Thanks for dropping by the shop for a spell. There's beer in the fridge, but I'll have one of the sodas for now. So far, this is where I'm at; 2 wheels, forks, a seat, and a transmission mounted in the frame. There's some of the old and lots of new parts in boxes laying around, but until my engine gets put together I'm stuck in this slump. The temperature was almost 80 today, and I heard those Harleys running down the main drag in front of work and I'm getting pretty antsy to get back to riding. I forgot when I tore the bike down last year, but it was popping so bad with low oil presssure I just had to give in and do it. I had rode it since 1980, so I couldn't complain too much... it's been a good friend and I knew it was due. So I decided to spruce it up for it's 20th birthday as well as get it back running in tip top shape.

If it was a larger town around here, I probably would have gotten everything done sooner. I put the engine and transmission in back of the pickup and went to the local dealership 10 miles away, and stood at the service window for 15 minutes without being noticed. There are 2 independent shops in the same town, the first one never made me feel welcome when I first moved back to Tennessee 10 years ago, so I decided to try the new guy, Andy at A&A Cycles in Union City. I told him I wasn't in a hurry, which may have been a mistake.

The transmission was in pretty fair shape except for a stripped drain hole and an iffy 4th gear. The engine was another matter. The steel sleeve in the left case had wobbled loose and things looked pretty bad for the lower end. I was faced with the decision of whether to repair the 20 year old left case and 50 year old right, or start from scratch. Since this wasn't an original Harley and I wasn't really restoring anything except my old buddy, the logical thing to do looked like just getting a new lower end. Actually the logical thing might have been to ditch it all and start over, but that would be pretty heartbreaking. It's tough for me to understand folks who trade in and buy a new bike every couple of years, I'm just a different type person.

I mulled over my choices and surfed the web when I should have been working and finally decided on an S&S motor, with Andy's suggestion of 84ci. Heap big stroker freaks might disagree, but it made sense to me. I was looking for longevity and the ability to run today's gas, and a low compression, mild engine seemed like it would fit nicely into my riding habits. I was still stepping up 10ci from where I had been, anyway.

The frame went to D&D Sandblasting and Painting in Troy for a cleaning and I let them paint it while it was there, although in hindsight I should have got it powder coated. They also painted the saddlebags. I'm waiting on the tax refund to get paint on the new tanks and fenders, the old ones were as much bondo as metal.

That's enough talk, go ahead and poke around and let me know what you think.

Here's pictures of it as it was.