Worse that “ape hangers” are extended forks out to the max. Try turning those things in tight spaces. You can’t unless doing a 3 point back and forth.
Even worse was cutting a chunk out of the backbone of a frame and bending the neck back so the fork can be extended longer. A chopped knucklehead is worth a few Gs. An original condition knucklehead is worth 10 times that. Morons really screwed up a lot of old HDs in the 70s.