HARLEY DAVIDSON PANHEAD ENGINE DRAWING - ART POSTER A2 SIZE
Description
A quality gloss art print of the iconic Harley Davidson Panhead engine. A2 size 420mm wide by 560mm high approx.
Apologies for POOR Photographs - posters are in excellent condition - NEW
Named for the distinct pan-like rocker covers, this engine first came into being in 1948, having been inspired by the previous generation of Harley Knucklehead engines that were used during the war. Its designers kept the knucklehead's transmission and bottom-end crank.
The first Panhead—or model FL, available in both 61- and 74-cubic-inch models—arrived in dealers’ showrooms in 1948, just in time to be a major part of the postwar motorcycle boom. A generation of young servicemen had grown up on the battlefield, some of them having ridden Harley’s WLA 45-inch military model in combat. Though slow as molasses, the big, low-powered twin captured the imagination of many of the soldiers who rode it, while stirring pangs of jealousy in many of the foot-slogging infantry.
When the war was finally over, the GIs came back to a rapidly improving national highway system. The new riders had the income to pursue touring and leisure on two wheels, and the desire to do it on Harley-Davidsons.
Throughout the Panhead’s 18-year existence, oil pumps and bearing sizes were almost continually uprated, due to the serpentine oil passageways of the FL and the ever-increasing power demands being placed on Big Twins. By 1960, claimed output was up to 60 horsepower. These upgrades, together with the changes necessary to accommodate electric starting, meant that the Panhead used six different crankcases over its lifespan.
But the year in which electric starting first appeared, 1965, also was the Panhead’s swan song. The leaner, more-powerful Shovelhead would replace it in 1966.
In the Sixties, the ready availability of used Panheads was a boon for the chopper movement. Indeed, the Pan’s greatest fame would come as a chopper, as the “Captain America” bike in the movie Easy Rider.
HARLEY DAVIDSON PANHEAD