my favorite scoots

http://www.flathead-bobbers.com/home.htm

good site with good tech info and great pics

Those are good looking bikes.

Anybody know how they ride?

Could a guy with a bad back even tolerate to ride one?

It depends on how hard ya wanna ride, Spart. I personally love the ride of a hardtail.... hate the "spongy" feel of the others..... to each their own. I do have to say, if ya put 500 miles on a day, that hardtail does seem to take a bit of a toll on ya....especially after ya turn 40! It's also a bit tough to get a cutie to sit on the back and ride the "lunch box rack" now-a-days....
John

It depends on how hard ya wanna ride, Spart. I personally love the ride of a hardtail.... hate the "spongy" feel of the others..... to each their own. I do have to say, if ya put 500 miles on a day, that hardtail does seem to take a bit of a toll on ya....especially after ya turn 40! It's also a bit tough to get a cutie to sit on the back and ride the "lunch box rack" now-a-days....
John

Guess I gotta worry about my screwed up back thats why I ask.

I can push shit all day long but pulling and bouncing will aggravate it to no end and if Im not careful the damned thing will pop out.

Wish I had someone round here who would let me ride one so I could judge for my self.

Man I love those old bobbers. I wouldn't give a flip about a Big Dog or any of those other fat tired modern customs. I have owned a 42 ULH, 34 VLD and a couple basket case K models. And my favorite flatty was a 42 Servicar. It was a hoot.
Hardtail, what's the story on the airplane? That your snortster?
Cole Foster builds some righteous rides. So that that Brit, Russ from Exile.

the bike in the above pic is tits---jh--that be yours--then-- i must do a little bow---master--oh o bi 1 kenobi--or how ever it goes

i thought that i had owned a 1952 45---- it was a real mess up front--still had the springer--someone had added 6 over--no rake and then put some yapenees axle/wheel and 6 inch rise--for 1974 and given the ks location--it wasn't all that bad--in retrospect--it was really a shitty deal---after reading this tech site--it was a 50's--late model--cuz the lower cases were of the later 45 type--i loved that bike--some of my old peeps still compliment me on it---all it boils down to is --i owned --i rode it--i loved it--my g-pa sold it cuz he thought he was saving my life--maybe he did----damn the luck--coulda gone out young and left a handsome corpse


ass or gas

no one rides for free

They actually mad the 45 trike up until about 72, I think, so you could have had a later 45 engine even though the last WL bike they built was probably 57 like it says. I'd ride the snot out of a 45 ifn I had one now.

Yah, that's my " Clarice". '74 XLCH. The last year they shifted on the right, kick only. She was a running basket when I got her. Had some "interesting" artwork on the Mustang tank.... big titted blonde sitting on a skull who's fingers turned into snake heads. (nah, no chemicals influenced that.....haha) She let go of a wrist pin and about blew my leg off, right after we left a cafe one Sunday morning in WA... so I went clear down to BARE frame and started over.. done it all myself at home. It was fun to do one for ME. Just wish I had time to ride her now a days.....
JB, the Taylorcraft belonged to my best friend. He'd bought it from another friend of mine in Boulder City, NV. We brought it up home here, and he went back to AK to work. I did a bunch of work on it for him, as he was going to give it to his kid (who'd just got his pilot's license). On his way back from the airport, a couple days before he was coming down to pick it up, he dropped his cell phone and rolled the car, killing him. The kid's mom wigged out and got some really shitty advice from some of Mark's "friends" and wouldn't let the kid keep the plane, so I wound up selling it for them. It's now in Texas. I had Mark's other plane here at that time too, snd got it sold to another friend of mine...... never heard from her or the kid since.
JH
JD...why can't I see my posts on the board for a while? Like a couple hours??? I got an error message first and reposted and now there's two.....and I can't delete either one....

posts i do not know--------------------------------------------------------------------jh--i will do my best to fix the prob---i was droolin and thinkin back


spart----as much as i hate to admit--ridin is 4 the youngsters---the old bikes are smooth--just like young ---well---

Nice bike and nice old T-crate. They had a much better wing design than the pipers, or other planes of the day. Taylor was involved with Piper then left to make his own plane. Some of those old bush planes were Pipers with T-crate wings.

Did some looking on google and found that your bike is a sportster right?

Also when you said its a right side shifter do you mean a foot style shifter or the "sucide" hand shifter?

I suppose if the shifter is on the right side the rear brake would then be on the left side?

Spart, you are correct. In 1975 the standardized controls act was enacted. Lots of British bikes had the right side shift and Harley had introduced the for runner of the sportster, the K model, to compete with the huge influx of British bikes in the early 50s.

Yup, what JB said. It's a Sportster (snortster) that has been converted to a hardtail frame. It started out as one of the bolt on hardtail kits, and when I rebuilt it, I did a bit of fabricating and it's a full welded hardtail now. I just like the way they handle a bit better, but the swing arms sure do ride nicer! I have been known to drop the pressure in the rear tire dramatically when going on a long ride, but the springs below the seat actually do a pretty good job. When I first got it, it had a hard mounted seat too, and that would get to ya by the end of the first hundred miles or so.....
JH

I see that you dont have the shocks on the back, now that you mention it.
That seat setup kinda looks like the seat arrangement thats on my Allis tractors. They call em catapult seats.

Ill have to take a pic of it so you can see what I mean.

Learning a lot about this stuff.

Please teach Danielson more Mr. Miagie. LOL

I remember when lots of choppers were hardtails. Those guys would stop and piss blood every 100 miles or so and usually only made about 250 miles a day.The spring seats do help a lot. I used to run a stock solo seat with the pogo stick still under it, albeit a cut down one with only an inch or so left to the bottom when I was sitting on it. I would like to find one of those old Santee plunger frames to build a panhead on.

One of my favorites..... and yes, I have the knee to prove it!

http://www.v-twinforum.com/forums/harley-davidson-sportster/7230-girls-bike-not.html

JH

ya got to read this and then search around his site--what a hoot-----and a lot of truth

http://www.agingrebel.com/?p=1585

i really think the perfect ride is a springer and a shock mounted seat

i can tell you what the world looks like at 65 on a springer while hitting "grader bumps"----remember when the film would go haywire at the old movie house???????????