In To Deep - A 1980 FLH Shovel Build Shitshow

[fadingfastsd]

I rarely do a good job of documenting anything. I'm going to try to fix that. I'm Evan, an Electrical Engineer for RM Stator (we make powersports electronics: stators, regulators, CDI's, coils, etc), and I live in Fort Collins, CO. I'm fairly obsessed with motorcycles, and like just about everything. I'd had a couple Sportsters in the past, but never really got into Harleys. I think I joined ChopCult years ago when I picked up a 1964 pan/shovel Electra Glide, but I knew nothing about them at the time. I probably have some old posts floating around from when I bought that hoss, trying to figure out what to do with it. Unfortunately, the motor was toast, it was rough, I didn't have the funds, and I ended up selling it on. Made a good profit, so I can't complain.

I finally got into Harleys a couple years ago with an 98 evo motor Dyna FXDL. Rode the shit out of it, blew it up, rebuilt it, and rode the shit out of it some more. I still felt like Harleys were kind of crappy ancient technology pieces of shit, but I finally got it. They're super rad despite all the problems, and there's just something I like about them that I don't get from other bikes. I decided I wanted something older, and it had to be a shovel. My buddy bought a 79 FLH last year, and after some miles on that, I was hooked. I sold the Dyna, and the hunt was on for a shovel FLH...

Turns out they're fairly hard to find around Northern CO, especially for a reasonable price. I didn't want to buy a bike I couldn't look over myself. So I kept looking.

Finally found what seemed to be a nice bike at the right price. It was a 1980 FLH, in Rock Springs, WY. A 9-hour round trip.

Sounded worthwhile, so I loaded up Cole Trickle, my adventure poodle, and we hit the road.


Ended up with a halfway decent bike. It looked OK from 10 feet away, ran well, and had a clean title. The seller hadn't ridden it much in years, and did no work to it. He didn't know much about any previous work to it. We went for a rip for 30 minutes, and it was not half bad, I was sold. Did the deal and hit the road.

He was a great dude, and I was and am happy with the bike for what I paid. Little did i know what all I would find with this rig.

Some pics to get started as I picked it up:








I'll keep this going as I tear it down. I'm sure I'll have tons of questions, and will show you what I'm working with and what I find on this thing. This all started about a month ago, so I'm pretty deep into it at the moment. Will catch up to current shortly!

[fadingfastsd]

And some more pics as I brought it home:

[Hubbard]

Is the black one yours?

[fadingfastsd]

Is the black one yours?

No, that's my buddies 79 that got me interested in a shovel.

Next post coming soon.