Episode 2 : Sourcing......

Hi again,

Maybe I am out of my depth here, but I look around the site, and I see an awful lot of money going on various machines. All of them are wonderful eye candy to a poor old Brit like myself. I press on in my frugal manner enjoying the life experience much like you all do, but with the seemingly bottomless safety net of space. I see pictures of double garages and suchlike, hell I saw one driveway that is much, much bigger than my entire estate....!!!! all that I can only dream of over here. I have a 12' X 8' shed that has virtually everything I own as far as bikes etc is concerned.... anyway, forever onward, or at least sideways......!!

Several years back, along with a couple of other chaps, we took a hankering to investing in Harley bikes. One now lives in Holland, another lives a couple of miles away, and a third shifted to America and became a Harley/Indian mechanic. I joined a couple of clubs, got thrown out eventually, but I earned an awful lot of friends, that still acknowledge me still. I still have the Harley purchased back then. A 1982 Wideglide, obviously a Shovelhead, but since I acquired it back in the late 1980's, 1988 I think, I have done lots to it. A couple of years ago, for some reason, the rear pot gudgeon pin circlip came adrift unexpectedly. Upon pulling the engine down, I found the gudgeon pin had moved out and scored the barrel wall so deep, that even a re-sleeve was impossible, there was not enough metal to take it...... I bought new barrels etc, had them all honed in, rebuilt the mill, and off I went briefly. Years before that, I had a multi-plate clutch designed by a drag racer. It works a treat compared to the old agricultural type fitted. I had the Primo belt drive that shed belts like water on the primary, this new clutch, again belt drive, was a winner, I still have the original fitted belt on it after many, many years..... no adjustment needed, or fitted at all....

As I said earlier, I nearly dropped the bike a year or so ago in the workshop/shed, I had to admit to becoming enfeebled, plus because I had lost an eye back in 2010, night riding was a bit of a bastard. So, the idea of sidecar was rekindled very strongly. I kept bleating to the little lady about it, kept checking the for sale adverts, but, they were way too much cash..... I nearly bought a BSA outfit, an A10 Golden Flash with a c/a sidecar installed, but weirdly unconnected with the purchase, I found through the grapevine that this bikes frame was bent after a collision, hence the sale probably..... it was the other end of the country as well.

Time passed, and the idea of making a chair raised its head again. I knew my wife did not really want to sit in it anyway ( she has not been in one yet)....... she used to nod off on the back of the Harley even with straight through pipes...!!! we went all over on it back in the day..... so, the proposal was to get a chassis from some source, I wanted an old one with a 19" spoked wheel. This proved rather hard at first, there were plenty about, but oh dear, were they ever knackered, and the money asked was frightening. One, a little over a hundred miles away from my home, actually had a hole rusted right through the length spar of the frame, so what the rest was like being rusted from the inside was anybodies guess. It was old I grant you, maybe early 1950'sish, but all four 'C' springs had had it and needed new ones ?? a lot of steel work needed replacement, all for the small sum of £900 starting price.....!!! I lost a lot of heart then !!!

Then a rubbish picture on Ebay caught my good eye, it had been cut about and placed as an advert, apparently, an ex girlfriend had been removed, leaving the image of the chassis. The guy had also broken his telephone camera hence the weird picture.... it just got better and better, he worked all the time, so trying to get detailed picture meant anybody taking it had to fit in with his availability. Anyway, I took a punt on him, we arranged to drive down to within the inner circle of London and meet him at a place on the far side of the Thames river. Ten minutes after meeting him, we were headed home £80 lighter, now that to my mind is a winner.... I did actually buy it for £70, but gave him another tenner because he saved an awful lot of navigating through London. I was as happy as Larry I can tell you.... we got home late afternoon the thirteenth of December last year (2020). Just in time to be Covid shutdown...!!!! This picture was taken just a couple of minutes after arrival...