The Liberator

We normally don’t build ‘Tribute Bikes’ as they tend not to be ridden and that contradicts our “Built to Ride” motto, so when we were approached to build a ‘Tribute to the WLA’ we were initially a little reluctant, but as Brian continued to tell us his story, we were sold.

For those who don’t know, the WLA is the Harley-Davidson 750cc flat-head bike which was used by the American troops extensively in WW2 in Europe.

They have a cult following and are now extremely expensive to buy.

They were also different to ride (compared to modern bikes) with their foot operated rocker clutch and the manual advance and retard for the ignition. But when you get the hang of them, they are a seriously competent piece of kit.

Built for riding over rough terrain, on the modern road, by modern standards, they are a little agricultural!

Brian wanted the bike so he could travel to Normandy where he, and a group of friends were doing a trip to the various battle sites along France and into Belgium, so this bike was going to be used.

He also had a tired 2006 Roadking, which had great sentimental value to him and his family and this was to be the doner bike.

This was our brief… turn a 2006 Roadking into a WLA Tribute!

The WLA is a hardtail frame, whereas the Roadking has twin shocks, so we decided in the name of Brians spine, to keep the rear shocks and build a rack to position the side-bags and cover the rear shocks.

The WLA also had a springer front end, which is pretty, but not too comfortable. On the WLA you cant even see the springs, to we decided to keep the telescopic forks and dress the bike so you didn’t notice it wasn’t a springer.

First thing was to strip the bike to see what we were working with, and in truth, it wasn’t too bad. Bike stripped we began to measure and fabricate the front fender, fender supports and the ammo-box support.

Then we turned to the rear of the bike. We fabricated a rear fender and a rear rack to replicate the old WLA, then machined up some spacers to push the saddlebag fixings slightly outboard to cover the rear shocks.

The rear fender was kicked out slightly to help fill the space between the fender and the saddlebags, and you would hardly know it’s not a hardtail.

The long Roadking centre dash was ditched and a reproduction cats-eye dash fixed in place. Then we migrated all the warning lights and ignition switch over into the new unit.

We modified the loom to route the wires beneath the petrol tank. We were able to buy a reproduction windshield and modify it to fit the Roadking front end.

A set of handlebars were fitted to give it a nice relaxed riding position. No army bike is complete without a gun, our friends at W&W in Germany sourced us a reproduction leather scabbard and all we had to do was make the framework and supporting pieced to fit it to the Roadking.

A set of nice spoke wheels and new tyres were fitted and a few healthy coats of satin olive-green paint really brought the bike together.

There are a few personal pieces on the bike which Brian called “The Liberator”. The Tricolour-roundel is a nod to Brians military days in the Irish Air Corps, along with his service-number on the air cleaner.

As far as tributes go, this one is right up there. It has all the charm and appeal of the old timer, but it rides like a (fairly) modern Harley. The Liberator is now off to France on the first of many new missions.