1958 Chopper
I had a dude email on the bike in the picture on my blog. It's a 1958 motor in a Paughco frame and Paughco 9" over springer front end. A 9" over springer is actually a 6" extension from stock length. If your looking to use a springer front end remember that. I started to build it in 1993 I believe. About 6 months before I would meet the mother of my 3 daughters. I bought the "rolling chassis" frame wheels, front end and oil tank and the rest I built. The wheels were Akront rims which were made of aluminum.Today these rims are made by Morad who bought all the tooling from Akront. At the time they were state of the art. I use to mail order in which a local bike shop use to get pissed at me because at the time it turned out that I was paying the same price that he was paying wholesale.(Kevin at Cycle Works in Billerica, MA).He launched into a 15 minute speech about service and the importance of having quality service avalible to customers. Me I keep my mouth shut and blinked when needed. He informed me that he will be calling his ditributer Monday morning (it was a Saturday) and launch a formal complaint. Being a touchy subject with him I never asked him later about the call. The only place I use to buy from was called Hog Hollow, Harley sued them and they change their name to Fog Hollow.I would buy $4.00 parts from Kevin and he always served me with a smile(and a chuckle at times, not sure why). On Saturdays I tended to loose lock rings for oil pumps and snap lock nuts for push rods which I would buy by the dozen. At that time the internet was not main stream in the world and mail order catalogs was the only way. Any ways I built the bike in my kitchen 1. I was young and it made sense. It was the only place I had ie. no garage. Lee, my daughters mother, who at the time was very beautiful and I was madly in love with her. When I first meet her I feel in love. I don't recommend this, but I did not care she had a boy friend at the time what I did care about is that I wanted her and I chase her down double time. She's a Sicilian with large hair like the mother in Married with Children, I always love that big hair dew and lee had that same dew. Nothing stopped me from having her nothing, I was young and I wanted her and got her. I invited her over one day for the first time to have a cocktail before we went out and gladly accepted the offer. Mainly to see where I lived and what I was all about. She came over and entered my kitchen And yelled" Whats that," looking at my 1958 panhead. I said "that's my motorcycle," she said "I know that, why is it in your kitchen?" I told her it is the only place I know to keep it. She gave me a look to kill and married me within a year of that and had 3 children with me. It took me until 1998 before I was finished piecing the bike together. I rebuilt the motor myself after learning from Kurt at American Motorcycle Institute in Daytona FL back in 1990 I forget. Today its called Wyotech. That teacher taught me every thing I know today about mechanics and has payed off for me ten fold.mechanics is a trade used in most industries meaning it's all related. A career I could never get going but loved.I could still today work on older Harley's but don't know much about newer ones. I'm good with Panheads, Shovelheads and Ironheads. I took my time with the bike buying the rolling chassis and then the motor(Bill the Cop found for me) and the the transmission and rebuilding both which was a pleasure to do. I blueprinted the motor which gave me trouble free operation. I later sold the bike because of bad circumstances to a dude in Wakefield Maine. Who showed up with badly needed cash. I did what I had to do at the time. Dess
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