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Post by bagga on Sept 19, 2017 17:23:46 GMT -5
 22 bullets on the old 85. i picked up 4 more and found room for 3 of them. they'll go on in the next few days. |
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Post by oldchopperguy on Sept 19, 2017 23:11:06 GMT -5
Oh brother...
How well I remember dressers being decked out like this. I must admit, I sorta like them! And even the old 1950's Hogs with 6v systems seemed to have plenty of juice to run all the lights one might be able to apply, front and rear!
Woo-HOO! I just enlarged your pic and see your lights have the EYEBROWS! Those are the BEST!On my last bagger (1970 FLH) I had quite a light-show myself. Even had a full-length CB whip antenna 9' if I recall, with a little red light on top that lit up when the CB was keyed. My CB was a Motorola with a slide-in mount... Had a matching mount in my Caddy Eldorado and moved the radio from car to bike and vice/versa. I was doing a LOT better financially back then... LOL! That 500 cid Caddy gave a whopping 2 mpg in town, and almost 4 mpg on the highway... But she was FAST... Could pass anything but a gas-station... 
Those rolling light-show Hogs are an indispensable part of the story of the American motorcycle. Good show that you're keeping the breed alive! Sometimes you see a European Vespa jockey with his scoot lit up like that. (I wonder HOW they get enough juice to run the lights...). For whatever reason, the Euro boys also like to have a dozen or so mirrors along with the front lights... Why not?
I think you and I would mostly agree on bikes of all types!Ride safe... Certainly VISIBLE at night... Leo in Texas PS: Last year I scored a pair of OLD vintage (depression-era) Bolser running lights, single-bulb, red rear and amber front bullet lenses. I'm going to refurb them and convert to LED and find some obnoxious place on "Minnie Mouse" for them. They'll go great with the light-up swan nose-art, whitewalls and fishtail exhaust...
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Post by bagga on Sept 20, 2017 6:19:24 GMT -5
to finish off the package, "eyebrows" are an absolute necessity. there are 6 lights back there that are regular bulbs, the rest are LED. i scrounge motorcycle swap meets for the bullet lights, sometime you find them sometimes you don't. the last 4 i found had the glass lenses. they were in kind of rough shape with some rust and peeling chrome but that patina is acceptable to me. everywhere i go i get nothing but love for the light show on the back of the 85.
i along with everyone else needs pics of the OCG caddy. why am i not surprised that you were (are) a cadillac guy?
ps ebay has good prices on new bullets, they have plastic lenses tho. you can find LED bulbs there too for a lot cheeper than the local auto parts stores.
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Post by bagga on Sept 20, 2017 6:20:48 GMT -5
 side view. |
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Post by bagga on Sept 20, 2017 6:23:31 GMT -5
 i guess that picture doesn't want to work. |
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Post by bagga on Sept 20, 2017 6:40:56 GMT -5
the old school motorcycle chopper shop here has been around for over 50 years and it's always great fun to go there. i needed "eyebrows" so i went there and asked for the bullet light brows. he told me where they were, so i took a look. sure enough they were right where he said they were and there was an inch of dust on the packages. i should have bought all of them he had, he had about 20 there but i only took what i needed at the time. i didn't know that this would turn into "more is better" like it has become.
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Post by oldchopperguy on Sept 21, 2017 23:13:27 GMT -5
to finish off the package, "eyebrows" are an absolute necessity. there are 6 lights back there that are regular bulbs, the rest are LED. i scrounge motorcycle swap meets for the bullet lights, sometime you find them sometimes you don't. the last 4 i found had the glass lenses. they were in kind of rough shape with some rust and peeling chrome but that patina is acceptable to me. everywhere i go i get nothing but love for the light show on the back of the 85. i along with everyone else needs pics of the OCG caddy. why am i not surprised that you were (are) a cadillac guy? ps ebay has good prices on new bullets, they have plastic lenses tho. you can find LED bulbs there too for a lot cheeper than the local auto parts stores.
That old Hog is SO cool! Good for you to seek out those NOS lights! They are truly treasures today.Yeah, I'm a die-hard Caddy guy (or at least WAS in the old days). I must admit that newer cars are a whole different animal from the "bigger is better" idea. I had a '56 Fleetwood as a kid, a '68 Coupe DeVille as a "successful business dude"... LOL! and then the '70 Eldo. A decade back, I got a minty '85 Fleetwood Brougham D'Elegance Talisman. What a BEAUTIFUL car, but it had that AWFUL aluminum motor that was absolute junk. I replaced that motor twice, and finally gave up... It still had the NICEST interior ever, even compared to a Rolls!
These days, I'm in love with my '04 Honda Accord UEX. Times do change and while a new Caddy would be great, it is SO out of my budget... I never did have a pic of the Eldo. I found an ad on the Net, touting the new 8.5 liter motor... Ah, it does NOT mention the 1 to 4 mpg fuel consumption! That atrocious mileage actually was because of the monster Holley NASCAR carb being buried in the valley between the heads! THAT piece of genius-engineering was to get the motor low enough to close the hood... Cheesh! If you goose the gas in neutral and watch the tailpipes, they SPIT WET GAS on the ground! Wonder what the green crowd would think of that...  In Cadillac's defense, the Eldo was the EASIEST motor to work on I ever encountered! You could change the plugs with a box-end-wrench!  Those 500 cid Eldo mills have recently been resurrected with a new intake and fuel-injection, putting out around 600 hp and 15 mpg in cars... But they mostly end up in boats! My all time favorite Caddy was my '68... It had the old 472 cid motor which was plenty fast, and gave 15 mpg in town and 18 on the highway. Quality was still REAL Caddy, walnut, leather and everything chrome... Not plastic like the '70 Eldo.
All wonderful memories of cars that were monumental, and will never be made again...Ride safe!Leo |
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Post by oldchopperguy on Sept 21, 2017 23:28:37 GMT -5
I guess after raving about my old Caddies, I need to give my "new" old Accord equal billing... LOL!
This frisky little hamster has become my all-time favorite "pet" car... It's a 2004 with 115K miles on the clock. The dealer I got her from totally refurbed her to factory-new condition. She began life as a rare UEX with racing chip, straight-pipes, 200-mph wheels... all the track goodies and was raced one season in '05. The original owner decided she was just TOO nice to beat up on the track and had her re-chipped, mufflers installed, roll-cage and harnesses removed and she became a beloved grocery-getter for 13 years! She's as high-end cushy as a Caddy, absolutely silent... tight as a bull's behind at fly time and will still do 0-60 in just over 5 seconds, and (to my shame... LOL) WILL bury the 160-mph speedo! (with the AC on, no less). One time only... Never do it again.. Honest... but she does have brand-new W-rated Michelins, full-on racing suspension and brakes. All brand-new. Every time I drive her, I have to remind myself she has only 3 liters (180 cid) under the hood. That "VTEC" variable valve timing and a few pieces of the injection left from her race build REALLY put out the ponies! A stock Accord V6 is rated at 247 hp if I recall. A street-converted UEX has about 265 hp according to Honda collector sites. Not HUGE horsepower, but doggone, she will RUN! I well remember the muscle cars of the sixties... Big-block Chevy, Ford and Chrysler toys. HUGE V8's, TERRIBLE mileage, DISMAL handling, but they would do 0-60 in 5 seconds or so, and, top out at 120-130. This little Honda would eat them for breakfast from zero to top-end! And give over 25 mpg in the process. Amazing!
This little rocket is THE most fun car I've ever had! The most value for $7K I can imagine!Not a Caddy, but what a ride!
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Post by bagga on Sept 25, 2017 20:22:47 GMT -5
i'm on the lookout for early evo bagger parts all the time. if i see them and the price is right i scoop the parts up weather i need them or not. the old chopper shop i mentioned before is one place i look and craigs list up to 200 miles or so away. bullet light have been my focus for the last few years and now you can see the results. i like it.
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Post by oldchopperguy on Sept 30, 2017 22:16:01 GMT -5
i'm on the lookout for early evo bagger parts all the time. if i see them and the price is right i scoop the parts up weather i need them or not. the old chopper shop i mentioned before is one place i look and craigs list up to 200 miles or so away. bullet light have been my focus for the last few years and now you can see the results. i like it.
EVO bagger parts... Now I really feel old... LOL! When I think of baggers, I still think "dressers" and rigid-frame hard-tails, knucleheads, or pan-heads... Even shovel-heads are too new: even though my 1970 was a shovel-head, I never did like the way it ran. Gimmie a a "knuck" (or a flathead) for looks, or a "pan" for performance... I know, I am HOPELESSLY lost in the old days... Just me.
I was straining my old brain remembering the cluster of tail-lights on my '70 Electra-Glide. I had a few of the bullet-lens like yours, but most had similar beehive cans, but had a chrome bezel with a nearly flat glass lens behind the bezel. I got them at various Harley dealers back in the 1970's. They were nice, with 2-screw bezels. Trouble is, they only came with red or clear lenses. The classic bullet lights like yours usually had lenses held in place by a spring "circlip" and came in red, white, amber, blue, green and purple. Woo-HOO! Just like Christmas!!!I also had a few small-diameter bullet lights with long pointy lenses. And a couple very small round "pillar" lights with red rear, and clear front lenses. I think one of those is shown on the rear fender of my chopper "Old Blue" used for a license plate light. Copious groupings of colored lights should ALWAYS be part of the aura of a Hog! (Or a Vespa, I suppose). Yup! If you can find those neat lights, they could surely be upgraded and improved by converting to LED's. Ride safe and lite up the night!Leo |
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Post by bagga on Oct 1, 2017 12:09:45 GMT -5
where i use to be employed at (i retired) has a modern chrome plating system. i have a friend that rides an HD and works in the office there. he's my go to guy when i need something plated. it' works out nice if i need something done.
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Post by bagga on Oct 1, 2017 12:13:26 GMT -5
ocg, if have you noticed the blue dot in the tail light? i like the purple hue it gives off.
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Post by oldchopperguy on Oct 2, 2017 15:48:21 GMT -5
ocg, if have you noticed the blue dot in the tail light? i like the purple hue it gives off.
Oh, YESSS! Blue-dot lenses were one of those "iconic" items on bikes and hotrods for decades! I still get mesmerized when I see the occasional blue-dot purple glow on a bike or rat-rod on a dark night from a distance. Just beautiful! Probably illegal, but beautiful anyway... LOL! I well remember "J. C. Whitney" and "Honest Charley" catalogs in the fifties and sixties, offering the blue-dot replacement lenses for nearly any car ever made, including Hudson, Henry J, Desoto, etc... And, for the few cars NOT covered (and those like me, too cheap to buy the whole lens...) the little blue jeweled "dots" in chrome bezels to put in holes you'd drill in your factory lens. That worked fine on PLASTIC lenses of the fifties and up, but good luck drilling a prewar GLASS lens... LOL! Today's car/bike toys are high-tech, and just marvelous, but the old-school stuff we entertained ourselves with still have that nearly-irresistible appeal from those days gone by when we were overwhelmed with the incredibly simple innovations... Under-car light-kits are cool... But do they eclipse a blue-dot in your tail-light 50 years back?
To today's guyz n' galz of course! To this old geezer, not so much... LOL!  Ride safe! Leo |
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Post by bagga on Oct 3, 2017 7:08:52 GMT -5
yellow, red, blue, green and white pimp lights shinning from underneath seats and frames while the bike is parked.....it's not for me. don't get me wrong, if someone likes it, that's great. it's just not my style.
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Post by oldchopperguy on Oct 4, 2017 23:02:27 GMT -5
yellow, red, blue, green and white pimp lights shinning from underneath seats and frames while the bike is parked.....it's not for me. don't get me wrong, if someone likes it, that's great. it's just not my style. Same here... Different strokes for different folks... Hey, we need to generate some posts here... Seems like we're about the only active guys most of the time! IF I didn't have arthritis, and IF I had a big budget, I think after all my years riding Harleys, I'd just have to try one the new Indian big-twins. They ARE beautiful! They'd be even MORE beautiful with a cluster of lights on their tails... LOL! Ride safe, Leo |
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22 bullets on the old 85. i picked up 4 more and found room for 3 of them. they'll go on in the next few days.
