SEND MOTORCYCLES

I love the lines of this simple, custom Harley-Davidson Sportster. This is so similar to the bikes I used to build, it's got me itching for another lean motorcycle. The favorite one I built was a 1959 Panhead (FL model). I bought it from the Chinese government (in person) and rebuilt it to my personal taste.

This is not the last bike I built but certainly my favorite. The young feminine model is my beautiful daughter Sunny Laine when she was about 2 years old. She is now married to a great guy with a beautiful young daughter of her own, about this same age. You may be able to see the similarities in these two motorcycles. They're both simple, graceful, lean, low and traditional. This is my motorcycle taste. 

Let me make an appeal: I want a Harley-Davidson Sportster so I can build another traditional chopper like these. True, it's been 15 years since I last put one together but I have full confidence that I can do an even better job than I did years ago. My patience & skills are greater, I have more and better tools and a better, more stable shop environment. The problem is that I can't afford to buy one now. Maybe after I sell my El Camino (I can feel the wife shaking her head and she's not even in the room).

If there are any readers out there who own one that they'll sell cheaply, or donate, please contact me. I don't care if it's rusty, old, pink, mildewed or even wrecked. I'll make you a deal. If you sell it to me at a price I can afford, or donate it to me (pretty much the same price range), I'll tell your personal story in my blog. We'll correspond, you'll tell me about your life and I'll write about it in a way that will make you and all my readers smile. Or cry, it depends on how much jail time you did or how many divorces you've had. So okay, you've got my deal right here in writing. You can even use my personal email to respond: Doug@BarnesBrothers.net.

I know that this is a deviation from the usual format of my young blog, but I think that most people who enjoy reading about the wrenching on my project car will also enjoy looking at a fine Harley-Davidson. The last two motorcycles I owned were both Harleys, one was a 1968 Sportster XLCH and the other was a 1954 FL, which is a Panhead. Unfortunately, the Sportster was stolen by my attorney and the Panhead, which had been completely rebuilt and I had just recently finished painting, was stolen by a sometimes business partner. The fact (or assumption) that I know who stole these prized possessions doesn't make it possible to recover them. The Panhead engine number is either FL5484 or FL5485. After my deal with the Chinese government in 1990 I ended up with 4 of these valuable motorcycles in numerical sequence. I should have kept the 4 together and not sold them until I got a ridiculous offer from Jay Leno.

Here is a picture of some of my herd the day I began towing them to the crating service in the Republic of China. I'm a slender 30 year old at the time, standing among motorcycles that were manufactured about the same time that I was. The Chinese policemen who told me about these motorcycles said that the last time they were used was during a motorcade for vice president Nixon.

Please don't forget my Sportster deal I daringly put into print today. You could be immortalized in print (digitally, of course) by just donating one dusty old motorcycle.

Doug