The only Airfix model I ever made a decent job of and managed not to break within a week was my Harley Davidson Electra Glide (painted in blue of course). I have liked Harleys since I was a kid. At the time they were unfashionable, regarded with distaste; too heavy and too slow in comparison to Jap machinery. Harley were nearly bankrupt. Since then Harley's popularity has grown to a legendary status. I still wanted one.
During the summer of '93, my local bike shop quite unexpectedly had a shiny red 1976 Harley Sportster in their window. 1000cc's of pure unadulterated American Iron. Suddenly, I wanted this bike more than anything else but no way I could afford the £2799 asking price. And then it was gone. Sold! In my mind I already owned this bike, so it was a great shock to see it no longer in the shop. My ten year old XJ550 would have to do; it was stripped, painted and ended up looking better than new.
In February 1994 I saw the Harley in a shopping centre. I felt good just looking at her, left a note for the owner, asking to get in contact if he wanted to sell. That night he hollered down the phone something about me knocking his bike down with a lorry! Once that was sorted out he revealed he'd take £2500 (despite the dented oil tank from the lorry incident), but no less. Dreams shattered again.
To cut a long story short, he agreed to let me use it to turn up at my wedding on. He had the XJ550 as security!. He liked my bike more than he liked the Harley and a few weeks later it was mine for £1500 after ten minutes of negotiation.
Back to the first ride. I started her up and cautiously pulled away with virtually no revs at all. The low down stomp of the engine was just out of this world. Words failed me, as did the bike two miles down the road. Apparently, Harley brakes overheat very easily, and when they overheat they grab the front disc harder than you'd think Harley brakes could. Especially when you forget about the back brake and only use the front. Bad move.
As I was riding along I could sense the engine straining harder and harder, and as soon as I stopped at a roundabout I was stopped for good. She wasn't going to budge an inch. Luckily, an off duty copper gave me a lift home. This at least giving me a little time to consider how to solve the problem before returning the bike to its owner. I thought and thought, decided to round up some friends. Unfortunately, I forgot that extra thinking power equals extra humiliation. Laugh? Yes they did - lots! Returning to the bike about an hour later, revealed that the disc, calipers and fluid had all cooled enough to release the wheel - she was a runner again!
The wedding morning came and it rained. Paranoia about dropping a Harley because of greasy roads halted any thoughts about biking. Soon after, I started to understand real Harley ownership. In the first month I found a number of problems. Firstly, these bikes run on a dry sump principle and most of the oil is pumped back to the oil tank. That is if there is any oil to pump. My first impression was that the oil maybe had drained down to the sump overnight.
I was partly right. What little oil in the bike was in the sump but once running this pumped back to the tank, leaving it with very little lubrication and heating up faster than a nuclear reactor on a thermal overload. Easily solved, time for new oil. The next item to junk was what looked like an original oil filter which appeared to be either coconut mating or horse hair. So with new oil and filter she began to behave and run a lot cooler.
The second assault. Due to my work commitments I was required to go to Basingstoke for a day. No problem, I thought, I'll take the bike. A nice long run there and back, about 120 miles round trip. Getting there, no problems whatsoever, in fact a really enjoyable ride. Coming back? Not quite the same story. The first roundabout that I came to, the sidestand fell off and promptly disappeared. I went around the roundabout about twenty times trying to find it.
I couldn't stop to find it on foot because Harleys only have a sidestand. I gave up, not too upset, after all how much can a stand cost? Halfway along the M27 the back tyre gets a bad case of wind, flattens rapidly. Now this was a bit of a predicament, parked up on the side of the M27 with no stand and a flat tyre. Luckily, I happened to have a mini adjustable spanner on my person and the only thing I could think of doing was to removed the sissy bar and precariously prop the bike up. Luckily, I had roadside recovery.
Could it get any worse? Yep. Stands are fifty quid a throw (they are chromed!). My only alternative was to go back to try to find it. Luckily, after considerable searching (it was a large roundabout), the stand and spring turned up in a side road 20 yards from the roundabout.
After getting over the shock of all this, and finding out that Harley batteries are not only expensive but also short-lived, I got into the routine of checking each and every major bolt on the bike for looseness due to the vibration. Other than that, things settled down and living with her became less of a nightmare and more enjoyable.
Ironhead Sporsters have only four gears, not an awful lot of power but gob loads of torque. They are approximately seven feet long and weigh about a million tons. A real handful in traffic and around town, especially at a walking pace. The ground clearance's next to nothing and the engine's low but it's so damn heavy that at any angle other than totally upright you need to have super-human strength to keep it from dropping to the floor. However, you do get used to it, eventually.
You can be in top gear at 30mph (which equates to 1500rpm) and when riding on the open road the old thing would cruise at 80mph (4000rpm) and could go to 100mph (5000 revs) without too many problems other than taking up three lanes with the weaves and wobbles - the engine taking a positive dislike to the frame and trying to leave by the nearest available exit. The other problems with high revs is the vibes going ape and turning your flesh to jelly. Petrol consumption seemed pretty good at 100 miles to the tank (around 50mpg) - don't drop Harleys at petrol pumps, hernias hurt.
After about ten months of ownership, one winter, and numerous unmentionable niggles, I decided an engine out clean up was due. This wasn't meant to be a complete rebuild but quickly turned into one - something to with the hammering noises the bike had been making! The pistons were like cheese-graters; rebore and new pistons time (the originals lasted for 20,000 miles). RMD in Reading were marvellous, coming up trumps with nearly all the parts. Only hassle was that the local shop cocked up the reboring! And tried to charge me twice. Great!
Six months later I was back on the road, also having lots of hassle with the new paint job. Alas, it's now winter again and riding my Harley in such conditions doesn't inspire. Am I happy? Not arf, but profoundly disturbed maybe!
Chris Gavin-Egan