Last year my dad participated in the Cross Country Chase event which is a long distance motorcycle ride for 1930-1960 motorcycles. Since participating in that, he's been wanting to buy and build a bike for the Motorcycle Cannonball event (pre-1933). I helped him search for a bike and initially he was pursing an Indian Scout 101, but the few that we found didn't meet expectations. Either they were barely enough pieces to call a motorcycle, or they were amateur restorations not suitable for riding and asking the price of a fresh expert restoration. He ended up finding and purchasing a non-running 1927-ish Harley-Davidson JD with many incorrect and missing parts intending to get it ready for the 2025 Motorcycle Cannonball event. With some peer pressure from friends we made during the Cross Country Chase event last year, he ended up signing up for the Cannonball event this same year... leaving around 6 months to completely go through the motorcycle and not just get it running, but get it cannonball ready. To clarify that point, bikes in the Cannonball event are intended to look era correct, but they are not museum quality correct bikes. They have been modified for reliability, safety, and touring. My brother, some friends, and I have been learning what we can about pocket valve big twins and helping my dad work on the bike. The engine build was outsourced as most are for this event. There are only a few people and shops who are familiar and experienced with these engines, and unfortunately that number is dwindling. The engine went through one shop for case repairs, one for the bottom end, and one for the top end. It's been quite a roller coaster, strides of progress, new issues found or parts broken, waiting on parts, etc., but for both Cross Country Chase and Motorcycle Cannonball events everyone always says the hardest part is showing up to the starting line. Well, we're in Virginia Beach with a running bike right now ready for the event to start later this week. This year's event is 3,800 miles coast-to-coast from Virginia Beach, VA to Oceanside, CA. For anyone following along with the event on the Motorcycle Cannonball website or social media, my dad is rider #62, team Chicago Scrap Iron, and his support crew consists of myself and a friend who has done multiple Cross Country Chase events before and just purchased his own '27 JD project.
Here are some pictures I had handy of the JD at various stages of the build and finally loaded up in the trailer.
Some quirky notes about this early motorcycle for those who are interested: The engine is an intake over exhaust design. The cylinders do not have separate heads, that portion is included in the cylinder casting. This bike is running slightly newer (1930s) VL rims which are drop center rims and permit the use of regular beaded tires rather than clincher tires, which have a tendency to come off with disastrous results when they have a failure. The front hub is also a VL hub which permits running a front drum brake. Other folks take a front hub from a Honda such as the Elsinore CR250M to get a front drum brake. Braking on these bikes is a bit of a suggestion, some riders go through multiple pairs of boots on the event due to soles wearing out... The 1927 JD came with a dual rear brake, no front brake until the next year. The dual rear brake is an inner and outer friction material band that would have been operated with two independent pedals to satisfy foreign safety requirements (not sure which countries, but assuming somewhere in Europe). The front brake is operated with the left hand, where a clutch lever would be on a modern manual motorcycle. The clutch is a foot clutch, the shifter is a tank shifter. Right twist grip operates the throttle which does not have a spring mechanism to return it to 0 throttle, you roll it back manually as was common for Harleys for decades later. The left twist grip controls timing, used to retard the timing when kickstarting the bike. The engine has a total-loss oiling system, meaning oil does not recirculate. There is an oil pump with metering attached to the timing chest on the right side of the crankcase, it does not increment oil flow with engine RPM so there is a plunger on top of the oil tank (front portion of the left half of the saddle style fuel tanks) that is pumped to add about 1 oz of oil with each pump, at high speed or under heavy load you manually add some oil that way. The OEM pistons were cast iron with no oil scraper ring. Because it has a crash gearbox (not synchronized) there is a plunger pin that can be pressed to unjam the gears when that happens. It's a 3-speed. These bikes didn't originally run air filters, we're still experimenting with an added foam filter. JD engines are 74 cubic inch, roughly 1200cc. The right side saddle style fuel tank is carved out to fit the rockers and top of the intake pushrods.
That's my brain dump for now. Will likely post more photos later in the event or after. I'm still learning about this bike and excited to be around some of the people who are experts with them.
Here are some pictures I had handy of the JD at various stages of the build and finally loaded up in the trailer.
Some quirky notes about this early motorcycle for those who are interested: The engine is an intake over exhaust design. The cylinders do not have separate heads, that portion is included in the cylinder casting. This bike is running slightly newer (1930s) VL rims which are drop center rims and permit the use of regular beaded tires rather than clincher tires, which have a tendency to come off with disastrous results when they have a failure. The front hub is also a VL hub which permits running a front drum brake. Other folks take a front hub from a Honda such as the Elsinore CR250M to get a front drum brake. Braking on these bikes is a bit of a suggestion, some riders go through multiple pairs of boots on the event due to soles wearing out... The 1927 JD came with a dual rear brake, no front brake until the next year. The dual rear brake is an inner and outer friction material band that would have been operated with two independent pedals to satisfy foreign safety requirements (not sure which countries, but assuming somewhere in Europe). The front brake is operated with the left hand, where a clutch lever would be on a modern manual motorcycle. The clutch is a foot clutch, the shifter is a tank shifter. Right twist grip operates the throttle which does not have a spring mechanism to return it to 0 throttle, you roll it back manually as was common for Harleys for decades later. The left twist grip controls timing, used to retard the timing when kickstarting the bike. The engine has a total-loss oiling system, meaning oil does not recirculate. There is an oil pump with metering attached to the timing chest on the right side of the crankcase, it does not increment oil flow with engine RPM so there is a plunger on top of the oil tank (front portion of the left half of the saddle style fuel tanks) that is pumped to add about 1 oz of oil with each pump, at high speed or under heavy load you manually add some oil that way. The OEM pistons were cast iron with no oil scraper ring. Because it has a crash gearbox (not synchronized) there is a plunger pin that can be pressed to unjam the gears when that happens. It's a 3-speed. These bikes didn't originally run air filters, we're still experimenting with an added foam filter. JD engines are 74 cubic inch, roughly 1200cc. The right side saddle style fuel tank is carved out to fit the rockers and top of the intake pushrods.
That's my brain dump for now. Will likely post more photos later in the event or after. I'm still learning about this bike and excited to be around some of the people who are experts with them.
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There was exactly 4.5 fl oz dumped from the crankcase tonight. 
