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![]() The first thing to look for is the little flip on the back of the rear fender. You can get this aftermarket for 300 or 400 bucks like I did for my 1962 Sportster. This one is genuine. The front fender is supposed to have a flip on it too. This is most likely a Sportster front fender. Headlamp, dash, oil tank, and handlebars are there. Right footpeg is missing, and that's some non-Harley tail light on the rear fender. The front end is pretty early, before 1964 since the brake drum is on the side, not across the whole hub width having short little spokes on both sides. ![]() In this picture you can verify it's a K-model |
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frame, not a Sportster frame. A Sportster frame has a flat spot on the bottom of the main tube behind that center motor mount perch. That was so the taller Sportster heads would not clank into the frame rail. More telling yet, that top motor mount is a casting, not stamped metal. Its got the rare K-model chain guard. The strut bolts are correct. they are slotted head, not hex-head. No shock covers, but those are 1952-era shocks. Nothing looks cut-up on the frame.![]() Handlebars are swung up to a funky position, but there is a lot to love in this picture. Headlamp looks right and not aftermarket. Same for the tin shroud, Both levers are period and in place. A little study of my K-model parts book shows the handlebars might even be 1952, instead of the later ones that have the slots with round ends instead of slots at the end of the bar. I wish the seller took pictures standing on the sunny side of the bike, but I could open the pictures in IrfanView and play with gamma settings to see better. |
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![]() Here is the oil bag. Its got two dents at the bottom, but looks authentic K-model. The exhaust bracket is there, but it might be a Sportster part. ![]() |
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![]() ![]() I later learned the tail lamp is an old Drag Specialties item and they come up on eBay now and then. |
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tin up front. The switches never line up with the holes and it is obvious because there are no spring-loaded covers to hide it. The speedometer is there. A good one sells for $500. This one looks funky, but it is there, and all the hardware to mount it is there too. You can see the adjuster on the clutch cable housing. The headlamp is definitely genuine, with two indicator lights and those rivets next to them.![]() There was no buy-it-now for this auction. Nobody was bidding on it. One wrote asking why it was a KR (race) frame, and the seller maintained there was a stamp on the frame starting with KR. Problem is, Harley did not stamp serial numbers on the frame. Maybe they did for KRs. If this is a verifiable KR frame, I guess it is worth $3500 just for the frame. |
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I kept going through the pictures, trying to add the parts value up. I kept doing this until I convinced myself there was $3500 in parts here. Since there was nothing rational going on, I soon got to that number. The seller promised to add more pictures if no one bid. One guy wrote griping about the pictures, but they really showed everything you needed to know. I waited until 5 seconds before the auction ended and I was the only bid. Lets face it, this thing deserves to be mated to my 1952 engine. Once I won there was a tinge of stress about shipment. Thing is, I had been working with the guy who owned the motor I won the week before and he was the greatest guy on Earth. I figured a rural guy from Ohio was the same. I was right. Here is a restored 1952 K-model from over in the Smörg section of this site. ![]() The 1952 K-model engine is only 45 cubic inches (750cc). In 1954 Harley introduced the KH model, with a stroked flywheel. It boosted displacement to 61 cubic inches (883cc). |
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