Mike42HD.........
Man, you sure revived a really old thread!
When you refer to 'JH' are you talking about Jack (King) Heller?
Jack was a personal friend of mine, as was his brother Dempsey.
Both brothers worked at Stelter Harley Davidson from the mid fifties up through the mid sixties when Stelter lost his franchise here in Houston.
I have no pictures of JK Heller at all. Jack went to Bonneville every year and took his XLR to run, setting a record for his class one of those years.
Jack always went with his buddy Pete Molinar, who worked at Bruce Bristol's BSA shop at the same time.
Pete always ran his bike, which was a blown Vincent.
Your comment about seeing a blown Vincent 'Blew me away too.'
I would love to see some pics from the scrap book if you can post them.
I have searched and searched everywhere and can find no mention of Jack Heller anywhere. Although he set a land record for his class that year (1961 or 1962?) with an average run up and back at 136 mph, there is no record of this with Bonneville Records that I could ever find........pg

 

The centerstand was an H-D accessory available for a number of years. I have an old H-D catalog from 1968 that shows it. It looks like it was made from rough-cast aluminum, and was left unfinished. Here's a pic of a Sportster with one (cool book, BTW).

 

Sporty Specialties made a batch last year from the original mold. Even has the part number cast in. I have one. I believe he still has more, has them on eBay from time to time.

 

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Thanks for posting that color scan 83.

the good old daze....

mud

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Recent experience is that the clamps, part #11 in the diagram, can fail. They can be welded to make them stronger. See these two pics ...

 

I am restoring my fathers HD Sportster XLR and am wondering if anyone has any advice or good companies for original parts (gaskets, tank, fender). The bike frame has some modification to it that my father did at the time (58'-64') like a raked out front end. His father owned a HD dealer and my father would race his Sportster on the weekend and rebuild it during the week. My father is being a great help with the motorcycle project but he is still thinking like it's 1958 and a teenager building a bike to race, not restoring a very old and rare machine. So, if anyone can give me some advice on the details I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

 

I rebuilt mine this past year. The previous build on it was 20yrs ago (still by me). At that time the dealership was good for parts. This time they were good but many parts are no-longer available, so, I went to J&P. They have all the parts I needed. To replace some big stuff...I have done swap-meets (i put on a wide-glide and found some extra carbs and magneto for example)...but for internals, gaskets, kicker bits, clutch stuff etc I wanted new so they were the choice I made.

s

 

Ironmick: That is an interesting point. I am using those clamps to hold my master on for my back disk brake...for me they were just some extra pcs in a box that I didn't know what to do with...when I redid the bike this time I looked at them again and was just going to toss them for for a new shiny chrome clamp but decided not too and cleaned them up and had them powercoated with the rest of it and stuck them back on.

I learned something today....thanks

s

 

Best is to scour ebay. It takes time and patience. You have to learn how to best use the search feature to find what you are looking for. You also have to learn to bid to win.

I never never never bid before the last two minutes of the auction. I usually put in my first bid about 1,3/4 minutes to go, then watch, then put in a bid that no one else would go over with about 15 seconds left to go.

I got burned one time, and bought one piece that was not useable - both when i was inexperienced. I have made about 85 eBay purchases over about 6 years. Got stuff not available anywhere else, stuff that i wanted.

Always use PayPal. Always pay immediately. I have never run across a bad eBay seller.

Do not go by other peoples eBay horror stories.

Other very good sources ...
www.sportyspecialties.com
www.olddude.com
www.NOSParts.com
www.NOSParts.nl [does not ship to USA]

 

Thanks for the info. I'll look into J&P. The gaskets are my big issue right now since the engine is ready to go together.