If you’re like me, you kinda clocked out halfway through Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, when it went from travelog to philosophical ponderance. I’m more of a John Sutherland guy ─ I like wearing a leather jacket because it looks cool, and I don’t really want to mess with tappets ─ so, once he left the scene I went into “finish the book for the sake of finishing the book” mode. If I remember correctly, though, Pirsig drives himself insane trying to answer questions about Quality ─ what it is, how to quantify it, etc.
A somewhat related mind-bending question to ask oneself about motorcycles is this: What determines the financial value of a used motorcycle? Take this 1947 Harley-Davidson FL, for example. It’s already paid for; all the people who manufactured, assembled, distributed and sold this motorcycle got their money a long time ago. In fact, I’m willing to bet most of them are dead by now; you couldn’t give them more money for this bike even if you wanted to. So, by one aspect of Marxist thinking, at least, this motorcycle has little to no value.
Yet, the seller is asking for $95,000. You could buy a three-bedroom home in West Virginia for less.
But, hey, you can’t parade a three-bedroom home at The Quail. And certainly this rig is a beauty, with only 14 miles on the clock since undergoing a “ground up no expense spared restoration,” according to the seller.
In Harley-Davidson nomenclature, FL indicates a touring model. This 1947 example would have been one of the last to carry the 74 cubic-inch Knucklehead engine ─ so named because of the shape of its valve covers. A year later, in 1948, FL models were upgraded to run on more reliable Panhead engines.
It’s hard to find any good performance figures for the four-speed Knuckleheads, and they wouldn’t be accurate for a sidecar-equipped machine, anyway. Truth is: it doesn’t matter. This bike is an iconic piece of history, and if some streaming service decided to turn The Bikeriders into a series you’d be certain to get a gig as an extra. But I’ll leave it to you to decide how much that’s worth.
You can find this Harley-Davidson FL for sale in Zieglerville, Pennsylvania with a BIN of $95,000 here on eBay.