Hunting Harley's, 1956 FLH finally starts! 

yes and no, when they sit for an extended period of time, especially with this new gas, that is not the case. Pan's especially tend to mess with you if you don't ride them every few days. When they are ridden often, and you have good gas and good spark plugs, and you know that specific machine, they should start 1-2 kicks, all the time. That said, I have had good running Pan's turn into non runner's simply by putting new gas in, and the next day the gas was so bad it would no longer run, and this was in the days of "good" gas!

Agreed, my EL gets ugly if it sits more than 2-3 weeks. When I rode it every day it always started easily.

Ginger blues Gods finest creation

ride a Pan regularly, they don't act up like this one did. Had to get the "plug" out of the carb caused by this wretched stuff they sell for gas.

modern gas and old bikes do not mix well. makes for hard starting when they sit for a time.

Old gas, gummy carburetor

+john doe I know you were joking but seriously if you are a real biker, say you rode before you were even old enough to get a license and then if you live a good long life like me, I'm 65. I gotta say that many of us have in our long lives gone down hard at least once and that's why old bikers limp. It's not funny, it hurts when I limp. I got me 5 screws and a steel rod in my right leg which broke the tibia and fibula in over five places. Those bones never did set, the doctor did not even try to set them, he just screwed in that steel rod. Rod works good but the broken edges of my bones move around sometimes and that is where the pain and the limp sets in. Not funny. I only went down hard once in my whole life. Still I went out and got me my dream bike a new 2015 FLHP POlice Road King. It's almost too heavy for me to ride because of how weak my right leg is but I still enjoy riding and will wide for the rest of my life. You can bet that for any reason I could no longer ride I would be gone very soon after. No reason to hang around if I can't ride my Harley. I love my kick start "only" motorcycles too! You really bond with your bike when it's up to you to get her running.

+PeterDad60 exactly why I made this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yjhHQU5xDhU.html

PeterDad60 I started at sixteen riding a black and white '65 Pan dresser that was left behind in our garage after an uncle keeled. Didn't have a license either but in 1966 who cared? Then got my first real bike, a '75 FLH and didn't care if it said AMF on the tank emblem and there was no chrome; I loved that motorcycle and wish I had it today. I wrecked pretty bad and shattered my right ankle and broke my fibula in half, and like you was put together with a four inch screw; the arthritis and limited lateral movement sucks but Excedrin extra strengths every day help. I found a nice '03 Roadking on ebay and had to convert it to a trike because I lost my kicker from that accident. The downside of the Roadking is you sit on top instead of down in front of the rear wheel like the old school swingarm. Technically a trike is not a real motorcycle but in Nevada a helmet and M/C license is not required for riding a three-wheeler so I'm in the wind like back in the day before helmet laws.

without the wind in your hair, it is just not the same

I sold all my spare parts off in September

make sure your getting gas to the bottom of the on / off line and also through the fuel filter. Until you get gas that far, you won't get gas into the carb. Let me know

+Adam Stein I spend the time and money to hit as many swap meets as possible and buy what I find that I can afford prior to needing it. Same "source" as anyone else

Francis Murphy Both Panhead's and Knucklehead's used Linkert Carburetor's. These are "driven" by the vacuum caused by the downward movement of the piston's. IE, that is what causes the gas to be literally sucked into the combustion chamber(s) on this type of system. So, without piston movement, twisting the throttle delivers no gas. Starting in the early Shovelhead era, HD started using a primitive accelerator pump in their Tilletson (I might have miss spelled that!) Carburetor. 1973 if I recall correctly (going by old man memory here) HD started using a Bendix Carburetor. This was then replaced by a Kehein (again, spell check) Carburetor in 1977. All three had their advantages and disadvantages. The accelerator carburetor has really "come into it's own" with S&S's introduction of their Super E series in the late 1980's. Still a popular carb today. The Linkert carb had a few variant's over the Knuckle and early Pan years. This has mainly to do with the size of the Venturi (the throat) of the carburetor. Exactly what model was used on what bike is easily found out by doing a search for Linkert Carburetor. There are some excellent sites that give all the types and year models. M74B was the pinnacle of Linkert development for the street model Panhead. While these work well on Pan's, they are too large for a stock Knuckle and don't work as well. The M35 Linkert is the best for most model's of 74 cubic Knuckle's.

yes, this was one of the standard color's. The Flamboyant Green 56 FLH on the videos is a $10 option.

I'm sure the manifold O rings have been replaced on this many times. At any rate, they were not leaking. Stock carbs on ALL Panheads were Linkerts

gotta keep the heart pumping somehow :)

HuntingHarleys haha, yes sir! better than joggin' anyday.

the new gas is horrible. Causes all sorts of problems when these bikes do not run for a month or more

I don't edit, ever

the new gas has Enthanol in it, which attracts moisture and something about the gas eats up corks. So this destabilizes the cork floats and gas cap corks that these came stock with. it also gums up the carbs fast and bad. What I was doing was getting the gummy deposits back open so the carb would feed again. A shot of quick start doesn't do much.

I don't smoke, but I have bronchitis at the moment. Kinda hurts the lung flow and breathing possibilities

Kinda makes you grateful for electric start huh LOL

Not at all. Id rather kick the bike and learn its temperment. Kick starting allows you to feel a bike and learn about it in a way not possible with an electric starter

HuntingHarleys I never got that kinda feedback, sure I knew the feel and what touch it needed to fire, but beyond that, not much more