On the Road Again

Well after 3 months plus of down time, I'm back on the road with the Fatboy.

The new motor is a 120", couldn't let SEDELUXE be the only one! Actually, the project started as a 117", but due to crank shortages at S&S, it ended up a 120.

Anyway, here's the scoop. The cases were pulled of the bike and sent to Randy at Hyperformance in Iowa. A local indy had an established relationship with Randy which went a long way towards this decision. Randy is a great guy to talk with too and established a lot of confidence with me that'd he'd do things right. The new motor:

Axtell Cylinder Kit, 4.125"
S&S Crank - 4.5", welded an trued by Randy
R&R Stage V Heads
R&R 615/585 Cam - at least for the time being, this may change
Bassani Road Rage

Crank run out was checked on the old crank and was still within spec at I think 0.002.

I picked up the bike this morning and did the 50 mile run and brought it back to the shop for oil change and check out of the oil. It was running a bit warm but not dangerously so. With ambient temperature somewhere around 106 degrees and certainly a lot more so on the black top, I'm not too terribly concerned. That said, after the oil change it was back to the house and the pool as my temperature was running too high.

First impressions are this motor wants to go in a big way. The throttle especially after 3 months of not riding needed some getting used to. It's not an unstreetable kind of thing, but it could get away from you pretty quickly if you were coming of a stock TC88. The stage V heads on first impression really are what they're talked up to be. It takes just minimal throttle for that motor to get spinning.

The Bassani RR is a great sounding pipe. I didn't find it significantly louder than my Fatcat, but somewhat so. The biggest difference would be in the even deeper rumble. The sound of the 120 with the RR reminded very much of the old muscle cars. How much is due to the 120 versus the pipe, I don't know. Certainly the bigger motor adds to the sound.

So I'm pretty happy after roughly 60 miles. Randy, thanks for your work. Gary at Skunk, thanks for yours too if you read this. For the number of guys out there that I spent time on the phone with or PM'ing, you know who you are, thanks to you too!

[MegaGlide]

Oh, this sounds like it's gonna be some bog fun when you can give it its head...