Jay Leno is well-known as a US television host and comedian as well as an avid car and motorcycle collector. At last count, he owned almost 300 vehicles including around 120 motorcycles. Since 2015, Leno has hosted a one-hour prime-time show featuring his cars and bikes called Jay Leno’s Garage.
One machine that particularly impressed Leno is an old Harley, which was a true ‘barn find’ and he keeps it in ‘as found’ condition - and loves it.
Leno introduces this special bike in one of his episodes:
This a 1936 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead. It was called a knucklehead because the top of the engine sort of looks like a knuckle.
This was the bike that I think made Harley-Davidson. Many of the styling features on this bike have lasted, well, to the current Harley-Davidson line. This is the first year to have the oval gas tank, of course. The first overhead valve V-Twin with the dry sump lubrication, gauges are in the console here. You have the ‘valance’ fenders and, of course, all this contributed to the unique Harley-Davidson look.
Willy G was born in the year they started developing this bike. He was born in ‘33 and Willy G is the guy who styles all the Harleys and it's kinda neat his name is still on the building.
This bike has an interesting history. Back in the ‘80s, I bought a bunch of vehicles from this guy and this is one of them. It was thrown in the corner, lying on its side with two flat tyres. I dragged it back here to my garage and I parked in the corner and it sat in the corner for almost 30 years and one day I said: ‘you know, let me pull that ol’ Harley out and see what it needs.’
So we pulled it out. I took the carburettor off and flushed it out. Flushed out the tank, put gas in it and kicked it twice - and it started! Amazing! So we greased the wheel bearings, put on some new tyres, cleaned out the crankcase, put on new sparkplugs and a new coil. That’s really all we did.
This bike (the EL knucklehead) was a legendary bike. It had four-speed transmission, while most other bikes of the period still had three-speed. It was really fast, reasonably light and a big 61ci (about one litre) engine
Leno believes this is the iconic motorcycle that was the catalyst for Harley-Davidson's unrivalled status today.
The Knucklehead's styling and technical innovation was ahead of its time. Despite being almost 80 years old, the bike can easily keep up with modern traffic. Although, the combination of a foot clutch and hand shift looks like it could take some getting used to.
