Wright Way Harley-Davidson Super Glide

CATCHING up with Wrighty and his street sweet 1979 FXE Super Glide at the Albany ANZAC Memorial presented an inspiring panorama of the southern coastline that a lot of our boys departed from but never come home to. It’s a solid and stoic reminder for us to never forget them.

Wrighty’s FXE Shovelhead Harley-Davidson has been built for street duties, but more importantly, to get him home every time after the riding’s done, and just like an old mate that’s always got your back, “It hasn’t let me down or been on the back of a truck yet.” And, being his first Harley that he bought brand new back in 1979, “It’ll be staying with me ’til the grave.”

The FXE’s were an electric start only variation of the FX Super Glides which were H-D’s response to the growing 1970’s custom bike scene. The frame and rear being from the FLH Electra Glide, and the skinny front-end pulled straight from the XLH Sportster. Mind you, the original boat-tail rear fender wasn’t well received at the time stalling sales so Harley-Davidson quickly changed it over to something more customer friendly, and after five years of the FXE, Wrighty decided it was time he bought his own.

The modifications have continued to evolve making it more reliable, look a treat, and handle much better. This is the second rebuild it’s gone through to change the look back from a previously chopped up FLH rear guard to return it similar to the original lines of the bike. That original Sporty front-end got the old Spanish Archer and a more substantial 1983 Wide Glide front-end was bolted on for good measure.

The bike wasn’t always a ray of sunshine though as Wrighty chose to rip the electric-only start off the bike and return it to the days of kick-start only, and it’s been history since about 1980. “I had so much drama with the zip-starter, with starter relays shitin’ themselves, the clutch slippin’, and the oil-bath chain drive, so I changed that to belt drive. It was a Primo originally but now it’s a BDL.”

Some lowering of the forward controls will happen in the near future as they’re too high for his liking, but they’re still better than the mid-mount that the FXE came with originally. Being that the frame was still FLH based all that was required was drilling out of the forward control mounts and attaching the associated hardware.

This engine was the last of the 74 cubic inch (1206 cc) Softail engines before H-D changed to the 80 cubic inch Shovel the next year and has seen no increase in capacity. 

The first rebuild was back in the very early 1980’s after a particularly quick 100 mile run with his brothers in typical south-west rainy weather to make the local Sunday session. Waking up the next day to the smell of smouldering electrics had Wrighty running out to the shed to investigate. A short in the rectifier had the bike all ready to fire up but not in the way most would like! He caught it just in time before it took the  bike, the shed, and anything else nearby.

The damage wasn’t major but he still jumped in with a full engine rebuild on the still fairly new bike. “It had seen a lot of riding all over the state in the last few years, a lot of it being hard. The exhaust was starting to smoke by then and going all out is just how I roll.”

Exclusive Motorcycles in Bayswater split the cases and installed an S&S crankpin and rebalanced the bottom-end. It’s still got the standard rods but now they’re topped with a set of Manley 10.5:1 forged pistons and an Andrews B grind cam. Ignition was left the factory electronic offering.

Many years later Wrighty decided it was time to freshen the bike up again and get it back to its former glory. The years hadn’t been as kind as he would have liked and it was looking very much worse for wear. This time the bike was taken apart from front to back.

Carb duties have now been upgraded as the old S&S B Series “was a pretty brutal carby being just a throttle body with a main jet on it. That was just worn out and you can’t buy them anymore so I couldn’t keep that original so that is just a CV off an Evo. It’s just for simplicity. It was never meant to be a show bike; I just wanted to get it clean and tidy and how it looked back in 1980.”

Pipes are home-made drag pipes with baffles and heat shields made up out of stainless. 

“That whole back-end as far as all the running gear and the guard goes is from a 2006 Wide Glide with a custom-made swing-arm fab’d by Kiwi at Albany Engineering.”

When it came time to do the paint, A1 Sandblasters powder-coated the frame with Pearsons Spray Painters taking care of the tanks and guards. “That sticker on the tanks was done by my daughter Toni at Albany Signs.”

It’s an honest reliable bike, and most importantly, it doesn’t have something fall off every time it’s out for a ride. It might have come from a simpler time nearly four decades ago but goes to show you don’t have to have every accessory in the catalogue on your bike for it to be right-on.

Words & pics by Brad Miskiewicz