Beschreibung:

By the late 1940s the ‘Knucklehead’ - Harley-Davidson’s first overhead-valve twin-cylinder roadster - was beginning to show its age, prompting the Milwaukee firm to engage in a wholesale revision of the engine for 1948, the new top end giving rise to the unofficial nickname ‘Panhead’. While the engine’s bottom end remained fundamentally unchanged, the top end gained aluminum cylinder heads and those distinctive pan-shaped rocker covers. Oil lines were internalized and hydraulic valve lifters adopted, an innovation that greatly reduced tappet noise and simplified maintenance. Maximum power went up to 50bhp in the 74ci FL model, but the main advantage of the many improvements was greater reliability, a factor that could only extend the Harley’s appeal. The Panhead featured a new ‘wishbone’ frame incorporating bowed front down-tubes, and in 1949 gained a hydraulically damped telescopic front fork, becoming the ‘Hydra-Glide’, though this name was originally applied only to the fork and did not become an official model title until 1952. Harley’s big news for ’55 was the introduction of a new high-performance FL variant denoted, as usual, by an ‘H’ suffix. For the FLH, the Panhead motor was redesigned around stronger cases, producing 60 horsepower thanks, mainly, to a hike in compression ratio. The advent of rear suspension in 1958 saw the Panhead renamed ‘Duo-Glide’, while with the addition of an electric starter in 1965 it became the immortal ‘Electra Glide’. A California ‘black plate’ bike presented in stunning condition, this eye-catching Duo-Glide is equipped with a dazzling array of desirable ‘extras’, including white ‘hard shell’ panniers, and has covered only 121 miles subsequent to restoration. Without reserve