The Original Batcycle
from the 66 TV Series.
From my research I believe the bike is a 1965 Harley Davidson Electra-Glide.
Which is very cool because it was the year I was born, the last year of the
Panhead engine and first year for an electric start. This bike was used the
first season until the little 250 bike was built for the movie. Yes, that's
right the famous Batcycle (as seen in the background pic for this page) was a
250 2-stroke. I really like the bikes design, but I hate the base bike they
used. If you want to see more info on this bike check out Eric's
Batcycle section of the 66 Batmobile
site and you can see his beautiful replica
Batcycle being built here.
Reasons Why I think this is a 1965 Electra-Glide
1. This appears to be a Panhead rocker box, kinda hard to tell, but it
appears so.
2. This is a starter solenoid, it first appeared in 1965 and is the only year it
was used on a Panhead since they were replaced in 66 with the Shovelhead engine.
3. The position of this exhaust pipe and material used also indicates a Panhead
engine. Flex tubing along with the way the pipe runs inside the frame and then
goes between the bottom frame rail and the engine means this was a 1965 or
earlier bike since this configuration was used only on Panhead and earlier
bikes.
4. This emblem says ElectraGlide and is done in a script. The earlier (65 and
before) say Hydra-Glide and use a block type. Electra-glide was the new name for
Harley's FL line starting in 65 when the electric starter was added.
All of this leads me to believe that the first Batcycle was indeed a 1965 Harley
Davidson Electra-Glide, which makes me happy since that was the year I was born
and is one of my dream bikes. Maybe one day I can recreate this cool machine!
I finally broke down and did it. Yes, that's right I finally gave up on restoring the old Bonneville and bought a new bike that I can just get on and ride, and boy is it wonderful. Years ago I bought a new 1989 Harley Davidson Sportster that I rode for many years, during that time I also had 1975 kick only XLCH Sportster that I built into a hardtail chopper. Then I had a 1970 Triumph TR6C Trophy that was a piece of crap when I got it. That bike finally came back to life as a chopper that I rode daily for a few years. I finally sold the first HD to buy a 1979 Triumph Bonneville that I rode for a year until brake drag caused the head gasket to fail. After 2 years of replacing parts and trying to fix that bike I gave up and bought a new one. This is a 2003 Honda Shadow ACE 750 a.k.a. JD's Batcycle. I think I'll hold onto this one for a while. At least now you know why it is taking me so long to update. UPDATE - As of Feb, 2007 I have put 56,500 miles on it. Later....
If you want to see all of my bikes click here.