XLB 1960 Forum Newbie Introduction.

Howdy peoples, i'm just saying g'day from Melbourne Australia. I see that there is previous banter regarding the "B" in XLB's. I restored an XLB 15 years ago. I was very fortunate to get it in very original condition in relation to the parts. It came with luggage rack and metal panniers, panhead style.
Not including the previous forum posts, my collected information to date is that the "B" meant police/army or special issue. South East Asia seems to be the location for them. I've heard stories about army dudes bringing them back from the wars etc, but this is all hearsay. Yet to see documented proof of the "B"'s true history.
Has anyone ever succesfully contacted HD Archives regarding info..??

Does anyone have any documents?

mine is number 2753 matching frame + engine.

How many more "B"s are left in the world.?

Big shout outs to all the "B" crew. we need to stay together and get to the bottom of this.

lazycat

The XLB I have nearby is a Thai police or royal service machine. I will try and get some snaps in the near future.

I have seen XLA stampings which Ithought were Army (primarily y US/Europe), although the XLBs could have seen service in Asia as military bikes.

I have no real info on either of these models yet, sorry.

ok, Lazycat, my XLB is a 1965, it came from bangladesh, it was used for the quenn s parade by the canadian ambassy there. somebody imported it in canada,(pieces by pieces),around 1990-------,i contacted Harly-Davidson by the back door and they told me that there was no archives for military,police,army and special purpose bikes ,they give me my fabrication date for my serial number ( 65XLB5686 ) that was MARCH 19, 1965. all the XLB came from the XLH assembly line, they had 1957 low compression pistons and cams.for now that s all i know. questions:what was the original color of the bike that you restored and what were the options( exhauts,horn,lights,racks,) ok for now, if anybody knows more on XLB,please say it. thanks xr-750

I came across this forum when doing a random XLB search online. I am currently restoring a 1964 XLB that was rumored to come back from Thailand and was somehow associated with Thai royal family. I recently talked with a Harley Historian regarding XLB designated bikes. This is what I got:

While the records at the Harley-Davidson Motor Co do not have detailed documentation of the differences, I have interviewed since retired employees as to their knowledge of the XLA and XLB model Sportsters and they indicated that these models were essentially the same as other production models for their respective years except they have 1957 XL cams and low compression pistons. The XLA was an Army model and the XLB model was used for escort duty that was offered for sale in Southeast Asia and South American countries.

They also mentioned that a contact in Austraila had seen about 6 XLB's over the years.

I can't say much about the original configuration of my '64 XLB with confidence, but here's some observations.

The frame seemed to originally have some kind of a baby blue color....

Inside the tank showed traces of a nasty green similar to an olive drab... The tank is the correct style for the year, but I can't say it was the one that came on the bike.

There was a lot of crome. Again I can't say if this was from the factory but one might imagine a parade bike having a lot of crome.

Speedometer is in kilometers per hour but this isn't a suprise.