Shovelheads, Where have they gone?

Wow, is that the factory color scheme for that year? I like the choke lever on the center console. What a great looking bike.

G'day drhach

That was a factory special - "Heritage FLH" long before the softail Heritage. Stock Paint & stock with leather bags. Beautiful motorcycle.
Not sure how much you know about the earlier Harleys such as this shovel but they had true split tanks - a left and a right only connected by a rubber balance hose at the front. Both tanks were filled separately. The logical place for the choke was exactly where it is - straight up between the gap between the tanks. Convenient and functional.
That's a beautiful bike.

Cheers

Philthy

Thanks Philthy, yes I know all about those tanks and how the tabs cracked if you didn't have them mounted correctly. That is most definitely a beautiful bike I'm glad to see that it survived all these years.

It's begining to sound repetitive, but that is NICE Riggpigg!!!! Why do I hate the ham can air filter but love it on that peas and carrots FLH?

Thanks all, when I got it a while back, the rims were rusty from mouse piss, spokes were corroded, in all the bike was in a sorry state. Every single one I saw was in a bad way, so I pulled the trigger on this one. These sat in dealers and didn't sell because it was thought to be a puke ugly bike...when they were sold stuff was taken off or changed or worse yet the bikes were worked on by owners, usually a bad thing....Chris, my restorer and I spent quite a bit of time bringing the old girl back to its original glory...had to do some painting and I wanted to keep the paint as original as I could. The dash insert was nearly impossible to find, as was the derby cover. Surprisingly I found front fender decals. Lots of scrubbing, painting and mechanical sorting to get it here. I personally don't hate the ham can at all, I had to source the correct decal for it.....I put a ham can on my 77 with the S&S back in the day we all desired a Super B or at least the air cleaner cover, but now its the ham can that identifies the look I like..........My 70 still has one on it.....usually the large can ,like this one, is missing the plastic fin cover. Surprisingly this one was in good shape. She runs out really nice....the color kinda grows on a guy........I think when it came out the public simply wasn't ready for the look.....in 86 when the FLSTC debuted the look was refined a bit and coupled with the softail it was readily accepted. When they used the smaller bag in 87 on it was a success......the pogo seat went away as well......
I just have a fondness for these old shovels, they have mostly all had the crap ran out of them and most bolts shook out of them...someone above mentioned tanks cracking......yes, they did....usually because of incorrect installation or loose top motor mount shaking them to pieces..I still love the sound of a well sorted old shovel.

I agree about the "sound". Something about it just sounds SOOOO right. Just did a nice 50 mile jaunt on mine-she's running like a Japanese made watch

Not sure if anyone is shopping but this rig looks pretty damn sweet!

https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/mcy/d/henderson-1978-harley-fxe-superglide/7161708531.html

Great looking bike. Nice job

I just watched "Electra glide in Blue". Depressing movie, but it was cool seeing those old shovelhead cop bikes.

3 year old gas. Not bad

Absolutely beautiful

A peas and carrots FLH just came up on Instagram. Motor was locked, wheels were Abit crusty, paint actually didn't look awful. Sold for $4K in a matter of minutes

Just acquired this in a trade with a buddy.........its got some yellow on it.

I'm sure you'll make it look, less yellow. Sucks too as the paint work looks to be good, just a crap color

Very tidy rig - well done

Philthy

Crossed 2,000 trouble free miles on a ride last Wednesday night. Took her for a slow rumble down into almost Northern PA. Would have kept going but I DO NOT like riding at night on a bike with a headlight about as bright as my Nortons.
Here she is looking fine in some podunk town while I treated myself to a little bag of Ju Jy Fruits and a Lo Carb Monster. A little guy, about 3, was ALL about it!!! I told him he needs to get one when he's older.


I had my eyes on a SWEET generator shovel, but, roof on house project manager embezzled all of my motorcycle fund. That fucker

I hope everyone isn't sick of me posting updates on my FLH-please tell me if you are, I have thick skin no need to sugar coat it.
So yesterday I did a few of my favorite things-worked some OT and took the bike for a spin. Got out of work at 1:15 and got home at about 1:45. Thought to myself, "You worked, nothing pressing needs attention now, time for a nice ride!"
Was back on the bike by 2:15 and decided to make it my afternoon/evening. Rolled down into PA and did a loop of Allegheny National Forest that I did once before on my R100 BMW.
Took 62S to 6E, 6E to 666 to 219N. Or so that was the plan. On 6E there was a detour and I thought "Crap", which was quickly replaced with "Hell yeah!" I've got no where to be, not really any time constraints, this is a longer way, HELL YEAH!!! I hit some absolutely PERFECT roads, I want to say 948. Did a few AWESOME climbs out of the forest followed by sweeping banked descents-perfect roads to drop a knee on a 700+lb FLH.
Eventually hit 219N where it T's with 6 and begrudgingly started the hike north to home.
As I was maneuvering the bike up there to take that pic a few things occurred to me
1). That pic was MUCH easier to take with my 375lb BMW two years ago
2). I saw a bunch of bear signs-lets get the fuck out of here
3). The bike is running absolutely PERFECT.

#3 ties into my heart attack story.

So I'm heading down 62S and just north of the PA line. I see a sign that says "Grooved pavement". Whatever, no biggie. Wasn't awful but more a constant slight buzz through the bike. I managed to avoid the really deep spots where there was a pot hole that they milled over. Get into PA and there is a Sheetz in Warren that I stopped at last time and decided to stop at yesterday for an ice cold Monster.
Heading back to the bike and she is leaking out of the actual oil tank????? Odd I thought. Get closer to investigate and my heart raced faster than when I was younger and did a mountain of blow one night/currently when riding my Cannondale up a ridiculously steep hill. The dipstick had popped out over a bump and landed on the rim of the opening!!!!
I was glad that
1). I decided to stop there
2). The dipstick wasn't 5 miles up the road in the ditch
3). Said Sheetz sold me SAE 30 at a highly inflated price
4). I didn't cook the motor
So I liberated said establishment of pretty much all their napkins-no worries as the food area was closed, wiped her down, told her I was sorry, filled her up, and off we went. Luckily my heart can go to redline and quickly return to normal. Luckily I didn't cook the engine. From there on, after any thick shadow on the road, I reached down to make sure the dipstick was in its appropriate location
So, the old girl did 216 miles total yesterday and I couldn't be happier to own it

Spent the past couple weeks servicing Disco, my brothers ‘75. He’s having some friends down for some shindig and I got picked to come up with and lead the rides. Disco and his ‘65 pan will be my chariots, I’m pretty sure they’ll be the newest bikes there. Should be fun. If any other shovels show up I’ll post some pics.

The black bags and other black accessories look very nice. If that’s OP it’s very well preserved. Very nice, well cared for old girl.

They’re aftermarket, he still has the factory bags, windshield, and tour pack though.

Oh that 75 makes me all tingly in my special place!!!