| About Longbow Motorcycles LLC |
| You see, the Duo Glide was a swing arm suspension, easy to stretch (moto cross guys have done it for years), but the new softails would require complete re-engineering to keep belts on pulleys and give them long life. It took two years but the Longbow Tall Riders Frame passed all tests. Gates Rubber produced the exclusive Longbow belt only after drawings proved to them that deflection was not only equal to current stock softails, but even less, leading to a patent application. Now, over five years later the Longbow belt is carbon fiber core making it almost as strong as a chain. Even Gates has no idea how long they will last but estimate over 100 thousand miles. After the frame was thoroughly tested cross country on every road imaginable, production bikes were designed and built for those who didn't want to build their own. Harley Davidson Twin Cam B motors were selected for their lack of vibration, dependability, service ease and parts availability. The entire production line is parts friendly using parts readily available in major catalogs. Every prototype model is strenuously tested over ten day, all day rides that can encompass 10 states and 4000 miles. The staff includes one of the best motor men in the South East who personally does a bench warm up 3 times on each new bike, monitoring motor performance on computer. Then each bike has a 50 mile break in and receives an oil and filter change. Other people on staff include certified welders, machine tool technicians, R&D designers fluent in MasterCam 10. The machine shop sports it's own Fadal CNC mill and Mori Seiki CNC lathe. The shop has both a mobile and in house Dyno. The simple goal of Longbow Motorcycles is to give the tall rider comfort they have never had, on a proportionately correct, dependable user friendly motorcycle. |
| YEAR-1975 |
| 30 YEARS LATER |
| The owner of Longbow Motorcycles is six foot four and 290 pounds. He knows of where he speaks when he discusses uncomfortable motorcycles. He solved the problem for himself at 24 when he stretched a '59 Duo-Glide 6" to the rear with the help of Lakewood Industries in Cleveland, Ohio (famous for AA Fuel Dragsters). Years later, after two stock Harley Davidsons reminded him of his discomfort, he sat down at the drawing board to tackle a more difficult problem. |