This site is dedicated to the construction of a 1942 (mostly) Harley-Davidson WLA 45" Flathead that my son, Kade, and I built together.  Construction was from the frame up, starting with a bare frame, most of the engine parts in a box, and a few pieces of sheet metal so its been an interesting journey starting in the fall of 2002.

After acquiring most of the parts and getting it 90% together, it sat untouched throughout 2004 and half of 2005.  One of the big hang-ups was the fabrication of the belt drive motor pulley.  After finally getting it made we put it on, put gas in it, kicked it a couple of times, it fired, and it ran like it just returned from the tune-up shop and had been running all it's life... no adjustments, no tweaking, perfect!  That was June 17, 2005.

The objective was to take one of the world's most classic bikes and blend the old with the new to create a one of a kind motorcycle that's just plain fun to ride, cool to look at, and gives us endless stories to talk about.   We used many new reproduction or NOS parts to keep the old-school look and feel while adding some new-school touches.

This bike cost far more in time, money, and patience than either of us expected, but it was... and is a heck of a nice bike and we had a hell of a lot of fun in the process.  Kade has become quite the machinist, painter, and upholsterer and really did an outstanding job with all the different aspects of this bike.  Thanks to the folks who still sell parts for this thing... we've come to know them well.

All in all, it turned out to be exactly what we wanted... A motorcycle classic, a head turner, a conversation piece, and a super fun, dependable bike to ride.

Documents

Michigan Motorcycle Operators Manual

Harley-Davidson Technical Manual, War Department October 1943 (5.3mb)

Harley-Davidson Service Manual Servicar and SV (28mb)

Comments/Questions