My past catches up with me

If you read this blog or the magazine you may have seen this bike before... the Panhead I built with my buddy Buzz when I lived in Australia. In the few years I had it, it ran strong and fast without any mechanical intervention; I had slipped the engine in to the Paughco frame from a donor bike and then adopted a 'if it ain't broke...' attitude, so never had it apart.

It was a bit of a shock therefore to buy my second Pan here and find it to be relatively gutless in comparison (before the rebuild at least) and now I know why...

The current owner of my old Aussie Pan contacted me for information on its build and by chance had talked to the bloke who'd originally built the engine; my friend Roger also knows the same bloke, Cory, who works part time at Pacific H-D in Gosford.

The engine is a '55 right side case mated to a '73 left side Shovel alternator case (this much I knew), but I've just found out the bike was running S&S stroker flywheels and oversize barrels, as well as an Andrews cam and flowed heads. Capacity was 86 cubic inches.

That explains it, then!