tour of Harley Headquarters and museum visit

 Britt and I went to Wisconsin to tour birthing centers a couple weeks ago and stopped by Milwaukee on our miniature midwest tour.  Here is a cool photo of one of the old transformer from the factory.

 I have seen a few cut away motors over the years but never seen an entire cut away bike.  Here is a sturgis that was cut up to show off the dual belt drive set up

 Bill took some time and showed us the back of the archives.   There is so much cool stuff in the museum and cool stuff that is not even shown.

 Check out all the nos tanks on the shelves and the Vr1000 body kits

 Here is the infamous fred dixon john cameron eight valve

 i love these ported sleeves for the model hx carbs

 Randy smith's magnum was on display.  Here is a grenaded bottom end out of one of his first attempts at the magnum

 Of course we had to stop and see SLOJOE's old fat boy.  Nice fender tips joe!

BROWAVE

one of the coolest vtwin motors I have ever seen

 The owner told me that this is a 1909 Peugot?  I really have no idea.  I do know that it is amazingly beautiful and has some cool features.  It is an atmospheric intake valve twin.  Check out the rest of the photos and if you have more info, please let me know.  thanks

36, 47, 65 and baby heart beat!!!!

 I put together 12 hubs this weekend.  It was pretty laid back.  Jesse cleaned up all the parts, which is the most time consuming part.   Here is a cool pic of Bob's 39 sleeves,  can any of you guys guess why the three rings are on them?

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Here is the line up.  Fitting bearings is a pain, I like to do a lot at once, rather than a few scattered throughout the year

 My dad and I spent Sunday together pre assembling Jim's 36.  It is really going to be a nice bike.  This frame was really chopped up and took a bit of work to turn into something .  It was really nice to just hang out in the shop and work on the same bike with my dad like the old days  

 Oil lines and crash bar are pre fit in this pic

 We still have to get the rocker arms and shafts sized to fit before we can finish the top end, but you get the idea. 

 Late 36s had a one piece crash bar,which is a lot better than the 27 piece one that most of them used.  There is a dimensional problem with it bolting up to the frame, the u bolts and spacing on the crashbar is for 1.125 tubing and the frame tube is 1.00 Here is a cool photo of the piece that Harley designed to take up the difference.   I made up a dozen sets of these shims eight years ago and have only sold one pair, I guess I just doubled my sales lol

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This is my good friend Jason's 65,  we are just about finished with it,   It has been a monumental amount of work to figure out the anamolies of 65 electraglides,  It makes me feel good to work on the bike because its for my friend,   I dont think that I will ever work on one after this.

 Too many lights is not enough!   The tail light lense is a nos piece that we bought in Pennsylvania

 This was one of the hardest parts to find for the bike.  The electra glide emblems are a one year only part and do not have the little trademark dot at the end of the script. 

 Here is Justin's 47 frame back from the Powder coater

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Craig is already truing wheels!   Two of these are for the 47 and the other one is for Pauls back wheel.

Yesterday was a milestone day for britt and I, we drove up to Moore head Minnesota to do some prenatal stuff and got to hear our baby's heart beat for the first time.   This was a pretty amazing moment.   We wont get to find out what sex it is for another six weeks.  I hope it is a boy, but it doesnt really matter as long as its healthy.

motors, wheels and a couple new parts

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Here is Randy's 45 motor that my dad finished up.  It is really so nice.  We put the short clips in as a joke.  

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I really like 51 fl motors, this one turned out nice.

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This is a 62 motor that we just finished for a fellow in Hawaii,  it is the third motor we have built for people from the island state.   This motor was toast and one of the worst ones I have ever seen.  

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Here are Jacks wheels for his 36.  My friend Anthony let me use a nos vl fender for color matching the croydon cream and venetian blue.  I cant wait to finish this bike its going to be so nice.

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Here are some prototype kicstand brackets we had made up.  They still need a little metal finishing before they can be parkerized, but you get the idea.  They are correct for 36 to early 38 big twins with the short kickstand.  If you need one email me before theyre all gone.

Here is a rare part that nobody really knows about.  These are kickstand stops for 36 els. They were made out of two pieces and spot welded together.   We made up the kicstand brackets and it made sense to have these made too.

and here is a wax for a 36 and 37 footboard tab.

explanation for dropping off the grid!

  Hi everyone, it has been a couple months since I posted anything.  I apologize for loosing touch with the blog responsibilities.  A lot of people over the summer asked about it, and I didn't really realize how many people read the site.   I will do a better job of updating the site throughout the coming winter to hopefully help you get excited about old bikes.   If you have any tech questions, please email them to me at mattbrittney.olsen@gmail.com  and I will post some answers and photos to help you out.

With that being said it brings me to the the explanation for me being off the grid, 
 Britt and I found out that we are having a baby!  The due date is May 13th and we couldn't be happier.   I have felt like a little kid before christmas ever since I found out.  

 Here is a shot I took last night of her bump  she is 11 weeks along and feels great. 

 Here is the sweet carriage that we are getting from our friends Pete and Kim,  It is in SF  California,  If any of you can recomend a good way to get it here that would be great. 

We took this photo at the110th anniversary party for Harley right after davenport,  there is a good chance that britt was pregnant in it, so It counts as our first family photo with the 36 

Matt and Brittney rough recap of a year of marriage

 Wow it is really hard to believe that a year has already gone by since Brittney and I got married.  It has been a very busy year since our special Day.  Last night we hung out and had dinner and looked at a bunch of old pics from the last year.  Here are some of my favorite  pics from the last 12 months

 Brittney shot some photos for our friend Taxi in Japan.  He is reproducing tires for thirties and forties bikes.   I used a set on my trip out to the hills and they worked well.

 Brittney wanted a board track bike since she was very young.  when I asked her to marry me, I gave her a motor instead of a ring.  This is the bike we built around it.   She had her first race in wauseon and did good.   She passed a few guys, finished the race and didnt run over the guy who crashed his jd.   shes racing again in Davenport and then going to the 110th.

 I borrowed a couple of cool pics from Brad over at zen of neato.  This is a cool pic of britts bike and Jim Wall's indian.  He helped us out a bunch with setting the bike up and teaching brittney how to race.

 Here is a dirt bike that our friend Lorren sold us so that britt could practice riding in the snow and get used to what it feels like when a bike slides around.

 Another great photo that Brad took of Brittney practicing at wauseon.

 Here are all my groomsmen.  I am so lucky to have so many good friends.   Thanks guys

 My friend John Parham, asked me to ride one of his bikes in the cannonball,  It was grueling, but a lot of fun.   Brittney came along and helped with the sweep vehicles and chaser trucks.   It was a fun adventure and a unique way to go coast to coast

 We also got to go to Japan in december.  It was definitely culture shock.   I really love japan and am looking forward to going back again some day

 Katsunori, Yoshi, Brittney, Akiko, Ken and me in Yokohoma

I spent the day in the shop working on my friend Jason's 65, he was the pastor in our wedding and is an awesome dude.  

New 1953 panhead score

Here is a photo of a 53 panhead that my dad just picked up.   Our friend Jim turned us onto a denver craigslist ad, and my dad made a deal to buy the bike.  he went to denver and is doing the service work on it and will ride the bike home!   It is a really neat score and kind of has my dads style.   We bought it from the third owners family who has owned the bike since 1961.   It was originally  an indiana state police bike.