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Bars

Posted in The Long Rode on July 31st, 2010 by Wade

Learned about four things today.

One, the handle bars are two piece. There easy to adjust and are now both in the same orientation.  That’s a good thing.

Two, the battery is dead, it’s 19 years old, however in the process I learned that the rear parking/license plate light works.  That is the only light that works.  We tried all the handle bar switches and none of them did anything but dim the tail light.

Third, the dash board, for lack of the better name, is missing a gasket that keeps it off the gas tanks.  We’re also not sure if it is the correct cover for the speedo.  It seems that there should be a gap where the rubber extension from the seat would pass under and allow the seat to fully extend up and away from the frame.

And fourth,  the carburetor is a Bendex/Zenith carburetor.  I is not the original HD factory carb.  We found the receipt for it.  It is also missing the mid-range mixture screw.  Hopefully this missing screw is responsible for all the starting problems that the bike had about 19 years ago.

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Hello world!

Posted in Hello on July 31st, 2010 by Wade

Hello, I want to start with a few thoughts.  This is a location where I plan to conical my adventures with, what I think is obvious, a 1968 Harley Davidson Electra Glide.  I will discus the bike in more detail later and hopefully this blog will follow my progress with the bike.  So until later that’s where I will leave it.

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Where it started

Posted in The Long Rode on July 30th, 2010 by Wade

It was about 1986.  I went to Detroit Michigan to visit my grandparents.  I was in middle school, 7th grade I believe but I can’t me sure of the date or the grade.  While I was there to visit with my grandparents I also visited my uncle Gary as he lived in there as well.

Turns out my uncle had purchased a 1968 Electra Glide and had it in my grandparents garage.  Well my little preteen heart was all a twitter with sight of that gleaming hunk of Milwaukee Iron.

80s 68

Now the story, and receipts, go that Gary bought this bike as a pile of parts on a blanket in somebodies garage.  He then spent 5x what he paid for it to have the bike reassemble, painted, and made to run.

Fast forward to 2010.  Unfortunately the next step in this story involves Gary’s passing.  So here we are with a motorcycle that has not run or been ridden in at least 20 years.  The bike as spent those years in a garage in Houston Texas where is suffered greatly from neglect.  You can see in the first picture how shinny it was back in the 80’s.  Well believe it or not its not so shinny any more.  When my dad called to tell me that Garey was gone I will admit that my first thought was about him and his passing.  I will also admin that my second thought was about the ’68.  Ever since that day back in Michigan when I first laid eyes on the bike I have coveted it and I have dreamed of one day having it.  Well today is that day.  Arrangements have been made to take the bike back to Sacramento; this bike has more trailer miles than road miles.  Where I will begin to get it back to what it looked like on that day I first saw it and it imprinted on my psyche.

Now the plan is to talk about what I’m going thought with this bikes restoration, and to link to photos of the process and progress.

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