1914 Harley Davidson Similaria
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I made this motorcycle to look similar to a circa 1914 Harley-Davidson. It had to be a functional rider capable of running 70 MPH with no strain and with robust electronics capable of powering electrically heated clothing. It took 20 months to build and when the dust settled I had made 195 drawings and 273 fabricated pieces. It has been on the road since August 2011 and as of 2025 it has logging over 19,000 miles. Starting with an Arlen Ness frame, a 1997 Harley Sportster engine (883 cc) was added. The forks were specially made by Paughco, 1” over. Night illumination comes from an original Ford Model “T” B&L brass headlight with a modern H4 headlight unit inside. The engine connects to the rear wheel via a belt drive (remember, the early motorcycles had leather belt drives). It’s a “hard tail” meaning it has no rear suspension. One can shift gears with the hand lever or foot shifter. The front fender “floats” with the wheel. I fabricated a fake acetylene gas bottle on the handlebars that houses the speedometer, tachometer, and indicator lights. Chrome has been eliminated from parts and most silver shiny bits are either nickel plated, aluminum or stainless steel.
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I was born in 1950 and I saw, from time to time during my impressionable years, the 1910-1920 motorcycles on the road which had such a simple, elegant, graceful look.
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My MISSION was to make a “Similaria” motorcycle at the intersection of form and function, where great attention would be paid to the details in every part. On antique motorcycles nothing is hidden and every part has a function. The eye picks up the distinctive colors of brass, copper, aluminum, and nickel. My goal was to make a similar motorcycle with that old look, but capable of running continuously at 70 MPH, with good brakes, good lighting, enough electrical power to use heated clothing, and “good to go” for the next 20,000 miles.
My GOALS were to go to the next level of fabricating difficulty from my last project (the “Yamaton”, making an XS650 Yamaha twin look like a Manx Norton). At the beginning of the project I found out to my surprise that this would mean making a pair of mirror image gas tanks and an oil tank, none of which I had ever done before.
What RESOURCES would be needed? I have a lathe, small milling machine, TIG welder, and other needed shop tools for bending, folding and mutilating fabricated parts. What I needed was time, money, raw materials, someone to weld the gas tank pieces after I tack weld them. (I could make all the welds on the gas tank but after thinking about the concept of 5 gallons of gasoline sitting between my legs while I’m going 70 MPH, my preference leaned to letting a pro make the final welds). I would also need someone to do the painting, powder coating, plating, and pin striping.
FEEDBACK on some of my ideas came from friends Ray S. and Doug H. Feedback on how I was doing time wise came from my time line schedule which was monitored regularly. Often I needed to make adjustments with time frames and add new activities.
Twenty months was a long time to keep one’s attention, focus, and enthusiasm for one project so I needed these 4 Guiding Lights to keep me moving.
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Flat sided gas tank: The flat sides were a must not only because I liked the look but I also figured this would make fabrication easier because I would not have to form rounded pieces with compound curves.
Wheels: The same size wheels and skinny front and rear tires with close fitting fenders.
Headlight: A metal headlight with its Prestolite (acetylene) gas cylinder across the handlebars.
Hand shifter: A lever on the right side of the gas tank.
Foot boards: Rectangle shape.
Seat: A leather covered tractor style seat.
Handlebars: They must be wrap around handlebars.
Muffler: The round cylindrical shaped muffler.
Suspension: Springer front end, hardtail rear end.
Drive system: You can certainly argue that I should have a chain drive BUT first of all, the older Harleys did have a leather belt drive and secondly, with a 45 degree V twin a belt drive does absorb some of the vibration of the engine and, this being a rider, I wanted as pleasant a riding experience as I could get considering my comments above about suspension.
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The engine choice was almost a “no brainer”. I wanted a 45 degree V twin and I did not need or want a big twin so the Sportster engine emerged as the answer. I have owned a 2003 883cc Sportster and I have also ridden the 1200cc version and I preferred the 883 due to my perception that it transfers less vibration to the rider. I wanted a 2003 or before because the rubber mounted feature of 2004 and later models, while more comfortable, became more complicated to construct with the rubber mounting of the engine with the attached exhaust pipes. On this rubber mounted engine the exhaust system is connected to the engine in its isolated vibratory envelope and not rigidly tied to the frame directly and I did not want to figure how I would mount that system with the Arlen Ness frame that was not designed for it.
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The Arlen Ness frame was also the obvious choice for the frame. This was great news, not only because of my desire to use the Sportster engine, but also good news because that frame would make provision for the unique way in which the Sportster engine mounts to a frame. The rear of the engine attaches with 4 bolts to a relatively vertical plate on the frame which faces forward. To add to the good news, this frame was designed to give the correct alignment of the transmission’s drive pulley to the rear wheel’s driven pulley. The frosting on the cake was that the Arlen Ness catalogue also showed that they made the two mirror image flat sided style gas tanks that attached to each side to the upper frame tubes. They also made the oil tank.
Next step was to order the frame and get some confirmation on its suitability for my vision.Now I that I had the frame I gave the Arlen Ness folks a call to get the gas tanks and oil tank. That call revealed they no longer made any of the tanks! Oh boy! Was I up to the challenge of making them? I had not done that before. With further thought I realized these tanks had mostly flat surfaces and I did not have to learn the fine art of using an English wheel and a panishing hammer to form them. However I also realized that for the gas tanks, I needed to not only make two gas tanks, but had to make two exact mirror images that mated with each other where they connected to the frame. The oil tank would be a more straight forward fabrication being a basic rectangle.
I decided I was up for the challenge to fabricate these.
Oh I almost forgot, it was then time to get the engine.
SIDE BAR: My preference for all my builds is to get a complete running donor motorcycle and ride it for at least 500 miles before starting the project. This does three things. First, it gives me the assurance that the entire operating system is working properly or it allows me, if necessary, to make any needed changes or repairs BEFORE the build is started which saves me from making repairs around the newly painted/plated surroundings. Secondly, if I go to startup and ride the new creation and something does not work, I have some level of assurance that the parts I am reusing DID work when I put the 500 miles on the donor which limits the trouble shooting process to the changes and additions I have made. Thirdly, I save time by not having to keep picking away at swap meet after swap meet or on eBay looking for parts and hoping they function properly. The running motorcycle has all the parts needed to run. This approach has served me well but yes, there is certainly a price to be paid in dollars for this approach because buying a complete running motorcycle is definitely more costly than buying all the needed bits.
So I bought a donor motorcycle with only 4,065 miles on it.
I did ride it 500 miles and discovered the valve guide seals were shot which was subsequently easily repaired on this stock bike.
Work then began by removing the engine from the stock bike. All electrical attachments were disconnected along with the gas line, mechanical connections like the throttle and choke cables. Carburetor and exhaust were removed. The object was to get all things removed so that the bike can be rolled over on its side with only the engine bolts holding the engine in place. Then a bunch of wood blocks were cut up to support the engine such that it would remain in place on its side when the engine bolts were removed. Then those bolts were removed and the frame was lifted up off the engine. Then the new frame was lowered over the engine and bolts secured it in the new frame.
Next priority was to get this assembly supported by its wheels. The rear wheel was needed to be mounted with the drive line figured out. If a chain was to be used the alignment of the engine and the wheel sprockets needed to be figured out. The distance between these two sprockets is not so critical because chains are available in any length. However, as I had mentioned, my plan was to use a belt drive but these seemed to be available in a limited number of lengths. Fortunately Arlen Ness had this figured out with the position of the engine and the slots for the rear axle. I did make up some custom axle spacers to get the rear wheel and its belt pulley aligned with the engine’s pulley which put the wheel centered in the frame.
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Next step was to get the front of the motorcycle supported with a wheel. Getting this figured out with the front end was a bit tricky. When I envisioned the style of gas tank I was going to make, I wanted its top flat surface to sit level when I got on the bike. If it sloped up a bit toward the front of the bike when parked that would be OK. What I did NOT want was to have it sloped down at the front in either one of those scenarios. With the more usual rounded gas tank tops found on most motorcycles this is not as critical because this angle is less apparent to the eye.
Also, to get this orientation one could usually tinker with the front forks as well as the rear shock. But here, being a hard tail, the rear frame height was established so I needed get the front end’s dimensions right. I wanted to use the springer style forks and Paughco made the style I was looking for in various lengths and they had the ability to custom make them to the length I wanted.
But what length did I need? Where is the length measured? That might seem simple but there were numerous variables. The fork sat at an angle. The axle sat at the front of a leading link. If the length measurement started at the top of the lower triple tree, how far will this surface sit below the bottom of the steering head? If the lower end of this dimension is the center line of the pivot where the leading link attaches, then how far up did the springs allow the axle to move when the frame is weighted down when I’m sitting on the bike? I made a full size drawing to help solve this.
Paughco was as helpful as they could be in answering these questions but I was getting the feeling that the only way to proceed was to buy the closest fit on their stock length options and go from there. Which I did. 2 inches over.
I fitted it up when delivered with the front wheel and tire and determined that I did need a custom length at 1 inch over.
We now had a rolling chassis.
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Step one was to make mock-up versions of the tanks. These were made out of FloraCraft rigid foam that I bought from Michaels and they were repeatedly cut and trimmed until they had the shape and volume I was looking for.
The top outside edges would have a “soft” looking ½ in. radius corner. So I went to a local fabricator who made four 30” long 90 degree angles with a 4”’ side and a 6” side out of 19 ga. steel that was .059” thick. They made the 90 degree bends with a ½ in. radius. The 4” surface would be the tops and bottoms and the 6” surface would be the sides. One of the real time consumers was performing the fitting work for making the sloped rear sections of the top and outside side that were angled “down” and “in” as it approached the seat area. Did I mention having to make TWO exact mirror image tanks? The rear end faces were flat plates but the front end pieces were hand formed at a 6“ radius to conform to the identically hand cut radiuses on the front of each tank.
Then there was the design and fabrication of a mounting system.
Referring to the sketch above, the system I came up with was to fabricate a top hat looking piece with a hole drilled into (but not through) the rim end of the top hat and tap it for a ¼-20 bolt. A hole was drilled into the tank and the piece was fit into the hole and the rim would rest against the tank’s surface and it would then be welded to the tank around the rim. What this did was to create a mechanical connection with the rim against the tank and the weld would seal the connection. Eight of these pieces were made, placing two on the top and bottom of each tank. The two tanks would be attached to the frame with four 1 ¼” x 6 ¼” x 3/16” steel bars that were made with holes at each end. I did not like the look of just straight bars so I set them up on the mill with a radius cutter and gave them a “waist” look.
Two of the bars were welded to the bottom of the lower top frame tube which would support the bottom of the tanks. The other two bars straddled the top of the upper top frame tubes and were welded in place holding the tops of the tanks in position. Large rubber grommets were put in the holes at the end of these bars. ¼-20 bolts were put through the grommets into the top hats in the tanks. The rubber grommets served to be a cushion for the tanks to sit on as well as helping to somewhat isolate the tanks from the engine’s vibration.
Holes for the filler caps and fuel taps were drilled in the tanks to accommodate the bungs for filler caps on the tops and fuel taps on the bottoms.
All the pieces were tack welded together. Was I going to do the finish welding on this? 5 gallons of gasoline resting between my legs going 70 MPH down the road. I don’t think that is a good idea so off the assemblies went to my friend and superior welder Lyle, for finish welding.
These tanks were mounted with brass bolts and washers.
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Like the gas tank, a Styrofoam oil tank was first made and put it in position which gave me some level of confidence in the size, shape, and location of the tank that I was planning to make. My design called for two main U shaped sheet metal pieces to make up the oil tank (see below) and they were also bent up with ½” radius corners by the same local fabricator that bent the gas tank angles. I drilled holes for the four mounting bungs (same as the gas tanks), the filler cap bung, the oil supply fitting and the oil return fitting and then tack welded these 7 pieces in position with the two main tank pieces. Then off they welt to Lyle for finish welding.
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WHEELS
The older bikes from the pre 1915 era seem to have the same size wheels and tires on the front and rear that were large diameter with thin tires. I chose to put on 19 in. wheels and run 4 in. wide tires. Somehow I did remember to make sure the front of the rear tire would not hit the frame. This meant using a relatively stock Harley Davidson front wheel and tire combination. For the rear, I acquired a front wheel rim, had Buchannan’s Spoke and Wheel make a set of corresponding stainless steel spokes that would allow fitment to the stock Harley rear wheel hub. I did also get the stainless spokes for the front wheel and my friend Bob V. laced up both wheels.
FRONT BRAKE
When it comes to brakes, I like good ones, real good ones!
So dual disks were put on the front. The stock wheel hub has machined surfaces and a locating ridge for mounting disks on both sides but only one side has the five drilled and tapped mounting holes so I drilled and tapped the holes on the second side. The calipers are Performance Machine units that mounted on their carriers. I machined bronze bushings for the carriers to attach to the front axle.
Each caliper was flexibly anchored to the forks with a clevis at the carrier, a rod end at the fork and a threaded rod with a locking nut between them.
REAR BRAKE
The rear wheel has the stock disk, but I needed to figure out how to activate it with my foot. The stock bike had a right side foot lever that pivoted on the same lug that the foot peg also mounted to. I decided to use that same pivot section of the lug for the pivot point of the new lever but there was the need to consider, design, and fabricate the following:
- Whose caliper to use (I chose a Performance Machine)
- What master cylinder to use with an appropriate diameter for the caliper (I used the stock unit)
- A foot lever with an appropriate length
- An arm to actuate the master cylinder and its appropriate length
- A mount for the master cylinder
- An adjustable link to the master cylinder
- A mount for the return spring
- An adjustable “stop” for the foot lever in its up position
- A mount for brake fluid reservoir
- A way to activate a switch for the brake light
Here were the solutions to all those considerations. First the disk, caliper and mounting bracket.
One must also consider how to mount the rear brake caliper and do so in a manner that allows the caliper to move backward and forward as the axle moves when adjustments are needed to keep the correct tension on the drive belt (or chain when used). A Performance Machine caliper carrier was used and I machined a billet spacer on the axle to push the carrier out far enough to the left so the two torque lugs would engage the lower frame tube.
At the brake pedal end of this system, here is a picture of the mock-up pedal. I was solving how the exhaust pipe was going to interface at the same time.
…and figuring out how the foot boards would mount (see a later section of this write-up).
The backing plate to which the return spring was attached had to be greatly expanded to hold the master cylinder, the brake fluid reservoir and be configured so holes could be drilled to align with the two stock threaded mounting holes in the engine’s right side covers.
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As Stephen Covey reminds us, I began with the end in mind. The muffler. What type did I want and where would it be mounted. Old school mufflers were generally just simple cylindrical shapes mounted in a horizontal manner. My vision included a 2 into 1 exhaust pipe that led into the muffler. The look would be something very basic, where function was the main consideration, you know, like it would have been in the 1914 era. I didn’t want a loud muffler.
Looking around, SuperTrapp offered the one that had the perfect look. The added benefit was the option for the number of exhaust disks utilized which offered tuning of carburetor jetting and sound level. The only modification needed (to the muffler anyway) would be to make the muffler exit tip go straight out of the back, not at an angle.
What followed was the simultaneous consideration of where/how to mount it with the ability of getting the two exhaust headers to the spot of connection with each other and then into the muffler.
I did have this going for me: on motorcycles with rear ends with shock absorbers, muffler mounting gets tricky because the natural place to mount it is at the swing arm but the arm moves up and down. But on this bike it was simpler because there was no swing in the swing arm, it was a rigid frame member.
I needed to get the muffler high enough to not hit the ground in a right hand turn and pick a location where I had a glimmer of a good chance of being able to connect it to the rerouted exhaust pipes.
SIDE NOTE: The complicating factors in working with round exhaust tubing are (in the least) three things: 1) most of the work is in a 3 dimensional world which makes every angle of connection incalculable, 2) the job of fitting the end of one tube which intersects the rounded side of another tube is quite time consuming, and 3) how to make bends in the pipe.
To the last point of making bends, the good news is that we can purchase premade 180 degree “J” bends in most all the needed pipe diameters for our motorcycle exhaust systems. These can be cut to make bends less than 180 degrees.
I started placing the exhaust components in different positions to get a sense of what might work with the motorcycle in the riding position. Blocks of scrap wood laying around the shop provided the staging until I thought I had it right.
The piece of horizontal exhaust pipe was propped up where I thought it would be mounted. This is another one of those tricky items of priority of design and fabrication because the foot board location also needed to be simultaneously figured out which was in turn dependent on where the foot brake pedal could be mounted. I have already covered this foot brake mounting and at this point in the exhaust design I was utilizing a cardboard mockup of the foot brake pedal. Refer to the white bits in the picture below. That allowed me to envision the footboard placement and where it needed access to the frame for attachment which now allowed me to return to the exhaust pipe fabrication.
I was modifying the bend in the stock pipe by cutting gashes and bending it to where I thought the next joint will be.
Satisfied with that I put a minimal number of tack welds on the pipe. Remember the most successful people always have a plan B and I wanted to be able to easily cut the weld out and reposition if I needed to.
Next that lower curved section of the exhaust pipe was cut off and both ends of this section underwent the same filing and fitting process until the final fitment slowly, I mean very slowly, took place.
By this time it became evident that the cross over balancing pipe had to be abandoned and was subsequently cut off and the two remaining holes were filled in.
Now I jumped to the muffler’s connection and worked back to the front pipe keeping in mind how the rear cylinder’s pipe would connect. I wanted to design a “Y” connection that would 1) be constructed of pipe with an appropriate ID that will slip-fit over the two incoming pipes and 2) be angled such that the muffler could gain some ground clearance. In other words, the top exhaust pipe that came from the rear cylinder would have a straight through section and the front cylinder’s pipe will come up to meet it in the “Y”. A sketch ensued.
What followed was the long process of pipe cutting, filing angles, fitting, more filing, a little bending to get the faces to meet each other and then some tack welding.
OK, it was assembled and work began to bring the rear cylinder’s pipe into the “Y”.
Like the front pipe, the stock pipe’s bend was notched to get it in position and shortened. Another “J” bend pipe was used to fit up against the stock pipe and into the “Y” connector.
The final assembly was tack welded leading into the muffler. The two forward facing pipes will have clamps on them along with the muffler connection.Item description
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The look I wanted was twofold. First, I wanted fenders that contained a shape such that the cross-section views had constant radius upper surfaces, typical for the 1910s.
Second, I wanted to have the fenders fit closely to the tires. These old bikes had little to no suspension travel so it was not necessary to rigidly mount the fender high above the tire to allow clearance for suspension movement allowing the tire to rise without hitting the underside of the fender.
I cut both fenders out of fender blanks (from Dennis Kirk: Wild Card, Long Boy, Front 5.50 in. x 21 in. Fender, Part #: 392508) using the technique shown in the next pictures. A surface gauge was adapted so a marker could be set with its marking tip mounted at the chosen distance from the backbone of the fender. Then the vertical section of the surface gauge was run along the backbone and around the fender leaving a line on the fender. The fender was then flipped over and the process repeated on the other side. Then the saber saw was called up to perform its duty. This was a slow process but achieved consistent cuts on both sides as well as consistent cuts in the front and rear fenders.
FRONT FENDER
Cutouts needed to be made where the fender would pass between the fork legs. This picture shows that I made the radius of each corner too small so I welded the pieces that I had cut out back on and then cut the correct radius.
I would be having suspension on the front wheel (yea, I know, not much) so I needed to come up with a system that kept the location of the fender consistent with the front tire, as far as possible. The fender would mount to the front axle. This way as the suspension allowed the axle to move up and down, the wheel and fender would move up and down together.
I machined two more bronze bushings (the first pair were made to support the front caliper carriers) with appropriate flanges to go on the axle on either side of the wheel hub, outboard of the caliper carriers. Then I made the two front fender stays that mounted to, and could swivel slightly on, the bronze bushings.
As you can see in the pictures below, for the rear stay mounts I welded two tabs on the rear edges of the forks and made pivoting arms that connected these tabs to the fender. That rear connection is a ball-in-socket flexible connector.
The REAL TIME CONSUMER was making the device that kept the fender from rotating all the way backwards or forwards on the bronze bushings until it would ultimately hit the ground.
This was time consuming because the needed pieces were not a case of just setting them up in the drill/milling machine and cutting away. A design was made for a steel saddle that would go over the top of the fender. It was cut from a leftover end of a fender blank and was screwed to the top of the fender.
On both sides of the saddle there were mounts for the rollers. These were first made out of polymer clay. When satisfied, I cut the basic shapes out of steel blocks, drilled and tapped the roller shaft holes and, using a die grinder, shaped the undersides to conform to the compound curve of the top of the saddle, then welded the mounts in place.
Then it dawned on me that I needed to have these mounts also keep the fender located between the two fork legs yet allow the fender to move vertically. So a flat surface was incorporated into the pieces to which Teflon pads would be mounted as wear resistant sliding surfaces. All this had to be done allowing only 1/8 inch clearance side to side between the fork legs.
The roller shafts were stainless steel, the rollers were Oilite style bronze bushings that I turned in the lathe to the proper length. Hard rubber tubing was cut to fit over the bushings to cushion the contact with forks as the bushings rolled up and down.
I started by making mock-up with polymer clay which can be formed and then hardened in an oven.
Next was the making of the fender mounting brackets which would mount on the inside of the fenders. A wood form was made and 1” x 1/8” steel bar was bent to suit, and the ends were bent.
The mounting ears on each side were cut to a radius, filed, and then drilled to accept the stays.
These brackets were bolted to the fender with a screw that went through the fender, then through the bracket, and then a nut. I found it impractical to get to access the nuts when the wheel was in place so the nuts were TIG welded to the brackets.
REAR FENDER
The rear fender was much more straightforward after it was cut from the fender blank. The mounting points were front, top, and rear. The top and rear points mount on the rear axle because I want the fender to stay close to the tire when the wheel moves forward and back when adjusting the belt tension. But there was no need for the bronze bearing like the front fender because the axle will not move up and down while the bike is in operation due to the hard tail design. One collar was made for each side of the wheel through which the axle ran. The top and rear fender stays were connected to these two collars.
The front point mounts on both sides to the rear “swing arm”. (I quote “swing arm” because this is a hard tail and the “swing arm” does not swing.) This required mounts that could be loosened for belt adjustment. Two 90 degree steel bends were fabricated and “U” bolts were installed around a rubberized bushing.
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This was one of the key features for me. I wanted the look of the acetylene powered brass units but needed the modern H4 bulbs. The internet revealed I could purchase a B&L brass headlight so I did. The ceramic mantle was removed and an H-4 bulb-reflector-lens unit was purchased and the headlight’s internals were modified to accept the adaptor I made for the H4 unit to sit inside the brass headlight and behind its glass lens. An appropriate mounting system was fabricated for the headlight and was made with threaded connections so it would be somewhat adjustable for proper alignment of the beam on the road.
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First question, where should these be placed and at what angle. Get out the cardboard and coat hanger wire and try out some positions.
OK, got it.
I did not think that the rounded profile of the modern Harley footboards would be appropriate for a 1914-ish looking motorcycle. So I bought the rectangle units. It was frustrating for me to get NEWLY MADE parts like these footboards and find the holes for their mounting to be so poorly aligned. I mean they were not even close. In the picture below the two ¼” rods should be in line with each other so the footboard can act like a hinge and fold up.
So with some welding the holes were filled in and redrilled in line with each other.
LEFT SIDE FOOTBOARD
Very thick cardboard was cut up to work out a mounting system that would utilize 1” x 1” square steel tubing mounted in various places.
RIGHT SIDE FOOTBOARD
Here 1” x 1” square steel tubing was also used. The more complicated connection was on the right rear attachment point. There was the need to mount this footboard outboard of the foot brake pivot attachment. So a little thinking, sketching, designing and some fabrication led me to the solution where a bolt went through a modified brake pivot end and into a threaded hole in the back of the square tubing.
I welded four pieces of steel onto the stock footrest mount. Then I turned it in the lathe.
Welded on tabs on the square tubing allow the footboards to hinge up when needed. I added some threaded holes with 1/4-20 bolts as adjustable stops to locate the footboards to swing down to just the correct position.
The footboards were powder coated and the rubber tops were riveted on.
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A wrap around style was often used in the early 1900s and they were distinct in that the ends of the hand grips pointed directly to the rear. They also had a bit of rise in them as they took the turn back to the hand grips.
First I bent up some small diameter copper tubing to get a visual understanding of how the bends might be made to get the right look, the scalable dimensions, and some approximation of the required angles. This took several renditions which is the reason for making simple beta versions before investing a lot of time and dollars making the full size version incorrectly.
This was followed by sitting on the bike and getting some measurements of the needed width of the front section, the rise needed, and how far back they needed to come to reach my hands.
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When riding the hand shifting would have to be done with my right hand because my left hand would be busy activating the needed clutch. When shifting one naturally lets off on the throttle so that hand would be free for the job of making the shift. I also determined that I still wanted the option to use my left foot to shift in case a more rapid shift was necessary in certain traffic situations.
My design idea was to put a cross over shaft under the gas tank that would serve to transfer the foot pedal’s movement from the left side to the right side of the bike. On the right side of this shaft the gear shift lever wound be mounted and on the left an arm would be mounted that had a rod that went down to the foot shift lever.
So I mocked up foot levers that would work with the new footboard that was now located further forward than the stock foot peg location. It was also determined where the rod would connect to the foot lever. This revealed the need for quite a long foot lever. The connection of the stock foot lever to the transmission’s shaft had a splined end and I did not know where to get an appropriately sized broach to make a splined hole, so I decided to use the stock foot lever and weld on an extension. You can see by the pictures below that I always like to have a mechanical joint “backing up” a welded joint.
I also decided there was little need for that hump on top of the foot lever where the rod would attach, because a mounting hole in the middle of the foot lever was located in the neutral axis of the lever’s bending moment when up shifting or down shifting.
The left side arm at the crossover shaft needed to be removable because the hand shift lever was going to be welded on the right end of the shift shaft. So I made this removable arm. To achieve a connection that would not allow the arm to lose its grip on the shaft, I cut a keyway in the shaft. Then, using a keyway broach a keyway was cut in the mounting hole in the arm. Please take a moment and look at the rounded groove in the shaft where the red arrow is pointing. When a hole is drilled in the arm for the pinch bolt, it is done with the arm on the shaft. The drill is positioned such that it will cut into the side of the shaft when boring through the arm. This is done so that if the bolt should loosen slightly when riding, the interference of the bolt with the shaft will initially prevent the arm from sliding off the shaft. This gives the rider time to detect the loosening bolt.
I like to tap threads in the bottom (in this case) section of the pinch connection.
I also made a slight touch of a weld joining the key to the arm to keep the key in position.
Brackets were made to hold the crossover shaft that would ride in some bushings.
A stainless steel mounting tab was made for attaching the shift lever and it was welded on the right end of the crossover shaft. An aluminum shift lever was made and a threaded piece was welded on the top end to which a shift knob made out of wood was screwed on.
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Automobile and motorcycle headlights in the 1910s were powered with acetylene that came from a steel bottle: some were made by Prestolite. Like today’s propane bottles for your BBQ grill, when you ran out of acetylene, you just swapped out your empty bottle for a full one at the hardware store. On motorcycles those bottles were mounted crosswise on the handlebars. I found someone with one of these bottles, measured it, and then made my own but I cut out the side facing the rider and installed the speedometer and tach in it.
Holes were drilled to accept indicator lights for turn signals, neutral, high beam, and low battery voltage.
Again it needed a mounting attachment. This was achieved by taking a pair of 5 inch handlebar risers and mounting them upside down. I fabricated two brackets to accept the 1 inch wide straps that went around the bottle. The two brackets were made by cutting four identical pieces and bending them so the pairs could be welded together.
End pieces were fabricated and TIG welded in. A shut off valve was screwed in the left end and a pressure gauge on the right.
In a desire to amplify the perception of the original bottle’s removability, two beautiful cast brass wing nuts were purchased which I drilled, tapped and faced with the drill/mill.
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To me, the structural integrity of the motorcycle is the number one priority of a build. The number two priority is a good, reliable electrical system. The following were some of the significant changes I made.
Extending the wires in the longer handlebars: I did want to keep the same wiring colors as the stock bike if it was possible and I found out Designs by Novello makes a product called Stretch-It providing properly colored wire extensions. Instead of plugging in the extensions, the ends are stripped, soldered with heat shrink tubing installed over each joint.
Headlight and front turn signals: As I mentioned before, a 7 in. reflector with an H4 halogen bulb was put in the brass headlight body. The wiring to the headlight and front turn signals has the traditional woven cloth insulation giving a vintage look and was run eternally along the handlebars.
Tail light and rear turn signals: Like good brakes on a motorcycle, I like good lighting at the rear of my motorcycles, really good lighting. My favorite and proven “standard operating procedure” was to put a 4 in. truck trailer LED tail light (with 24 separate bright LEDs inside) inside a 4 in. PVC sewer cap. When the small 1/8 inch wide outside rim is filed off the LED assembly, it is a perfect fit into the slightly tapered ID of the cap. A threaded aluminum block was epoxied in the center of the back of the LED to accept a screw that goes through the back of the cap to secure the LED.
The rear turn signals were mounted to a fabricated steel bracket. The wiring that ran to the rear of the bike ran inside the old style rubber tubing that was used to carry acetylene to headlights.
The tail light and turn signals were mounted to a tail light bracket from an XS650 Yamaha which is also one of my favorite proven components for tail light assemblies.
Duetsch connectors: Wire connectors were needed in several areas. These would include where the wire extensions tied into my wiring harness between the two gas tanks, and where the wiring connected at the front of the rear fender for all wires leading to the tail light and turn signals. All these connections MUST be made to contend with riding in the rain and these Deutsch connectors do a great job sealing the wires’ connections from the elements.
LED indicator lights between the tach and speedometer: I installed small bright indicator lights for each turn signal direction, neutral, bright lights and the red low battery voltage light.
The wrap on the wires in exposed sections: I did want to have some sort of wrap on these wires. If you have ever tried pushing wires through a plastic sheath you know this is not a good solution. It gets worse when you realize you need to add one or a few more wires after the first stuffing has been completed. Enter F6 Woven Wrap that I purchased from WireCare.com. This is a covering that has a slit down the side and the edges overlap each other. The added bonus is that it is a woven material so it looks vintage. These are available in many different diameter sizes.
Fuses and Circuit breakers: First of all, know the difference. When overloaded, a fuse permanently disconnects the circuit. A circuit breaker disconnects the circuit but it can be reset. The only fuses I added to this motorcycle were for two added SAE connectors: one below the seat for the battery charger or for heated clothing, and the other up at the handlebars, primarily for my GPS. I did however change the blade fuses to the type that light up when blown
SIDE NOTE: When blade fuses are all lined up right next to each other in a fuse block it is not possible to see if the fuse is blown so you have to pull the fuse out to see. This is not practical in the daylight and near impossible to do at night. Solution? You can purchase blade fuses that, when blown, the outfacing end lights up! While that is COMPLETELY counter intuitive, it is none the less, a fantastic invention and it will serve you well to use them.
FURTHER SIDE NOTE: Another thought while I am on the subject of fuses. When you are traveling and a fuse blows you look for the reason. When you THINK you have found it, you make the repair and put in a new fuse and turn on the ignition. If that was not the problem you have just used up one more of the limited number of fuses you have brought. This can go on until you run out of fuses. The solution is to bring resettable circuit breakers and use them until the problem is solved. Then replace it with the fuse. The reason why I do not install all resettable circuit breakers in the first place is that they are too big to allow the fuse box covers to be closed.
The electrical box located below the seat: OK, now what do I do with all these electrical bits like fuses, breakers, the ignition module, turn signal relay, etc. I did want to design this to have relative easy access to the fuses and circuit breakers to check their status if something was not working properly. A steel box was fabricated to be placed below the seat and attached to the frame’s down tube. Brass wing nuts held on the access covers on both sides. It did end up being a bit of a complicated fabrication but it held all the bits in a rather compact form.
On the access covers, Frank at Southeast Harley in Cleveland, Ohio found some very cool aluminum badges.
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My high school physics teacher, Mr. Ed Broche, gave me a wonderful foundation in electrical knowledge which has served me well on my projects. As I said before I started this project with a RUNNING donor motorcycle. This gave me the assurance that all the components work and the electrical wires WERE correct before I messed with them.
During this build I kept many notes and sketches of all the electrical changes I had made including those noted in the previous section. I then located the stock black and white Harley Davidson wiring diagram, or should I say diagrams because the complete system was shown on three separate pages. (I would love to ask someone at Harley-Davidson why they thought this was a good idea but I am sure those decision makers are long gone.) I scanned the separate pages and opened them up in Paint (the preloaded software that came on my computer) and saved them to a “.TIFF” file and named them V-01a, V-01b, V-01c.
SIDE NOTE: This TIFF format is VERY IMPORTANT because wiring diagrams are made up of very distinct sharp edged lines of the wires. In many other file formats, each time one saves their work, the digital edges of the edits bleed into the adjoining colors. This is great if you are working with a photo because the edits became less noticeable. However, in a wiring diagram you do not want a wire depicted by a fuzzy line).
After scanning the pages of the diagrams they were combined into one single black line diagram. This version was saved as V-02. Further edits were made including labeling the components. Then started the long, long process of coloring each wire with either an appropriate single color or a two color designation per the labels on the wires on the Harley- Davidson diagram. When done with that depiction of the stock wiring diagram, it was saved (V-03). I then made a modified version to memorialize the changes I made to my motorcycle (V-04).
SIDE NOTE: I really enjoy making these digital diagrams. One benefit is having a 24” x 36” print made and hanging it on the wall of my shop for future reference. Should I make further changes they can be made with pencil and colored markers on the wall hanging so at a future date I can revise the file, with an appropriate advancing version number and date! Also, when traveling, I make an 11” x 17” copy for reference. I mean can you imagine being stuck somewhere beside the road and pulling out your three pieces of the paper with the stock Harley Davidson wiring diagrams and hunting around the black lines on the paper and trying to find the legend to figure out what the component is and what color of wire you should be hunting for on the bike when something did not work? Now think of doing it at night in the hotel parking lot.
Se the resulting diagram modified for my motorcycle above. I turned it sideways to see it a little better.
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OK, it was time to see if this thing would get me down the road and, more importantly, safely get me back home again!
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED: My approach to these projects is to first build a ridable motorcycle, without the finishing touches (final shaping, filing, sanding items as well as painting, plating, and powder coating). I then ride it 500 miles to discover parts in Plan A that need to be changed and then make some Plan B parts. There are always changes to make. (And now that I think about it, I have a few parts on their Plan D version.) I do this beta version without the finishing touches, and sometimes without final pieces, because I do not want to ruin a beautifully painted piece or weld something different on a newly chromed piece. Also note that this is definitely a longer process because of the need to completely disassemble the bike, get the finishing work done and reassemble everything.
In the picture below you can see the beta version with the stock Sportster’s buckhorn handlebars put on with temporarily mounted gauges and there was no front fender or headlight, and I had the stock tires mounted. You can also see that I took a risk by having the wheel rims powder coated on the beta version because I chose to have the 19” rear rim laced to the hub only once rather than to lace, ride, remove spokes, powder coat, and relace.
During the 500 miles I continued to add missing pieces and make changes to some things that did not work so well. These items were reworked or scrapped for new designs and fabrication.
It was a pleasant surprise to find how easy the shifting sequence was but I could definitely see the need for the auxiliary foot shifter when vehicles were following too closely for my comfort.
I also discovered the need to turn off BOTH fuel taps when refueling to prevent the fuel going from the higher right side tank (because the bike is leaned over on the side stand) into the full left tank and spilling out the vent hole in the left tank’s gas cap
A small leak in the oil tank was discovered at the weld on one of the mounting points. I put talcum powder on the area to see exactly where the leak was located.
By the time these Beta Test rides miles were completed most of the final parts were fabricated and attached to the bike.
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Now the bike had to be completely dismantled, and I mean completely. Every single part had to be removed to get final shaping, filing, and sanding as well painted, plated or powder coated. This was time to get my organization skills in order (no pun intended). Generally speaking, and in the words of a Haynes motorcycle manual, one could reassemble in the reverse order of disassembly.
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED: Disassembling and reassembling: I get a bunch of heavy gauge 12” x 18” Ziploc bags. As I disassemble the bike, the parts are put in these bags. Each bag had a sequence number beginning with 10, then 20, then 30 and on it goes. Usually the bags in the “10” group are from a certain area of the bike. So for example, let’s say I start with everything on the handlebars. The first bag is 10. When it gets full I start bag 11, then 12, etc. until all the handlebar items are off the bike. Then I might start on all the front facing lighting items (headlight, turn signals, etc. They would start with #20. These bags go on shelves in order of disassembly. The handlebars would go on the shelf before the #20 bag. As each bag is loaded, I make a master list of those items that needed paint, plating, or any finishing work. This is so when everything is disassembled, I can go to my list and pull all the items to be plated (or painted). When they come back from the plater or painter (which was me in some cases), I’d refer back to the list and put the parts in the appropriate bag, ready for the reverse sequence of disassembly. For me this works really well because parts stay organized for reassemble plus, the plating sometimes takes a month or so and if one part has been forgotten to be plated it can cause some significant delay at reassemble time.
As far as the shiny bits were concerned for a motorcycle of this vintage, there were only four options for the look I was after: brass, stainless steel, aluminum, or nickel plating. Chrome was not used much back in the day. As I am sure you are aware, chrome plating is mostly a clear covering that is put over nickel plating (which is put over copper plating). To me, nickel is a more mellow yellowy silver and chrome is a more stark blueish tint of sliver. I love the look of nickel and in this case it would give that antique look rather than a modern just-out-of-the-showroom look.
So the handlebars, hand shift, faux acetylene bottle (AKA tach and speedo holder) went off to the plater, Custom Chrome in Grafton, Ohio. The frame, gas tank, oil tank, and both fenders were off to the painter, Dale S. to get the coats of acrylic urethane. Three boxes of parts were driven over to the powder coater, Semper Quality Industries in Mentor, Ohio.
When the fender painting was done they were driven to the pinstriper, the incredible Guy Shively.
The wide color strips on the gas tanks and oil tank are decals. Exact full size drawings were made showing the two colors and dimensions. These were given to a local sign making lady (no longer in business) who made the decals. I had her make two sets of everything in case I would ever need them in the future. The “Harley-Davidson” name on the tanks were also decals.
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When all the bits were done, they were returned to their appropriate Ziploc bags on the shelves and the rebuilding process began.
Using my lathe, most every hex head bolt had the stampings machined off its head to look “old school”.
I make a luggage rack out of ½” OD stainless steel tubing and had it powder coated.
The bike was back on the road in 2011.
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We have now covered over 19,000 miles including places all around Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Paris (Ontario that is).
A set of leather “touring” bags were custom made by TRD Leather in Cleveland, Ohio. These and a canvas & leather center pack have served me well in multiple day touring trips.
I have replaced numerous broken spokes in the rear wheel. Without rear suspension the spokes get no relief from bad roads. This is especially true when the bike is loaded up for long overnight trips.
Work on the front fender also continued for a while. At one point it developed cracks on both sides at the narrow section. I welded the crack and welded a reinforcing plate on the underside.
So as of July, 2023 I had ridden over 19,000 miles without any mishaps. Then in August I parked it at a gas station and went in to get a cup of coffee. Suddenly a man came in the building yelling, “some %$#@#$&%$ just backed into someone’s old motorcycle, knocked it over, and then took off!” Yes, it was my bike. I had backed into the parking space so the driver had damaged and bent numerous parts of the front end as well as bent the handlebars and put a slight dent in the right side of the gas tank. I did my best to reshape the numerous small bent parts by hand and my friend Ray S. used his hydraulic press to do the magic on straightening the moving front legs on the front forks. I replaced the glass headlight lens with a lexan lens. FYI, the surveillance camera at the gas station helped the police find the guy who backed into the bike.
A future project: My hands get a noticeable increase in vibration at higher engine RPMs due to the length of the handlebars. Cruising at 70 MPH for long periods of time is not particularly enjoyable. A Baker 6 Speed gear set for the transmission has been purchased which will lower the RPMs in 6th gear with its overdrive gearing.
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This has been a long but very gratifying project. Speaking for myself, to stay at this project for 20 months is only possible with a motivating vision at the onset, a planned sequence of construction, continual reorganization, having other resources to help, and having a wife who encourages me. This would not have happened if I did not have:
- My wife Lynn
- McMaster-Carr for parts and materials
- Bob V. (not me) the wheel lacer
- Lyle the welder
- Custom Chrome in Grafton, Ohio (nickel or chrome plating)
- Semper Quality Industries in Mentor, Ohio, (Powder coating)
- Dale S. the painter
- Guy Shively the pin striper
Thanks for listening. Happy and safe riding.