Seeing Ghosts
SEEING GHOSTS
OBSESSION TAKES many shapes. For master pattern-maker Mike Hanlon, it came in the form of the 1910 Harley-Davidson Silent Gray Fellow.
“About 7 years ago, I wanted really badly to have a board-track racer to display in my shop,” says Hanlon. “My company is Mean Street Products and we build forks for custom bikes. I’ve been making molds my entire life.” The fork business seems to have been pretty good for Hanlon, as his products have been used by many high-line custom builders, including Orange County Choppers,
Bourget, Redneck Engineering and more.
But obsession drives a man, and so rather than just sit back and keep cranking out forks, Hanlon started the Timeless Motor Company (www.timeless motorcompany.com) to reproduce for sale his own versions of the old Singles.
With his expertise in making molds for castings, Hanlon made the parts himself in his Texas shop.
“I built the motor and just let it sit,” he says. “Then a couple
of years ago the board-tracker craze got started where every Harley custom builder wanted to make one. That lit my fire again so I finished the tooling for the rest of the bike. Half the castings are investment cast-lost wax-the other half are sand cast.” Frame is fabricated from steel using brazing and TIG welding. The leather sprung seat is a Troxel reproduction.
The drive pulleys are lined with leather to properly engage the leather belt. The carburetor is all bronze, and the bike features original-style clincher rims and white button-tread tires.
“All the rubber items-handgrips, foot pedals, tires-are in our molds and our tooling,” says Hanlon. “Nothing on this bike is bought from a catalog; everything had to be made. Only a handful of nuts and bolts are from the hardware store.”
All the control cables are
internal, just like on the original bike. The split tanks-one for oil, one for gas-are cast aluminum. All the fittings are polished brass and are a precision machine fit.
How authentic is it? “That engine only had a pushrod to the exhaust valve,” says Hanlon of the 30-cubic-inch engine. “The intake valve was atmospheric. This is exactly how we made it, with no new designing or improvement.” While the frames have serial numbers, no street equipment is supplied with either the racer or old-style street version.
“They are being sold for collector use only,” Hanlon insists. “They have 1910 technology.”
Nonetheless, Hanlon is ready for production of the $10,995 Classic Streetbikes and $9995 Boardtracker. “I have 1000 of those tires in stock, 2000 rims, everything is ready to go.”
-Mark Hoyer
