Got Away

This here's a story of a chopper that got away before I had a chance to fully do my thing.  I picked up an '74 XLH 1000 from my buddy Rob D, Ironhead hoarder extraordinaire.  That damn thing was rough; just a crusty motor and a frame with the hard tail half-way welded on rolling a rear wheel that didn't fit the axle and a front end that had been empty for so long that the springs were completely rusted.

"BRO!  I got the thing from a shop that closed down in Texas.  But bro, hit that kicker real quick...  Nice, smooth... Great compression, huh?"

Sure as shit was.  We worked out our little trade deal, loaded her up, and brought yet another Ironhead back to the shop.  I started pulling some parts off of the shelf, playing a little bit of "chopper-dress-up,"and tried to get an idea of where I was gonna go with this one.  Since I was having to get some hustle together at the time to cover a few past transgressions with The Man, I called a friend that had been asking me to find a Harley for him.  Miles was into it, so we got going on the build.

I got the foundation laid pretty quickly.  Bent up the sissy bar, mounted the fender and oil tank, got the tank mounts welded in, and made a battery box.  Then, because we weren't on a "Get it done now," budget, the bike just kinda got moved out of the way for other projects.

Fast-forward a bit; I'm slammed with my own builds (or, more appropriately, rebuilds) and Miles has got the dirt bike bug pretty bad.  Not long after, a ripper of a motocross bike got offered up and the deal was done.  

Wherever it got off to, and whatever direction it ended up being taken, I'll never know.  All for the better, though.  Ironheads are no damn fun after that stage, anyway.