Psychobilly Honda-Davidson
There are many motorcycles that exist only in stories and legends that cruise the highways for years evading the public eye but exist as one of a kind bikes that survive simply because they are just too wild to die. These kinds of "one off" survivors are usually reserved for custom choppers but what about a custom hybrid Harley Honda full dresser? A Honda Davidson or quite possibly a "Harlonda?" Well, we met a gentleman, Paul Atkins, one year at AMA vintage days who owns not only one, but three of these incredible machines and he brought his 1966 Harley Davidson with an SOHC CB750 motor powering it to our Old Bike Barn crossroads bike show and the rest is history and an interesting one at that. We sat down with Paul this year to pick his brain about the origins of his blue beauty which he affectionately refers to as "Psychobilly" and also get some info on the other 2 of these wild hybrid machines he has chosen to own over the years.
So, let's give everyone a little background on you and what made you want to own such a unique motorcycle?
Well my name is Paul Atkins from Flint, Michigan. I've been coming down to Mid Ohio for AMA vintage days for about 20 years now and have had a great time there every year. I'm in the business of buying oddball motorcycles. I just can't lay off the odd balls I guess. haha. I see something and I think there's gotta be a story there somewhere and quite often there's usually a pretty good story behind what people have decided to do with these bikes. This bike here I had no idea just how odd it could get. I mean it's a 1966 Harley Davidson electraglide with a CB750 Honda engine in it. I mean that thing is pretty cobbled which is why I call it the "psychobilly" bike. You know, like the song from Johnny Cash. It's a one piece at a time kind of thing.
So, the base model of this was actually a 1966 electraglide shovelhead then?
Yeah, that was a shovelhead then I believe, that was sort of the end of the panhead line and the beginning of the shovelhead in 66.
So, when you got the bike did you actually install the CB750 motor yourself or do any of the fab work or was it pretty close to how it looks now?
It was exactly like this when I bought it but I tuned it up and changed all the lighting over to LED's because back then they really liked to Christmas tree these things out with lights but the alternator on this bike just really couldn't handle it. So, I rewired it and I put LED lights in it. I also got the electric start fixed and a few other things I pretty much left it like it was though with all the patina and everything. It's actually titled as a 1966 bike.
Well can you share a little of the back story on it then?
Well since I've owned it I've heard a lot of stories about it that people have told me. A guy here at a bike show in Flint told me that he once knew the guy who helped build it down in Warren Michigan and actually owned Warren plating. Which, Warren Chrome plating was a big deal in Michigan. That was where everyone got their stuff done back in the day, bikes, cars and you name it. So anyway he helped his friend build it there in the back room of Warren plating one winter. The guy belonged to the "sober riders" group which I thought was really important because alcohol was never a factor in the building of this bike. Like no one had a 12-pack and got drunk and decided this was a good idea to build. It came from a totally sober perspective which is really important. So anyway the guy kept it and rode it for 25 years and then he gave it to his son and his son later traded it into the Toledo Harley Davidson dealer. From there someone bought it and took it all the way down to Florida and had it down there for a few years where it was seen at Daytona bike week several times. It was later spotted at the biketoberfest in South Carolina as well it then went from South Carolina to Georgia and then I even heard Houston, Texas for a while. Everyone has had a lot of fun with it over the years.
So the trunk which is one of our favorite features of the bike especially with all the lights and everything, it actually says something on it, there is a sticker that says "Joe's dream" does that have a direct correlation to the original builder or owner?
Well to be honest I think that is actually the guy who built it but I don't know. I never could track down his full name and the owner of Warren plating who also helped build the bike has since passed away.
So you never got a last name, just Joe then?
Yep, it would be pretty difficult to dig up actually.
Well I suppose that gives the bike a little more mystique in the way that a lot of survivor motorcycles tend to leave some mystery about their origins. So this would have been built how long ago then, certainly more than 30 years because of him owning it for 25 and you owning it for 5 or 6 then it passed hand several times before that right?
Well I believe it was built sometime in the mid to late seventies from all that I've gathered.
Well I guess aside from the wow factor of owning something like this, why do you believe someone would come to build this and do you believe there are actually more copies of this bike out there? I remember you saying at vintage days that more than one of these exists, is that right?
Yeah and actually I've owned all 3 that were made from all over the country and there was a 4th one that was rumored to have existed but I have never found any connection to it and no one has any info on it so it might not even exist. The other one though the one that I told you about before is the brown one, it actually has an extremely cool history. It was owned and built by Steve McQueen's mechanic, Ken Young. Ken was was an Indian restorer when Indians were 4 cylinder straight fours. So that brown bike has got a lot of really rich history. A lot of people have seen that and they know the story behind it but his son who later had it was kind of an eccentric and didnt want anything to do with his dad apparently or anything to do with the business. Hes still haunted by the fact that everybody still tries to call him if they need work on Indian motorcycles. He's moved up to the mountains in Montana and says to hell with everybody, stopped returning my calls or letters. There was also a guy down in Dallas that used to own it too that was well liked by the club he was in but because he was riding this bike they actually kicked him out of the club. You know for riding a Honda. Anyway Ken young was the one who originally called the Brown bike the "Harlonda" and there was actually someone who theorized that it had been featured in a magazine (which I never found) and it was so well liked by a bunch of people and got around round so much that possibly that is what birthed the idea for the idea for the blue bike. Then after that there was a black one built out in Long Beach, California by some mechanical engineer guy who, well, was not so smart, and I mean, there were a lot of good pieces on that bike but ultimately it was just a big pile of junk. I had to get rid of it. Ron Finch actually had a guy looking for a bike like that and told him that I just might be willing to part with it and I was glad to get rid of it.
Oh wow, so there was even like some bad mojo to the black bike?
Ohh seriously bad, yeah
Well I wonder also with the other bike you mentioned and the previous owner getting kicked out of his club because of it, there are certainly a lot of Harley purists out there you know that, wouldnt really want this to exist. I personally am not one of them, I ride everything from Honda's, Harley's and Yamaha's like you but do you ever get people that, while you are riding, just get downright angry or confrontational with you? Like, maybe even mad about the fact that you or someone you know has done this to a classic Harley?
Well I tell you what, 1 in 25 yeah, 1 and 25 people just do not like it. I mean people will see it parked at a bike night or a swap meat and go oh look at that old Harley and then they look again and realize that there's a Honda engine in it and turn to their friend and crack a smile or you know most people will laugh even. It just brings smiles to people's faces. It actually creates a lot of good energy from people so that's what I like about like about it. I've had more fun with that bike than any other bike I've owned. Then you get that 1 and 25 to come along and they are just absolutely disgusted, like who in the heck would do this, why in the heck would they do it and it just straight messes with their mind, they can't take it.
Well I think it's something like that which challenges people because you get that sort of reaction from any extreme and custom motorcycling. You know, like people who build really extreme raked out choppers which get people asking "how in the heck can they even ride that damn thing" or you know maybe like a bike with giant ape hangers that are too tall or some front end that's a million miles long. I think that's what is kind of a neat thing about your bike is, it still has that same "freak out the square's" mentality built into it but yet with such a classic machine. It's really the melding of two perfectly classic machines in one actually. The quintessential Harley Davidson full dresser and the inline four CB750 which honestly revolutionized the motorcycle industry so it's pretty neat to see them all-in-one machine.
Oh yeah and you know those CB750s had such a big following back then.
Yeah they still do now. So I think this is definitely a question regarding the motor that our readers might want to know your take on and I know I'm certainly curious and forgot to ask you back at vintage days last year but, do you believe having the CB750 motor transplanted into the frame actually makes the bike faster than it would have been with the stock 74" Harley big twin motor?
Oh yeah absolutely. Yep 100%. Its faster, smoother, you can touch a button and it starts right up. I mean all of the above. Much improved.
Haha, well what do you know! That's pretty awesome.
Going back to what you said earlier kind of off topic but that trunk you mentioned on the bike. I have not been able to find out who made or manufactured that trunk I'm actually thinking it had to be something from Europe.
Yeah I noticed that the trunk was pretty unique on the bike and it definitely looks era specific to the bike but one of the only things that sort of stands out that doesn't match the trunk are the black saddlebags on the sides. Did you actually add those or were they on the bike when you bought it?
They were on there when I got it actually. You know another thing of note though, the guy that I take my bikes to who had actually worked on it, hes always dumbfounded by you know the way it looks and all the patina and it just always starts and it always runs. There's just really never anything major wrong with it. Hes done work on the Brown harlonda bike and also the black one which man I just can't say anything good about the black one, like that thing was such a piece of crap. I'm getting off track but you know that other black Honda that was built out in Long Beach it actually looked a lot like a 1973 electraglide I thought. Well the guy that bought it off of me ended up having Ron Finch work on it and Ron was trying to figure this thing out. It turns out that the bike was actually a 1958 Pan head frame well the guy ended up stripping the bike down to just about nothing trying to turn it into a bobber or something and Ron actually gave me the original exhaust off of it because he said "you're the only one who's ever going to need this exhaust" ahd they were welded together so beautifully but really aside from that the bike just had some bad mojo following it.
So speaking of the exhaust on the blue bike here one of the endearing qualities about it that I found was the PBR cans you used to fix up some type of repair on the sides, can you explain the story behind those was it a quick fix that just became sentimental or something?
Well my friend dirty Dan noticed the exhaust was coming apart one day and he said that I should take a PBR can and wrap that. Well I took a thicker and better can and wrapped it and then I used some of that fabric exhaust heat wrap over top of that and then did the PBR can to top it off. It's actually been a big hit so I just did the other side to match. You know that and the flying pig on the front are really the only things that I've added to the bike over the years that I've had it.
Well have you taken many fun trips on the bike? It's definitely set up for some serious cruising.
Yeah lots of them. I don't hesitate to take it on a couple 100 mile rides through the upper thumb of Michigan or some of the bike runs that go on up here. It's really been one of the most fun bikes out of any other motorcycle I've owned, just all the smiles it provokes you know.
Well it certainly had such a look to it that I think most people probably think they'll never see one like that ever again. I know it certainly brought a lot of smiles to a lot of faces when you had it in our Old Bike Barn crossroads bike show last year for sure.
Well I'm gonna try to make it out there this year and bring it along. The guy who's working on the "harlonda" Brown one, well you know I was really hoping he would have it done in time this year but hes had it a few years and he just changed the engine on it and updated a whole bunch of stuff. It's really gonna be great once it's done.
Well out of the 2 bikes that you currently own which on which of these do you like to ride more and why?
Well I'd actually probably say the "harlonda." Ken Young, man he just put that bike together so well and that engine is just balanced in the perfect place, the crankshaft is perfectly inline and it's back just the right amount. I mean all the pieces and the parts that he made were just spot on. He did the forward controls and everything. You know you could ride that bike and just lay it over and it would handle like a dream unlike any Harley I've ever rode it just has the perfect balance to it you could go into a corner and just carve the front wheel. It's just smooth and easy to ride, it's an amazing bike.
Well, we cant wait to see it one year out at Vintage Days and we look forward to seeing you and the "psychobilly" blue bike back out there on the 23rd.
Photos and words by Mike Vandegriff
So, let's give everyone a little background on you and what made you want to own such a unique motorcycle?
Well my name is Paul Atkins from Flint, Michigan. I've been coming down to Mid Ohio for AMA vintage days for about 20 years now and have had a great time there every year. I'm in the business of buying oddball motorcycles. I just can't lay off the odd balls I guess. haha. I see something and I think there's gotta be a story there somewhere and quite often there's usually a pretty good story behind what people have decided to do with these bikes. This bike here I had no idea just how odd it could get. I mean it's a 1966 Harley Davidson electraglide with a CB750 Honda engine in it. I mean that thing is pretty cobbled which is why I call it the "psychobilly" bike. You know, like the song from Johnny Cash. It's a one piece at a time kind of thing.
So, the base model of this was actually a 1966 electraglide shovelhead then?
Yeah, that was a shovelhead then I believe, that was sort of the end of the panhead line and the beginning of the shovelhead in 66.
So, when you got the bike did you actually install the CB750 motor yourself or do any of the fab work or was it pretty close to how it looks now?
It was exactly like this when I bought it but I tuned it up and changed all the lighting over to LED's because back then they really liked to Christmas tree these things out with lights but the alternator on this bike just really couldn't handle it. So, I rewired it and I put LED lights in it. I also got the electric start fixed and a few other things I pretty much left it like it was though with all the patina and everything. It's actually titled as a 1966 bike.
Well can you share a little of the back story on it then?
Well since I've owned it I've heard a lot of stories about it that people have told me. A guy here at a bike show in Flint told me that he once knew the guy who helped build it down in Warren Michigan and actually owned Warren plating. Which, Warren Chrome plating was a big deal in Michigan. That was where everyone got their stuff done back in the day, bikes, cars and you name it. So anyway he helped his friend build it there in the back room of Warren plating one winter. The guy belonged to the "sober riders" group which I thought was really important because alcohol was never a factor in the building of this bike. Like no one had a 12-pack and got drunk and decided this was a good idea to build. It came from a totally sober perspective which is really important. So anyway the guy kept it and rode it for 25 years and then he gave it to his son and his son later traded it into the Toledo Harley Davidson dealer. From there someone bought it and took it all the way down to Florida and had it down there for a few years where it was seen at Daytona bike week several times. It was later spotted at the biketoberfest in South Carolina as well it then went from South Carolina to Georgia and then I even heard Houston, Texas for a while. Everyone has had a lot of fun with it over the years.
So the trunk which is one of our favorite features of the bike especially with all the lights and everything, it actually says something on it, there is a sticker that says "Joe's dream" does that have a direct correlation to the original builder or owner?
Well to be honest I think that is actually the guy who built it but I don't know. I never could track down his full name and the owner of Warren plating who also helped build the bike has since passed away.
So you never got a last name, just Joe then?
Yep, it would be pretty difficult to dig up actually.
Well I suppose that gives the bike a little more mystique in the way that a lot of survivor motorcycles tend to leave some mystery about their origins. So this would have been built how long ago then, certainly more than 30 years because of him owning it for 25 and you owning it for 5 or 6 then it passed hand several times before that right?
Well I believe it was built sometime in the mid to late seventies from all that I've gathered.
Well I guess aside from the wow factor of owning something like this, why do you believe someone would come to build this and do you believe there are actually more copies of this bike out there? I remember you saying at vintage days that more than one of these exists, is that right?
Yeah and actually I've owned all 3 that were made from all over the country and there was a 4th one that was rumored to have existed but I have never found any connection to it and no one has any info on it so it might not even exist. The other one though the one that I told you about before is the brown one, it actually has an extremely cool history. It was owned and built by Steve McQueen's mechanic, Ken Young. Ken was was an Indian restorer when Indians were 4 cylinder straight fours. So that brown bike has got a lot of really rich history. A lot of people have seen that and they know the story behind it but his son who later had it was kind of an eccentric and didnt want anything to do with his dad apparently or anything to do with the business. Hes still haunted by the fact that everybody still tries to call him if they need work on Indian motorcycles. He's moved up to the mountains in Montana and says to hell with everybody, stopped returning my calls or letters. There was also a guy down in Dallas that used to own it too that was well liked by the club he was in but because he was riding this bike they actually kicked him out of the club. You know for riding a Honda. Anyway Ken young was the one who originally called the Brown bike the "Harlonda" and there was actually someone who theorized that it had been featured in a magazine (which I never found) and it was so well liked by a bunch of people and got around round so much that possibly that is what birthed the idea for the idea for the blue bike. Then after that there was a black one built out in Long Beach, California by some mechanical engineer guy who, well, was not so smart, and I mean, there were a lot of good pieces on that bike but ultimately it was just a big pile of junk. I had to get rid of it. Ron Finch actually had a guy looking for a bike like that and told him that I just might be willing to part with it and I was glad to get rid of it.
Oh wow, so there was even like some bad mojo to the black bike?
Ohh seriously bad, yeah
Well I wonder also with the other bike you mentioned and the previous owner getting kicked out of his club because of it, there are certainly a lot of Harley purists out there you know that, wouldnt really want this to exist. I personally am not one of them, I ride everything from Honda's, Harley's and Yamaha's like you but do you ever get people that, while you are riding, just get downright angry or confrontational with you? Like, maybe even mad about the fact that you or someone you know has done this to a classic Harley?
Well I tell you what, 1 in 25 yeah, 1 and 25 people just do not like it. I mean people will see it parked at a bike night or a swap meat and go oh look at that old Harley and then they look again and realize that there's a Honda engine in it and turn to their friend and crack a smile or you know most people will laugh even. It just brings smiles to people's faces. It actually creates a lot of good energy from people so that's what I like about like about it. I've had more fun with that bike than any other bike I've owned. Then you get that 1 and 25 to come along and they are just absolutely disgusted, like who in the heck would do this, why in the heck would they do it and it just straight messes with their mind, they can't take it.
Well I think it's something like that which challenges people because you get that sort of reaction from any extreme and custom motorcycling. You know, like people who build really extreme raked out choppers which get people asking "how in the heck can they even ride that damn thing" or you know maybe like a bike with giant ape hangers that are too tall or some front end that's a million miles long. I think that's what is kind of a neat thing about your bike is, it still has that same "freak out the square's" mentality built into it but yet with such a classic machine. It's really the melding of two perfectly classic machines in one actually. The quintessential Harley Davidson full dresser and the inline four CB750 which honestly revolutionized the motorcycle industry so it's pretty neat to see them all-in-one machine.
Oh yeah and you know those CB750s had such a big following back then.
Yeah they still do now. So I think this is definitely a question regarding the motor that our readers might want to know your take on and I know I'm certainly curious and forgot to ask you back at vintage days last year but, do you believe having the CB750 motor transplanted into the frame actually makes the bike faster than it would have been with the stock 74" Harley big twin motor?
Oh yeah absolutely. Yep 100%. Its faster, smoother, you can touch a button and it starts right up. I mean all of the above. Much improved.
Haha, well what do you know! That's pretty awesome.
Going back to what you said earlier kind of off topic but that trunk you mentioned on the bike. I have not been able to find out who made or manufactured that trunk I'm actually thinking it had to be something from Europe.
Yeah I noticed that the trunk was pretty unique on the bike and it definitely looks era specific to the bike but one of the only things that sort of stands out that doesn't match the trunk are the black saddlebags on the sides. Did you actually add those or were they on the bike when you bought it?
They were on there when I got it actually. You know another thing of note though, the guy that I take my bikes to who had actually worked on it, hes always dumbfounded by you know the way it looks and all the patina and it just always starts and it always runs. There's just really never anything major wrong with it. Hes done work on the Brown harlonda bike and also the black one which man I just can't say anything good about the black one, like that thing was such a piece of crap. I'm getting off track but you know that other black Honda that was built out in Long Beach it actually looked a lot like a 1973 electraglide I thought. Well the guy that bought it off of me ended up having Ron Finch work on it and Ron was trying to figure this thing out. It turns out that the bike was actually a 1958 Pan head frame well the guy ended up stripping the bike down to just about nothing trying to turn it into a bobber or something and Ron actually gave me the original exhaust off of it because he said "you're the only one who's ever going to need this exhaust" ahd they were welded together so beautifully but really aside from that the bike just had some bad mojo following it.
So speaking of the exhaust on the blue bike here one of the endearing qualities about it that I found was the PBR cans you used to fix up some type of repair on the sides, can you explain the story behind those was it a quick fix that just became sentimental or something?
Well my friend dirty Dan noticed the exhaust was coming apart one day and he said that I should take a PBR can and wrap that. Well I took a thicker and better can and wrapped it and then I used some of that fabric exhaust heat wrap over top of that and then did the PBR can to top it off. It's actually been a big hit so I just did the other side to match. You know that and the flying pig on the front are really the only things that I've added to the bike over the years that I've had it.
Well have you taken many fun trips on the bike? It's definitely set up for some serious cruising.
Yeah lots of them. I don't hesitate to take it on a couple 100 mile rides through the upper thumb of Michigan or some of the bike runs that go on up here. It's really been one of the most fun bikes out of any other motorcycle I've owned, just all the smiles it provokes you know.
Well it certainly had such a look to it that I think most people probably think they'll never see one like that ever again. I know it certainly brought a lot of smiles to a lot of faces when you had it in our Old Bike Barn crossroads bike show last year for sure.
Well I'm gonna try to make it out there this year and bring it along. The guy who's working on the "harlonda" Brown one, well you know I was really hoping he would have it done in time this year but hes had it a few years and he just changed the engine on it and updated a whole bunch of stuff. It's really gonna be great once it's done.
Well out of the 2 bikes that you currently own which on which of these do you like to ride more and why?
Well I'd actually probably say the "harlonda." Ken Young, man he just put that bike together so well and that engine is just balanced in the perfect place, the crankshaft is perfectly inline and it's back just the right amount. I mean all the pieces and the parts that he made were just spot on. He did the forward controls and everything. You know you could ride that bike and just lay it over and it would handle like a dream unlike any Harley I've ever rode it just has the perfect balance to it you could go into a corner and just carve the front wheel. It's just smooth and easy to ride, it's an amazing bike.
Well, we cant wait to see it one year out at Vintage Days and we look forward to seeing you and the "psychobilly" blue bike back out there on the 23rd.
Photos and words by Mike Vandegriff