Road Glide banner

81flt

2K views 22 replies 20 participants last post by  jeff338wm 
#1 ·
I ride a 1981 Tour Glide it's our only bike. We bought it several years ago so I could sell my Buell to my son and have a bike to finish out the season with. It has since been to all sorts of cool far flung places often with said Buell in the mirrors or visible up ahead. The bike has become an obsession or an addiction and as such will be our one and only and last touring steed. The aftermarket is strong for all generic Harley Davidson parts but virtually non existent for anything specifically related to the early FLT. I'm looking for ideas to fix the unfixable stuff or secret caches of cheap NOS parts. :wink:
 

Attachments

See less See more
1
#2 ·
Welcome!

I've got an 81 FLTC (love the enclosed chain), and rely heavily on swap meets. What sort of "unfixables" are you after?
 
#4 ·
Very nice ! Swap meets are a great place along with the flebay to find old parts.

Welcome to the forum.
 
#6 ·
Welcome from Florida. Sounds like you're talking about OEM parts, so swap meets (which are also great for networking for parts you need), Craigslist, classifieds, or online auctions would be your best bet. If not OEM, a quick search for your bike produced 38 pages of exact fit parts for your ride from just one online vendor. If you do happen to find cheap (you did say cheap right?) secret caches of NOS parts for Harley's, please PM me. I promise not to tell. :grin: Honestly, if or when most (not all) of us replace things (usually those that don't even need fixin') on our bikes, it's generally with aftermarket stuff anyway.
 
#12 · (Edited)
There was an FXRT also back in the day with a fixed fairing. Its been awhile since I've seen one, but some differences I think the FLT had a beefier backbone, like the newer bikes, but still 3 point eng mounts, no?

The Shovel engine should be no problem finding aftermarket and swap meet parts for, although H-D has sadly abandoned. One tip I think of would be to buy even what it doesn't need yet when you run across it... start building up the larder! :)
 
#13 ·
There was an FXRT also back in the day with a fixed fairing. Its been awhile since I've seen one, but some differences I think the FLT had a beefier backbone, like the newer bikes, but still 3 point eng mounts, no?
IIRC the backbone was the same (square), but the neck was different (shorter) on the FXR because it didn't use the reverse trees.
 
  • Like
Reactions: thealaskan
#15 ·
welcome to the forum! Tour Glides are just too cool! We love our early Sharks too!
Some members here used to ride Tour Glides, so i imagine they will chime in when ya need some help. Besides the fairing though, should be able to swap parts from any FL around that year.
 
#16 ·
Top end parts will be similar, but the FLH was still solid mount, 4 speed setup, up until the EVO years.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top