Barn find, A Harley Softtail Deuce

[Pittsdriverwes]

I came home this weekend with a barn find I was never looking for. My wife's cousin dropped his Harley in a low speed spill and rode it home unhurt. He had to promise his family he'd never throw his leg over another murdercycle so he parked it in his barn 5 years ago and it hasn't moved.



That's a 2006 Softtail Deuce buried under all that barn dust and sporting a couple of flat tires. I brought it home and did a wash job on it to see what I'm dealing with. A few broken parts: front brakes on the bars, a signal, and a lot of scuffed up shiny stuff from the slide it took but over all not too bad. My plan is to replace all the broken stuff and all the fluids, new tires, new rubber lines, and see how much trouble the fuel system will be on it (it's FI).

After a quick wash:


Nosing around the bike I detected no gas in the tank. Hmmm, maybe 'cuz Angelo drained the gas before he parked it? Well dang, let's put a battery in it, check to make sure it's got enough of that 5 year old oil in it, and shoot a gallon of 100LL avgas in it (aftermarket custom exhaust with no catalysts and no O2 bungs). Son of a gun.....

https://vimeo.com/user5283475/firststart

I can't believe this thing started like it had just been parked yesterday. I took it for a gentle lap around my neighborhood (I'm sure pissing off all my neighbors with that racket) and it idles fine and pulls hard off idle with no apparent fueling problem. OK, maybe this thing won't be an all winter project after all. I'll still do all the fluids, tires, and brakes and just see if I like being an obnoxious Harley d-bag for a little while. You know, a Starbucks bad-to-the-bone poser. The 'cuz did give me all his Harley attire with the bike

After a little more polishing:

[955i]

Nice job, Wes.

[Pittsdriverwes]

I was telling my neighbor this story and he stopped me and said, "Wait a minute...her cousin dropped a deuce! Bwaaaahahaha"

[Pittsdriverwes]

I put a proper battery in it and fixed a few more things today and took it out for a fresh tank of gas. This thing runs like a new bike (or how I suppose a new HD bike should run). It pulls hard and makes all manner of grin inducing noises. I had to outrun a pretty serious t-storm to get back home but had to be careful as it still has no working front brake. Speaking of which, this is a 670 lb motorcycle with a single disc front and rear with the front wheel/tire being a 90/21" to give it that drag bike look. Carving corners, or stopping hard for that matter, are not on the ride plan for this bike. I guess it's meant for more like the lazy cruising from one biker bar to the next while attracting maximum attention. That being the case I felt it was important to send the 'cuz a photo of it in its native habitat - parked outside our local Dark Horse Saloon biker bar.




I was expecting something ugly to rehab the fuel system on this bike and it looks like I might have dodged that bullet.