Original Gangster
ORIGINAL GANGSTER
Cut-down comeback
ALL THOSE WHO THINK ARLEN Ness invented custom Harley-Davidsons, gather 'round and prepare to be edumacated. Nobody really knows when the first American customs rose from the primordial slime. Good guess is that back in the Teens some punter, having removed the crash-crunched front fender from his Silent Gray Fellow, stood back and exclaimed, 'Jeepers, don't that look swank," then went after the rear fender with a hacksaw for good measure.
it wasn't until the I 930s, though, that the movement picked up niornen turn-and a moniker. Out on the West Coast, a small, enthusiastic band of cxracers were building performance cus toms, bikes they called cut-downs." Have a look at the photo. This part icu lar cut-down started life as a I 928 Harley JDH that would have been out fitted with oversized fenders, the front
a portly, valanced affair, plus tiller handlebar, tractor saddle and sturdy, sensible luggage rack-not exactly the most sporting of propositions. By the time the Speer brothers, Finnegan and Pat, got through with it in the mid`30s, though, they had a hot-rod Harley of high order. -
He's not kidding. The JDH frame was shortened and lowered. The~gu11wing" handlebar and braced fork are hiliclinib issue. ditto the magneto and clutch Hcadlight and ignition swit4i are from 191 5-16. the first model: years Harleys were so equipped The seat is from a board -tracker. The floorboa~ arc shorten~~~ckcrs Fuel tanks are
from the Peashooter, Harley's racing Single, with pukka-looking notches carved into the right side to clear the exposed valve mechanism. Back in the I 930s, Finnegan Speer first ran the bike with an out-to-pasture factory hiliclimb motor, but this proved too persnickety for the street and quickly reduced itself to scrap. In its place, says Axelrod, went a `~back yard racer's motor" built around a 74inch JDH bottom end. Atop this base went special 61-inch JH cylinders, desirable for their free-breathing Ricardo valve pockets. Resulting dis placement is just under 70 cubic inches (1147cc), more than enough for a bike that weighs a paltry 375 pounds. Axeirod's resurrected cut-down gets Lfired up and ridden around on a regular basis, a rolling history lesson, proof that customized bikes have been with us almost from the beginning.
David Edwards
