1973 Ironhead 1000cc Sportster

My first motorcycle ever, my first motorcycle I ever put a wrench on, was 1973 Ironhead 1000cc Harley-Davidson Sportster. The bike was almost original except for the paint (beautiful dark redish/brown color) and the exhaust.
The previous owner imported the bike from the US, I still have the paper work in a big folder. The years I had it, it saddly broke down a couple of times. The first time it was when my girlfriend at that time borrowed it. The rotoraxle broke when she was leaving a tunnel, with a view bangs the bike stopped running and the girls started pushing. Later that night my girlfriend and the Ironhead were brought home by a thowingtruck. Luckely I could do the repair myself with a noseplier and a replacement rotoraxle; cost approx. 3 Euro's.

The next time it broke down was when I was overtaking a truck on the highway near Utrecht, The Netherlands with about 110 km's an hour. It started to run like a tractor and I quickly stopped it. The roadassistance guy quickly saw it was not repairable on the road side and brought me home with the bike. The inlet valve had been in touch with the piston and broke... ending up in 100+ pieces and couple of them flew out the engine through the exhaust. Another top-end overhaul was needed. Not much later I traded it in for my current 1985 Softtail Custom.

I'll tell you about the transformation of that one later.