"If you want a good, reliable, classic feeling motorcycle, it's tough to beat a Sportster."
--Colorado Jeff
From the Boutique:
2 Front heads: "the Poor Man's Vincent"
by James Provencher
All this talk about two front heads made me think... I do have an article on this!!!
The article is titled "The Poor Man's Vincent: The Harlvin", by Ed Allyn, and it appears in Walneck's Classic cycle trader in April 1998, issue #170, page 102.
In a nutshell, here's what Ed did: On a 900 Fe head he mounted two front heads. the required work entailed:
- Turning the rear piston around,
- Grinding on the rear barrel to provide adequate pushrod clearance,
- Re-timing the two rear cam's. He did not buy new cams, or swap cams, simply re-timed the existing ones
- Move oil tank to other side
- Fabricate up a set of pipes and intake manifolds out of 1.5" copper pipe elbows.
Ed then changed his bike's cosmetics to make it look like a Vincent, and run's decals on the tank that say "Harlvin" which he will give to anyone does this to their sporty.
Ed Allyn Can be reached at
"ALLYN AIR CO.", 30 MILLSTREAM RD, Woodstock, N.Y. 12498
Tel: 8456792051. "Cuppy" his cat says send 3-stamps for his free catalog.
I've never dealt with Ed, but I thought I'd give him a plug for referencing his article.
