Life of Our 1945 Harley Davidson
Knucklehead
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
Into the 1980's
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
The life and times of our 1945 Knucklehead
This is a bit of the history of our 1945 Harley Knucklehead we have owned for over 40 years. This site covers about 17 years of the many changes it has seen in it's life with us. It includes how we acquired it and a lot but not all of its history from the day we got it up until I stopped changing it. There is detailed information on a lot of the pages about the builds. I have used pictures of the bike if I have them but there are some of the years that I don't have any pictures. We didn't take a lot of pictures back then but I wish we did. It would make it a lot easier on the brain cells rather than trying to remember everything. Some of the pictures are very old and poor quality that I have tried to enhance as best as possible. On the pages that I don't have pictures for, I give a description of what was done that year.
I have used notes on some of the pages that will give you some idea of the prices, how easy it was to get bikes or parts or a short story.
It's been a long ride full of twists and turns with many changes over the years.
So grab your favorite beverage and read the history
A little background first.
The story begins in late 1968 or 1969 when I purchased and built a Harley Davidson WL, I don't remember the year of the bike. Back then I was not into stock motorcycles, I would build the bike as a chopper.
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Side Note:
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Prior to 1968, I had a pre unit Triumph in a ridged frame, road a lot of Triumphs, BSA'S, Harleys, Royal Enfields and other makes.
Staggered dual exhaust with shorty mufflers, tall sissy bar, tall contour frame mounted seat all ordered from AE&E Choppers and a chrome peanut tank that I got from a friend. The stock springer was extended 15” or so, using Ford radius rods that I pulled off a car in a local bone yard. You could still find them in auto grave yards back then. The frame was stripped of all the mounting tabs that were not going to used and the neck was raked probably 3/4” to 1”. I didn't have any way to do the fork extension or the frame rake. I located a small welding shop called Atomic Welding in Cambridge, MA that worked out of a small garage on a side street. I don't know if the company is still in existence but they grew to be a good size fabricating and welding shop. A few years later, I would go to work for them for a short time after they had grown and moved out of the garage.
This was also the start of my fabricating ideas, I added my own foot shift and hand clutch. The foot shift did not have a ratchet so I guess you could call it a Feel-O-Matic. It was a full throw shifter, one down for first, two up for second and 3 up for third. I also needed some type of oil tank seeing as how I was not going to be using the stock gas and oil tanks. I was going to use the small chrome peanut gas tank. So I searched and found a steel rectangular 4 quart lawn mower gas tank. I changed the bottom gas outlet so that I could connect an oil feed line and added ports to the top of the tank for the return and vent lines. I fabricated mounts for it and mounted it to the right side frame rail just under the seat area.
The motor was taken up to the Concord Motorcycle Shop in Concord, NH where Bob Labrie rebuilt it for me. This would be the first and last motor I would have completely done by someone else. This was also the start of a friendship with Bob that lasted many many years until his passing. A friend offered to come over and help rebuild the transmission. The transmission was not in bad shape but needed a few parts. All of the parts we needed were purchased from the local Harley dealer.
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Side Note:
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Back then you could still get a lot of OEM parts for 45's, Kunckleheads, Panheads and most big twin Flatheads from dealers.
The only problem I had with the bike was we were out on it late one Saturday afternoon, the bike was running good when all of a sudden the primary chain broke. It was to late to get a chain from the dealer if they had one but a freind had a buisiness card from someone I could try. The card was from Lucky Thibeault in Brockton, MA, I gave him a call and asked if he had one and if I could come down the next day, Sunday. We headed down and picked one up from him. Over the years I would get a few parts from Lucky.
Towards the end of the summer of 1969, the brother of a friend of mine came by for a visit and fell in love with the bike and asked if I would sell it. I was thinking about selling it and getting something larger, 74 or 80” Flathead, Knucklehead or a Panhead.
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Side Note:
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Bikes were very inexpensive back then, baskets could be bought for anywhere from $50.00 to $100.00 or even less. Runners ran a couple of hundred or less if you looked around a bit, you could even get a runner from a dealer for short money. A friend bought a stock 1948 running Panhead and I do mean stock, from a dealer for $400.00 or $450.00 and they delivered it to his house. He bought it from Phillips Brothers in Cambridge, MA. Yup a Harley dealer, at least I remember it as a dealer, used to exist in Cambridge on I think Columbia St.
I was thinking about asking $200.00 or $250.00 for the bike which would have given me enough money to get something else and have some left over to get started on it. Before I could tell him yes or no, he offered me $450.00 cash plus a bike he had stored in his shed. After about five minutes of thinking I replied that I would have to take a look at what he had. We agreed on a date for me and my wife to take a look at it. About 4 or 5 days later we went to his house in a Boston suburb and took a look. I think it took me all of a New York minute to say deal. What I was looking at was a bone stock 1945 Harley Knucklehead in pieces. We made the deal, he gave me the $450.00 cash and I loaded up the boxes and parts into my car and made arraignments for him to come and get the 45. As we left his house my wife asked if I was crazy? I had just sold a running motorcycle that she loved for a pile of parts and some cash.
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Side Note:
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The kid that bought the 45 called me about 2 weeks after he had picked it up to find out if I had a rear wheel he could buy. I asked him why, had he crashed the bike or did someone hit him? He told me no nothing like that, he had a flat tire and thought he needed to replace the wheel. I told him I would come up and fix it. I think it took me about 2 hours to stop laughing after I hung up.
This is the WL in the Early Spring of 1969
These are a couple of the few very old Polaroid pictures that exist of the 45, it is not completed but you can get the idea.
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