During the early 1970s I had a short stint as a mechanic at local dealership "Decker's Harley Davidson." Considering that the overall safety of the general public swung in the balance, I consider it a good thing that I found other work.

On one club I ride shared a brewski with another mechanic and his opinion on the changes in engine configurations. He felt that the knuckle was an inherently stronger overall design, the panhead not so much, and the shovel was a return to a better theme.

Now, I wrenched on these engines, and I never saw a knuckle that didn't gush oil from some place, the pans were an improvement (albeit minor) and the flat-side shovels beat them in just about every category except for oil scavenging.

Granted, I did have a cone shovel that weeped more oil than a BP oil rig, but I ultimately fixed it. With a Sifton cam and a pushrod and follower replacement it actually ran a bit better, and even started. An important idea since it was kick-start only.

Here's the debate. As you know, I built Betty because she's the 1971 Super Glide I never could afford to own. If I had a bucket full of lottery money now I would have found an old flat-side and had it rebuilt as a total custom. Do you think that mechanic was right? Places like TP and S&S build reliable "knuckleheads" now, and would it have been a better choice?