Friday, March 21, 2008

Bikes I Have Loved, My Old Hardtail







Oh yea! My little walk on the wild side. This is my old hard tail with a late style Shovel Head motor built by S&S. It had dual plug heads and high compression. You may notice that the exhaust pipes are straight and short, they were loud. The compression ratio was so high that I could barely kick start the thing. The seat had springs under it but when you hit a big bump it would stand you straight up and take your breath away.

Radical is a term that has changed over the years. Now, radical means cool, as in "radical ride, Dude." But to old hot rodders radical meant that the thing vibrated so much that parts worked loose all the time. All the safety wire and Locktite in the world would barely hold things together. This bike was radical in the "non-dude" sense of the term.

This was a beast of a bike, fast and loud, with all the primative nature that got Harley Davidson its bad boy reputation in the first place. When you started this bike it was like two hammers pounding on an anvil. It leaked oil and didn't apoligize for it.

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