Also, I found out the Harley they are on is a '41. I'm guessing the picture was from 1942, making my grandpa 24 years old in that picture. I also believe my grandma is 21 in the picture.
But... I'm wondering how grandma rode on that bike, looks like a solo seat to me?
It's not a solo seat. It's called a "buddy" seat. I wish Harley would bring back those type seats....... updated of course like on about the 1971 model EG's.
Yup, I Googled it, and you're exactly right. Looks mighty unconfortable for the front rider, especially on long trips. It's pretty easy to see how someone thought of moving his gal back over the rear fender for more room and comfort.
It's a whole lot more fun to have your gal's legs wrapped around you on a seat like that than having her perched way back on top of the rear fender.
I had a 1950 Harley with a seat like that and that sure was a fun way of going on dates and taking girls for a ride. Even the bikes up into the 1970's had seats like that except they were a lot plusher.
If you will notice in the picture, the seat has a spring under the rear of the seat that you put up (in place) when you had a passenger on with you. Without a passenger, the spring was down (out of use). Cushioning for the rider was provided by the spring under the shaft which came up under the middle of the seat.
1 got a bunch of stuff from my parents in the 50's and 60's and 8mm footage. BW photos. No negatives. How would I go about getting them on a disk (the old BW photos) and I could share them here?
11-26-2008, 08:58 PM
