Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Harley-Davidson Livewire

Please don't make him change his stories any more than he already has.

He gotta be exhausted by now.

Those were bad old days. But... What's your Virago worth now? And, have you checked the value of that same year Sportster now?

Viragos were actually pretty nice bikes. Always had the feeling they were made to a price point, and they were. Worked well though. Had an XV920RJ, just to be wierd. Enclosed chain, instead of a shaft. Looked sporting enough, but ridden in a spirited fashion, the front cylinder exhaust pipe would touch first, lifting up the front wheel. I know this for a fact. Funny, what you find out at the end of a decreasing radius right hander....

Like a good many other young impressionable dumb asses of that era, greatly influenced by the then new movie, Easy Rider, I felt my recently purchased, used, partially Sportster-ized, Harley "K" Model needed a more 'Chopper' look so I found a shop in a not too distant city that did that kind of work. Went with a metal-flake paint job with flames and matching helmet, extended fork tubes, custom cobra 2 passenger seat w/sissy bar, and a few other minor 'gee-whiz' touches.

I drove over to the shop every few days to check on progress and soon discovered the shop was owned, managed and run by a regionally known outlaw motorcycle gang and a regular hangout for local club members, as well. One day after he got to know me, the owner/manager started asking me questions about if I'd be interested in upgrading to more extreme chopper look or to a larger engine, newer, more custom chopped Harley as he could set me up with all the parts or a already completed one. I told him I hadn't really thought about it any since mine was still pretty new to me but asked him what he had.

He proceeded to lock the front door to the shop, did the look over both shoulders thing, then opened what had been a concealed trap door in the old wood floor of the shop, and motioned for me to follow him down a ladder into an old cellar. There were wall-to-wall Harley motorcycle parts of all kinds piled up and hanging on the walls everywhere.. He shined a flashlight on a solid chromed Sportster frame, told me he could make me a good deal on it and how cool it would look on my bike. Rest of story -- everything in that cellar was 'hot', which most likely explained why my like new whole front fork assembly with wheel "went missing" the very first week it was at the shop. They did replace it though but the replacement was not in as nice condition as my original was.

Needless to say, I was beyond glad to finally get my bike finished and out of there.

The guy I originally bought mine from had been a die-hard, old school Harley owner for years but went with BMWs during Harley's AMF ownership. A couple of years later he was killed riding home from work one night on his latest BMW. He was on a narrow, two lane blacktop county road and got rear ended hard by a guy driving a pickup truck. The driver of the truck claimed the taillights on the motorcycle weren't illuminated as to why he didn't see it. They sure enough didn't work after the crash so there was no way to prove otherwise.

Damn, and here it was several pages now ya hadn’t called me a liar.

Holy Fuggg.... Birdie just don't quit lol

Damnit Mike, now you got me wanting an old Honda 750. Those were cool old motorcycles in their day!

No you don’t!

Single overhead cam, two (??) valves per cylinder, drum brakes.

By today’s standards they’re dog slow and dull as a post. After that they continued on for several years as the 750 Nighthawk series; DOHC, three (??) valves per cylinder, disk brake up front.

Nothing wrong with the Nighthawk series, maybe they were just too sensible is all.

Mostly the significance of that CB750 four of course is that it was a technological milestone. It also showed up the flaws in those motorcycles that had come before it.