Is it better shoverlhead, knucklehead or......

I am thinking of buying something old.....here in Europe they are pretty rare, but still, I am a little afraid of suicide clutch though

 

Biggest issue how much you are willing to spend, older the bike to more it's going to cost. Hard to go wrong with a shovelhead as an old school starter bike, cheapest option too.

 

were those shovelheads like sportsters now?
How comfortable are they to ride?
I mean what is the hype about them? I just saw a guy buying one in my town.....
not sure if it was shovelhead.....but it was oldtimer custom harley

 

I like shovels. ride is comfortable. What it takes to own and ride an older bike....
-one should assess availability of parts, what condition you want to preserve it in. ( I would'nt want to put 25000 every year on it as my primary ride)
You had better be handy with a wrench,DVM and FSM.

 

I between the Knucklehead and the Shovelhead was the Panhead but for rideability, reliability, and performance, I'd go for the Shovelhead.

You next step up would be the Evolution (some called them a Blockhead but the mo****r never caught on) which is a much better engine than the others....but that's my opinion.
Early EVO's had some gasket issues but that's not a big dollar issue to contend with.

 

No Harley ever came from the factory with a suicide clutch. Don't confuse the early foot activated rocker clutch pedal with a suicide clutch. I ran a foot clutch, hand shift setup on my '61 for many years, till I converted to a mousetrap.

Like mentioned, the older the bike the more you'll spend. I'm a Shovel guy. If I was looking for an antique to RIDE, it would be a Shovel. To restore.... A Knuckle. A panhead if I just had to have one. Just my two cents. 😀

 

I like this one a lot.....is quite expensive yes....20k usd....
https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/d...6-e6c82084efe7

i did not know why the suicide cltch then....i thought it came with the bike original.....but i atch that series on history channel about Harley owners and for sure they did not use suicide c....

i dont even know what a mouse trap is

 

This might be a good place to explain the difference.
Anyone? Anyone?

 

My understanding is that a rocker clutch can be engaged/disengaged with your foot and will stay disengaged so you can put your foot down on the ground. With suicide, the pedal must be held down "actively" with your foot.

 

The (edit) last picture is the factory rocker clutch. You push down with your heel to disengage the clutch. If properly adjusted, it will stay down resulting in the same thing as pulling in a hand clutch. Push down on the front pedal to engage the clutch. Just like releasing a hand clutch. And away you go! The gear shifter is either on the gas tank (stock), or a jockey shift (a large handle directly attached to the top of the transmission).

The top picture is a suicide clutch. It works just like a car.
It's named suicide because NO MATTER WHAT, if you lift your foot, you engage the clutch. And that can be very problematic if your on a hill or the bike starts to lean left while in gear. There's NO WAY to put your foot down! Things got crazy in the chopper days with no front brakes on bikes. Hence the nickname "suicide clutch".

A mousetrap is a confounded contraption that Harley came up with to assist with clutch pull on their big twins. They did this because prior to mousetraps, all big twin Harleys used the foot clutch, which being foot activated, they didn't care that it was very stiff to ensure proper lockup. And Harley didn't want two setups for hand and foot activation. So this gismo helped in assisting the heavy hand clutch pull. The truth of the matter is, the damn mousetraps WORK! And they are actually cool as all hell if..... And only if, you get them set up right.

Edit: one of my favorites is the term "suicide shift".
And I bet twisted biker knows what I'm sayin'! That's a term dopes who know just enough to think their smart, misuse to describe various forms of foot operated, hand shift bikes.