1956 Harley Davidson FLH

I saw this 1956 FLH for sale on the Jockey Journal a few weeks back and just could not pass it up. I was already headed up to Tahoe on vacation and the bike was about an hour away so I said what the hell, and brought it home. I've been wanting to build a rigid pan since I had to sell my '46 Knuckle/Pan a few years back to finish some classes. Nowadays, I've got a lot less spare time on my hands, and this bike was pretty close to what I wanted to build- an uncut straight-leg rigid pan with 18" and 21" wheels. Freshly rebuilt a few hundred miles ago. I'm still not completely sold on the original Glide front end (I envisioned a skinny chromed pre-unit Triumph front end with a mid-50's scooped half brake, topped off with some skinny Flanders bars) but it's growing on me and it does look the part of a late-50's/early 60's pre-chopper. I'm running it with the old flamed 3.5 gallon tanks for now, but I bolted on a pair of gloss black 1950's Mustang scooter tanks and fell in love with the lines of the bike. Not too skinny for the wide glide either. They're off to weld in a bigger petcock, but when they're done, the bike is getting a painted rear fender and a painted oil tank too. For some reason, everyone seems surprised that the bike starts first kick without all the acrobatic drama that dudes love to do when they kick a bike over nowadays. What's the deal with that? Are these old pans normally hard to start or something?