one.

 

Found an old pic of my '81 WG taken in '87.

 

I had a 1981 AMF Wide Glide that was root beer (sh*t brown) with a belt drive primary, dual front brake discs and had to totally rebuild the motor at 4100 miles. After eplacing about the sixth drive belt, I converted it to chain primary. Rar drive was always chain drive. Ran an S&S Super E carb, eveything else basic stock. Sold it in 2000 because I had back surgery,

 

Yes, you could have a 1981 AMF Harley Wide Glide with a shovel head in it....

In fact, all AMF Harley big twins had shovel head engines. The EVO engine wasn't introduced until three years after AMF sold the company back to some HD employees & executives in 1981.


FYI..

AMF bought Harley in 1969...

Harley employees, led by executives of the company, including Willie G. Davidson, bought Harley Davidson Motorcycles back from AMF on June 16, 1981.


NOTE: The official Dyna Models were introduced around 1991ish... Prior to that, they were simply "FX" models and "FL" models.