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In 1913 Indian released the "Hendee Special" with an electric starter. The starter worked great, but battery technology was in it's infancy and the batteries could not hold up to the road vibrations and would come apart while riding. Indian ended up recalling all those models.
As fars as 2-up seats, although there were some make-shift options, it wasn't until the early 1940s that Harley added the "Buddy Seat" and Indian responded with the "Chum-Me" seat as options. See the link below for the "Hendee Special".
02Ultra - Great graphics, thanks for posting them.[/align][/align]"Tandem Seats: Forerunner of the buddy seat, the tandem seat was the only mechanical device for carrying a passenger on a Harley-Davidson up through 1932. The only other alternative was riding on the bare fender or on a unpadded or padded luggage rack. [/align][/align]The tandem seat mounts in place of the luggage rack over the rear fender relying on braces connected to the frame and a bracket connected to the top of the rear fender. the tandem seat had its own spring suspension completely separate from the buddy seat.[/align][/align]Harley-Davidsondesigned their first tandem seat in 1930 to replace the Messinger tandem seat they had been offering riders since `1925. The first seat to be used on this tandem was a bucket seat slightly narrower than the standard solo seat. In 1934, the standard solo seat replaced the first tandem seat and was used through 1954. 1954 was the last year the tandem seat was offered. [/align][/align]The 1930 - 1954 tandem seat was not the only tandem seat Harley-Davidson produced in those years but it was the only one available to the public and was used by most government and military agencies when the tandem seat was ordered. However, two other were produced and were used exclusively by Canada." Additional information available from source,excerpted from, (Bruce Palmer III, How To Restore Your Harley-Davidson; page 453, Motorbooks Publishing, 1994).[/align][/align]This was clearly not, a "make-shift option."[/align][/align]However, as we know, Harley-Davidson was seldom first in innovation. The literature supports many configurations of tandem seating, offered by many manufacturers prior to this timeas isclearly illustrated in the photographs at the link I , earlier, provided.[/align]
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RE: Solo and 2up Motorcycle history quest
