My 30 yr. old son wants to purchase a Shovelhead Superglide. I figure this is a great place to get some expert advice on what to avoid and recommendations.

 

one of the guys posted this and it tell the correct story

its a crap shoot you always need to have someone who owns one go with you - asking before questions wont help on any site as no one is actually looking at it

even pay someone to go shovels have been - owned by some odd thinking people

 

I was just getting ready to post that picture John ... :>)

 

you beat me to it last time hahahahahahahahahah

 

Got to ask him if he is looking for something close to stock or just a custom and only thing factory is motor, tranny and frame. Lots of space between those two ends. Also got to decide if he wants the FX series vs FLH series.

Get that decided you need to figure if he wants one that needs some work vs one that is turn key (for the most part).

Does he or you have the tools, the space and the requisite skillset to do most of the work (farming out work is expensive and there are some Indies that are good and others that are highly suspect).

Once you get to that point you need to start looking. craigslist can be a good start. There are Facebook groups that are dedicated to old iron (wife helped me find them). Some are public groups; some private and require you to join in order to view their page.

Prices can vary for as little as 2K on up to ridiculous. West Coast prices on avaerage is around 5K to 7K (that would be a bike that is a rider from the get go).

Do you or your son know anything about Shovels? If not you need to take someone with you that does, knows the questions to ask and can call bull$hit if needed so you don't end up with a box of rocks.

 

Man I'm sure your asking yourself over and over again where did I go wrong! Don't beat yourself up you probably did everything right. Some kids just don't listen. But it could be worse, at least it's not an iron head.

 

The best thing that I've tried to do when buying anything is pay close attention to the owner , as if the owner is a slob then the bike will be bad condition . What sounds far fetched will be B/S
Ser#'s beware , as H-D had problems '79 & '80 , my '80 has no ser# no where except on a past on sticker on the frame as they were trying to use a number on the engine and it failed so they went back and labeled the frames . Also up to '80 H-D used a short ser# and '81 started with a long number

What some people might not think -- " There's NO Head Like a SHOVLEHEAD "

And I've already made a casket for my Ironhead to go with me

 

So whats the big deal?



BuzzCap7

 

The MAN is 30 tears old and a son.
He may do whatever to H he wants.