1965 Harley Police Special

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Here is the article...

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I also spoke with two other officers who confirmed that the bike was originally Police Silver, then Royal Blue tanks with White fenders in 67 or 68 and then all white in the 70’s. It spun a bearing in the late 70’s and was mothballed until 1994.

Here is the bike today. I have a correctly dated 65 frame and cycle signal strobe light plus the correct 65 triple trees. I still need 65 saddle bags and a 65 front fender. Once I have them I will tear it down and swap frames and paint the bike silver again.

The Belleville police are opening a new station next year and they have invited me to display the bike during the grand opening.