Top End History

The Harley 45"
Simplicity at it's finest, and most likely the longest running H-D design now and forever.  From the late 1930s all the way to 1973 - they're still one of the best designs to ever come out of Milwaukee.
The 74" and 80" Sidevalves
Take the tried and true and trusted reliability of the 45" and make it bigger !
The K Model and KH Model
Take the basic good points and mannerisms of the flathead, unitize the engine block with the transmission, and add a healthy dose of cams, racing style carburetion, pop-up pistons and smoothed ports . .  and hold on !
Let's go Overhead !
Since 1936 - it's been the King of the Road for the H-D line.  Highly sought by collectors and retro chopper fiends...The Knucklehead in all it's glory.
The Beauty Queen . . . The Panhead
Arguably the engine that put H-D on the map.  Reliability and beauty at the same time.  The subject of songs, movies and the dream to just have one in the garage with your name on the title (even if it runs or not)  I just don't know why they never made it an 80 incher.....
The Tough Guy !
The end result of all it's forefathers . . . The Shovelhead kept the company's (no pun intended) head afloat and lost credo to the Evo as the savior.  But, ask any die hard old-timer wrench-n-rider and they'd rather run their shovel than the Evo any day.
The Evolution
It's taken many years, but it's early respect has morphed into the historical respect it deserves.  The "rock" of the H-D engine line - It's finally becoming a collector in it's own right.  Long live the Evo and welcome to the club !
 

2 comments:

DanielDayBowles said...

These are great! Wanting to tackle a panhead top end in the near future. Thanks for the post!

Noot said...

Pretty basic, I can help answer any questions you may have . . .