harleyKmodel

Yes, but too much self appreciation society, "brosse a reluire" and only wanting to hear stuff that 100 % agrees with your beliefs leads to this...



Patrick

Bruegel's painting of the blind leading the blind is a true masterpiece. It reminds me of a condition I encountered over the years while training industrial maintenance electricians. I called it "Intellectual Inbreeding". It occurs when someone is confident about their knowledge or mastery of something even though they have it wrong and pass that incorrect information on to someone else. It is humbling when one realizes that they have been guilty of this. Sadly I have been guilty of it more times than I would like to admit. A good example of this is how confident I was that HD introduced the trap door in the latter half of the 54 K model run. My assumptions were based on the Pohlman photo that clearly shows a trap door on a 54K 217X (I forget the exact VIN at this moment) and the significant number of 54Ks I have seen with trap doors. Not to long ago Dave H challenged my assumption and to my surprise I could not come up with a trap door 54K that did not clearly have replacement cases. I believe that they did produce the cases in late 54 but did not use them in typical HD fashion until the used up the cases without the trap doors. I have a 1800 something VIN KHK with 554-3200 Belly Numbers. I am aware of a 55KHK with a 1300VIN and 554-2800 Belly Numbers. I still hold out the chance there may be a very late 54K with a trap door but as of know I can't prove it. That is one of the reasons I like this site so much. There are a lot of great folks that not only are willing to share what they know but also are ready to challenge assertions made in a collegial fashion and offer up proof. In this way we can all grow our knowledge base with a degree of confidence in its accuracy.
JerryR

I talked to the owner a while back. Let him know its a Sportster Engine with K #s. American Pickers....Erik

At the end of the day it appears there was enough "wrong" with it to stop the bidders. It only went to $4.5 K.
If it had a "real" 53K engine what would it have been worth ?

The bike was relisted as a 1957 with a restamped 53 vin number and a bunch of disclaimers. Listed as buy it now for $6500.00 or best offer.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3400194091

And speaking of suspect vin numbers.....check out this one. Listed as a 1952 K with a rough looking vin stamp and non matching belly numbers.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2843425884

See pics 6, 7, and 8.

The owner does explain the vin number issue in the description

This bike is just a bunch of Harley Parts. Legality in all states may also be impossible, what with the # situation.

Jerry, that;s not Bruegel's painting. That's a picture Patrick took of me in the pits with my race team at The Australian Titles.

Hi Jerry,

Bit more info on trap door...

The Pohlman shot of the new trap door is 20318, part of a photoshoot prior to the 11th of May 1954 when these shots were filed.



Obviously, not done in the eng dept the day before...

In my view, that's not that late not to be seen on a 54 model, up to August/September...

I also think the clamour for a trap door was way more vocal from the race community than the dealers, the race guys had spare gear ratios to fit in the grass and long delays to fit them due to case splitting... But new trap door race cases were named -52RA rather than with the year, so no proof as such.

I'm pretty confident the trap door was 1st made available on the KR in early 54 and then found its way on the street.

Patrick

Thanks for the information on the Pohlman photo of the 54K with the trap door Patrick. I hadn't given any thought to the racers need for the trap door, that makes a lot of sense. I'm still holding out hope to someday find a very high VIN 54 that had the trap door for original equipment. If I don't I'll be forced to tell Dave H that he was right.
Jerry