Back Issues Feature Bikes In The Magazine

No Bullshit Panhead

January 2, 2014

Article By: Chris Callen

Photos By: Gene Stull

Jeff Heisler is a good friend of my brother Roadside and lives near him in Pensacola. While Geno was there at the beginning of the year shooting “Purple Haze,” he came across Jeff’s Pan that is set-up like a lot of the cats would have done in my own part of the country back in the day. See, a swingarm frame was not as uncommon then as it has become over the last couple of years. The story of Jeff and the bike is also a lot like the guys I came up with, and once I talked to him I realized this was no bullshit.

Jeff was always into bikes but during his time in the Marines; he really got turned on to Harleys. He was stationed in Puerto Rico and ready to be discharged when he met a man that was starting an antique motorcycle club. He had tons of vintage steel but wouldn’t part with anything older than a Pan or a Shovel. That was in1982, and Jeff would come home with a ’66. Ever since, he’s always tried to keep a nice bike to cruise and commute on.

As a refuse collector, Jeff gets a pretty good look at the neighborhood and one day spotted this old girl on a front porch with a “for sale” sign on it. He an his ol’ lady, Toni, made a trip back to the house later that day and bought it. Originally it was her bike, Jeff told me, but over the years she hasn’t been riding it as much so now he takes it out from time to time.

The condition of it was pretty bad, not really running and just “F’ed up,” in his words. It had potential if all the crap could be pulled off of it; over the next ten or twelve years, that’s what he’d do. At first it was the essentials like a better Mallory ignition to get it running, some plugs and then they just rode it. Time saw a new fender, Super E carb, 21” wheel up front and better paint. Little changes that total up to a badass, real world scoot.

Again, just like the stories from my crew, he didn’t do it alone. Friends like Shelton “Pops” Roadside, Tommy and EZ have helped him get it running and keep it going over the years. For how this bike looks and the way these cats do it all, we were happy to have this Pan in The Source.

swingarm pan tech sheet

Owner: Jeff & Toni Heisler

city: Milton, FL

Fabrication By: Hot Rods By Tommy

Year: 1962

model: Pan

time: Work in Progress

Value: Keeping it in the Family