From:Tom Holter e-mail:nomadbb-A-comcast.net
Subject:RE: Bob Gets a 65 Panhead and Puts on his Big Boy Pants Date:Mon Aug 19 18:52:34 2013
Response to:711
Hey Bob, Looks like a nice bike! I am sure you will be very happy with it. Sorry I didn't get to Patriot last week, it
was raining here at 8 o'clock, and supposed to be heading that way. Glad the weather held out for everyone! Tom

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All,

Looks like the collection grew by one more this weekend. Rob White and Wuss Mueller traveled up to Fallston, MD on Saturday to look at a 1965 Electra Glide. Rob had located this bike about 6 months ago and finally talked the owner into selling it.

This is a one-owner, original paint bike with only 9,695 miles on it. Up until Saturday, we had only seen photos of the bike. (Photos can be a bit deceiving). We had heard that the bike hadn't been started in several years. That turned out to be 33 years. The bike came with the per-requisite layers of dirt and grime.

Most of the chrome was in good shape, but there were a few exceptions. The fellow had parked the bike adjacent to bag of fertilizer. Bad, Bad, Bad! The fertilizer out-gassed from the bag and ate up some of the shiny bits. Rob already came to the rescue with a vintage front bumper. I've installed it yesterday and it looks great.

The engine was just a little bit stuck when we arrived. I got pretty nervous at that point. Standing on the starter pedal resulted in absolutely no movement of the engine. We added a little squirt of WD-40 and a small amount of 30 W motor oil down each of the spark plug holes. Wuss put the bike and gear and with a little shove from Rob and me, every thing freed up. A couple more drops of oil in the front cylinder and we had good compression front and back.

We stopped for lunch and a few celebratory Margaritas on the way back to Virginia. Wuss offered a great toast, congratulating me on becoming a part of the Panhead Brotherhood. He joked that I could put on my Big Boy Pants now.

Sunday was spent cleaning up the bike and figuring out what needed to be done before we try to start the bike. (The picture shows "Dirty Bob" wearing some of the grime that came off the bike. The bikes appearance has improved vastly. Me, not so much. I'll send Dave a few more photos to post on the exchange).

Gary came over to the house on Sunday and gave me a list of things that we need to do. Wuss, Rob, Gary and I hope to get together sometime this week and get the old girl cranked up.

I want to express my great thanks to Rob for finding this bike and allowing me to be the one to purchase it. (Thanks again for the bumper. I was disheartened to see the rust caused by the fertilizer and the years of grime that had deposited itself over the whole bike. I feel a lot better now that the bike is getting cleaned up). Many thanks to Wuss for coming along and sharing his Panhead knowledge. Lastly, thanks to Gary for his advice and willingness to work with us to get the bike running.

I had a great time this weekend and look forward to many years of riding the Electra Glide. Many, Many Thanks to my Highlands Brothers. I greatly appreciate everybody's help and advice.

(If we are lucky, the Electra Glide will be ready for the Road Run in September).

Best Regards,

Bob