Vehicle Description
Bill Davis, an avid Harley rider and engineer from St. Louis,
Missouri. designed the softail in the mid-1970s. His first design,
which he worked on in 1974 and 1975, used a prototype based on his
1972 Super Glide. Davis patented his design and contacted Willie G.
Davidson, arranging a meeting in August 1976. Davidson was
impressed, but made no commitments. Davidson replied six months
later, stating that the company would not be able to use the design
at the time but was still interested in it.Davis continued to
develop the design and Harley-Davidson executive Jeffrey Bleustein
contacted Davis and began negotiations to buy Davis's design. Davis
sold his patents, prototype, and tooling to Harley-Davidson in
January 1982.After further testing and development, Davis's design
was introduced in June 1983 as the 1984 Harley-Davidson FXST
Softail. This 1999 model Harley-Davidson softail 1340 cc �Evo'
engined bike was customised by a well known Italian styling house
as a unique �one off' design. The fuel tank and body work were
specially crafted and custom painted using gold leaf. The bike
featured in many articles and magazines and became known as the
�Shogun Special' due to the Japanese characters and �rising sun'
motif. Having been used mainly for display at shows the bike has
not seen much road use and remains in fine overall condition and
has covered a mere 151 miles since customisation with the vendor
believing the bike has covered no more than 2,500 miles in total.
In great running order it is supplied with an MoT test certificate
valid until September 2018 and the UK logbook with the registration
number T40 USA. � For sale by auction on Saturday 23 September 2017
with Historics at Brooklands, Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit,
Weybridge, Surrey, Call 01753 639170
