I agree. you saw the same thing on Mecum last week too. i would say there were things "missing" as opposed to "incorrect". in any event, the bike did sell for $33,000 + 10% buyer's vig....big money! that's the important thing. mine has numerous "incorrect" from OEM items too, but there's only so many of them that still exist and I'm thrilled to have a real-deal '71 boat tail. God bless the pricing. i would love to have a group or blog of other owners to talk to...I'm desperately searching for an original or original style OEM 2 into 1 exhaust. having a tough time finding that...

 

wow are you lucky to have those 2 beauties!! is there any significant difference between the 71 and 72 other than the location of the rear master cylinder?

 

I do have a Boattail, but those two in the picture aren't mine. They belonged to a friend of mine, sold them both to a collector in Germany for big bucks. I know one is in a museum currently.

There are several differences in the 72's. Obviously the master cylinder is the most noticeable. There was a new reflector law in 72, so you will also notice that the rear reflectors on the tail are the larger -72 version. They also needed to add a reflector above the license plate, so the plate holder that is molded into the tail is about an inch taller on a true 72 tail section, to accommodate for the thin reflector. I have seen 2 different 72 exhaust headers. If you look on the back side of the early ones, they had a rectangular dimple in the area of the new for 72 master cylinder. Those bikes would have come with the flatter pan head style chromed kicker. At some point they came up with a -71A mod exhaust that allowed the rider to add the bigger battery for adding electric start. That exhaust kicked out by the rear cylinder to clear the battery, and then they needed the stepped out kicker arm. I don't know exactly when the change was made though, unfortunately. A true 71 exhaust will hug tight to the bike, and will not have the dimple on the inside side. The tank medallion and decals are different of course. In later model 71's, and all 72's they switched to the buckhorn bars. Early to mid 71's used the mustache bars. Also, if you look at the #1 decal on the tank pad, the later stickers had a more neon orangish color vs the red. I'm not sure of the exact date of change, as I have seen numerous 71's with the neon ones. I would suspect they just changed printing vendors at some point. All the repro ones are red, not orangish. I have original unused decals with dates on them, so I know they are correct.

 

great, valuable info! maybe you and i should start a 71 BT club??

 

Original Brochure.

 

Price, options, and colors sheet.

 

72 Super Glide Brochure. This is what you got after all the boattails were used up.

Here you can see it still had the early kicker and exhaust and even mustache bars like they had on early 71's. Can't put much faith in the sheets like this though, they don't always represent what came off the line. If you look close enough in the 71 brochure, the points cover says "FLH"...

 

November 1970 magazine article on the new FX.

 

No doubt it is/was a nice bike, and one of the best examples I've seen. I don't want to pick bike apart, it's awesome, and anyone who owns it should be thrilled. The things that aren't perfect are easy too, so it won't be hard for the new owner to really make it cherry. But someday this info might help a guy in a restoration. Here's what I see in looking at the pictures: wrong hose clamps, should be a pinch clamp; master cylinder is black, should be natural grey; VIN tag is black, there were only silver VIN tags back then; wrong kicker arm, should be panhead style; wrong dash; decal should say 'Parking Lights' instead of Accessories; (you can also always tell original dash and eyebrow decals too, because the are metal and ribbed. repops are just printed stickers) wrong finish on petcock; appear to be repop gas caps; I can't tell if the decals are cleared over, but technically they were not from the factory.

I'm also glad that it went for 33k, I'll use that to up the stated value on the insurance.

I do have one or two original exhausts. If I have two spares, I'll let you know and perhaps we can work something out. I won't be able to look for a couple months though.

Here's mine with the accessory fiberglass fender. Super rare.

 

Great thread, I too have a 71 FX daily rider. Would be happy to participate in a blog or club. There was a club but it disbanded several years ago.

Roach
Washington State