Welcome to our new Project's page.
The following article was written by Ray Wheeler, Hardtailz's favorite racer and his Burt Munroe
Special.
The first slideshow features Blossom's 2004 Roadglide FLTRI. This is a current work-in-progress.
The second slideshow features new Harley owner, Jim Butera's 2011 48.
124" Turbo Report/Bonneville 2010
March 10, 2011
San Jose, Ca. USA
124", 80,000 Miles and a Rebuild!
It’s been an exciting week in beautiful downtown San Jose, seems that after a mere 80,000 care free miles, coast to coast, drag strip, 2 records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2009, my faithful 2004 Twin Cam record setter needs a slight amount of attention. The pro's at Hardtailz, Ron & Jeff dropped what they were doing last week and popped the heads off to check for head gasket leaks that were suddenly appearing after 4,000 easy? miles with 8# of available boost on hand. Mounted on top of a well-seasoned 75,000 mile lower end, imagine that!...Sure enough the Series 66 Aerocharger was pushing air past both cylinders head gaskets. Thankfully Randy Torgenson of Hyperformance installed an S&S 5 piece rebuildable lower end 75,000 miles in the past somewhere making it fairly easy to refurbish to like new status.
Not a problem............. we have the solution at hand that consists of completely disassembling the Twin cam, Ron and Jeff, the pros at Hardtailz, knocked this one out before the lunch truck played the come and get-it-tune we have all known to well over the years. After a hearty hot lunch truck special, consisting of one plate of...guess that mess, that mess might have been noodles and stewed poodles or Australian Roo. After lunch, commenced the long anticipated sweet task of thoroughly scrubbing my sweetheart’s internals.
HARDTAILZ San Jose
The Hardtailz crew specialize in perfection oriented Dyno Tune - ups as well as complete, you-dream-it frame-up erections, the tune up in my hot rods Daytona Twin Tec closed loop computer did not miss a beat.... ever. But ..WTF, We lost a crank position sensor or two along the way, an internal fuel line while headed to the S&S 50th celebration miles and miles down the road in the middle of nowhere Kansas, quite a few Avon Tyres plus a few quarts of Amsoil, thanks to Nick Roberts, my trusty Amsoil sponsor.
The drowsy cool afternoon was spent at Hardtailz, a clean, well lit, 1st class, tooled up, bad to the bone, Dyno tune ready, organized motorcycle shop that's hidden in an industrial complex on the outskirts of sunny San Jose.
Performing the first of many hospital grade scrubbings...this one was performed by the nut behind the handle bars, aha....yes that would be me that spent part of the day up to my neck in a hot solvent tank.... getting up close and personal with my psychiatrist that had just rolled in a day earlier fresh off of Hwy.101, North bound at warp speeds, check it out there might be a leaking head gasket test ride, by master mechanic Jeff Body. The hot rod had rolled in a day earlier singing a happy song and running like a rocket on steroids, life is grand then ya.......haul ass!
Monday 3/7/2011
Monday, destination, Hannann’s Machine in Hayward, CA.Dropping off the Stage 5 R&R heads for a once over that will include a stepped area machined into the head surface to receive the top side of the fresh S&S cylinders that we're replacing...a slight crack was appearing near the bottom of the front cylinder...after 80,000 record setting miles on a fire breathing-ride-it-everyday-124" Twin Cam.
THE MEN IN THE BIG BROWN TRUCK....
Tuesday morning the 8th, my youngest son's 25th birthday, found me at Hardtailz, packing the motor cases, flywheels, that are due to arrive Monday the 14th in Pleasant Hill, Iowa at Hyperformance....a little shop that houses the genius behind some of the fastest motors known to man! That genius is master mechanic Randy Torgenson. Fresh pistons were ordered late last week and are scheduled to hit the machines at CP Pistons in 5 weeks, we might be up and running early May or sooner, stay tuned!
OH SHIT ....BONNEVILLE 2009...Help Me Mr. Wizard!
During the summer of 2009 while participating in the 7th annual BUB Speed Trials the massive horsepower and torque the 124" twin cam produces destroyed nearly all of the spokes in the rear wheel that had been attempting to connect the rear hub and the rim, all of the nipples were ripping out of the rim causing a high speed wobble (a tank slapper that lasted the entire fukin mile) that started coming on at about 5,200 rpm after clicking the transmission into 5th gear..according to a gear calculator formula on the RBRacing web site, that's about 150 to 160 mph. The #35 (dedicated to) Munro Special entered the timed mile haulin ass in 5th gear and immediately came unglued...no... no.... no.... no.....please not today...was running mach speed through my feeble brain (for the full mile or more), the exit speed was recorded at precisely 13:13, 8/29/2010. The official time slip indicated 123.960 at the Kilometer, slowing to 117.368 at the mile marker after trying my best to stay alive and ride yet, another day. Kevin, my right hand man and pit crew chief, with the assistance of Joe and Steven checked out the hot rod and tightened the spokes while checking all of the loose nuts on to make sure they were tight, most were and still are... one more time we waited in line, focused on the task at hand and staying alive.... hauled ass a second time with the same results.
We rolled back to San Jose to regroup for 2011!
That’s all for today, think I'll look for a hot rod to test ride for a few days or more, any ideas?
Haul ass,
Ride for your LIFE!
Ray
