Vintage
Shay’s Panhead
Story and photos by Rodent
Atlanta tattoo artist Shay rides his new rebuilt Panhead from Atlanta, Georgia, down to tattoo artist Jason’s in Jacksonville, Florida. They both leave for Tropical Tattoo in Daytona. Shay’s pinhead fouls three rear plugs and uses a quart of oil in the under 100 mile trip. Something ain’t right.
At Tropical, Clay Basket, one of Tropical Tattoo’s artists says to Shay that they can take the Pan over to his house to pull the rear head off for a look-see. So that night with a little alcohol to fuel them, Shay, Clay, and Jason strip down the engine to discover that one of the clips holding the piston pin had come loose and gouged the cylinder and caused other damage but didn’t hurt the bottom end.
So, Clay rummages around his house and finds a brand new set of Panhead jugs, a gasket set, just what was needed, but some machine shop work was needed and that had to wait till dawn.
In the morning the parts were taken to the machinist and finished that afternoon. That night a rebuilding party was on tap for the artists and the motor was rebuilt, repaired, and made ready for the road and the next afternoon Shay rode out of Daytona with Jason to Jacksonville where they separated and Shay rode his Pan home to Atlanta. Just another boring couple of days in the lives of some bike building tattooers.