1948 harley basket case

[199th mp]

OK, long story time. in 1966, i was a junior in high school. dad had a 57 harley, and i had an interest in mechanical stuff. i tinkered with it on occasion, and began to understand how simple the old bikes were, and how easy they were to maintain. a classmate told me his uncle had two old harleys for sale for $25, together. i told dad, and we went to see them. one was a 48 74, assembled, and the other was a 49 61, all apart. he just wanted them gone. so dad bought them, and gave me the 48 to fix. thus, my first harley cost $12.50. all it needed was a coil and a front head gasket. i soon had it running, and learned to ride a tank shift harley before i was 17. this began a series of fixing stuff, which interest followed me into the army. once i got to the nam, our MP unit used M151's and V100's for convoy escort duty and road patrol. we found that if we fixed our vehicles on our own, they got back in service a lot faster. this mattered, because we were needed on each convoy. the V's had a chrysler 361 hemi, with a holley four barrel and a five speed box. they were amphibious and bullet resistant, including the tires. they were a blast to drive, and most of the guys had also been shade tree mechanics on their own cars back in the world. we also had two M13 tracks, but they were diesel, and we had no idea what to do with them. we threw a track once, and spent the night with it out on the road. not a pleasant time. one track, one jeep five guys. OK, i gues that's it about the old harleys, and the divergent topic as well. rick, i think you had a good idea here. if the picture actually shows up, my 48 is on the right, and dad' 57 is on the left.

[rickf]

Great looking bikes, Now the depressing part, think of what they are worth now!! I have been through many Harleys. I think I only have pics of one of them and it was a real oddball, a 1970 XLH. I will have to dig through a lot of boxes to find those pics.

[m3a1]

very cool!

[199th mp]

took me a while to find this old polaroid pic. i was either 16 or 17 when this was taken. a better view of my 48 panhead.

[rickf]

A 55+ year old Polaroid!!! Man, you know how to preserve your pics! Unfortunately with all the moves I did a lot of my pictures got damaged or destroyed and a fire at my parents house took out a lot of stuff I had stored there. I was not really into taking pictures until mid 70's or so. Then I really got into it. I had a couple of tank shifters but unlike you I did not grow up with them so the learning curve was a bit rocky. Had a couple left side drops til I figured things out.

[199th mp]

rick, this is me and my dad, on the 1932 VL/sidecar rig we restored.

[rickf]

I spent a whole day riding a buddies side car. It was a Harley but I don't remember what year, in the 70's. It was an interesting experience and after the initial WTF moments on turns it was a real nice ride. I never thought I would want a sidecar though til now when the body is falling apart. NOW, I want a sidecar. Problem is that everyone else that didn't want one back then is our age and also falling apart and they all want one now and prices show that. I would actually prefer a trike.

[Hambone]

Those are some cool bikes, Ron, I've never owned a Harley, would love to have a WLA but that's just pipe dreams. This is me and my sister in 1976 with my Kawasaki 350 2 stroke triple, my mom was all over my dad for getting me that bike, she told him he was trying to kill me.

[rickf]

Why does it look like Sis is saying to get it running so I can ride it. And NOT with you driving! I loved those triples. Since I raced for Kawasaki in their dirt bike program I had access to a lot of goodies in the street bikes also. I had a 500 and a 750 at different times. The 750 was a suicide machine with those skinny little back tires at the time. Hit 6,000 rpm and all hell broke loose. I never crashed that bike but I learned to drift on pavement and I spent a LOT of money on back tires!

[199th mp]

Those are some cool bikes, Ron, I've never owned a Harley, would love to have a WLA but that's just pipe dreams. This is me and my sister in 1976 with my Kawasaki 350 2 stroke triple, my mom was all over my dad for getting me that bike, she told him he was trying to kill me.

Hambone, by the time i left for the nam, i had a 1964 duo glide, and a 1942 WLA, waiting to be restored when i got back. unfortunately, when i got back, the WLA and the soon to be ex wife were both gone. i have never found an affordable one since then.

Rick, the duo glide shown here is one i owned and rode for decades. it also had a sidecar, which i used occasionally. when my back finally said "no more", i sold it to a gold miner from alaska. he tried to pay me in raw gold, but i had no experience to keep from getting cheated, so i insisted on cash.

[199th mp]

this was dad's 57 and sidecar. we rode it to british columbia when i finished high school in 67.

[rickf]

My great uncle was a prospector, gold, silver and finally uranium. I know first hand how sneaky they can be. But also how resourceful they can be. He lived in an old Dodge Army ambulance and very seldom came out of the desert. Every ten years or so he would show up in NJ, drove that old truck the whole way, to see my mom and grandmom, who was his sister. He had a parrot and that was his only companion, I learned a lot of interesting language from that parrot at a very young age. Those old guys lived a rough life. He had his entire savings of gold stolen from him out in the desert at one point but started all over again. The uranium finally did him in I think. That and old age. We got a letter and pictures from the state of Arizona in the 70's showing his truck by an old mine and we were told his remains were found in the truck. No foul play was suspected, he was still in his bed. He lived life his way and died where he wanted to be the most. He had left a letter explaining who to contact so he knew his time was coming. He still had gold and silver and uranium in the truck when they found him, he had been gone for over a year at that point and nobody took anything or disturbed anything. The uranium was kept by the state and the gold and silver was sent to my mom. Along with whatever else was of any value which wasn't much. Always wondered what happened to the truck.