| In August of 2005, my father and I traded his 1950 Cessna 170A for my 1981 Harley FLH. You can read more about the trade on my flying page. I put together the following page while I was still enjoying the Harley. |
Mark's Dream Bike
After riding my first Harley as a teenager, I knew I needed to own one some day. Wanting a Harley probably motivated me to finnish collage more than anything else. My first major purchase after graduating was this 1981 FLH 80 Classic.
The bike was a full dresser with every extra including a CB stereo.
As you can see from the pictures, I started removing all of the extras to make the bike lighter. Eventually I ended up with that looks a lot like a Fat Boy. Harley came out with the Fat Boy a few years later; do you think I had something to do with it?
I rode the bike every day year around. Although I have rebuilt the motor many times, I have never had a breakdown (that was not easily fixed) while on the road. I can't say that about my Gold Wing!
I even rode the bike form Oregon to Ohio and back in one week.
After years of use and many rebuilds, the unthinkable. I was rear ended by a moving van!
I decided to rebuild the bike from the frame up. I did all of the work myself with the exception of having the frame pouter coated. I even constructed a temporary paint booth in my garage to paint the bike in.
When I was done, I had a custom Harley with parts from the '50s through the '90s.
Don't you hate it when you finnish putting something back together and you have some left over parts!
With the 21" front wheel
More on this Harley