Vintage Harley Davidson

[JB4310]

I came across this bike in a lady's basement when I was looking at a potential job last spring. Never was to interested in HDs, but this summer I've been riding my sister's and BIL's bikes, they have 3 of them. 2 of them are straight piped, custom bikes with alot of skulls on them LOL, load but fun to drive. I started getting the HD mid life crisis I guess and remembered the old bike I had seen earlier.

I always liked the older ones, so I contacted the lady and found out her son built it from an old chopper he had, trying to bring it back to original. He spent alot of time, money and effort to get it to this point. The son died and the bike has been sitting for several years now.

I started toying with the idea of buying it, at first she wanted $15,000. I thought that was crazy and brought a guy to help evaluate it, anyway she came down to $10,000. which may be fair but there are so many unknowns, first off it has never been started, you can see all new gaskets through out the engine and tranny but no one knows for sure what the guy did. the guy was supposed to be a perfectionist according to those who new him, it's even got the old cloth covered OEM wiring harness.

The engine is a 56 but the frame does not match, It's not like something I've always dreamed of but I would love to see the thing run again and if I could play with it for a year or so and knew I could get my money back then I would buy it.

JB.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Looks good to me. I don't know the values but I'm sure others will chime in.

 

[Dmace]

Nice looking bike but you will not like riding it, it would make a better show bike then a riding bike. With those old forks and springer seat, you will be bouncing down the road instead of cruising. You can get a decent early to mid 90's HD Dyna or Super Glide for under $10k and have a much nicer bike that you can ride for days. :thumbsup:
I'm not a huge fan of Sportsters but you can get one for even cheaper in 883cc or 1200cc.

I have a 92 HD Dyna Low-Rider 1340 cc and with over 50k miles the only work it's needed is a starter and new starter switch. The switch cracked and whenever it got wet, it would crank the starter even if the bike was running which is what killed the starter. Otherwise, I could put 300-400 miles in a day and still want more.

 

[hr3]

JB I looks nice but a lot of things don't add up for an FLE original 56 Police bike,, but still worth 8 grand all day,,

 

[jinman]

The fact that it's a pan-head and there are so many unknowns would make it interesting, but not something I'd want to own and maintain. That's a machine that you ride some on weekends but work on a lot. Everything you buy for it will also be super expensive. It's a better ride to admire in someone else's stable in my opinion.

 

[trook]

Ask your question on harleydavidsonforums.com and I'm sure you will get your answer.

http://www.hdforums.com/forum/

 

[Milton Burro]

If you ride it, don't go too far from home.

 

[Ezlivn]

Beautiful bike.....but I agree with everyone else here. Take trooks advice and go to the HD forum and ask them......like here....you'll get a ton of help and opinions. Good luck!:thumbsup:

 

[JB4310]

Yeah, I'm not really looking for a daily rider, more of a curiosity.

I offered to bring it to my shop and see if I could get it running, then I would either buy it or at least she would know if it will run or not. She of course was suspect of my intentions.

I would not pay 10 grand for it but if I could get it for 6-8 K I might take a chance, that it will run and could get my money back or even make a couple grand for my risk.

It's supposed to be a low compression/HP engine, the exhaust has very small opening on the end, so I'll bet it's very quiet. It has the the manual spark advance on the left grip, 6 volt electrical.

With all the snow I've kinda put it off, but when the spring breaks I may get the itch again.

JB.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Reminds me of a buddy of mine, he owns and rides HD from World War 2, original including the gun scabbard.

His typical comment was - I bought it 1975 and my hands are greasy ever since