‘45 Flatties Still Making History
Received this communiqué today in response to an earlier inquiry I had made of the Department of Public Safety, Hawaii.
Who would have ever dreamt ? If I hadn’t heard it straight from the horses mouth I would have held serious reservations concerning the following information. Every time I come across an anecdote like that which is recited here, I feel even prouder to be fortunate enough to be the caretaker / custodian of a machine with a provenance such as the one enjoyed by this power plant and platform.
Still working for a living, after all these years...
FROM:
Deputy Director Law Enforcement
Department of Public Safety, Hawaii
Dave, if I may. As luck would have it, I am a Harley-Davidson owner myself, and have been riding my own machines since 1953 at age 14. Right now I am riding an '07 Fatboy. We do have many servi-cars here on the island, some restored by afficianados such as yourself, and many in daily use by the "Meter-readers" under employ of the Honolulu Police Department (HPD). Some of these machines seem to be very old, and still run just fine. The ones I see are of the '45cu variety, and others of the '74cu variety. Not sure of ages or years of manufacture. We tend to take them for granted here.
To my knowledge, the Sheriff's Division has never utilized them, nor did the Sheriffs utilize motorcycles at all, as traffic enforcement is basically the purview of HPD, with the exception of our State Airports. Our Sheriffs Division is unlike mainland Sheriffs Departments. Here, we are a division of the Department of Public Safety, and are a state-wide Sheriffs Divison, and the Sheriff is not elected by county, but appointed by the Governor. In other words, one State of Hawaii, one Sheriff.
Because Hawaii is isolated, many of the machines brought to Hawaii stayed in Hawaii and were not dispersed throughout the country. I have no idea how many of the servi-cars there are here in Hawaii, or how many HPD uses, but there are several of them out there every day in Honolulu. Can't miss them. Try letting a meter expire and you'll get to see them first-hand.
Most of the truly old ones, from WWII, are mainly in the hands of collectors here, as I see them at m/c rallies all the time. Some restored, some appearing to be in original condition, including paint. Like I said, we tend to take these for granted here, but we certainly do appreciate them. Everybody would love to buy used servi-cars from HPD, but to my experience, they don't sell them, just maintain them and ride them every day.
We ride 12 months a year, so as I said, we take things for granted. Wish I could be of more help, but that's about it.
Aloha.  | 
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