All this Knucklehead needed was a little TLC, a little gas and two kicks.
Speaking of “character” in a motorcycle, the thing I like best about this video is listening to the lovely throb from that knucklehead engine, either at idle or at speed. I wonder what levels of vibration the rider felt, especially at freeway speeds? Makes me wish HD still manufactured a comfortable, durable, good-cruising 61ci knucklehead.
That’s an 80 yr old machine. To put it in perspective, eighty years before this bike was manufactured was 1856 and that was before the Civil War, The thing is ancient and not just a whole lot different from current air cooled V twin Harleys The original engine design was good enough that it could be kept and just refined over the years yet perform as well as many more modern designs.
Beautiful bike Jay. You have great taste, I think the knuckle is Harleys most beautiful bike with the Kmodel real close. Thank you for living the dream and sharing it !
The knucklehead is a retronym used by enthusiasts to refer to a Harley-Davidson motorcycle engine, so named because of the distinct shape of the rocker boxes. The engine is a two-cylinder, 45 degree, pushrod actuated overhead valve V-twin engine with two valves per cylinder. It was the third basic type of V-Twin engine used by Harley-Davidson, replacing the Flathead-engined VL model in 1936 as HD’s top-of-the-line model. The engine was manufactured until 1947 and was replaced by the Panhead engine in 1948. The Knucklehead-engined models were originally referred to as “OHVs” by enthusiasts of the time and in Harley’s official literature; the nickname arose from the California chopper culture of the late 1960s.
As the design of Harley-Davidson engines has evolved through the years, the distinctive shape of the valve covers has allowed Harley enthusiasts to classify an engine simply by looking at the shape of the cover. The knucklehead engine valve covers have contours resembling knuckles on a person’s fist that give the knucklehead its name.
