From Arlen Ness a new air filter option for your customization project. Conceived to provide a leading edge design to change the look and performance of your bike.
The kit includes an aluminum double barrel outer cover, an aluminum radius inlet backing plate, pre-oiled hi-performance air filter and all necessary hardware. Available in chrome or powder coated black wrinkle finish. Price: $249.95. Arlen Ness Online Store.
Yeah, hey Arlen, how’s it going? Good to see your still in the parts biz.
Speaking of tha parts Biz……….. what’s up with S.T.D over in Chatsworth?
I’ve heard they closed shop?
Some people were saying that their Pan cylinder heads never had steel star inserts webbed into the head like OE……. and that the 7/16 head bolts torqued into aluminum! That can’t be good.
On the other side of the Hudson, I’ve been told recently that V-Twin’s® spigot exhaust replica Pan heads have problems with the valve seats being cocked and some other mechanical problems.
Wow. Bummer……………. dude.
Too bad Accurate Engineering can’t buy out S.T.D…………… that Berry Wardlam guy that owns Accurate is some kind of engineer. Anything they come in contact with always leaves their shop as re-manufactured to OEM specs or better.
STD is now owned by Australian Motorcycle Imports (AMI) who are in the process of restructuring the company.
Congratulations and best to them.
I think history has proven that the import duties the USA levies on other countries is usually the factor that ruins business in the long run.
I can’t think of any countries outside of the USA that make aftermarket Harley parts and import them into the USA.
There’s an aftermarket Knuckle casting and frame company in Australia that has/had a partnership with S&S but I haven’t heard whether they’ve still a supplier.
I’m still reeling from the fact that the STD spigot exhaust heads never had steel, star head bolt insets webbed into the heads. Wow. How could you sleep at night if you were the manufacturer waiting on call-back complaints? 🙂
OH… ok. I appreciate the information states above, but how the HELL does that have ANYTHING to do with the listing for the Double barrel air filter?
As always, Arlen makes great products.
Stick to the subject line guys. geez.
Kirk Perry “I can’t think of any countries outside of the USA that make aftermarket Harley parts and import them into the USA.”
How about just about all of them. China , Thailand, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Korea, RoC, Australia, Japan, Canada, India, Mexico from the top of my head.
I forgot to specify 1936-1959 OHV Big Twin repop parts only.
Of the countries listed, the only mfgrs. that make complex parts for Knuckle & Pans are probably Aus. and maybe Canada. I think the Netherlands mfgrs. make mostly 45 and a few Big Twin parts maybe, but mostly the little 45. The import tax works for other countires now, that the dollar is worth as much as a Moroccan dirham. Sometimes the dollar exchange is the lure for new start-ups. Foreign Parts mfgrs. can end up taking a hit with the dollar rate favors the USA, probably in about 5 years, which is when new start-ups are finally rolling. The import duties and banking on a favorable dollar exchange rate can sometimes be a trap.
Australia’s casting and frame mfgr. is about the only company that makes anything Knuckle or Pan outside of the USA.
Imo, Harley-Davidson began making motorcycles in 1936 and stopped devleoping the OHV when the motor was perfected in 1958. Harley-Davidson went out of business at the end of 1959 and stayed out of the motorcycle business entirely until 1975, when fate drew the engineers to “force-create” the (34006-74) [cast] shifter cam for the FX (because they poked the shifter arm through both primary covers).
H-D stayed in business until E79 and then closed their doors, but left a mechanical connection with that FX shifter cam that immediately ties Harley-Davidson to ocean surfing (i.e; un-weighting in a curve with a rocker clutch and forward to back – jockey shift pattern. It’s a duplicate-able mechanical assembly. Wish I could explain it better. Not easy.)
There’s push-button electric start Harley’s, but they are not the type of motorcycle that you drive. Those beasts drive you.
There is a difference, but you wouldn’t know it unless you owned a Knuckle or Pan or something old and nimble with 18″ rims.
All of the other countries mentioned (like China and India, etc.) are “jobber countries”, where V-Twin® and Eastern® order from. There are no Knuckle & Panhead mfgrs. (of complex assemblies – heads, crankcases and the like in those countries. Only jobbers.)
You know what the minimum 6V, H-2 style battery order is from India?
250,000. batteries and you hope they don’t leak at the top seam.
Arlen doesn’t care if we use his New Parts Topic to talk about the industry. He’s a mellow guy. I met him at a club gathering in Felicita Park in 1991 with (Lakeside) Bill Hawhawout who first built my ’59 Pan from a junker.
Arlen was sandwiched in like a sardine, at a picnic table that was butt to butt with Hamster® admirers of his, (but they weren’t wearing their yellow shirts that day). It was a fun time. My ’59 started on the first kick in from of all those guys at the park, and I rode off very slowly, with both feet on the footboards, across the grass and down the glen.
Arlen later signed a copy of his book and sent it to me through (m/c artist and Hamster® logo-er, Jim Waggaman.) Thanks, it’s in our library.
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My suggestion to AMI in Oz, is to:
• Create a true replica of the 1958 Panhead, with a cutout in the lower three fins of the front cylinder so a person can lift the timer out (with the base turned “cut-out side” to the fins). And, end that “taking the head off to get the timer out” madness forever-more. Accurate has the Bridgeport mill coordinates. They gave then to me for Stett to use.
I can give them to you, or you can contact them yourself.
• Web the steel star 7/16 inserts into the head like Harley did.
• Web the valve seats into the head like Harley did.
• Make the first product, the 0-ring Linkert intake Panhead. {There are jillions of 1-1/2″ M74-B Linkerts still out there. More can be, and have been made, repop in the Netherlands.
• Sell the heads for a lot of money.
• Re-creating a ’55-57 Panhead should cost someone 35K just for the un-assembled parts.
• If I needed a set of replica Panheads, I’d pay whatever it costs (and have along with everybody else at one time or another) to get a set of un-leaded heads that I knew I could bolt on and go with.
• I’d line up suppliers for all the parts it took to make a replica 1957 Panhead, and send your customers a parts list of parts suppliers that can fill their punch list, and not be “bottle-necked from commerce” by having a set of necessary ’54-59 handlebars back-ordered for two years.
• Call Accurate Engineering if you need help with something. You might be able to ship unfinished parts duty-free from Oz, if Accurate finishes them in Alabama.
• Call key manufactures on your parts list BEFORE you invest in making parts, and find out that nobody can get ’54-59 handlebars, or whatever else may be missing from the list of parts essentials – and might take YEARS to get back in stock. A 1957 is the most valuable and fun to ride motorcycle in the world.
Corbin/Delaware makes a stronger frame than Harley-Davidson® could make in 1957.
I wouldn’t invest a nickle in anything…. without paying a market analyst checking your suppliers fill-rate percentages and make projections about “bin re-stock timetables”. Not in 2009 I wouldn’t.
I would be building rolling 1957 chassis if I had ’54-59 handlebars. There aren’t anymore ’54-59 speedster bars Bud. And nobody knows if there ever will be.
The second product I’d make is “nothing” that anyone else like S&S already makes. So make no other product. Replica 1958 Pan heads or nothing, imo.