Did I lose $13,000 Buying a Harley Motorcycle

Is that worth the engine alone? Yeah, 35 or $40,000, yeah, so a couple of months ago I was at an auction and I made the best purchase of my life or the worst purchase. I bought a 1929 Harley-Davidson JD and it looked super rough. and original so I'm here at Matt Walker's Place wheel through time actually more specifically I think they call it the time machine garage this is the workshop behind the wheel through time and he's going to tell me if I made a mistake big mistake or a big investment and let's see if we can turn this on.

I'm really really excited and I can't wait to see his reaction when he sees it because he'll know this better than me, come on. go see how Matt's doing, what's up Matt, what's going on bro, how are you, good to see you, you look good mate, it's been too long, yeah, it's been too long, Chris, Chris, what's up , how good to see you, have we just been tearing each other apart? man, I have a

motorcycle

that you have to see, come see it, it's a Honda, it's hot, it's a Yamama Hul, you'll love it. I'm going to go in there.

I'm going to open that door. You are G to tell me if I made the worst decision of my life

buying

it or the best financial decision. We are going to tell my wife which one is the best. It always works. 50% of the time she wouldn't have called. We if it wasn't old oh it's old damn I don't know what to think what year it is 29 to 29 they told me it's a 29 I bought it at a meum auction I don't know if something they tell me is true, okay, it's a little difficult , but I guess it depends on what you paid for it.

I paid 133 for it, 13,300 dollars. My first glance is that there is more money than that on good bike parts that we haven't looked at. It was long and I looked into it a lot, but you know you couldn't put together something like this at retail prices for R13, so it's great news. I feel like everything is about to arrive in the mail. I thought I made a big mistake with this, but let's fix it. Off the trailer we'll find out exactly what a good decision I made, we'll put the rear rack on, we'll take it off that sucker and then uh the Pogo Works Pogo seat works so far I just bought it.

It's the oldest I can find for the price I can pay and it has worked pretty well for me. Maybe my luck has run out. Well, we'll determine that the fenders are creaky. I mean, it's a solid enough metal, but. You'd need a great body type, but it would be great to be able to run a bike like this without having to do anything cosmetic to it, list one, two, three, all the right tires, they just need a little air. I like how they have a new valve stem like they're like oh maybe just the valve stem these bolts these bolts don't look original anymore they're new that's from Home Depot so you have a 29 JX that I've never heard of a JX, so let me see here, is it possible that this one is very rare?

Well if we were just going by a VIN number the answer would be yes but the VIN number is just one part it's all about the parts so I've had beginner's luck

buying

motorcycle

s for the last 8 years and really I hope at first glance this seems like it might not be the best deal but we found out that once we dug a little deeper into it we found out that it could be the Holy Grail of Harley-Davidson JDS or it's something else maybe it's like a jdh or it's like the missing link that everyone is looking for I I I I don't know, but I really hope there's something unique about that little piece of this bike. it could be worth $80,000 because anything is possible and if you've ever watched Matt's YouTube channel, Matt is a master storyteller, he may already know about some element of this that he's keeping from me just for the sake of telling a good story, so Let's look for it.

At first glance, Matt noted that the C was from a military bike from a later year and the cylinders appear to have come from two different bikes or at least one of them was replaced at some point, the clutch pedal appears to be the clutch pedal. right clutch, um this. that's been added that's weird, I've never seen that before so someone took a primary cover that had rotted away and probably added that to it. Why would they do that just to cover the clutch pack that you want to go up, so we? I can see a little bit better visibility.

Let's do it, we'll get it up in the air so we get the bike up on the lift and we're ready to evaluate this thing and see if there's any chance of this happening. Start wow, well does it look better now that it's in the first opinion? You have made better decisions. H, okay, I know that's not what you wanted to hear. The first thing I look at when I see a bike is what's missing, not necessarily what's missing. Good and what is wrong. Which isn't even there. Looking at the bike. Your first glance from 30 to 40 feet is that everything is fine, but you know that starting from the top, you have no cables coming out of the handlebars.

You know those are the first handlebars. although I mean they've outgrown all the shit, but this right here they stopped doing it in 1915, oh really, yeah, so like, these are 19 potentially 194 14 handlebars 14 15 bars, look at these here, they have these uh lugs here they machine, mold lugs, machine them, slide the handlebars, weld them and then bend the bars, um, this is what a nice set looks like that looks rusty in place, can you make it spin? No, oh, that sucker's tight, they put a nice new grip on, uh, yeah, new, yeah, new grip, no gas caps, no oil pump, no oil cap, no shifter door, oh , this one spins, that spins and you have, I don't know, oh yeah, well, it looks like it's frozen because it's sending the external wire in and out now, is it possible that we're going to find something here that's super rare, super valuable and What makes all this business worth it and that you haven't noticed yet?

It might be the engine case, something you know, maybe it's possible, but the reality is that all of these parts have value, oh, you know, and by themselves, you know you've got a $400 front wheel. Mom, the hairpin is very pitted, but it is complete and looks like it. directly and as far as the Integrity goes, I don't see any problems with it, it's probably a $3,000 front end, you know? Can you tell me what this is? What is this on top? Rhino Lining or yes, it's like they did something. uh, you know, like barbecue or something, you know, and we've done a lot of something that you want to stop, it could be stopping rust, you know, so they just sprayed this to freeze it, which is not a bad thing. what to do especially if they weren't going to restore it soon uh decent front fender tanks there's a lot of Bondo on those tanks these are good parts man I need that clutch pedal so when you decide to fix this later Yeah things on this bike look pretty pretty promising, however, I still don't know what information Matt is hiding up a sleeve or if he's even hiding anything up a sleeve and then who I thought was my best friend, Chris, finds something. big obvious problem here you go uh oh no, that's been welded, yeah, so this suction cup doesn't even come off, it opens and c

lose

s, but do you see what's happening here?

Look at this here, how this works now, this is like a key nut here that holds the entire entry pocket, it actually looks like brass, there's like a combination of MIG welding and brazing. Is it possible that it was made a long, long time ago? Oh, it was made a long time ago, no doubt about it. about it and then Matt drops a bombshell on me about this bike, something he had never considered. I don't think this has worked well in your current setup. My first thought about it is that someone had parts and wanted them. put all those pieces together and just sell something as a whole and I'm not saying to misrepresent it but I don't think it has ever been a race bike in this configuration, there are many reasons for that now before I delve into this bike and inspect further and see if we can make this work.

There's a new bike at the museum that Matt is dying to show me and I can't wait to see what happens if Matt is excited about it. I am excited about her. Let's see what he has. This is a wheel through time and it's also where the road dog that was once mine now lives because I sold him to M, so I'm really inspired by the cool stuff Matt has in his and me museum. was. I wonder if you could help me. I'm actively looking for old American and even British motorcycle stuff. I'm talking about random complete bike barn finds.

Parts just engine parts, anything that might be on old American or British stuff. I'm willing to pay quite a bit of money for it, so if you know anything, email me at this email right here and I'll even pay you a higher rate if you help me buy it. One of the newest things here is my friend Ken's 1914 Harley-Davidson race bike, so this is what you have, but three steps more primitive, this is the fastest 1914 Harley in the world, really period , max speed 100 110 w wow Matt Dan is going to explain how his friend Ken custom built most of the. internal components in this bike to make it go faster than any Harley of that year and the sound of this engine is incredible, it's a 1,000 hp twin cylinder and they even cut the tread on the tires to make it faster, like Bert Monroe . and it should light up, that's cool, pretty amazing, you know, on some of these bikes from this same era. 120 to 130 mph motorcycle that's awesome you want to see what your bike would look like new yeah okay come this way so this is the Polo motorcycle and if you want you can ride it later oh sweet and then Matt asked me if I wanted to see what my bike would have been like if it were new and I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that, so Matt showed it to me.

I told myself all the cool things about this bike that mine was missing, but this makes me excited to get back to work on my bike and see if we can finally fire it up and finally get some value first when you look at the engine. There are no rocker towers on the engines or rocker arms, what you're missing is the actual arm here, okay, this slides in here with one that's a push rod, the push rod and this is how you open the valve with the little rocker arm so that the The only way to keep it there is to weld it on, that doesn't mean it won't work well, you just can't, you can't fix it, fix it, you can't fix it.

Missing ventilation pipes, you

lose

your bass. The nuts are also loose. I want to take the cam cover off and see what's inside because it's all loose and I bet this is just a bolt that's a bolt yeah it should be a nut it should be a nut yeah and those should be this is also a bolt that's a bolt too yeah so they just put in whatever they found whatever piece they found and when you take them apart a lot of times you're going to loosen this nut and the whole bolt will come out so when they were hitting this they put it back together um they just they used a bolt and then Matt tells me that my 1929 Harley wasn't all 1929.

The frame is like a 27, 20, 25, 6, 7 frame, so there's a reinforcement here on the later frames, the ones from 28 and 29, this doesn't It doesn't have it, it doesn't have it, so the fork doesn't have a front brake either, so there would be a front brake and the best thing we can do is start comparing parts to see what we have. because what you want to know is what do you really have right, you know, that's the front brake setup, look, and it's a pretty weak front brake, yeah, and it's a pretty weak fork leg, so they did that the damn brake reinforcement reinforced the entire fork.

It helps reinforce the entire fork so that's where the brake mount goes on a 28 and 29, so the fact that it doesn't have a front brake may not be because it was never a complete bike, maybe it's because the engine was replaced and that's a later engine So what? So this could be a 27 or 25, it could be a 25, six or seven, they changed the engine and they changed the engine, look, there you go, yeah, your 27 7183 transmission, so you have a 1927 transmission and that. seems like a pretty nice broadcast and all this fun and heartbreaking motorcycling reminds me of one of my favorite verses John 15:2 every branch in me that bears no fruit he removes, and every branch that says it bears fruit he prunes so that it may bear more Fruits, I find it extremely optimistic that things could be looking up for this bike.

Is there any part of this motorcycle that was assembled that makes you think it was assembled by a professional, by someone who knew? what they were doing or everything just screams this thing was slapped I think someone knew what they were doing I don't think what they were doing was building it to work they were just building it for themselves, I, I kind of feel That way it doesn't seem like They tried to make it a genuine Harley, they only did it for function, but it's like they were trying to make it look like something it isn't yet.

I don't want to say something that is. It's not because it's still more important than right, you know, the whole thing is that it's a big rear wheel. God, that rear wheel is pretty. Look at that original patina. $10,000. Well, like I said, buddy, when you start looking at everything. This ended, without a doubt, there is more value here in the pieces you have than what you paid for them, so in that sense, the first evaluationIt would be not considering it a loss, okay? Know? It will work? I don't know, that's how things are. It doesn't look good for the JD and my wallet, but if we can get it.

This thing to run is always worth a lot more if it works and then Matt gives me even worse news, oh yeah, saying it's not a 1939 hole in the back of the tank. I don't want to make it worse, but that's Bondo. that's the Bondo you don't need it so it looks like I know if it was rusty but it's like a damaged tank yeah it's a damaged tank and they've tried to weld it all back together so what you don't have also is there's no guts on the generator oh it was empty, hollowed out, I don't even know, oh it's not like there's even an armature shaft there, you see through it, that's definitely not good, you're missing all the pieces and this piece It looks like a brand.

It's new and I mean it actually looks like it could be an old shift knob. Oh, really, yeah, it's like 75 or 80 dollars, but the lever, um, the lever is new, yeah, I would say that lever is new too, a little bit, it looks like a hand-made battery. box, so it's not a genuine Harley moving from front to back, there are some redeeming qualities and then there are some things that go a long way, this clip here starts, that's new, but the clip starts to wear out, its bracket starts to hang and drag while you're going down the road and you don't know until you stop properly, you know they bend, they rust at the bottom.

It is a great rear support. It's one of the best parts of your entire bike. Wow, what is that? How much is it? 400,500 dollars, you know, for a really nice one. The rear wheel, like I said, is beautiful. I'd take that rear wheel off and put it on one of my climbers in a minute. The tail light is handmade hey it's a duay I don't know what that means yeah it means something now what's up with this headlight and this horn the horn is rear the headlight is really cool look how it is it has a geometric shape, yes, to distribute the light? the reflector is not a

harley

headlight but its definitely old and a very cool headlight its a SNM SNM lampco SNM from Los Angeles Cali so after some emotional ups and downs regarding this bike I asked Matt if he had any new part to see if there is everything I needed for my knucklehead and for the first time he finally showed me some of his hidden gems of motorcycle parts, two of which he says I need for my bike, there is a lot of junk and a lot of good stuff .

Indian Fender back here, there's the Indian fenders, you've got clutch pedals, there's horns, there were a bunch of speedometers here, that's a 36 header, really weird, here's the windshield I was telling you about, this is one of those shields roll-up sports cars and that was like original this is a Harley or aftermarket original it was made by a company in Chicago and the guy just designed this retractable windshield this is right around that time man, late 1930s and 1940s, They are impossible to find, would this add value to my bike? It would probably look great on a pair of Flanders bars, man, what do you think something like this would look like?

That something like this is going to cost me 3000? Yes, think about that Where is the discount bin? Where is the discount bin? one remade and the new ones are just big this is a JD tank which is an Indian Scout tank oh okay Indian Chief Scout yeah and these are all blue frames and wheels for the man Bone was born to be blue b to be blue there are flames on the front too born to be blue you know what I need I need a seat for my um my 48 uh indian cheese says indian motorcycle it's pretty tough although I don't know if you'd want to go for it or not my bike is pretty rough I mean , it's a good seat, but it's not a cheap seat, what are you thinking?

Probably like $1,000. It's crazy what kids pay for that. You know, I don't mean to surprise you, but all the staging stuff is really pretty, have you seen it? bike, yeah, I don't know if that seat is worth it, you know what I mean? It has character, you know what this is, a baby seat, no, yes, it goes in the front back, it goes in the front, that's amazing, isn't it great? Yes, it's a child seat, the best I've ever seen, yes, what does it say? Raha seat manufactured with patent pending, no patent number, see and that particularly would bolt right where the tank is, yes, like where the C te acts on the tank and then this would be located on the front of your seat, yes, I mean.

Where else will the baby sit? Where else will the baby sit? Man, you can't tie it to your bar anymore. the baby seat or the windshield we went back to work on the JD to find out once and for all if we can make this work and the next thing we need to check is to see if this bike has compression because without compression, we are not going anywhere , just cover that, voila, I have compression, there is no compression on this side, oh really, yes, so we discovered that the generator was cupped, which makes us wonder what else is missing internally on this bike that we can't see.

We decided to take the engine cover off to see what was really there and while we were doing that Matt tells me the history of Harley Davidson bikes and tells me about the most sought after and fastest of them all and now I have to go find one can you consider it from the beginning you know they didn't refer to them as JDS but I think the Harley J model officially started in 1916 and they continued until 1929 and all the letters after the J model are different variations which one is the rarest jdh is the most rare and that is a phenomenally rare Harley-Davidson 2AM, you know, if this was a jdh and it came in this condition I would faint from all of it, how much would it be worth? the engine, yes, 35 or $40,000, yes, so they only made 500 jdhs and in 28 and 29, phenomenally rare.

Ultra-powerful, they had, you know, 1500 RPM more than the other bikes, so in 1937, when the bike hadn't been making them. For eight years, in fact, they were banned from racing because they were too fast, yeah, then it would be faster than my knuckle, faster than your knuckle. In 1937, they had this event at mck Dry Lakes where they would go out onto the dry lake beds. and do land speed stuff and the Knuckleheads at that event now Knucklehead is a year and a half at that time a year at that event the Knuckleheads were running like 111 M these the jdhs were running like 125 127 that's a big difference so More or less what Matt is telling me is that these bikes are going up in value and the reason is that you can still ride and tour on a bike like this, but some bikes need to be preserved and some need to be restored and other bikes like In the case Of this one, it's probably best to help finish getting 20 other bikes running and getting to where they want to be.

If I take this bike apart, I'll most likely end up a little higher than what I have on this bike, but that's not going to happen. to keep us from getting it up and running, so we started adding parts and changing things and putting things back together and finally we were ready to try to get this thing going, just give it a little bit, you don't even have to push it hard, man, it's okay. so we didn't get mine to work there's no chance mine is going to work anytime soon but this is a very similar bike and that's what I can prove so Matt let me ride his bike and it was amazing and it was a blast.

It's hard for me to put my finger on it, but there is something really exciting and incredible about riding a motorcycle. It's almost 100 years old, but if you ever get the chance to do it, trust me, you won't regret it, what a great bike. I'm flipping everywhere this thing is flipping and I'm flipping a bag and this thing is amazing it's like an old shoe yeah it just fits this thing it's so awesome it's cool it's light one of my favorite thing about this bike is that you can do this, yeah man, it doesn't weigh anything, it weighs 200 pounds, that's amazing, so my purchase in the 29 JD wasn't a total catastrophe, it's more or less worth what I paid for it.

I'm not losing much I'm not gaining much and I got the ride I got I got the ride to see what it really feels like and Matts feels amazing but I'm not going home empty handed because there's one thing I've been here for, that's what I'm bringing home in my trailer, let's grab it and I think you know exactly what some of you do, this is my junkyard wldr, it's been done for a few months and it's been hanging. around the Matt Museum and now I can finally take it home, kick, kick. If you want to see more about the full history of this bike and where it started, click here in the top corner.