Friday, March 23, 2012

Million mile Harley...




3 comments:

  1. That is one historical Harley! I salute Dave Zien for never giving up on his passion. In spite of being in a motorcycle accident and losing part of his leg, he still continued his love for riding. It’s actually cool how he rode his three-wheel Harley.

    Regards,
    Clare Westby

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  2. About the 1-Million Mile FXRT Some little know facts about Zien’s FXRT and the wear and tear of a million miles.

    The bike has original fenders, gas tank, oil tank, triple tree, handlebars, primary and tranny case (the main shaft is original but the gears have all been replaced).

    There is no kill switch on the bike (ok, for the newbie bikers, that’s the on/off switch) No kickstand (he had to lean the bike on curbs, against trees, etc) No neutral or oil lights, tachometer doesn’t work, no horn and the odometer worked but the speedometer arm was broken so he guessed at speeds.

    He had the motor rebuilt 10 times, with a remanufactured motor being installed last October in Yuma, Arizona at Bobby’s Territorial Harley-Davidson. The bolts holding the lower cases together had metal fatigue and have tyme serts holding them in.

    The bike utilizes a roach clip jumper cable system from battery to coil for hard to start cold mornings. It has as an auxiliary 6-gallon fuel cell with John Deere petcocks to increase mileage on his endurance rides. On one leg of this journey he ran 31,000 miles in 31 days for another record.

    The transmission was overhauled three days before his last leg ride to Florida. Due to excessive pressure buildup, the primary was drilled and vented one week before the final leg journey. Although the bike has a kick peddle, Zien uses a Phillips screw driver, which he inserts into a hole drilled in his starter, to bring the beast to life.

    The bike has seen 105 rear tires and 65 front tires, 17 stators, 9 seats and Zien has worn out 13 pairs of engineer boots

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    Replies
    1. Aaaannd, it is currently housed at the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum in Sturgis, South Dakota, which is where I took these photos! Thanks for stopping by!

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