The number of attention Matt McManus had spread over his 1947 FL Knuckle would pity a museum historian with OCD. He crafted the bike exactly how a bobber would have looked in the 50’s. Every nut and bolt has the correct factory finish on it, even though circumstances and unique selection dictated a number of diversions here and there.
This was not his first rodeo, though. Matt and his old man each love themselves some old knuckle heads. They’ve individually raised from the dead a couple of the old bikes in their lifetimes. Matt crafted another 1947 prior to the current project.
As he describes ityou could almost consider the first bike as a test bike for this.
“The very first bike was decent yet it wasn’t precisely what I imagined. Another person had started building it and that I simply completed it from unfinished work by the previous builder,” Matt says.
The earliest was offered by Matt in an classic bike swap meet. Somebody from the event liked it and simply had to purchase it. Although he was reluctant to start with, he eventually caved and left the swap meet cash richer and a knuckle head poorer.
That turned out for the best. The issue with the first project was that Matt stepped in when the motorcycle was less half original from another builder’s tastes and he just completed the puzzle. Think of that one as being a sort of starter house, it’s not the best choice, but the equity within it lets you acquire what you long for the very next time. Matt put the money from the sold knuckle to make the motorcycle you see before you now.
Matt’s first thing on his list was research. McManus checked classic photos, bike mags and photos on the internet to find a concept of what alterations and accessories were carried out to these motorcycles during the ’50s. He knew about the substantial stuff. What Matt wanted were the natural alterations. There after, it was a matter of setting up that information into play. Mostly, that meant searching high and low to look for all the elements. What if you decided to buy a classic knuckle and every little thing worked on it, there wouldn’t be much of a reconstruction tale in it, right?
Matt fully rebuilt the motor. It’s similar to hunting for treasure. He bought the cases from one place, barrels from another, and so on. Piece by piece he put it all together, and after that took the engine to Ben’s V-twins where they carried out the machine work and assembled it. The authentic parts were worn out, though. Since Matt was restructuring this bobber as a motorcycle rider and not a museum curator, he planned good quality replacements on the inside. That’s why he chose S&S pistons, rods, Rowe valves, and an Andrews S grind cam. So far, Matt has already logged 13K miles on it without a hitch.
Presently there isn’t much of fabrication with this bike but what little there is comes completely from Matt himself. He bobbed the back fender and topped it with a taillight. Even the exhaust has his handy work in it. Matt took a set of headers and constructed everything else himself. It took McManus 7 months from part search to paint to reincarnate this motorcycle.
“I have thought of customizing the bike further in the future by putting the actual fenders and saddle back on it, for the time being I’m just going to let those parts and accessories like harley hand grips and the likes, lay around and relish the bike how it is now,” says Matt.
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