Dates / venues subject to change or cancellation . (*) Some dates provisional . " Check before you buy "

Laconia Motorcycle Week New Hampshire , US • Jun 8-16 www . laconiamcweek . com

Wheels & Waves Biarritz , FR • Jun 12-16 www . wheels-and-waves . com

IRF24 Indian Riders Fest ( 5th ) Budweis Custom Show Ceske Budejovice • Jun 13-16 www . indianridersfest . eu

Biltwell People ' s Champ Cook ' s Corner , CA , US • Jun 21 www . peopleschampshow . com

Born Free Silverado , CA , US • Jun 22-23 www . bornfreeshow . com

Buckeye Motorcycle and Music Rally Columbus , OH , US • Jun 27-29 buckeyemotorcycleandmusicrall y . com

Hamburg Harley Days Hamburg , DE • Jun 28-30 www . hamburgharleydays . com

Wildays ( 8th ) San Polo D ' enza , IT • Jun 28-30 www . wildays . com

Bagger Racing League 2 GingerMan Raceway , MI , US • Jun 28-30 www . baggerracingleague . com

American Week Osijek , HR • Jul 5-7

Punta International Motorcycle Show Courchevel , FR • Jul 5-7 www . punta-courchevel . com

Swiss Harley Days Lugano , CH • Jul 5-7 www . swissharleydays . ch

Handbuilt Show Los Angeles Los Angeles , US • Jul 5-7 www . revivalcycles . com

BMW Motorrad Days Garmisch-Partenkirchen , DE • Jul 6-7

Capital Moto Week Brasilia , BR • Jul 18-27 www . capitalmotoweek . com . br

Custom Bike Show Cesis , LV • Jul 20 • July 20

H-D Homecoming Milwaukee , WI , US • Jul 25-28 events . Harley-Davidson . com

AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days Lexington , OH , US • Jul 26-28 vintagemotorcycledays . com

Harley Days Dresden Dresden , DE • Jul 26-28 www . harley-days-dresden . de

World Ducati Week Misano , IT • Jul 26-28 www . ducati . com

Fuel Cleveland Cleveland , OH , US • Jul 27-28 www . fuelcleveland . com

Bike & Music Weekend Geiselwind , DE • Aug 1-4 bike-and-music-weekend . de

<<< Continued from cover

through a number of online resources ( including , but not limited to , BikeCurious , American Cruiser and Savage Roads ), Davis owned an FX Super Glide , but didn ’ t like the styling of it , so , literally , simply created a new frame . He had enough success with it , that he patented the design . He met with some H-D management ( including Willie G .) who liked his work , but they weren ’ t ready to acquire anything - this was around 1980 , so one can imagine they had rather larger issues dominating their thoughts around that time - like a little matter of survival and securing a post AMF future … minor issues like that . Davis kept developing the frame , but finding that it was a labor-intensive and expensive design , he had to close RoadWorx and put another call into Harley . This time Jeffrey Bleustein agreed to make an offer for the design

( it was a sharp deal with royalties capped !), and trapped between a rock and a hard place , Davis signed the deal in January of 1982 . The first bike featuring the ideas behind his revolutionary frame design ( the FXST ) rolled off the production line ( replete with the aforementioned ' Evo ') as a MY1984 new model during the summer of 1983 .” The example of the RoadWorx ' faux hardtail ' frame design seen here has a rebuilt motor with double plugged heads , an S & S Super E carb , 4-speed Ultimate transmission , Showa shocks , a front end from a Wide Glide , Le Pera seat and a 21 ″ front wheel . A Certificate of Authenticity confirms it as one of the frames from the two sets of original production frames that Bill Davis made . It is , therefore , the patent design that he sold to Harley in 1982 . On Harley ' s 1983 / 84 FXST , the positioning of the suspension struts ( concealed horizontally under the transmission ) allowed a very low seating position . In his book ' 100 Years of Harley- Davidson ', former Chief Styling Officer Willie G . Davidson wrote : " When I think back to the introduction of the FXST Softail and the Evo and the impact on the market - we had only just come out of the buyout - I realize how important this new engine and the new frame were to our survival . The Softails became bestsellers and are

2024 M-8 Softails

This example of the RoadWorx ' faux hardtail ' frame design has a rebuilt motor with double plugged heads , an S & S Super E carb , 4-speed Ultimate transmission , Showa shocks , the front end from a Wide Glide , Le Pera seat and a 21 " front wheel . A Certificate of Authenticity confirms it as one of the examples from the two sets of original production frames that Bill Davis made - and is , therefore , the patented design that he sold to Harley in 1982 .

The MY1984 ' faux hardtail ' FXST Softail - " nothing was ever the same again !"

much loved by fans ." Landmarks of the Evo / Softail platform went on to include the 1986 Heritage Softail , the Springer Softail in 1988 and , in 1990 , the iconic Fat Boy . In the 1990s , demand for Harley Big Twins , especially the Softails at that stage in Harley ' s history , did much to trigger the explosion in custom builds and

aftermarket builds that ran hot until around 1987 . When Harley withdrew the ' Evo ' crate motor from its Screamin ' Eagle program in the mid-1990s , aftermarket frames and engines filled the demand and , forty years later from that first FXST , look where it has all led to !