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A Little Information About The FXS Lowrider Shovelhead...

The Shovelhead engine was the third Hareley-Davidson overhead valve engine design since the first in 1936. When introduced, it boasted a 10-percent increase in power over its Panhead predessors, thanks to its new and improved "Power-Pac" cylinder heads. It was manufactured from 1966 to 1984, and earned its name from the shape of the rocker box covers. The first Shovelheads were 1200cc (74cid) V-twin powerplants with hydraulic valve lifters. In the middle of 1979 it was increased to 1340cc (80cid). All in all, Harley-Davidson produced over 380,000 of these Shovelhead engines before they were finally discontinued in 1984.

Notice which bike Harley-Davidson decided to use when they started advertising their "new" fashionable up-and-coming line of biker clothes back in the '70's. Ya know, if that guy was just a little more handsome, he'd look almost like me!

When I bought my Lowrider it looked pretty much like the one above except it had the black panel and gray paint scheme, and the previous owner put a set of dual staggered exhaust pipes on it. It also smoked like a chimney while idling (actually, more like a bon fire) and it looked like someone had left it in their back yard for a couple of years while throwing beer bottles and taking pop shots at it from time to time with a high powered pellet gun. Still, even with the dents, rust and bad valve seals, the bike had potential for someone wanting a fixer upper, and for $4500 I wasn't going to bitch too much. I had to pull the motorcycle all the way down to the frame just to sand down all the rust and prep everything for repainting. I had no idea at the time this was going to turn out to be what seemed like an annual ritual...

The picture below was taken in '96 after changing to a WideGlide setup with late model rotors, calipers, and 16" front wheel. The FatBoy style fender is missing off the front because I had crashed and burned a couple of weeks before in Daytona at Bikeweek. The tank on the other side is caved in pretty bad as well. Luckily I was able to go to the Daytona area swap meets and purchase used pegs, headlight, handlebars, left side turn signals, and primary clutch derby for under $150. The accident happened Sunday afternoon but the ol’ lady and me were riding again by Wednesday morning. Of course, we probably looked pretty strange riding around Daytona with stitches hanging out of Rene's lower lip as she carried my brand new Eckerd crutches everywhere we went...

Later that summer I repainted the Lowrider with the design you see below. I was already thinking about selling it in the future, so I went with the most sought after car colors instead of my personal preferences of teal or green. I got a heck of a lot of compliments on it and was probably it's biggest selling pont in the end. I sold the bike in October of '98 for $9300 on a Monday night, and by the following Friday morning I'd found a FatBoy in California (via Cycletrader Online) that would become my current daily cruiser...

Specifications, Upgrades & Modifications to my '79 Lowrider (at the time I sold it)... Everything Else That Was Chrome... Last But Not Least...

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