Hi Kentuckydave - welcome to our little forum.

I'm glad to see you and your wife got it together, finally.

Ride often and safe,
Hack

 

welcome KYDave. Thanks for sharing your story here. While not familiar with riding a trike I sure do admire there looks. Most look like that have great on board storage.

I have recently upgraded to a sidecar bike so as to have a riding partner (my wife) with me all the time and for long distance comfort for her and got grand kids now too. After 30+ years of 2 wheels I took ther plunge. I only have a couple thousand miles so far on it as it was a recent purchase. Looking forward to a photos of your when you get the time. Mine is back on the thread some where called "What does your rig look like?"

Thanks again for dropping in and come on back when you can stay longer.

 

Thanks for the WELCOME!

Does anyone have any experience with raked triple trees? Do they make much of a difference in the steering of a trike?

I would like to take some of the "scrub" out of our trike if I could. Its great to ride but after a couple of hours of real twisties up in the mountains, it pulls on the old arms. I have heard that you can get 2 degree trees and they make steering easier.

kydave

 

hey dave, i experienced similar problems when i was doing my conversion. i ended up going with 7 degree trees and +4 over tubes. this took care of any squirelly handling problems. it rides straight and true, now!

grimm

 

Not a necessity, just enjoy it.

 

Oh man, that's one sweeet Servicar you have there.
I want one!

 

That servie is beautiful.[sm=americanasmiley.gif]

 

That service car must be a 58, I had the same emblem and paint job on a 85 FXRP, Tank was black over white. I was at York one day and one of the old HD CEO's saw the bike and told me , some one found a bunch of those emblem back in a warehouse, so on a certain few bikes in 85 they put the emblem on, Since the number were the same but reversed. it was the same when back doing WW2 they made war stuff for the army at York before HD to over the York plant, these ammo cans were up in the ware house so back 80 Thur ?? they put them on the soft tails as tool kits. Well just a bit of HD history I picked up.

 

Thank you for your kind words. I have never seen a servi-car that I didn’t like. They are all a thing of beauty in my minds eye, even when in a pile of parts and milk crates off in the corner of the shop. Like looking at a young child, all you can see is the potential, even when you know darn well what a rotten troublesome thing that they can be!

Yes, it is a 1958.

Interesting history, grumpa. I love that stuff, thanks for the telling of it. You wouldn’t happen to remember which CEO it was that you met that day, do you? To the best of my knowledge; the 1957- 58 Big Twin’s and the 1958 Servi-car’s were badged a little differently, had distinct and separate part numbers and neither one come cheap anymore if they are NOS and not repops. The servi-cars as you stated were badged with black banner emblazoned with silver lettering on a silver background. The Big Twins, however, being otherwise alike had a gold background and not silver as was indigenous only to the servi-car, and then only, in 1958 model year whereas the BIG Twins were badged alike for both 1957 & 58. (See Palmer below and also photos)

“1957-58 Last Year Features (Big Twin) 1957-58 round plastic name plates. 1958 Only Features (Servi-car) Black and silver plastic name plate. (How To Restore Your Harley-Davidson, Bruce Palmer III; 1994-Motorbooks Pub., page 620.{ISBN-13: 98-0-87938-934-5}.)”
http://aa-ok.com/HDGallery58up.htm
http://aa-ok.com/HD/58i.jpg
http://www.45restoration.com/45restoration/detail.asp?product_id=61773-58
http://www.chopperscycle.com/page/VTS/PROD/47-351/34033
http://*******.com/6le9ht

Here is another Big Twin eBay repop http://*******.com/5paw4k

FROM: GEORGE'S WORLD WIDE ANTIQUE MOTORCYCLE TRADER
27. rwachlin@charter.net message: 1ea.NOS 1957-1958 Big Twin Fender tip kit. Includes Fender tip side spears mounting hardware and instructions. In original HD box. Very rare and impossible to find.1700 obo. 1ea.NOS 1957 tank badge emblem. In original HD package. Very hard to find. $600 obo. Would prefer to sell together as a package.Will sell discounted as a package. These are NOS parts and are a must for someone restoring a 100 point restoration. These are not the reproductions made during the early ninties by Eagle Iron. Maybe?... the only 57-58 NOS Fender tip kit in existance!
Big Twin Number 1957-1958 (OEM #61773-58T)
Big Twin

 

AA-OK Servi-car and many other galleries are located here. If you haven't seen it you might want to take a look, Great web based photo gallery http://aa-ok.com/HDPhotoGalleries.htm

Also (not near as good as AA-OK but interesting flickr gallery) http://www.flickr.com/photos/servicar/