April | 2021 | The Shovel Shop

After years of lusting after a motorcycle (but drinking and drugging away any motorcycle money I might have saved) I finally got sober, got my finances together, and toddled down to the Harley shop to pick out my bike. The sales manager must have decided I wasn’t a serious prospect, because when I announced I was there to buy a bike he flapped a hand at the door to the parking lot, said ‘The used bikes are outside,’ turned on his heel and walked away.

*April 11th, 1979 to now: 42 years of true love !*

I left, naturally – damn if I was going to spend my money with an asshole like that! – but as I was driving away I noticed a Harley parked at a used car lot two doors up the street from the dealership. I called a friend of mine named Wayne Agee – an experienced chopper builder, attorney and motorcyclists’ rights activist – and he very kindly went with me to scope it out.

What we found was a 1974 Harley-Davidson FX (kickstart-only) Superglide shovelhead with 8,000 miles on the clock, box stock except for 6″ overstock fork tubes. The salesman swore it was his personal bike – a story I dismissed as sales-speak at the time, but later learned was the absolutely truth. No matter. It was a Harley-Davidson Big Twin, and the prettiest thing I’d ever seen.

*1974 FX 1200 Superglide as described in full-line sales brochure.*

I didn’t have my motorcycle license yet, so Wayne test-rode the bike for me. The price was right and he gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up, and I was sold! I went straight to my credit union to arrange financing, and the next day, April 11th, 1979, I went to take possession of my very first motorcycle. A five-minute tutorial on the machine – clutch up there, brakes here and here, shifter over there, one up and three down – and I was on my way.

*1974 FX 1200 Superglide as it appeared on April 11th, 1979, at Northwest Hills Texaco, Austin, Texas.*
*My 1963 Buick LeSabre is in the background.*

I passed a motorcycle safety course when I was in the service – a requirement if I was going to ride a motorcycle on base – and took rides on other people’s machines whenever they were dumb enough to hand me the keys, but I was basically ignorant of riding technique. Of needs, I taught myself to ride by spending every possible moment on that bike, cruising the Farm-to-Market roads that snake across the Texas Hill Country west and south of Austin. I quickly realized I was born to this life; to be in the saddle, in the wind. Nothing before or since has brought me such pleasure and peace of mind, or felt so right.

*1974 FX 1200 magazine advert. Note stylish matching helmet and brown leathers.*
*I never had either of those things.*

I began calling my shovel ‘The Bitch’ long before The Grateful Dead released the In The Dark album in 1987, but a couplet from the song ‘Tons of Steel’ describes her well:

“It’s one hell of an understatement to say she can get mean
She’s temperamental; more of a bitch than a machine!”

However, the name was given tongue-in-cheek because, even though any machine will act up one way or another, if you own it long enough, The Bitch has been a stout, faithful steed with plenty of heart and class.

*September, 1979, Labor Day Weekend Harley Drags at Little River-Academy Raceway east of Temple.* *I stripped the tank emblems (which I could kick myself for, now) and replaced the stock saddle with a* *low-ride LaPera king-and-queen. I traded the stock headlight assembly for an original Bates unit I* *found on my very first trip to Bud’s Motorcycle Shop, replaced the stock buckhorn handlebars with* *broomstick drag bars, and installed foward controls and highway pegs to accommodate my long legs.*

The Bitch has been through a lot of changes over the years. I began by turning her into stripped-down cruiser, above. Then I converted her into a fat bob, below.

*December 1979, on Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, just south of Town Lake. I still had the drag bars,* but I replaced the stock one-piece fuel tank with the more traditional-looking two-piece ‘fat bob’ tanks. These were the 3.5 gallon size commonly seen on early Police motorcycles. I loved the look, *but unfortunately, the older fat bobs were prone to cracking and leaking*. *A lapful of gasoline at 60 MPH is never a good thing, and as a result,* *I never kept a set of the original fat bobs for very long.*

Next, I built her into a version of the FL Sport – a dresser sans saddlebags and windshield – using the wide-glide forks Wayne sold me, and pieces sourced through his ‘chopper shop’ (which, as it happened, bore a striking resemblance to his law office). The photo below shows the project about halfway to completion.

*1980, at Bud’s Motorcycle Shop, 2612 East First Street, Austin, Texas,* *just before I completed the makeover to a stripped-down dresser.* *I had removed as much of the chrome trim as I could, replaced the* *3.5 gallon fat bob fuel tanks* *with a 5 gallon set, swapped the narrow* *FX front forks for the wide glide I bought* *from my friend Wayne,* and *traded the Superglide rear fender for the* *longer,* *wider* *Electra-Glide tin.* *All that was left at this point was the dresser covers* *for the rear shocks* *and the aluminum nacelle and full-sized headlight for the front.* *Then that damn rigid framed panhead showed up!*

Just about the time I finished that project, with a full aluminum headlight nacelle off an old Electra-Glide, a friend let me throw a leg over his rigid panhead, and I was in love. The rigid was so much lighter (and cleaner looking) than the stock swingarm frame, and I just had to have one.

*1980, in early winter, at Bud’s Motorcycle Shop, in front of the*
*tin building that housed Bud’s original East Austin shop/showroom/office.*

By then I was working at Bud’s Motorcycle Shop, and Bud helped me find a 1954 wishbone frame. I swapped the engine and transmission into the wishbone and slapped on some get-by fenders and fuel tank, above. Meanwhile, I sourced fresh tins for the bodyman, so I could keep riding while I got everything painted and ready to go. After some dithering around I settled on a bright blue the same color the Austin Police Department used on their cars – a close match to an original 1954 factory color Harley-Davidson named ‘Glacier Blue’.

*1980 at the Terrace Apartments off South Congress Avenue in South Austin, Texas.* *The Bitch when I first put it in the rigid frame, prior to the complete makeover I had planned for it.* *I rode it like this until I was ready to tear it down and rebuild it.* *Note how dingy the aluminum on the* *engine and front forks looks.*

I took the shovel apart, rebuilt the engine, polished every bit of smooth aluminum I could get a buffing wheel or elbow grease to, and put it all back together.

1980, The Bitch in Glacier Blue, the day I completed the makeover.
Note the shiny aluminum. That was a **lot** *of work !*

The Bitch in Glacier Blue, in the yard at Bud’s Motorcycle Shop, 2612 East First Street, Austin, Texas, where I was a proud Known Associate for over 35 years. That rear fender was from a swingarm dresser with the hinge welded shut – a concept by Dave Hobday, a fellow employee at Bud’s – skillfully executed by a body-man named Paul, who was left quadriplegic after a motorcycle wreck. Paul did the paint and body work for a number of custom builds at Bud’s shop, and in return we built him a three-wheeled shovelhead adapted to his disabilities. He later took the trike back to his home state of Massachusetts where he rebuilt it, doing most of the work himself, and did such a fine job that it ended up featured in **Easyriders** *back when that was still a rag worth reading.*

*Paul with a trike he has every reason to be proud of, featured in* **Easyriders** *January 1985 issue.*

I caught a lot of flak for that paint color the whole while the tins were hanging on the wall in my shop area, but once I put it all together I received nothing but compliments. As an added plus, I never had a car pull out in front of me the entire time I ran that color. Not once. They might not have been aware of motorcycles in traffic, but they by God noticed that cop-car blue!

*1980, enroute to a party at Lake Buchanan, shortly after I completed the*
*Glacier Blue makeover. That is the smile of one* **very** *proud bike builder!*

*1981 at Lake Brownwood, Texas, with Lea, Bill Jones and Debbie.*

*1982, a ride to the annual Black Hills Classic Motorcycle Rally at Sturgis, South Dakota, above.*

Me and my buddy, T.R., left Austin on Friday after work, and took 48 hours to ride our rigid framed shovelheads about 1300 miles, from Austin, Texas, to Sturgis, South Dakota. That averages out to a measly 27 miles an hour ! However, during that 48 hours we stopped regularly for sit-down meals, and tent-camped at the roadside both Friday and Saturday night. We also stopped at Hugo’s Harley-Davidson in Wichita that Saturday afternoon, where they kindly loaned my buddy a welder so he could repair his broken headlight bracket. Since we were in town anyway, we paid a visit to Truett & Osborn’s Speed Shop, too. Then we lost some time when I ran out of gas at sunrise on Sunday morning, and again when I had a leisurely visit with my brother’s in-laws in Kearney, Nebraska, later that morning, so I’m thinking our speed was a **little** *better than 27 MPH !*

*Below, a visit with my sister-in-law in Lusk, Wyoming, on my way back to Texas*.

1983, a ride out to see the Bluebonnets blossom. Going to see the wildflowers is an annual event in Central Texas, and the roadsides are lined with people posing their kids, dogs or, in my case, a motorcycle, amongst the the beautiful blossoms.

*1983, Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush at the roadside southeast of Austin.*

1984, Memorial Day races at Little River-Academy Raceway. I was winning my bracket until the timekeeper gave me the wrong ET card at the end of a run. I’d actually won that heat, but didn’t realize it until after the trophies were awarded. Just as well. If I’d won I probably would have been hooked on racing, and that is an expensive habit !

1984, at a scenic overlook near Kingsland, Texas. I was still a smoker, then, and deliberately trying to imitate the image of my father astride an Army Air Corp scooter at the end of World War Two. Later, without even meaning to, I did a much better job.

1945, Lincoln, Nebraska, Tom James, Army Air Corps navigator, *astride an* AAC scooter, and 1994, me at Shiprock, New Mexico, astride The Bitch. It wasn’t until years after the photo at right was taken that I realized how alike we sat our machines.

I made other changes as the years passed. I went back to black, changed fenders and tanks, ran a pogo-stick saddle and windshield for a while, added a sidecar so my stepdaughter could ride in safety and comfort, and put on mile after mile after mile…

*1985, at the Flea Market on Highway 290 east of Austin.*

*1986, at J.B. and Dana’s house on Romeria Drive, Austin, Texas.*

*1986, at J.B. and Dana’s house on Romeria Drive, Austin, Texas, with my stepdaughter’s mother.*

*1987, at home on Wilmes Drive in Austin, with the sidecar for my stepdaughter.* *That’s her tricycle in the grass, and our roommate’s chopped Honda in the shed.*

*Our intrepid tricyclist and our friend Bam-Bam, as the grownups get ready to ride out to the Rattlesnake Round-Up in Taylor.*

*1988, at Redwood Lodge, Lake Whitney, Texas.*

*1989 Southeast Texas enroute to an ABATE Texas function.*

*1990-11-18 at Benny and Carol’s house in McGregor, Texas.*
*From left: Carol, Benny, Michelle, Bill and The Bitch, Laura, John and Clifford.*

*1991-06-30, on a solo ride from Austin to Estes Park, Colorado, where the brother I hadn’t seen in ten years was teaching at a mountain-climbing school. I call this one* **Sunrise Sunday Morning, Texas Panhandle, June 30, 1991.** *Not hard to guess that it was taken at a gas stop in the Texas Panhandle shortly after dawn.*

Later that day, crossing into New Mexico. I had seen Townes Van Zandt perform at the Cactus Cafe in Austin the night before I left – his plaintive song ‘Snowing On Raton’ was stuck in my head – and I was hell-bent on riding through Raton Pass.

*The view from Highway 7 south of Estes Park when it was a quiet two-lane country road, before the casinos were built and the road became clogged with tourists.*

Below: I stopped at the visitor’s center in Estes Park, to get directions to my brother’s school. As I dismounted I heard two Harleys, and looked up just in time to see a familiar motorcycle pulling into the parking lot of a fast food restaurant across the street. I finished my visit to to the center, crossed the road and stumbled into the Mickey D.’s (so stupefied from being on the road that I stepped on some poor man’s toe in the process) and sure enough…! In town no more than five minutes, and who should I run into but the man I rode to Sturgis with – a man I hadn’t seen in almost a decade – in Colorado for a vacation with his wife! 😳 How’s that for a small world!?!

*1991, T.R. and Kimberley, with their motorcycles parked behind them.*

*1991, heading up into Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park*.

*1991, atop Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park, at 12,000′.*

*The following summer, July, 1992, riding through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado, with Peno and Steve.*

We were attending a motorcycle rally in Montrose, Colorado, on the Western Slope. That’s Steve at left, and his burgundy-colored panhead behind him. Peno, at right, was my road dog for most of my best adventures during those years. I have just recently (April 2023) reconnected with both men.

*Peno on his shovelhead, with the flame-job paint he did himself.*

*Steve on his panhead: one* **happy** *biker !*

*1993, July 4th, a solo ride to meet up with a friend in Lake Eufala, Oklahoma.*

*The friend in question, Byron, on his beautiful and relatively unmolested 1972 FLH.*

*1993, Labor Day Weekend, a group ride to Lake Eufala, Oklahoma, to visit Byron.*
*From left: Paul, Jeff, Peno, Bill and Melissa B.*

*1994, July, ride through Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.* *Peno took this shot one-handed at about 65 MPH.*

*1994, on IH35 in Belton, enroute to the annual Tri-County Toy Run.*

*1995, on the bridge over Royal Gorge, Colorado. It was me and The Marlboro Man that time.*

We also did Skyline Drive; me on my shovel and The Marlboro Man (AKA Don Sawyer, RIP) on his Softail. A couple of years ago Jackie and I drove Skyline Drive in a car, and it gave her the willies the whole way over. Me, I love it!

*2000, with Jackie on the back, at Monument Cafe, Georgetown, Texas, for breakfast with our friend Tina.*

*2001, in Crawford, Texas, with Randy and Tina.*

*2004, January, a winter ride on a back road near La Grange, Texas. High temp that day was 47 degrees.*

In July, 2004, at the age of 48, I fell 35′ from a billboard structure, when a piece of the board came loose. I rode the ladder I was standing on all the way to the hard rocky Hill Country earth, and ended up with an open compound fracture of my right leg, numerous fractures in my left mid-foot, and a burst fracture of my L-4 vertebra, which caused catastrophic nerve damage to the cauda equina that controls everything south of the waist, and I mean everything!

After fourteen days in hospital, numerous surgeries and a near-fatal hospital-borne infection, I went home to a wheelchair and a rented hospital bed, with lots more to come. Still, at the end of October I limped out to the driveway, kickstarted The Bitch and took it for a ride around the neighborhood.

*2004, Halloween, and my first time on the bike since my on-the-job accident that July.*

I’ve probably made smarter choices in life, but it seemed important at the time, and sure felt good!

*2004, Halloween, and my first ride after my accident.*

A lot has happened since then, including another makeover of The Bitch and a return to A) another blue paint job, B) another set of fatbob tanks, C) another pogo-stick and D) another windshield, all to accommodate my back and leg injuries.

2008, and yet another makeover: late-model fat bobs (less likely to crack and leak) with a traditional pogo-stick saddle, adapted to fit the new fat bobs, and a windshield, to save my back muscles having to fight
against the wind at highway speeds, but…

*…my body no longer wants to cooperate.*

The pogo-stick and windshield arrangement was good for a while, but remember the nerve damage I mentioned? Yeah, that nasty nerve damage has come back to haunt me.

One of the nastier tricks it plays on me (and the nasty tricks are legion, believe me!) is that my right knee gives out with no warning. It’s been doing it since I first got out of the hospital, but that particular trick has become more frequent as the years since my accident go by, to the point where I can no longer feel safe riding a two-wheeler, so…

…*meet my new wish-list! I can either pony up the $25,000 to $30,000 people are asking* *for* late-model Harley three-wheelers, or *stick my dearly beloved Bitch in a three-wheeled frame* *like the one Paughco offers,* *One way or the other, I have* **got** *to get back in the wind!*

Watch this space for updates!

UPDATE, April 16, 2023:

Paughco no longer makes the frame I’d been saving my pennies for 🤬 and I searched all over for another manufacturer, to no avail. Plenty of swingarm frames, and a few neo-chop rigids, but nothing that mimicked the traditional Harley frame the way Paughco’s did. Since I’d lost touch with (or lost) the people I would trust to adapt my existing frame the old-school way, using a Servi-Car rear end, I caved and bought a 2016 Freewheeler. Less than a month later I reconnected with an old friend who – ain’t that the luck? – runs a custom frame shop in Dallas. 😤 Maybe after I recover from buying the Freewheeler he and I can talk about triking my shovel. Hope springs eternal!

Meanwhile, meet the newest addition to my family:

The Shovel Shop

Vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and the folks who know and love 'em!

Monthly Archives: April 2021

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