"fixing old red" part one
march 2007

 The day is gray and cold. Snow flakes are falling, and I'm wondering if we are getting closer to  spring or winter. For my Bro Ron spring had better take its time. His FLH is spread all over his basement as I write. He blew a hole in the tranny the size of a golf ball, and now its fix-it time. Now this may sound like a piece of cake, pull the old tranny and drop the new one in. But first you have to find a new tranny. It's no easy task to find a four speed tranny for a 1970 FLH.  The only company that makes new trannys cases  for older scoots is back ordered, to and unknown date. So what do you do? Well we started our search for his tranny at our local Harley Dealer. No luck there, they only deal with new or less than four year old bikes and parts. That's one of the problems with the new and classy Harley shops of today. Its all about the new scooter sales, and not about the Harley life style. What's the Harley lifestyle you ask. Well it was kind of like the Samurai warrior and his sword. The old skool biker did not think of his bike as just a bike, No. It was an extension of his very soul. His bike was him, and he was his bike. You could date his old lady, and kick his dog, but if you touched his bike, without his permission, it could get you hurt real bad. Most of the Bros I rode with back in the day, loved and treasured their Harleys so much that they kept them inside their house. No, not in their basement, but right in the living room, or dining room. Now that's love man. And their old ladies had nothing to say about it. If they complained about the bike in the house, it was time for a new old lady. One of the things I miss about the old bike shops, is you could go in and hang out with the owners, and watch them work on bikes, and drink some beer, and shoot the breeze. The old dirty little Harley shops worked on everything, and sold parts for all models from the 1940 Harley flat head up to the new stuff. The Harley Davidson company was trying to distant itself from us outlaw biker types a while back, so they made all the dealers who could afford it to become the new and groomed HARLEY DAVIDSON MOTORCYCLE STORES. The shops who did not have the the money went under. Harley would not renew their licenses to be Harley dealers. The truth be know if it was not for us so called bad biker types, the Harley Motorcycle Company would of went the way of the Indian Motorcycle Company. Us bad guys were the only ones buying and riding Harleys back in the day. The AMF bikes had so many problems that you worked on them more than you rode sometimes. But we stood by Harley, because they were the bike made in America, and we were Americans. Nowadays Harley embraces the bad biker look, and makes millions on it, now that the look has become sheik, for all the white collar weekend warriors. Funny how the worm turns when there's money involved. Anyway back to my Bro Ron. He's going all out this year, with a new tranny. He has a great idea for some very different custom foot pegs, and some custom paint. Can't tell you right now what it is, I promised him. He wants to break it out in the spring and blow people away. Don't worry I will do and update with pictures and a story. Anyway there we are tracking down dusty, dirty, little hole in the wall Harley shops all over Connecticut looking for trannys. Nobody had any. Then we found the peril in the oyster, a guy starting up a small Harley parts shop in and old closed down gas station. He didn't even have a sign yet. The old gas station sign was still up. Man he was the only one who could help us in our search up to this point. After about a dozen phone calls, all over the country, he found Brother Ron his tranny. Ron was one happy camper, I can tell you that for sure. Anyway back to My Bro Ron He's old skool. His bike is his soul. It stands for who and what he loves in this life and stands for. To him it is only second to God.  Not to be able to ride by spring would be one of the worst things in the world that could happen to him. Harleys and riding them, are not weekend pleasures for him, but his all week pleasure. He's also old skool, in that he does most of his own repairs himself. That's kinda hard with the newer scoots, due to all the fancy tools you need to work on them. I guess the point I'm heading for here is this. Don't look down your nose at the older bikers, who ride and love their old iron. After all they were the ones who paved the Harley road for all you newbies. It was their undying love of a machine that no one else cared about, when the imports started flooding U.S. shores, that saved the Harley Company. So show us old skools a little respect, when you eye our rides.