Bird
Epic Contributor
One day last year, I visited our local Can-Am dealer (he's also the Yamaha dealer). Those 3-wheelers sure look like fun, but way too expensive for me. When I started on the police department, we still had Harleys with foot clutch and hand gear shift on the left side of the gas tank. I was never a motorcycle officer, but once had a temporary assignment for 12 weeks supervising some of them, and back then that included the old 3-wheel Harley Servi-Car although I always heard them called a servi-cycle. I did spend one Sunday riding one around downtown Dallas. They weren't bad for low speeds, but not good for high speeds. And of course ours spent a great deal of time idling around in traffic. The maintenance guys said you run them 15k miles, overhaul them, run them another 10k, overhaul them again, run another 5k and junk them.:laughing:
In 1972, after we had gone to foot shift and hand clutch Harleys, I visited the Harley facilities in Milwaukee and I noticed a Milwaukee officer riding an almost new 2-wheel Harley motorcycle that was still the hand shift and included a reverse gear. That was the only 2-wheel Harley I ever saw with a reverse, so naturally I asked the officer about it and he said, "That's because we use them year round." I said, "So do we in Dallas, what's that got to do with it?" and he said, "We put a sidecar on for the Winter."
In 1972, after we had gone to foot shift and hand clutch Harleys, I visited the Harley facilities in Milwaukee and I noticed a Milwaukee officer riding an almost new 2-wheel Harley motorcycle that was still the hand shift and included a reverse gear. That was the only 2-wheel Harley I ever saw with a reverse, so naturally I asked the officer about it and he said, "That's because we use them year round." I said, "So do we in Dallas, what's that got to do with it?" and he said, "We put a sidecar on for the Winter."
