|
|
The Shovelhead Era
Harley-Davidson Shovelhead Engine
THE CHOPPER was acknowledged as existing by Harley-Davidson in 1970. In that year The Motor Company launched the Super Glide. Cycle magazine put it on the cover of their November 1970 issue and inside the magazine said: 'The
members of the Harley-Davidson styling team, in response to the genius of Dick Hirschberg, the impact of the chopper phenomenon,
and the success of Easy Rider, have savaged the venerable Electra Glide like tigers at a goat and herewith present
to you the ..... Super Glide, Sonnet on Extravagance.' What had brought this machine from a Milwaukee drawing board
and onto the street? According to Cycle, who had asked William G. Davidson, Harley-Davidson's styling chief,
it was 'the influence of the California bob-jobs; not full choppers as such, but lightened, leaned-down bikes that were recognizable as 74s.' The Super Glide was launched with a Red, White, and Blue paintjob, but, despite the very evident parallel with Fonda's ride in Easy Rider, the manufacturer was keen to distance itself
from the whole chopper scene. Davidson had this to say: 'As a company we're leery of the chopper image and any kind of extremism.' It was an uncertain period for the Red, White, and Blue then because times were changing quickly.
President Nixon had been inaugurated in 1969 and had taken a completely different approach to the Vietnam War. His scaling
down of US Military involvement was one aspect of this. Despite the ongoing controversy about the Vietnam War, some
dealers clearly knew who bought the Harleys they sold; the 1970 adverts for Dudley Perkins Co., a San Francisco dealer since
1914, included a line that read 'Returning Servicemen Welcome.' Harley-Davidson had introduced their refined overhead-valve 74 cubic inch engine in 1966 and it quickly became known as the Shovelhead because of the resemblance of the rocker covers to the backs of upturned shovels. It may seem contrived but as a nickname
it is now universal. This engine was used in the Super Glide, which was without doubt the factory's interpretation of a custom bike. Harley had taken an FL Electra Glide, removed the cumbersome front end and replaced it with the lighter one from an XL Sportster, hence its FX designation. They had fitted a 3.5 gallon fatbob tank and a custom-styled dual seat unit with an integral Frenched tail light.
Amid talk of the lack of frame flex, of rake and trail and cornering, Cycle magazine said: 'Everybody likes
it; everybody has to like it for one reason or another.' They went on to predict that the Super Glide would succeed like no other motorcycle the company had ever built. The magazine was right. The Super Glide has been in Harley's range ever since and the concept of the factory custom motorcycle was proved beyond all doubt. Subsequently, most of the world's major motorcycle manufacturers have at one time or another
included factory customs in their range. In the same issue of Cycle magazine that tested the new Super Glide, Routt's Cycle Center, Inc., of Hyattsville, Maryland, were advertising extended forks, fork braces, bolt-on rigid rear frame
sections and custom seats. With the exception of the forks, all were advertised for British bikes and Harleys, the fork
tubes were also available for Hondas. The Seventies would see a burgeoning market for the choppers powered by engines other than those of Harley-Davidson manufacture. This was partially because of the availability
and cheapness of these other makes of motorcycle, especially those from British and Japanese manufacturers. Despite
this, many of their so-called custom components used in their construction owed their origin to Harley-Davidson fatbob and Sportster tanks are obvious examples, as well
as springer forks and rigid frames the like of which had never been used by Honda, as well as specific items such as tombstone tail lights, which were stock
Harley item between 1946 and 1954. It is equally true to say that Maltese Cross tail lights, prism tanks and tall sissy
bars are custom items designed specifically for choppers, regardless of their engine type. The tradition of building choppers powered by engines other than Harleys endures; in Great Britain there is a long tradition of building choppers powered by engines other than Harleys endures; in Great Britain there is a long tradition of building 'specials' which started
with cafe' racer Tritons - a combination of Norton cycle parts and a Triumph Twin engine. In Europe, Harley-Davidsons
were not at all plentiful with the exception of military surplus WLA and WLC models, so in the early Seventies European choppers were frequently based around these as well as various British and Japanese bikes. The Triumph twin and Honda Four engines
were both popular choices. In 1972 chopper parts were being advertised by a great number of California companies. Parts were being designed and thought up all the time.
John Flanders of the Flanders company was on the road selling handlebars to motorcycle shops when the guys at Cheat'ah Choppers
asked for a specific design of handlebar that would bend right back. It became known as the 'California pullback' and
within months became Flanders' top selling handlebar of the Seventies. There was another similar design which were referred
to as 'six bend pullbacks' because the design incorporated six bends in the tubing. Such was the boom for chopper building that an Illinois-based company called SIE, who advertised as being the nation's largest distributor or custom parts and also claimed to 'ride what we sell', offered franchises to would-be chopper shop proprietors on a $2,500 minimum offer.
Other custom components gained in popularity. Gas tanks shaped like small coffins, prism and also diamond-shaped ones all appeared in advertisements, and more importantly, on bikes.
Seats soon followed the full height of sissy bars. Seats stepped by six inches or more became known as 'King and Queen'
seats. In addition, disc brake conversions, plunger frames custom exhausts, and hexagonal an octagonal section of oil tanks were all being manufactured. 'Highway pegs' were another custom component and allowed the rider to put his feet forward of the normal riding position and ride with legs outstretched forward on long
stretches of road - hence their name. Such pegs complemented the upright riding position of the chopper as compared to a stock bike. The style of custom paintwork progressed through the Seventies too. Graphics became popular
and often included panels of metal-flake paint. Murals portraying any number of scenes became fashionable and were painstakingly
applied by airbrush specialists. Popular themes for murals and included dragons, snakes and mythical characters in fantasy
scenes as well as naked and partially naked women. Perennially popular designs and variations of flames and skulls also
evolved in parallel with the newer styles. As the popularity of choppers increased exponentially a number of enthusiast magazines were launched - Chopper, Street Chopper, and Custom
Chopper in 1970, and then Easyriders in June 1971. While several came and went, others went from strength
to strength. Easyriders is still being published and Street Chopper evolved into Hot Bike,
and still being published. The specific chopper magazines were the first regular publications to chronicle the development of ideas and trends within chopper building circles.
The widespread US and international distribution also meant that fashions would no longer remain localized. From the
pages of a magazine it was possible, by looking closely at featured bikes, reading how-to features, and by mail ordering parts
from advertisers to build a chopper almost anywhere. Yet another publication that soon became highly regarded was the Jammer's Handbook. Mil
Blair was the man behind D&D but later changed the company name to Jammer Cycle, and with Joe Teresi and Lou Kimzey, produced
a series of Jammer's Handbooks. These were a combination of feature bikes, technical features and parts catalog.
They contained parts for Harleys, British and Japanese bikes and were published annually. As early as 1975, Jammer Cycle
Products were able to say the following in their advertising: 'We've been around a long time - since back when chopper
was a dirty word - and we plan on being around for a long time to come.' This section of an advert hints at how reviled
choppers were by some people. Jammer stayed in business until 1993 and it is hard to underestimate the influence which their
handbooks had on chopper builders simply through making parts available. In 1976, for example, the company reprinted their first three hand books as
one 160-page volume which listed 2000 product lines.
What is immediately evident from the magazines
that chronicle the Seventies is that the desire to be different meant that some choppers were gaudy and features everything to excess. In some ways they were almost a parody of the purity that had gone before.
By the mid-Seventies even the psychedelic had become the mainstream and many parts were being manufactured to be different
for the sake of being different rather than how the finished components looked. With hindsight, other components appear
ugly as a result of the manufacturing technology then available, especially where new technology existed but could not be
applied sufficiently well to retain the graceful lines of older style parts. However, at the time these parts were considered
avant garde. Square section girder forks, candy twist steel springer forks, and spoked Invader wheels that
were assembled with a minimal number of square section tubular spokes were all fashionable items but would now be considered
dated. Many of the smaller chopper components were tacky including Maltese Cross mirrors and tail lights as well as sissy bars that incorporated bayonets, swastikas, or
peace signs and Nazi Eagle tail lights. The fashion for swastikas and Iron Crosses came from the 'One-Percenters' who
wore World War II souvenirs a part of outlandish dress styles in order to shock citizens, as the non-biking public were disparagingly
referred to. It invariably worked, although later a few white power elements did become evident within the biker community,
as they are in any other large segment of society drawn from those with varying backgrounds and outlooks. There were, of course, many exceptions to the lack of taste
in some Seventie's choppper components and it was possible to build a righteous ride. With more than two decades of hindsight it is clear that the choppers
that do no appear gaudy and tasteless - even though they are clearly dated - are those that have long flowing lines rather
than clumsy angular ones. Two distinct styles evolved. As well as choppers with long forks, a long, low, super-extended bike became popular in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early Seventies.
The style developed by Arlen Ness, Ron Simms and others in Northern California and became popular all over the USA and beyond.
By the mid-Seventies there were two distinct styles: the low slung look popularized by the likes of Denver's Choppers, and
the Nor-Cal Frisco Ness style. The latter style was based around short front ends, diamond backs, drag bars, and strutted tails. Of these main components, diamond tanks were faceted steel gas tanks,
drag bars were almost straight, and flat handlebars and strutted tails were swingarm frames with the shock absorbers replaced by chromed steel struts which effectively made them rigid. The length of the strut
determined how low the bike would ride. Many of these low riders and diggers used Sportster engines because it was possible to build a slimmer bike than if the bigger 74 cubic-inch Harley V-Twin engine was used. Certain components were designed especially fro these bikes, the flathead frame and Bay Area springers being
just two examples. The hard-head frame was a section of frame that incorporated a steering head that required welding
into a stock frame and had the effect of both altering the rake and lengthening the frame. The Bay Are springers were
a slender version of Harley's springer forks that when used on such a bike enhance the slim, almost delicate lines.
A third component designed for these low riders was a glass fiber rear fender designed by Arlen Ness. It was minimal
but incorporated a mounting for the rear light. The second style of chopper from the era was the rigid framed machine with long forks, a small gas tank on the top tube, long pullback bars, possibly a tall sissy bar and a stepped seat. Often on both styles the tank and
frame were mounted so that angles were smoothed out with bondo and show bikes of both kinds featured sculptured components.
Some components went far beyond what was at all practical. One such item was rigid forks. These were simply chromed tubes and
while they made a chopper's front end look clean and uncluttered they would not have enhanced handling. The only suspension they offered was in the flexing
of the tubes. Because of the informal nature of the chopper rider's world and the casual way choppers have evolved and fashions have developed new styles, it isn't possible to pinpoint exact dates when a particular type of
chopper was no longer being built. There is generally more of a gradual shift from one style to another so that, for example,
the distinctions between the late Sixties and early Seventies is indistinct. However, it is possible to differentiate,
at a glance, between bikes from opposite ends of the decade, such was the ever-evolving process. External factors, including
the changing motorcycle market in the USA, were amongst the reasons for this. In 1969 there had been a considerable
amount of intense negotiation and Harley-Davidson was bought by AMF - American Machine and Foundry. This group was a huge conglomerate that owned a variety of leisure and industrial companies.
AMF took control of Harley-Davidson on January 7, 1969. It was not an entirely happy marriage and led to a strike over
job losses, quality control problems and all the other symptoms of dissatisfied industry. Despite these problems, the
early Seventies were boom years for motorcycle sales and the AMF-controlled company upped production enormously. In the long term, this was to compound quality control problems but
this was not immediately evident. AMF is frequently criticized for their ownership of Harley-Davidson and the way they ran things but it is now generally accepted
that if AMF had not bought Harley-Davidson in 1969 the company would not have survived. The Seventies were the era of the new generation
of Japanese superbikes and AMF began to consider withdrawing from the Harley-Davidson operation. As the decade wore on the percentage-share of the
market enjoyed by Harley-Davidson was declining in the face of ever-increasing numbers of Oriental imports to the USA.
Unreliability, caused by quality control problems, ensured that Harleys were only bought by the dedicated few and in many
cases the factory bikes were seen for what they could be rather than what they were. This was compounded by the success
of the factory Super Glide models which was also to have a bearing on the styles of choppers to come. Choppers began to seriously diversify in the mid-Seventies; as well as the varying low rider and long forked
styles, there was a less obvious but possibly more important divergence. Show bikes were becoming less and less like
ridable street bikes and ever more extravagant so a style of chopper began to emerge designed for riding. The successful formula incorporated a mixture of factory-manufactured Harley parts
such as engine, transmission and maybe forks and frame, with a combination of custom parts from companies such as Jammer and
Paughco (perhaps the tank, frame, forks, and saddle). The custom bikes that were the result were usually Panhead or Shovelhead-powered choppers using rigid or swing arm frames and telescopic or springer forks. When finished with a combination
of smaller parts from either custom suppliers or OEM parts this ensured considerable diversity in the appearance and detail
finished choppers, albeit after a certain general style. In 1979, as the decade drew toward its close, Drag Specialties was supplying
many of the custom components to build a chopped Harley. Their adverts claimed that they were the No. 1 motorcycle accessory
leader in the world with over 9000 dealers worldwide. In the same year Jammer was offering items such as belt primary
drive conversions and stamped steel custom wheels that bolted to a hub assembly. In later years this type of wheel would
be machined from billet alloy. The overall style of the ridable chopper was reflected in the factory's successful Super Glide models. These in their component form, can be considered as a Shovelhead engine in a swingarm frame with a telescopic front end, minimal fenders and other cycle parts. This combination of parts was available through use of an AMF Harley and a number of custom components. Various FX models were built and sold throughout the Seventies including the decidedly custom-looking FXS Low Rider of 1977. This machine incorporated shorter forks with a greater rake, cast wheels and a fatbob gas tank. A crinkle finish black Shovelhead engine and silver paint tank and fenders completed the custom look. With ersatz choppers rolling off the factory's assembly lines and selling off the dealer's showroom floors, the chopper entered the Eighties with something of an identity crisis.
|
|
