Anyone want a Harley-Davidson?

[Vermin_King]

Excellent tutorial. Thank you

[cdavenport]

I agree, excellent tutorial!

[motorcyclemodeler]

I'm away a couple of weeks, and what do I found??
You are almost finished!!
Nice to see you have advance so much.
Keep up the excellent work.!!!
Best Regards...

[AlanG]

Hi Edgardo, good to see you back. I'm afraid "nearly finished" might be putting it a bit too strongly. The bulk of the model is now there, but there are lots of small bits and pieces still to do, and these seem to take just as long as the major parts.

The saddle is a case in point. I have lots of pictures to go on, but most are of restorations, and they are all different!

examples.jpg

[The centre pic is from a 1911 H-D advertisement, and gives us some hint, though there is a certain amount of artistic licence to be accounted for.] The main authentic characteristics seem to be the sweeping lower edge of the saddle side and the rather odd springing at the back. The rear of the saddle rests on two coned compression springs, the bottoms of which are attached to the bottom of a pair of cylindrical tension springs by a long rod. Then the tops of the tension springs are fixed to the frame.

It took quite a while to come up with something that looked reasonable yet had some chance of being makeable, and then developing the shapes. Putting it together turned out to be the easy bit, but in all it has taken over a week for just a tiny bit.

sadd01.jpg

I cheated with the rods linking the two sets of springs, and used pins. The heads serve to suggest the bolts holding them together.

sadd02.jpg sadd03.jpg

sadd04.jpg

As a cyclist I must say that the steeply-sloping saddle looks pretty uncomfortable, but maybe it's not so bad when you don't have to pedal.

Alan

[eatcrow2]

Very realistic looking seat I think.. Love the way this is all coming together.

[Zathros]

Originally Posted by eatcrow2

Very realistic looking seat I think.. Love the way this is all coming together.

It sure does, but since you only pedal to start, and the seat is adjustable, I imagine the size of the rider had a lot to do with it.

This is sure a beautiful model. I don't think anyone could or would begrudge any error due to lack of information.

[AlanG]

Originally Posted by Zathros

I don't think anyone could or would begrudge any error due to lack of information.

Ah, but it's not you lot that bothers me. Could I forgive myself for any gross mistakes?

Alan

[cdavenport]

That spring arrangement went on to further development & use on future Harleys. You see it quite a bit in the rigid frame designs. Until they came up with softails and smoother suspensions, that spring design was the most effective way to isolate the rider from shock.

It's actually quite ingenious when you think about it. The seat is suspended between two spring systems. Though it floats somewhat freely, it is still locked into place.

[AlanG]

Originally Posted by cdavenport

That spring arrangement went on to further development & use on future Harleys. You see it quite a bit in the rigid frame designs. Until they came up with softails and smoother suspensions, that spring design was the most effective way to isolate the rider from shock.

It's actually quite ingenious when you think about it. The seat is suspended between two spring systems. Though it floats somewhat freely, it is still locked into place.

Yes, the twin-spring saddle rear suspension continued for some time, but a significant change happened in 1912, with the next model after mine.

Before 1912, the saddle frame was mounted rigidly on the main frame, in conventional cycle manner, and the twin springs at the rear were connected "in series", giving a soft ride with a long throw. In 1912, H-D introduced the Ful-Floteing (sic) seat, in which the saddle post slid within the frame rear tube, constrained by internal springs. This took care of the majority ot the motion, so the saddle mount now needed to be stiffer. The configuration was changed so that the springs operated "in parallel", each being fixed at one end to the saddle and at the other to the frame.

comparison.jpg

In time the external springs were dispensed with, relying entirely on the Ful-Floteing mechanism until H-D finally caught up with other manufacturers and provided proper rear-end springing with the Softail.

There is a delightful advertisement for the 1912 development:

advert.jpg

I love the damning-with-faint-praise feel of the slogan. One can't imagine a modern copywriter coming up with that.

Alan

[rmks2000]

Really enjoying the history on these bikes.