Barn Find Big Twin Flathead

Back in mid 1970’s Sweden, in the shadows of ABBA’s international breakthrough there was an anonymous gentleman who parked his 1946 Model U in a barn located on the frozen tundra way up north in an ancient village called Vilhelmina, the exact year was 1974. What the anonymous gentleman probably had a hard time predicting was that the Model U would remained parked in the exact same spot for the forthcoming 26 years. So, in November 2010, Agnetha Fältskog still hadn’t committed to a reunion with Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Annifrid Lyngstad in order to make ABBA see the light again. But lucky enough my friend Jonas Wickman committed to his passion for the ancient iron and rode all the way up north to make this abandoned 1946 U see the light again. This bike came with the original title and complete documentation, it was sold new in Spånga right outside Stockholm back in 1946, it was bought by a carpenter that used the bike in his job and it’s connected with a 1953 Steib sidecar complete with a carpenter’s toolbox.

The first thing that hit me when I kick started it was that this thing has a lot of compression for a Model U, it felt more like kicking over a stock Panhead. It started right up on first kick and sounded better than any of ABBA’s harmonies and idled lovely, like only a Flathead can. This bike came from the dealer in Spånga, Stockholm with an original Harley sidecar but somewhere in time it got switched out to this beautiful Steib rig. And since Sweden still had left hand traffic back then the sidecar is mounted on the left side. This bike runs strong and it still has the original everything pretty much including paint and tank trim, I would also guess that neither the motor or transmission has ever been taken apart. Nothing beats a Flathead.