I mean, fuck, it's a bike isn't it, albeit a much larger, somewhat agricultural one in some cases. but what with Linkerts, Scheblers, Super E and B's, wishbones, straightlegs, bow legs, pan-shovels, genny-shovels, slab shovels, K series, Sporties, Duos, Hydras and Electras, a bloke can get a little fucked up on the minutae and micro detail that lifts and seperates one model from another.
Despite my great interest in the MoCo's history over the last nearly thirty years and having read stuff like Harry Sucher et al cover to cover, and been in the presence of both bikes and riders for an equally protracted time, all info stored in the old grey matter has been an accidental accumulation, nothing deliberate or thought out as it used to be with the Trumpies and other Pommy kit I lusted after for so long . . . . and now owning two of the bloody things also goes a long way to self enlightenment as well.
Back to the thrust of my blurb here, apart from eagerly seeking out input every time I now chat to a bloke riding something from the H-D dark past that the 'Factory' so nicely wants nothing to do with at a workshop level, the interthingy has really given me the opportunity to 'see' a shitload more of the old gold from Messrs Harley and Davidson's company than I could ever have imagined even ten years ago, PooTube, the blogs I follow and their often learned operators, random stuff from all over the computer universe, they have all given me a chance to learn so much more about the marque I swore I'd never own . . . . the accompanying video selection is fucking cracker insight and example of what appears to me to be a pretty perfectly stock '48 panhead, one of the truly milestone post WWII products of the the company that was once known as the Milwaukee Marvel . . . . I know sweet F.A when compared to many out there but if you like learning as I do, then the net can be a killer classroom as much as it can be nothing more than a bucket of shit.
Even guys like Matt Olsen and his dad are always discovering interesting new details about old Harleys. You've probably read the Vintagents latest post on the 'early' Japanese motorcycle industry, with the HD/Rikuo story. Yeah the internet is my library these days. Donny, our resident HD expert at the shop I worked at in the seventies was always surprising me with his obscure knowledge of things HD. I remember him pulling a timing cover out of a pile of parts and telling us it was from a Japanese built HD clone. I kick myself still for not buying some old baskets when I had the chance to get them for about 200 bucks a basket...oh well, might as well been a grand back then...
ReplyDeleteYes indeedly Laz, those from the Land of the Rising Sun have a long and illustrious association with the Bar and Sheild, it hasn't just happened overnight and that's what shits me most when confronted with all the anti J-models buying and riding Harleys bullshit, get the fuck over it you bloody clowns !!! The old dude who ran the program over there in the inter war years has a lot owed to him . . . forgotten his name, dang !!
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