Jon McDevitt bought an almost-stock ’09 Road King, but the purchase was bittersweet. The chromed-out bling machine didn’t necessarily fit Jon’s tastes, so the bike would need to undergo a transformation to get it up to speed with a little more edge, so to speak. Jon’s a young buck (22) and really digs the “murdered-out” look of a Harley.

For the 2011 model year, Harley wowed performance enthusiasts when it announced the introduction of its new 120ci Screamin’ Eagle (SE) Pro 120R engine. This was the fist time in several decades that the Factory had offered a fully assembled high-performance, race-ready crate engine. Ready to drop into a stock chassis and bolt right in place with no frame modifications or engine mount relocations, the introduction of the 120R was very appealing to those looking for the thrill of high horsepower and torque. What was most appealing however, was the potential of achieving 135-plus horsepower and 137 lb-ft of torque from the 4.06-inch bore x 4-5/8-inch stroke engine for a modest price ranging between $5,700-$6,000.

In the neverending quest to be the fastest mofo on the block, and the quickest off the line, there are many routes for souping up your air-cooled V-twin. The stock 883cc displacement in my Sweet Tracker project was about as fast as a golf cart so I needed to juice it up with beefier jugs, and of course a set of higher flowing cylinder heads from Revolution Performance would be a good idea, too. RevPerf advised that Harley’s Screamin’ Eagle .536 higher lift cams would be the way to go with the RevPerf setup, so because I can sometimes follow directions, I went that route. Last month, I focused on the installation of RevPerf’s 1,250cc cylinders and re-worked heads, and Screamin’ Eagle cams. In case you missed the article, log on to hotbikeweb.com for the whole shebang.

Customizing your Harley can be an endless task. Swapping out pipes to get a different sound or more horsepower, installing a gel-pad seat for more comfort on long rides, or replacing chrome for black components or vice-versa; one bike could go through several styles in its lifetime. While it’s fun to continually change up the looks, sound, and performance of our motorcycles, one thing that sometimes gets overlooked is safety, more specifically lighting.

Lunati may be a new name in the mouths of the American V-twin market, but it is no stranger to creating parts that generate good engine performance. With a fresh line of camshaft applications available to fit most any Twin Cam Harley-Davidson from ’99 on up, we thought the time was ripe to take a closer look at the company’s offerings and put them to the test. Starting with an extremely low mileage ’04 Fat Boy still sporting its Stage 1 intake and exhaust additions and 88ci displacement, the decision was made to keep the modifications similar to what many would do to their own bikes. This install was designed to best showcase what the parts would do for you and is not about making the most power as possible from the package.

When we attended the Harley press launch for the Blackline as a midyear model for 2011, we saw a lot of potential in the mostly blacked-out and stripped-down Softail. As is the case with any new model, it often takes a little while for the general public and customizers/bike builders to get on board and start showcasing what can be done with one of H-D’s newest models. We recently procured three photoshoots of three different Blacklines that have been customized by well-known industry veterans who have a knack for taking a good-looking bike and making it even better. Over the course of the next couple issues we will sprinkle in those features and hopefully inspire others out there to tear into Harley’s newest Softail.

Of all the ways to customize your motorcycle, aside from paint, the wide world of exhaust systems provides the largest variety. Just a few of the options to choose from include true duals, 2-into-1s, mufflers, drag pipes, and fishtails. Then you have the myriad of finishes; chrome, ceramic black, heat wrapped, and heat shields/no heat shields. When searching out new pipes, if you want a particular sound, style, performance, or some other criteria, finding the right exhaust for your ride can be a daunting task. When it came to one of our project bikes (a ’96 Springer) however, we were able to easily narrow down the pipe pool based on necessity. After lowering the front and rear of the Softail, the lean angle of the bike was significantly reduced. So we wanted a set of pipes that had a custom look but wouldn’t interfere with the lean angle on the right side. We found exactly what we needed with a set of Fuelies from Exotic Choppers.

Being that riding season is right around the corner, Junior Hoseman needed to gear up his ’11 Dyna Fat Bob with some essential items for making weekend trips more practical.

Adding power to a naturally aspirated American V-twin is not cheap. Big bore bolt-on kits, head work, and cams can add up, and if all the work isn’t performed at the same time, the labor could cost you a small fortune. What if a person could keep their bike’s stock qualities and still have the ability to add 35 percent more horsepower at the touch of a button? Believe it or not, it’s more than possible with a “wet” nitrous system. Of course, we know where you can get one, too: Pingel Enterprise Inc. has a universal bolt-on kit that is far more affordable than any other power adder no matter how you look at it.

Being that the Sportster is considered by most in V-twin land the redheaded stepchild of air-cooled, 45-degree twin-cylinder motorcycles, I wanted to jump right into making it the coolest outcast I could. Over the course of a few issues, I’ve taken a stock 2000 XL883 Sportster Hugger and have been transforming it into a dirt track racing replica, a.k.a. a street tracker. In this installment, I’ll be walking you through part one of this two-part series about the route I chose to hop up my 883cc engine to a more robust 1,250cc engine thanks to Revolution Performance.

In this final installment of the Lowbrow Panhead project, bike owner/builder Tyler Malinky takes us through the processes involved with modifying and mounting a sweet Bates taillight he found at a swap meet. After wrapping things up in the rear, Tyler moved onto one of the most fun and rewarding projects any home builder can tackle with a welder and some simple tools in his own garage: fabricating a custom exhaust. Tyler used Biltwell Inc.’s popular and affordable builder’s exhaust kit for this project, and the tips he shares in this photo essay are super handy. HB

Last month Tyler Malinky at Lowbrow Customs showed us the modifications and custom fab work required to install a vintage Triumph fork onto a H-D repop rigid frame. In part two of the Lowbrow Panhead project, Tyler shows us how he mounted the oil bag and built the sissybar that holds his modified taillight and rear fender.

For the vertically challenged, female riders, and novice riders, saddling up on a Big Twin Harley-Davidson can seem intimidating or even frustrating. While motorcycles come from the dealer in a variety of models to suit people’s taste, there isn’t always a perfect fit. That’s where Progressive Suspension comes in. For months I have been riding around on my ’08 Dyna Street Bob with the rear lowered with Progressive’s 440 series shocks to allow my shorter legs to stabilize the bike at rest; not only for confidence, but for comfort.

On the cover of our Vol. 43 No. 1 issue, we ran a made-over Softail that was built by Rich Fulk, product line manager/designer for Custom Chrome. Once a somewhat stock Softail, the bike was brought back to life after Rich and the bike took a bad spill on the freeway. Working with his friend, Kirk Taylor, over at Custom Design Studios, Rich and Kirk came up with the Lucky F*cker Collection, a set of sheetmetal that helped resuscitate the banged up Softail.

If you’ve been following Jordan’s Sweet Tracker build, you’ll have noticed that he’s tackled everything from the wheels and suspension to the handlebars and foot controls. The project is moving along smoothly as he transforms a once-stock ’00 Sportster Hugger into a race-ready track bike. Well, almost race-ready. If the bike is to be in any contention on the street, strip, or track, a bump in displacement ought to help push it towards the head of the pack, barring Jordan’s riding skills of course. In our talks about beefing up the stock mill, the names of many companies and kits were tossed around but one kept coming up, Revolution Performance. While most 883 conversions will put displacement right around the 1,200cc range, Revolution Performance offers the ability to shoot up to 1,250cc with its cylinder kits. Following the mottos, “bigger is better,” and “there’s no replacement for displacement,” Jordan was all for the Revolution route. A few months after our discussion, while meandering the Midwest, I found myself right in Revolution’s backyard of Plymouth, Wisconsin, so I decided to pop in and get the nickel tour (that’s a pun that will come to light shortly).

In the first part of this article, the principles and benefits of supercharging an air-cooled V-twin were explored along with a description of the major aspects of the ProCharger system, but we kept our hands clean with a classroom approach. This article gets its metaphorical hands dirty by delving into a grease-up-to-its-elbows installation of the ProCharger system and reveals the nitty-gritty real-world power produced by bolting it onto a practically stock bike. While the installation of the system is straightforward and relatively simple, there are many steps involved and important details that if missed, might be cause for disaster if not handled properly. A good tech could have one installed in a day (without photographer interference), but a garage builder should pencil in a weekend and not rush it.

On a motorcycle, the brakes and clutch are crucial components for safe and reliable stop-and-go operations. Because both of these systems use abradable friction surfaces, doesn’t it make sense to upgrade them with products from a manufacturer that specializes in brakes and clutches? Of course, which is why we’re installing DP-Brakes’ disc brake pads and clutch kit on our friend John’s ’06 Electra Glide. John had already installed some serious motor upgrades, so he was delivering greater-than-stock power and torque to his stock clutch, which was starting to slip. Plus he usually stops from, shall we say, greater-than-stock speeds, so he was punishing the stock brakes, which were alarmingly thin.

After you’ve purchased a custom set of wheels for your motorcycle, there’s probably not much thought that goes into how your brand new spinners came to be. There is so much involved when manufacturing custom wheels. From the CNC machining, to the anodizing, chroming, and polishing treatments, to the rigorous testing involved for quality control, there are many necessary steps taken in order to achieve the utmost in wheel integrity.

The old adage tells us that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Now, we don’t know much about absolute power, but we do know that darn near any factory-equipped V-twin leaves plenty of room for improvement on the power-delivery scale. For a case in point, we present an ’08 Harley EFI Road King. Coming straight from the Milwaukee MoCo with a pair of jugs measuring in at 96ci and backed by the Factory’s six-speed transmission, its lack of overall power was fairly noticeable when laden with riders and a little gear for a weekend getaway. Not wanting to always be running the shifter peg up and down looking for more pulling power, we placed a call to Cobra Engineering in Yorba Linda, California, for some help in adding the extra ponies we dearly wanted. What happened on the dyno was more than we could have hoped for.

A renaissance in motorcycle customizing is happening before our eyes, but if you’re among the gawkers who flock to full dressers like moths to a skull headlight, you may not have noticed. Garage-built choppers are as common as flannel shirts at underground events like SoCal’s Slab City Riot and the East Coast Gypsy Run, but seldom do we get a glimpse at the build-up process on the pages of respected slicks such as HOT BIKE. That is, until now.

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Last issue we showed you a basic stage one upgrade on an ’11 Street Glide using Fuel Moto’s Jackpot stainless steel 2-1-2 head pipe, 4-inch Touring Mufflers, Stage 1 Air Cleaner kit, and Power Commander’s new Power Vision EFI tuner. A simple bolt-on affair, that install made for a great performance improvement over the stock 65.34 hp and 78.16 lb-ft torque numbers with the bike putting out 80.28 hp (nearly 23 percent gain) and 94.41 lb-ft of torque (21 percent more torque) with a nice torque curve above 90 lb-ft from 3,000 to 4,500 rpm. The owner really liked the sound and noticeable seat-of-the-pants gain in power the upgrade provided.

The Sweet Tracker is getting closer and closer to the finished product. I started this project with a bone-stock 2000 XL883 Sportster Hugger in hopes of transforming it into a dirt track racing replica. So far, it’s coming along as I anticipated. In the last issue of HOT BIKE, I installed the Biltwell Tracker handlebar, Whiskey Throttle Assembly, Slimline Risers, and Kung Fu Grips; however, I wasn’t sure what kind of hand controls I wanted to use. I wanted something unique that encompassed a racey aesthetic. After scouring the internet, I found the yin to the bar’s yang in the ISR Hand Controls from LA County Choprods.

In the never-ending quest for more power, there are many options available. A noticeable addition can be had from a high-flow air cleaner upgrade, and high-performance slip-on muffler swap. That’s exactly what we were thinking for the ’10 Dyna Wide Glide (WG) in our test bike stable.