Monday, January 13, 2025

Knucklehead bobber from Union Speed & Style

 https://www.autoevolution.com/news/this-harley-davidson-knucklehead-bobber-is-the-definition-of-stylish-in-custom-bike-form-245416.html

3 comments:

  1. I'm a bike guy and that's about as pretty as it gets

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  2. After looking this bike over both here and at the site that you got this I have to disagree with several things the writer of that article made. It is not a completely new fabricated frame. They used the rear section from a HD ridgid that included the rear engine mounting holes and the front half from a 1958 up front half. That style of frame was used on all dressers and other same styled bikes but I would have to check the years and models. The main reason to do this was to get rid on a pair of cast steel mounts that would allow a cross bar for a sidecar rig just in front of the generator. It also gave you a few few more degrees of neck rake. Not sure what year they got rid of the neck steering lock casting. They also started stamping the bike serial numbers in that triangled recess. The down tubes diameters were increase to 1.125" and made for a very clean front half. I have done a number of these type projects. Once HD started stamping the serial numbers in the neck things got a little more complicated. If you were in a accident and twisted neck the dealer wound cut the neck of and send it ro HD and they would sell you a new frame with your old serial number stamped in place. Dealers had no use for the rest of the frame and would throw the into their trash bend. I grabbed a few for future project and the dealer finally just started saving them for me. I would just machine a new
    neck and replace that part of the frame with whatever rake I wanted. Texas had a Component Bill Of Sales for guys building dune buggies using Volkswagen engines/transmissions. My customers did the same thing on the CBOS form. I still have several frame cores left just incase I get the HD bug again. I also still have all of my frame cad drawings but will leave that for some other guys. Just so you know, I do think that's a pretty slick bike!

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