Harley Rally 2021

Over the last few years I have taken photos of the tanks of the bikes at the Harley Rallies and put them in a single image grid. This year I have widened the frame a little to include more of the bike, and not put them into a single image file. I also took a few wider shoots.

If I remember some of my Mechanical Engineering degree studies correctly – if a metal is protected by paint, or galvanised, and it has a small hole in the protection it can rust very quickly. Therefore if there is a large surface area of the metal exposed then it rusts slower. I guess the logic here is that if there is a danger of bare metal at structural sites on the vehicle you can increase the safe life by stripping lots of the other paint off.

I like the sign saying that it is not an abandoned vehicle. Does the sign get taken off when the vehicle is abandoned?

Harley Davidson 2021. Stright through, cut-off exhaust pipes.

Harley Davidsons have been made since 1903 and some of the early ones would not have all the mod cons of the current versions. I found this one, above, interesting. It doesn’t have foot rests (possibly taken off while it is standing), only has a throttle on the handlebars (no front brake or clutch levers, no indicator switch [there are no indicators]), has tiny lights, no instruments other than what looks like a pressure gauge down by the crankshaft, an exposed clutch with the clutch lever just above it. And to let you know it is a Harley when it is on the road – straight through cut-off exhaust pipes.

Around 1:00 pm on Sunday a few bikes fired up on Northgate and road down Browgate. It was a little nod to the usual organised ride-out that used to happen in pre-Covid years. Who knows what will be the new “normal”?

Let me know if I have duplicated any of the tanks/engines.

Here are a posts from previous years:-