We are fortunate to know Ben van Helden. Ben trains goldsmiths and is a motorcycle enthusiast. His approach is to buy a pathetic, somewhat more unusual engine and to fix it with all the love and craftsmanship of a master goldsmith. When that is done, he drives around a bit, the cool end result goes to a new owner and he starts looking for another project. His site www.bensbikes.nl is also an ongoing project. And the last time we saw him, this project was basically done. Wondering what's coming next….
The Harley Boat Tails
The most recent rebirth was that of a Harley-Davidson Boat Tail. And not the Sportster version, but the Big Twin version. We already had the Sporster with boat tail on our site before.
Harley-Davidson was a brand fancifully named after its founders
Now it is a company that is steadily sliding down under standard management because it only distinguishes itself by its name and the buyers who remember the brand as illustrious are usually seriously aging.
The legacy is still there
But with the disappearance of the rightly legendary 'Willy G', the man who made the brand great again after the management buyout at AMF, Het Merk changed into De Marketing. And that marketing was not good at best. The ghost was out. And the shop was run by number fetishists such as shareholders and managers. That is usually the beginning of the end.
Willie G. Davidson was the son of former Harley-Davidson president William H. Davidson and the grandson of Harley-Davidson co-founder William A. Davidson. He grew up among the Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Davidson graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and went on to study at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In California he was confronted with customizing motorcycles.
Before joining Harley-Davidson, Davidson worked for the design department of Ford Motor Company.
After more than five years in the Harley-Davidson design department, Willie G (with Godfrey's G) Davidson was promoted to Vice President of Styling. That was in 1969. Without using outside design consultants or engineers who didn't have his sublime feel for the true American Bikers feel, Davidson was able to take advantage of the freedom he was given in the small design department. A design department that was certainly not richly supplied with dollars under the banner of American Machine Foundries.
His designs in the 70s included the 1971 FX Super Glide, the 1977 FXS Low Rider and the 1977 XLCR Sportster-based café racer.
On March 16, 2012, it was announced that Willie G. would be retiring on April 30, 2012. He remains involved as a brand ambassador and with Special Design Projects as Emeritus Chief Styling Officer.
The boat tail design, one of his first, appeared as an option available on 1970 and 1971 XLCH and XLH Sportsters. A commotion was needed in Harley land. Because the Japanese had entered the market that year with the Honda CB 750 F. And that machine fitted very well into American thinking.
Willie G's "boat tail" gave the then 12-year-old Sportster an optical boost, but not everyone liked it.
As a $60 option, order number 52097-71, dealers did try to sell the idea, but most riders preferred the look of the tried-and-true seating arrangement that Sportsters were known for. You saw sportsters with a boat tail at dealers and in tests. Hardly 'in the wild'. The boat tail was a daring experiment and was more startling than beautiful. It was a nice clump of polyester that came to rest on the frame. In short: this Sportster had a big ass, especially compared to the slim tank that only held about 12 liters. The buddy was certainly not bad. In 1971, the same butt appeared on another Willie G design that was more successful, the FX Super Glide, a combination of FL Electra-Glide and XL Sportster pieces that brought a new face to the Harley series. To the eye, that idea fit a lot better. But for 1972, the Super Glide also went back to the more traditional layout. The polyester boat tails were placed in dusty attics and are only just getting the attention they deserve. And because they are scarce, prices are rising. Relica boat tails are for sale again.
And because the boat tail was an option, it's pretty harmless to pimp a Sportster with it afterwards. An original exhaust system and the alloy wheels are harder to come by. And the big boat tails? Those are very scarce.
More stories about classic engines read through the link
That you have to be academically trained to create something so ugly…
I think you have to be academically deformed to design something like that. I can appreciate Harley's if they are models without Tupperware and without over the top ideas. Original, not pimped or chopped and with the original mufflers in non-killed condition, which play the silent 'vloe vloe vloe'. A boat tail, well… you don't see the ugly when you drive. The psychological damage will be less than that. No, it's not my 'beer' unfortunately
If you're on it, you won't see it!
And because the boat tail was an option, it's pretty harmless to pimp a Sportster with it afterwards. Dolf's story was about a Super Glide, right? You already mentioned that a Sportster was first dressed with it. The fact that the cross between a Sportster and an Electra was the first real factory custom bike from Harley-Davidson is less apparent in your story. That makes this bike more special than that boat tail. There are at least a dozen of these in the Netherlands.
Hi Cees, online we have some limitations in terms of time and costs. The site is a free service. We have to earn the money with the magazine (a subscription costs next to nothing) Because the Sportsers boaties and the thick ones are so close to each other, there is therefore some 'overlap'
You have to be able to see the beauty, but I can't do that here at all.
Strange and perhaps rare – just like the Norton Comando HighRider – but lullik remains lullik.
Michiel Meijer, I couldn't have said it better myself
NEVER want to call that name Norton Commando HighRidr again! What a hutch!