Boardtrack Emperor: 1910 Harley Racer
This 1910 Harley boardtrack racer retired much better than Nucky Thompson did on Boardwalk Empire. Both characters were fun to watch doing what they did best though: rule their respective boardtracks. I don’t know if car guy Scott Hawley is a fan of the HBO show, but he’s definitely into old iron. Usually, that means ’32 and ’33 Fords and Chevys. He’s been a car guy his whole life, but when Dave Cattalini of Roy Brizio Street Rods contacted him about an old Harley, he thought Dave meant a pan or knuckle, not anything as rare as 1910 boardtracker! Oh, yeah. Scott was interested.
By “parts” we mean “the frame and miscellaneous bits.” Not nearly enough to put the bike back together, let alone bring it back to pristine.
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Scott had three options: hunt all over human civilization for original stock parts, have a shop fabricate a bunch of one-offs, or find a shop specializing in stock reproduction parts to fill in the blanks. He didn’t have the time or patience for option one or the cash mountain for option two.
That’s why Dave contacted Timeless Motor Company in El Paso. It specializes in this sort of resto. Timeless had all of the original Harley specs and made the parts to match, including scratch-building the motor! All parts are to exact specs from the original bike.
The paint and seat? Not so much. Scott designed all the finish and paint, and that’s where the bike breaks away from its stock roots.
First off, Scott wanted it to shine. Chrome would just look wrong to him though. Nickel-plating, though, fit the bill. That’s what you see shining up the single-cylinder mill. He didn’t want a big chrome masterpiece but wanted it to pop, so a little nickel gave it the elegant sport look.
Scott also couldn’t bring himself to lay down period-correct paint. Let’s face it. Harley wasn’t exactly playing with a full pallet when it came to paint back in 1910. He’d originally settled on metallic gold, but his brain cast that notion away like an empty beer can when he saw the sample’s orange/yellow/cream pinstripe. The painter was, um, less than enthused. All throughout, the painter thought that the Orangecicle paint looked awful. Scott loved it, and since he was writing the check, that’s what really mattered. Orangecicle isn’t me trying to be clever either. Scott came up with that moniker, for obvious reasons.
The seat was a breakaway too. When Scott saw what the old seats looked like, he ruled one out immediately. The butt rest had to look good too. “I have to thank Chuck Smith,” Scott says. “And check this out: Chuck makes all of Eric Clapton’s guitar straps. The ostrich leather in the seat was leftover from a Clapton project.”
Word of Scott’s Harley got around too. When Dudley Perkins Harley-Davidson had its 100th birthday, they had him bring in the bike and put it on display for the weekend celebration.