1965 Harley Police Special

[Zedder]

Sorry guys...I started posting and my pics were too big, so I thought I deleted the post! I’ll post more info/pics soon.

And mine is an FL...not a FLH ��

Ok, that worked! Here is the bike on the day I picked it up. It was ordered new by the Belleville, Ontario Police Dept. they kept it until 1994 when it was traded in on a new Police Special. It is a 1965 FL with fork damper, chrome package, rear foot operated siren, tank shift with foot rocker clutch, 3.5 gallon tanks.

[Zedder]

Here is a newspaper article from when it was traded in for the new police bike...

[Zedder]

The owner of the Harley dealer that took the trade, kept the bike in his personal collection until I bought it in June. He had his techs go through the bike in 1994 and they repainted it in the current blue and white paint scheme.

When I went to see the bike, he showed me a contract from when the bike was rented from him to use in the movie Frequency 2000. Denis Quaid rode the bike in the movie. You can see that they wrapped the blue parts of the bike red and took the bags etc. off.

[Zedder]

Once I got the bike home, I went through everything to get it Road worthy...tires, battery, all fluids and filters, new rocker clutch pedal and friction disks, clutch adjustment, carb rebuild, rubber ducky float...and gave it a good cleaning.

[Zedder]

More to come later tonight...

[mockingbird812]

Way cool - CONGRATS!!

[Zedder]

Thanks Sam.

As I started to work on the bike I noticed a small difference in the frame compared to my old 65. Initially, I thought it was to make room for the rear siren, but then I noticed that it had a fork lock like a later bike. Turns out I have a 69-70 frame...but why?

Well, I had been in touch with the Belleville Police and a couple of officers were thrilled that the bike still existed. They agreed to contact some of the retired officers who rode the bike to help piece together its history. One of the guys told me that the bike came from Jerry Dafoe’s Harley Davidson and he put me in contact with a mechanic that worked there back in the day. I called Wes ans asked him about the frame and he told me that the bike hit a parked trailer when it was being used in a parade and he was the mechanic that swapped out the frame. He said it was somewhere in the 70-73 era and the officer who was riding it was still around. He also said that the accident made the newspaper...

After about 10 hours of calls I finally found the officer...Garnet. He explained that it wasn’t a parade, it was a practice motorcade for an upcoming visit from the Governor General. The bike had a sidecar on it and he lost control when the sidecar hit a manhole cover and pushed him towards oncoming traffic! The tractor trailer was able to stop, but Garnet hit it right between the rear tires. He stood up before impact and hit the box with his chest. He landed 30 feet from the trailer.

The next day I called the Belleville community archives and Amanda found the newspaper article for me!