Yosamite bike update

[Highmiles]

Yosamite got his bike back yesterday, from Kendall Johnson. Between the shop moving and a bunch of personnel problems, it took about 2 1/2 weeks instead of the 1 1/2 weeks they estimated. They rebuilt the top and bottom ends and did their "magic". Kendall ended up doing the bottom end, and re-balancing it, himself. It has had extensive head work, cams, ignition, pistons, new heavy duty starter, and new rear tire put on by them. He is supposed to take it easy for 500 miles, and then schedule his dyno tune. It's hard to tell too much right now, with the constraints of observing a 3500 RPM redline, but it sounds incredible, and is very obviously much stronger. Yosamite has 200 miles on it all ready and is doing an oil change. Probably schedule the dyno tune first of the week. I have a feeling, he is going to really like it. He, or I, will post as soon as Kendall does the final tune.

[Jonas]

Sounds like it is going to run like a scalded dog. Two and half weeks is not a bad turnaround. I'm interested to see how things turnout after breakin and dyno. I'm thinking of doing a 95" and some head work to mine.

I had the pleasure of meeting Yosamite today in person.

[Highmiles]

Well, Yosamite got his dyno tune today. The sheet showed 81 Hp and 93 ft# of torque at the rear wheel. It seems to be limited by the closed cap on his Super Trapp exhaust. After we got back to my place he complained that it had no "guts" going up a steep hill, but seemed to have more power than before. I decided to take it for a spin to see if there was a problem. The problem is Yosamite needs a tach now. All the fun stuff happens between 3500 and 6000 RPM. It seems pretty ordinary until it hits 3500 Rpm, and then the front end gets helium in it, and you need something to keep you in the seat. It runs like an absolute "raped ape" if you wind it up. I believe that if I wanted to pass at 65 MPH, I would shift to third, it is incredible then. A tachometer should be his next budget item, followed by an open end cap for the pipes.

[Highmiles]

While we were there, Kendall was outside building a handicap ramp at his store entrance. We talked to him for about 45 minutes. He is a super nice guy. He told us his philosophy on engines, and told us the absolute best way to go on a street engine was to let him build us a 124" S&S EVO style motor. He said it runs on pump gas and is very streetable. He has dozens running around with in excess of 45K miles on them with no problems, very dependable. They put out 150+ HP, and cost $7500. You still have your original engine, so if you want to sell it, you can recoup $2500 to $3000 of your cost. He ran an errand to the store while we were there on a "test" bike he was running, to see how the 2007 cranks were going to hold up. No helmet, and rode it like he stole it. The bike has 248HP, and is barely streetable. He said he really doesn't believe a lot of what he hears, until he checks it out himself, and he runs several "test" bikes all the time. He said that "normal wear" on the journals was around .004", and this one was .008-.012". It had also picked up a ton of side play. He rebuilt it with Timkins. he said the new '08's were supposed to have cured some of the problems, but he hadn't got his hands on one yet. Had a great time talking to him.

[Geezer-Glide]

Nice report, thanks! Oh, tell Yos if he cleans the melted rain pants off the pipe, he'll pick up about 6 more HP!!!

[Highmiles]

His pants are gone .................................



























































.............................. from the pipes

[Highmiles]

I finally found a formula specific to Harley. HP at crank should be 92.8. That would equate to an increase of 34.8 HP, or a little more than promised. I would imagine further increase with the correct cap for his pipes. It feels stronger than that.