When it comes to Harley-Davidson design, the 1971 FX Tremendous Glide is a type of bikes that individuals both love, or like to hate. It was Harley’s first try at a manufacturing facility customized, mixing the sporty vibe of the XL collection with the heavyweight punch of the FL fashions. However what actually stole the present—for higher or worse—was the boat tail seat. Daring, brash, and undeniably Nineteen Seventies, it’s a design that’s as polarizing as we speak because it was again then.
From the Thoughts of Willie G. The thought for the FX Tremendous Glide emerged throughout a transitional interval for Harley-Davidson. The Nineteen Sixties had been powerful for the corporate, with rising competitors from British and Japanese producers. Willie G. Davidson, grandson of one of many firm’s founders, sought to reinvigorate the model with a motorcycle that appealed to the burgeoning customized tradition.
In follow, the FX Tremendous Glide was little greater than a stripped-down FL big-twin outfitted with the entrance fork, wheel, brake and headlight from an XL Sporty. An all-American paint scheme and buckhorn bars gave it the look of an actual freedom machine, however Willie’s ultimate design mandate would come to outline the bike.
Modeled loosely after the rear ends of traditional cafe racers and the tailfins of Nineteen Fifties American vehicles, the fiberglass boat tail was meant to evoke velocity and class. The piece first appeared as an non-compulsory additional for the XL Sportster in 1970, but it surely didn’t promote properly. The place the boat-tail Sporty appeared advert hoc cafe, it introduced a totally totally different look to Tremendous Glide as a daring bodyworked roadster, definitely deserving of its nickname ‘the evening prepare.’
Straight to the Attic Regardless of its audacity, the boat tail seat landed with a thud for a lot of Harley purists. Its swooping, bulbous form clashed with the in any other case muscular traces of the Tremendous Glide, giving it an nearly cartoonish silhouette. In an period when Harley’s core viewers favored chrome-laden baggers or stripped-down bobbers, the boat tail appeared like an overstyled gimmick, and numerous boat tails discovered their ultimate resting place in attics and storage cabinets.
Harley chalked the boat tail experiment up as a failure after 1971, main us to marvel if it may have been refined some for ’72. That first yr FX captured the freewheeling spirit of the early Nineteen Seventies, a time when American tradition was in flux. Psychedelic rock dominated the airwaves, leisure fits had been in and flamboyance was the order of the day. In that context, the FX Tremendous Glide’s outlandish look made good sense. It wasn’t only a bike; it was a rolling image of freedom.
Triumphant Return to the Fold As we speak, the FX Tremendous Glide and its boat tail seat have undergone a reevaluation. What was as soon as derided as gaudy now holds a sure nostalgic attraction. Fans and collectors view the bike as a snapshot of a pivotal second in Harley-Davidson’s historical past when the corporate took a daring gamble on model and innovation, with generations of succeeding FX fashions to its credit score.
Clear boat-tail Tremendous Glides recurrently fetch spectacular sums at public sale lately. Relying on situation and originality, costs can vary from $15,000 to $30,000, with significantly pristine fashions commanding even larger bids. The boat tail, as soon as a legal responsibility, is now a coveted function that ensures a return a number of occasions larger than a typical Tremendous Glide of the period.
Considered one of a Treasured Few Harley produced simply 4,700 examples of the 1971 FX Tremendous Glide earlier than the boat tail obtained the boot, and there’s no telling what number of have been chopped up or in any other case ruined. Crossing the block on January 31 at Mecum’s Las Vegas 2025 bike sale, Lot F126 is one in every of these treasured few.
There are definitely nicer Tremendous Glides, as this one wears simply sufficient patina for the 34,305-mile odometer readout to make sense, however we wouldn’t put it previous a repaint someplace alongside the road. Past that, many authentic particulars look right, just like the factors cowl, controls and exhaust, whereas the battery field and air filter housing seem incorrect. Promoting at no reserve, this 1971 FX will in all probability promote within the center 20s.
The boat tail Tremendous Glide is a type of bikes that’s simple to trash discuss out of your keyboard, however laborious to hate in particular person. Its stature and proportions are utterly totally different when it’s leaned over in entrance of you, and you end up warming as much as what Willie G. was making an attempt to perform. As an edgy rolling image of the Nineteen Seventies, the ’71 Tremendous Glide’s quirky design ensures its legacy as one of the crucial memorable—and polarizing—bikes ever to roll out of Milwaukee.
Supply: Mecum.
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