“ People think the engine is just a H-D 45 ,” Lange said , “ but the factory race motor is triple the horsepower of a regular H-D 45 , so the sound and feel are totally different … you can feel that horsepower .”
anyways , but that ’ s how I learned the basics of engines . I ’ ve always been drawn to that and made a career out of engine building and building motorcycles . I still do it today even though I ’ m retired because it ’ s what I love to do , and I ’ ll never stop .”
While spending all his time during the 1980s building engines and bikes , Lange already had a 1950 H-D WR factory racer he ’ d built . “ But I wanted another one ,” he told Thunder Press . “ I restored my 1950 as it would have come out of the factory . That ’ s cool , but I like some of the more flashy paint jobs that some of the privateer racers had .”
Through a friend in Milwaukee , Lange happened across the ’ 46 H-D WR factory racer , and decided to restore this one with a completely different look .
“ As long as I can remember ,” Lange recalled , “ I ’ ve had a good-standing open-door policy with Harley-Davidson archives , and they ’ d let me go down and take photos . I probably have 200 photos of
Lange restored his ’ 46 H-D Factory Racer back in ’ 86 , using pictures of old factory racers he found at the Harley-Davidson archives as inspiration .
privateer race bikes . I saw some of those paint jobs I liked , so I decided to restore the ’ 46 with a blue and white scalloped paint job . I probably chromed more parts on the bike than they would have back then , but I have many pictures that do show chrome on the bikes back in the day .”
When asked about any challenges with the restoration , Lange only mentioned one . “ I ’ ve been a long-time member of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America , and when I restored the bike back in 1986 , I took it there . Everyone gave me a lot of flak for it , saying it had too much chrome . People criticized it instead of appreciating the work that ’ d been done . It irritated me , so I took it home and never showed it again until about six or seven years ago , when
38 | JANUARY 2021 | THUNDERPRESS . NET