Boat tail for sale

[kevscrivener]

Gray's is not the only high-mileage Ironhead in this club; Ron has owned his 79 from new, last time I looked it had over 80,000 on the clock and AFAIK it has only had the heads off. To me it goes toward proving a long-held theory that multiple ownership does more damage to older Harleys than anything else.

It's worth bearing in mind that both of the above bikes were built in the much-maligned AMF era; the vast majority of my Harleys have also been from this period and I've had no more problems with them than the others. My biggest issue with modern H-D's actually has little to do with what the factory, specifically, do but more with general "progress" in the motor industry in general; an ever-increasing plague of sensors and modules which IMO contribute little to the actual running of the bike but but cause endless problems when they misbehave.

Regarding the boat-tail; it looked fine on the Super Glide but completely wrong on the Sportster.

[chilly]

Interesting stuff about the long mileage bikes , as Kev says looks like low ownership + a regard to the bikes well being is a great help .

Would be interesting to find out how they achieve this ,what grade of oil is used , frequency of oil changes , how the bike is treated when started and run from cold , these factors are high on my agenda , so just a wondering if they coincide with my idea of running an older bike and maybe pick up a few ideas for running older bikes ,nothing like hearing it from folks who have the knowledge thro doing it themselves .

[the_french_owl]

There's also John and Angie 1977 XLT, bought new by John in Manchester, 1st ever overhaul 10 years later at 100 000 miles, now still running strong and pulling a sidecar... ??? Another AMF piece of sh*te???

Patrick

[Ron]

You're close Kev, but no banana, my Sporty's a 1980 (much prettier than a 1979 but not as good looking as the early CH's) with 78,669 miles up.
For the first 39,000 miles I used GTX, then while the kids were small and the mortgauge large I could not afford to run the bike for about eight years. When things picked up GTX was no longer a 20-50 and a Harley dealer had opened close to home so I switched to Harley 20-50. At the same time I changed from Crossland 346 oil filters to H.D. ones. Oil and filter changed every 2,500 miles.
I've always tried to advoid short runs, even during the winter trying to get at least 30 miles in at a time. From cold I give it about ten gentle miles at 50-55 to warm it before giving it any stick and adjust the oil level to suit the tempture. In summer keeping the tank full (6 pints) and in winter going down to about 2.5 pints
I've always used the pull of the motor rather than reving its nuts off, changing up around 3,500 revs or 4,000 if I get exiceted. Too meny redundancys means I,ve always been wary of blowing it so I,ve never done a Patrick with it and tried nailing the rev counter needle to the stop to see what happens.

[Gray]

Originally Posted by kevscrivener

To me it goes toward proving a long-held theory that multiple ownership does more damage to older Harleys than anything else.

I think you are spot on the money there Mate. You're bound to take more care of a keeper. If it's a couple of years and trade up (down sideways whatever) then why bother too much. Also, all bikes go through that "Not worth a lot" stage when they're no where near new but not old enough to be of interest. Ironheads have always suffered from that syndrome because they have never been as fashionable as the Big Twins.

Originally Posted by chilly

Would be interesting to find out how they achieve this ,what grade of oil is used , frequency of oil changes , how the bike is treated when started and run from cold ,

Originally Posted by Ron

Oil and filter changed every 2,500 miles.
I've always tried to advoid short runs, even during the winter trying to get at least 30 miles in at a time. From cold I give it about ten gentle miles at 50-55 to warm it before giving it any stick

Bit like Ron. Warming it up before using the power. Ride off soon as I can so it warms up quicker than on idle and never lugging the engine below 2K. My bible says oil changes at 2K so to be on the safe side, because I'm anal, I do it at one thousand or perhaps one and a half K depending on how I'm using it. The less miles I do the shorted the interval. I always keep the oil tank up to the mark but I don't ride when it's that cold nowadays, unlike Ron. Originally it always got SAE 50 but I switched to HD 20-50 at about 50K on Uncle Fred's advice. When I was young I would recycle the Sporty's old oil through my company car and put the fresh new stuff in the Sporty.

Originally Posted by the_french_owl

Another AMF piece of sh*te???

In the first year it lost a gudgeon pin circlip and ripped up the bore and after it's second 5K of running in it seized. After the third session of running in it settled and then just got better and better. Suggests to me that the design was decent for the time but the labour disputes of 74 took their toll. If some one had owned my bike for five or six thousand miles they would have thought it a right lemon of a friday afternoon special. Whereas underneath the smoke billowing from my brand new bike's rear pipe was an absolute gem which I will never part with until the curtains close behind me.

[Charlie Brown]

I'm beginning to think that I got unlucky. I bought a '79 sporty in '81 and kept it for 4 years. In that time I had a gearbox rebuild, kept jumping out of gear, a regulator, genny brushes, advance flyweight springs, starter clutch, broken valve spring that resulted in a re bore etc to name but a few. I relied on the bike for work and I eventually decided to sell and buy Jap. Regretted that straight away but felt I had no choice or money left at the time.
I think, reading this thread, I should put more faith in my older bikes reliability and not hark back to past bad experiences. I have learnt a lot mechanically since having got them and been on this forum, still lots to learn. Funnily I have never been left on the roadside. That's done it .
Agree with Patrick 100% about the bland efficiency of the computer generated modern stuff. If or when the TC does break on me I will be buggered but in 33,000 miles it hasn't.
Like Gray my old girls are here to stay and when I'm dead and gone they are going to my son.
Chaz.

[chilly]

Thanks for the info on care of the high mileage bikes ,and as i thought it would be ,its just the simple service things done regularly and at the right time + care of the motor before it gets nicely warmed up ,(i'm a great believer in these older motors being nice and warm before there given a bit of stick)
Interesting to see that Fred recomended using 20/50 ,always been a believer in using good 20/50 in all my bikes,so will carry on doing it and not having it in the back of my mind that maybe i should be using straight 40 or 50 in these ole roller bearing engines.

Hopefully this won't develop into the dreaded --- debate

Cheers
Chill