Cult bike Harley-Davidson FXS Low Rider

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Cult bike Harley-Davidson FXS Low Rider

"Factory Custom Motorcycle"

“Factory Custom Motorcycle” – the (supposedly) individual motorcycle ex works may be a contradiction in terms, but that’s exactly what Harley has been making money with for a long time. More precisely: since 1977, the first year of the first representative of all “Factory Customs”, the Harley-Davidson FXS Low Rider.

Harley-Davidson in Germany in the early 1970s? An absolute niche supplier whose heavy metal is only brought to the motorcycle people in homeopathic doses in this country. A couple of yesterday’s mustaches with too much money, one or the other motorcycle-savvy pimp and a couple of GIs stationed in West Germany buy Harleys. This does not add up to more than a very manageable three-digit number per year. So many, if any. Customer service? Forget it, if you want to drive a US dinosaur – almost always an Electra Glide – you have to have the device approved for individual approval. 

Cult bike Harley-Davidson FXS Low Rider

"Factory Custom Motorcycle"

Harley-Davidson established its own branch in Grob-Gerau, Hesse, delivering motorcycles with a general operating permit (ABE) and expanding the dealer network to 20 companies.

Grandson of one of the company’s founders responsible for the design

How practical that in the same year a (relatively) young Harley designer, who happened to be the grandson of one of the company’s founders, made his second big trick. After the Super Glide, which was presented in 1971 and initially only moderately successful, Willie G. Davidson has now created another model with the Harley-Davidson FXS Low Rider, which radically deviates from the previous Harley monotony. In March 1977, it was with this machine that Willie G. did what he loved to do next to motorcycle design: ride a Harley to a Harley meeting. On the move from Milwaukee / Wisconsin to the spring party in Daytona Beach / Florida. There it is causing quite a stir, because the Harley world has never seen such a factory-delivered machine. Admittedly: Neither the frame nor the front section and certainly not the 1200 Shovelhead engine are new, but in this combination and with these attachments, the 280 kilo iron is a real blast – just "Factory Custom".

From now on, everything that ambitious screwdrivers had to put together and convert in painstaking detail work is available at a total price of (in Germany) 13,350 marks: extended fork, flat handlebar, double disc brake in front and single disc in rear, oil cooler, "highway pegs" (the second pair Driver‘s footrests), step seat bench, a style-defining two-in-one exhaust, tires with white lettering and a tank logo, which was last used in 1917. And don’t forget: a seat height of just 69 centimeters – the model name says it all.

Officially in Germany with 58 hp

The somewhat aged 1200 Shovelhead Twin provides propulsion, which although it pushes out of the speed limit, prefers to leave it on around 5000 turns. From the factory there is talk of 66 hp, in Germany there are officially 58 left. It can be kicked, but it can also be started electrically, and as early as 1979 the Harley-Davidson FXS Low Rider was the most successful model in the Harley range with 13,260 of a total of 46,442 machines built.

Various generations have followed under the model name Low Rider – with more or less short breaks – to this day: from 1980 with the 1340 Shovelhead engine, from 1985 with the Evo-Twin, from 1999/2007 with the Twin Cam 88/99 and since 2014 with the Twin Cam 103 – an endless success story?

All articles about the Harley-Davidson Low Rider

Further information

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Typical: flat handlebars on nine centimeter long risers, instrument console over a 13 liter tank

Technical data Harley-Davidson FXS Low Rider:

Air-cooled two-cylinder four-stroke V-engine, 1207 cm³, 43 kW (58 PS) at 5150 / min, 96 Nm at 4000 / min, four-speed gearbox, double-loop tubular steel frame, weight with a full tank of 280 kg, tires v. 3.75-19, h. 5.10-16, tank capacity 13.2 liters, maximum speed. 168 km / h, 0-100 km / h in 7.3 seconds.


Literature:

“Harley-Davidson – All Models 1903–1983” by Matthias Gerst, Motorbuch Verlag, 39.90 euros; “The Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Archive Collection” by Leffingwell / Holmstrom, Delius Klasing, 29.90 euros;

first test in MOTORRAD: issue 15/1978.

Specialists:

Harley-Davidson Hanover, Tel. 05 11/8 99 49 60, www.hd-hannover.de; 
Harley-Factory Frankfurt, Tel. 0 69/4 08 99 90, www.harleyfactory.de (both HD authorized dealers with experts for Shovelhead motors).

Market situation:

In the first three model years, i.e. up to the change to the 1340 Shovelhead, 26,789 copies of the Low Rider were built. Only a tiny part of it is likely to remain in its original condition. In the USA, top machines cost up to $ 12,000, construction sites start at $ 3,000. There is practically no European market for the original version.

Internet:

www.shovel-head.de ("The Pre-Evo Community").

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