RB Racing Intercooled Turbos...Big Twins and VRod

Turbos...RB Racing Horsepower Perspective

In the Early 1990's we were making 275 hp out 104" Evo motors like Mike Geokan's famous #226 Blue Bike. We did not run them higher because we limited the airflow with the turbos we chose.

The bike featured our RSR Fuel Injection System with four 50lb/hr injectors running in a stage mode. We wrote a fuel injection program for it and that program was never changed. We wrote the program before the bike turned a wheel with the turbo. There was no testing. Mike was adamant about "not wanting to learn anything new". He didn't have to.

Early on at Bonneville the #226 bike would suddenly shut off running about 22 psi of boost...something we had never seen before with Suzukis, Harleys, Kawasakis or any other turbo bike. We had brought spare microprocessors. The RSR ECU had two microprocessors, one to house the operational code and one to house the serial programming data. When the bike shut off we checked everything and switched the microprocessor that held the data and the bike ran again but in subsequent runs shut off again. We figured it was electrical interference from the spark plugs as it happened under high load. Mike's solution was he would need a pile of microprocessors and change them after each run. We asked him which glove he put on first before he ran...left or right. All he had to do was alter that order and the bike would run. That went over well. We drove back to LA made some additional changes on the input programming circuits and drove right back up to Boise...that's 1800 miles driving with no sleep and insisted the bike be re-wired to get the plug / ignition wires away from our electronics.

To this day more that two decades later the bike still runs and Mike still believes you have to change the "chips" after each run. No...It was the gloves.

These days we no longer have to run four injectors in a staged arrangement as injectors 2200 ccm or larger are available in high impedance (12 Ohm) values.

Prior to that, in the late 1970's and early 1980's, we were making 150hp Shovelheads.  In the early 1990's we manufactured our own closed loop RSR EFI system for our turbos...that powered Drag Racing Harleys to a 7.75 @176mph and a National Pro Gas Championship in the quarter mile.

Above picture: Carl Pelletier of Competition Motorcycles delivering the 139" Turbo ORCA Motor to be installed in the Bonneville Bullett. RB Racing designed all the special parts like the 1/2" A-1 cylinder studs and the water-cooled cylinders as well as the pistons and other items. John O'Keefe did the porting and installed the Ferrea valves we had made. Carl did all the final machining and assembly. We used the engine to test new ideas...Some worked and some didn't but we never lacked power..Over 400hp.

Our Bonneville efforts these days use sophisticated Cosworth Pectel SQ6M controllers and 500 hp turbos. Our street bikes come with 360 hp turbos. Horsepower depends on a lot of factors like displacement, rpm, boost level , and cylinder head design... And, as it rises, the Harleys show their weak points...clutches, cylinder sealing, cranks and connecting rods, and final drive belts to name a few. Carl Pelletier above with the RB Racing Bonneville 139" ORCA Single Cam motor with 8" rods, no gaskets, turbo ported SA B2 heads, Inconel valves, custom 1/2" cylinder studs, 32-2 crank trigger crankshaft , and water cooled barrels. Not one Harley part. Way past 400 hp.

Horsepower can be gotten by anyone if you cram the can full and light a match. The question is.."Is the engineering good enough for it to be reliable and is it practical enough to be driven anywhere"...Fast is a given. People forget the rest...like practical air cleaners for high horsepower. Always look at the air cleaner...if there is one...And, would you put that air cleaner on a V8. It's an IQ test.

No Direction Home...Bob Dylan

People spend $15,000.00 on a T143 (Engine, 70mm efi throttle, exhaust, install) to get 165hp. We got 275hp 30 years ago with a 104"motor and lately 200 hp at low boost with a 95" motor...and 345 hp with a Bonneville 139" motor with 19 psi of boost. Logic in the horsepower chase is missing.

Turbos are just low compression motors (8.5:1 or so)...not 10.5:1 heat sinks. 40 years ago we were doing 150hp Shovelheads. Nothing has changed.

Hey...it keeps people busy chasing the pecking order dream. First place is always turbos, although with lots of nitrous, a bit iffy piston-longevity wise,  can provide explosive power increases.

Does Get Complicated

Fixtures and a lot of knowledge are required to make turbos for EVOs Twin Cams, VRods, Race Bikes, and specialized ORCA motors with Bosch Fly By Wire Pectel SQ6M Controllers etc...for both Bonneville and Street bikes. These fixtures are just the tip of the complexity involved.  Pallets of raw parts, thousands of dollars in waterjet and laser cut parts and mandrel bending, plus over 1000 pages of documentation, software, CAD files, many three ring binders, and hopefully not too much brain fade.

Intercooler Fabrication

Here we are welding up a 300+ HP HD Turbo Intercooler after machining and prepping the parts for it. Air enters and exits at the larger part of the tapered end caps. After this the intercooler goes for ceramic coating. This chews up a couple of days off and on.  Expensive.

The intercoolers are sized to drop the inlet charge temperature closer to ambient i.e. if the charge temperature pre-intercooler is 150F and the outside air temperature is 80F and the bike is moving at cruising speed and then under acceleration, at say 8 PSI, then the inlet temperature will be close to the ambient 80F.

Various spigots for turbo connector hoses..EVOs, Twin Cams, OEM EFI systems, Cosworth Pectel FBW systems...For our intercoolers and plenum chambers. Does get a bit complicated, but with specialization and the intended uses, it always does.

Genuine Garrett Turbo.... Raw Castings

Start out with a genuine ceramic ball bearing Garrett Turbo...Add custom housings and you are at $1,500.00 before we start modifying things for a Harley V-Twin.

    

They just don't fit optimally the way the come...so we have to do surgery.

We use genuine Garrett Ceramic Bearing 360 HP Turbochargers. These come in as raw, machined castings in iron and aluminum. We then modify the compressor, exhaust housing and the turbo center section with machining. welding, sanding, and bead blasting operations. The parts are then ceramic coated for corrosion protection, heat retention, and heat dispersion. With more that 25 years going to the Bonneville salt flats, we know how importatnt anti-corrosion coatings are...not to mention operation in the real world.

Then there are the 38 years of previous fixtures dating back to Shovelheads and parts which have since been discarded. Gets expensive. Thousands of man-hours.

Many Hours Later..Orca Turbo Pod

  

Cutting, machining, welding, anodizing, water jet cutting, ceramic coating, fixturing and assembly operations...It is no longer a $1,500.00 turbocharger but an Orca Turbo Pod that will go past 300hp and 25 psi of boost. Whatever it takes to make your 850lb Harley Dresser move. Past 200hp @12 psi. Dial the boost from your handlebar when you are riding.

On a Twin Cam 95" the turbo puts out about 165hp and 164 ft/lbs torque @ 9 PSI of Boost.

Annealed Copper Turbo Gaskets

Cherry Red with torch then drop in cold water. Turns copper into a soft condition. We anneal all our turbo and wastegate gaskets. No goo or silicone.

Wastegate Testing

With three regulators we test Boost Pressure, Exhaust Back Pressure, Adjustable Boost 8-25 PSI, and wastegate valve sealing. Here boost is controlled by a pneumatic controller. With advanced Cosworth Electronics we can control the wastegate with Phase and Anti-Phase fast acting solenoids.

  300Hp Intercoolers

RB Racing Harley Turbocharger System: Intercoolers Coated in Ceramic Black High-Emissive Coating for optimal performance and corrosion protection. You can run your big twin through the gears at low boost and about 180 Hp and the intercooler discharge temperatures will be close to ambient. We don't use small restrictive intercoolers or, even more stupidly, put the intercooler under the bike like one firm does.

Airflow in and out of the intercooler must be smooth so each of the 13 channels flows the same which is why the hats must be tapered. You cannot simply butt the turbo discharge up against the base to the intercooler as some firms do.

Front view left above. Rear view right above. The intercooler mounts securely with billet clamps to the crash bar. The intercooler is rigidly mounted and the turbocharger and turbo plenum move with the rubber mounted engine. Special flex bellows couplers (see below) connect the moving and stationary parts. Proven in years of use.

 

Turbo Plenum Chambers: All machined from billet and welded. Integral boost and water injection ports plus billet compressor discharge valve. No nuts, no bolts, no windows, and no blow through filter. Designed as a surge reservoir and to break up directional airflow before it enters the throttle body. We have five variations on these to cover multiple applications.

Oxide blasted and ceramic coated with a heat dispersant ceramic.

Plenum for our RSR EFI Systems with 56mm Throttle Body: Idle Air Control Stepper Motor, Compressor Discharge Valve, Boost reference port.

To protect our Harley Turbo Intercoolers against corrosion and to dissipate heat we use special Ceramic Heat Dispersant Coatings which are applied after we fabricate and blast the parts. These coatings are impervious to carb cleaners and other chemicals as well as normal soap and water cleaning. This is not powder coating as that would be an insulator and degrade the intercoolers efficiency. Plenum chambers are also coated.

Twin Cam 88 PLenum Chamber. Optional water injection port.

Milwaukee 8 Turbos...Not now

We looked at the M8's and they are a packaging nightmare to do correctly. Maybe later, but development with the issues they already have, i.e. oil sumping issues, extremely high compression and cranking pressures, and, coupled with the difficulty of doing proper charge cooling means we'll pass for the present. Development runs over $2,000.00 per day for personnel, overhead, and shop expenses...We've been down that road more times that we care to share.

Recently a customer from San Diego stopped by to buy a chain drive swingarm...Turns out he had forked over close to $10,000.00 for an M8 Trask Turbo and it turned out to be a slow rolling disaster and he off'ed it to someone.

We asked him some technical questions as to what the turbo confuration was etc... In short it would never have worked and what he was told by Trask made no sense whatsoever, only BS words to get him out of Arizona. What the hell, they got his $$. In the local street scene here in L.A. word went out fast.

Twin Cam Turbo Systems

You take the fixtures pictured above and add 100 manhours of fabrication and shop time and you end up with these parts...and these are not all the parts in a system. You simply cannot make this kind of power "building" a motor. Every part of the system has been upgraded in terms of fasteners, polishing, ceramic coating as well as CNC machined parts like our wastegates and compressor discharge blow off valves. The 360 HP turbocharger has been extensively modified.

Evo Turbo Systems and EVO ORCA Motors

Specialized Evo Single Cam ORCA motors up to 139 Cubic Inches. 113 Cubic Inch pictured. Does get expensive.

 

360 to 560 HP Turbo systems on ORCA Single Cam EVO Motors. Proven systems with over 30 years of development.

Turbos..Practical Power

Buy an 850 pound Dresser and find out you have a very low hp/weight ratio. So you can go spent $12,000 to $15,000 on a custom big inch high compression motor with an $1,100.00 throttle body, bigger injectors to get maybe 150 to 165 hp or spend about half that for a 130 hp SE120R. A big inch motor may or may not be streetable as power really only comes from added compression. A 10.5 to 12.0:1 motor can be a less streetable motor than your stocker. You can only go way up in bore size as the engines cannot get taller.

Put on turbo and you have either stock levels of streetable power or more power than any of the above big motor choices. On the other hand we have found that people have no problems spending $15,000.00 or more on big inch motor conversions and we encourage them to do so. Our typical customer has experience with turbos, knows what they do, does their own work and can handle the installation and tuning.

People who foist turbo installations off onto unsuspecting shops are only complicating the matter. In short, if you are the right candidate, it will all work out...If you are not, go the big motor route and stay away from high horsepower, streetable turbos.

165HP @ 9 PSI Boost... 2003 Twin Cam 95 Cubic Inches

Torque is the game..Take it to 4 or five psi of boost, short shift, and do it again...80 mph instantly. Or, if the handlebar adjustable boost control knob is set at 9 PSI, get 165 hp now. Torque allows you to effortlessly roll-on and pass that line of Semis, or leave the other bikes behind. Tuning perfected in actual riding with RSR Dual Air Fuel Ratio Gauge. On the above bike, with 95 cubic inches, it makes 200 horsepower and over 190 ft/lbs of torque on pump gas @13 PSI of boost. Boost is adjustable to 25 psi.

Perry on his 95" Twin Cam with his OEM Delphi controller reprogrammed with RB Racing's 236hp Injectors (9 gram/sec). TTS MasterTune.

Doc Sweeney: "Trip done: 5950 miles 28 States in 9 days. Bike performed well"

Doc Sweeney and his TC88 Turbo on a marathon 28 state run. Genuine Pinto gas tank along for the ride. "And miles to go before I sleep". Doc Sweeney covered 4500 miles in the first week.."running fine". Next up...a R1200GS BMW and off to Alaska...all 50 states. The TC88 was shipped in from Hawaii. All 50 States.

Oil spot behind the bike is from a Honda Goldwing that had an unfortunate movement when it saw the turbo.

Something Wicked This Way Cometh..Road Toad

There is nothing that outruns turbos. You have to build big inch high compression motors to make power and they are not your best daily drivers or anything you want to take on a trip. Only turbos give you a stock or low compression engine with power you can dial up at will. If you want fast and civility you pretty much have to go turbo.

We use large 360 hp turbos that deliver enough air to outrun anything. Even at 8 psi you will outrun any built 110 and at 12 psi it will leave a SE 120R engine like it was standing still. You can drive it coast to coast and not have to worry about passing a line of semis in the middle of nowhere...Whoosh! We like Road Glides but, at 850 lbs, they are short-changed in the power to weight race. We can correct this.

We've been at this turbo stuff for a long, long, time and made all sorts of variations on Big Twins over the past 30 odd years dating back to Shovelheads. These FLT/FLH turbos are the best we have ever done and are light years better than anything else out there, technically as well as practically.

There is no compromise in ground clearance and no hot turbo tail pipes next to your leg either on the left or right side of the bike.  The intercooler drops charge temperatures close to ambient and is sized correctly for the power output. A turbo without an intercooler, or too small an intercooler, is just plain stupid. These pictures were taken after 9000+ miles of testing.

Leg clearance is the same as with a normal air cleaner and everything right and left resides within the stock crash bars. You can ride like a cruiser or play road racer without any compromise. We like high speed turns and squirting ahead of crotch-rockets is an interesting pastime.

Road Glide Turbo aka "Road Toad"

Our 2004 FLTRI Road Glide aka.."Road Toad". Good way to cover a lot of ground in comfort. Road Glides, like all Harleys, have a low center of gravity and peculiar reverse triple clamps that give quick steering but keep the trail at 6". Add a turbo and it effortlessly whisks past other bikes, semis, hills and anything else it comes up against.

Testing: Whenever we let people ride it they come back amazed at how civil and quiet it is and the way it just keeps pulling in any gear. The last guy that stopped to ride the Road Toad was a Canadian customer of ours who turbocharged his GL1800...complete with front and rear laser jammers and other evading mechanisms we can't mention...He was really impressed..except for the brakes. We upgraded those later on. We have had customers from as far away as Australia stop by to ride the Road Toad.

We typicaly do about 10,000 miles of testing before we go into production. When we are too busy to ride we have "Turbo Ron" keep putting miles on the bike as he has had two of our turbo kits and has over 1,000,000 miles of motorcycle riding and has been on Glides for a long time.

126 ORCA...Building a 360 HP Road Glide aka Road Toad

Road Toad Upgrades: We upgraded the suspension parts, brakes, and put in the 126" Orca S&S SA B2 engine that we got for the Road Toad. When the 126 Orca engine went in the belt drive went South and a chain final drive was installed. To handle the increased power we installed a full race clutch assembly and converted it to hydraulic actuation. The 126" S&S SA B2 engine fits FL models through 2006. Ours is a 2004 so it fits.

How much does this all this cost?....About $15,000.00 for the specialzed turbo motor and another $15,000 for more sophisticated high-end engine electronics, complete mil spec wiring, and an advanced sensor package. All in due time. You can follow the progress by clicking on the above link...Later models (2007 and later) can get SE120R engines but these also have to be built for turbo use...forged turbo pistons, stronger piston pins, better bearings, and revised oiling systems.

Brief Turbo History: We've been at this for over 30 years and have designed more turbos systems than about anyone...Last time we counted it was for over 25 different motorcycles a dating back to SOHC Honda 750's, not to mention Shovelheads, lots of BMW's, Kawasakis, Suzukis, and even odd ones like old Triumph Bonnevilles...Probably about 1500 Turbo systems in all. These days we limit ourselves to Harley's and certain BMWs. We stopped making turbos for the in-line Japanese fours after setting a large number of speed records at El Mirage and Bonneville, winning magazine contests and horsepower shoot-outs. We put off the redesign of these Big Twin turbos for five years while we were working on the Bonneville Bullett bike...there just wasn't time or money to do both. Development is way more expensive than it used to be and we choose our projects more carefully these days.

We don't do this for the money, that's for sure...It's way too much effort going in for what comes out. It's more of an art form and we do it because we like turbos, and we like being with our friends on projects like the Bonneville Bullett at Bonneville...and we like to ride.

Forged SE120R Turbo Pistons

We had some clients with SE120R motors in Baggers with 12:1 Compression pistons and Hurricane Heads...still not enough power. A 360hp RB Racing Turbo and some forged lower compression turbo pistons was the answer. They also had to go chain drive with one of our billet chain drive conversions. We keep these in stock. Note the Top Fuel type piston pin. The pistons come in at 393 grams with thick domes for the added compression. $500.00 per set. These are setup for the stock multi-layer SE120R head gasket and 4.060" bore.

Radial Mounted 4 Piston Calipers

Turbo Exhaust

Turbos are surprisingly quiet and they don't like any restriction on the exhaust side...We use a precision heliarced and chromed 2.5" two piece dump tube that does nothing to restrict your velocity. It exits below your floorboards where the heat is not a bother. It does not run inside your leg...we did that one time 30 years ago and decided it was not a good idea. You don't see any seams on our welded parts. We are way too professional for that. No long tail pipes...we went down that road a long, long, time ago...31 years ago to be exact.

Turbo Art

Turbo exit pipes headed for various client bikes...Road Kings, Road Glides and Ultra Classics. Secondary pipe bolts or is welded to these for exit beneath the floorboards. Quiet, no restriction. No long pipes or mufflers to rob power or break. After over 30 years we know how to make things that work, make maximum power, and don't break.

Over 30 years of turbo art and develeopment. A goes to B to C to D to E and so on...and then you go really fast.

Turbo Movie 01...Road Toad 8 psi

Our Twin Cam 88" Road Toad in rush hour traffic in Los Angeles. There isn't much open space in L.A. like there is going up the middle of Nevada on the way to Bonneville. This gives you a brief idea of what low boost looks like on a Road Glide Twin Cam 88" with Branch O'Keefe Turbo porting and some mild SE 251 cams. 1.52 Bar is about 8 lbs of boost.

No, we did not wind it out to 140 mph, nor turn the boost up to 25 psi...not in LA traffic. Not with cameras on the freeways and pesky good-natured citizens with camera cell phones calling the police. 30 years ago we had ambulance drivers calling the cops when we zipped by them under boost...That took awhile to figure out.

Turbo Movie 02... Full Dashboard

A movie on a gentle cruise and acceleration at only 1.5 Bar (8 psi) we moved the camera back so you could see all the instruments. Our additional injector controller handles fuel requirements under boost. You can see it activate in the lower right hand Dual Air Fuel Ratio gauge. The topmost red l.e.d will light when the 3rd injector kicks in. For street use we like to keep EGT numbers around 1450 Deg F. The Orca Turbo Dash will also display Celsius. In this movie the Optional Priority Breather Valve has been installed.

We have also posted this video to YouTube.

   1. Typical Order: Delphi 250 HP Blackbird EFI Twin Cam..$9,027.00 (+ fueling option)

For a Delphi EFI Late model Harley this is about what you can expect to pay for more horsepower and civility than you can get by any other method. Terms and conditions and ordering details are listed above. Note: These items are sold on a direct basis only. They are not an item sold through any form of "Distributor".

Part Number       Description

03-0008               250 hp 2 Bar Delphi Blackbird Turbo Kit   $7995.00

03-1013               Glycerin Filled Boost Gauge w/ Memory     $249.50

06-1003T            Dual RSR O2 Display Narrow Band             $295.00

                          TTS Master Tune Software                           $487.50

                          Plus Fueling Option                                      Specify (see below)

Total                                                                                     $8827.00 (+ fueling option)

  2. Fueling Options: ...EVO to Twin Cam

Does get a bit complicated when you have nearly 40 years of Harleys. We've seen or done it all from Shovelheads up to the latest bikes.

  1. Twin Cam FLT/FLH non-FBW Systems: 2 Bar TMAP Manifold Pressure sensor and two custom fuel Injectors 9.29 grams/second capable of supporting 236 hp at an 80% Duty Cycle. Customer responsible for tuning 0 to 2KPa  (2Bar) via TTS MasterTune (see above for TTS costs). Add $395.00

   2. Fly-By Wire Systems: 2009 up Twin Cam FLT/FLH Series: Bosch 2 Bar Manifold Pressure sensor and two custom fuel Injectors 9.29 grams/second capable of supporting 236 hp or larger for applications beyond 236 hp. Customer responsible for tuning 0 to 2KPa  (2Bar) via TTS MasterTune (see above for manadtory TTS costs). For 2009 and later models with 12mm O2 sensors our exhaust turbo manifolds have both 12mm and 18mm O2 ports. Add $495.00. For applications > 250 hp fuel pump upgrades are required.

Applications beyond 2 Bar (15 psi) require  12.9 Gram/Sec injectors and a boost referenced fuel system...This is up to the customer.

    3. Scratch Built or Race No EFI Present with 32-2 CPS Flywheels: Pectel SQ6M controller; Complete Mil-Spec Wiring harness. It does get complex with traction control, phase anti-phase boost control etc. 8800 programmable functions. Over 200 man hours in the harness design alone. Injectors up to 2000cc. Only on quote and pre-paid basis.

Here's something to ponder. Road Toad: Used FLTRI $10,000.00-$12,000. Base Turbo System $8,995.00. Advanced Cosworth Pectel SQ6M Electronics, including traction control, data acquisition and complete Mil Spec wiring harness (200 man hours), plus tuning $25,000.00. Custom Instrumentation $3,000.00 to $5,000.00. Race prepared 126" S&S SA 126" Turbo engine $15,000.00. Then there's the race clutch, hydraulic master cylinder conversion, chain final drive $1,695.00, and all that installation labor $10,000.00. Figure about $75,000.00 and up. Cheap….and no custom paint or wheels to attract the uninitiated. No Orange County Choppers, no Jesse James.

   4. Some people want to use other efi systems like ThunderMax or Daytona TwinTec or some variation of a DynoJet Controller and supply their own injectors.. You are on your own if you choose this route. Don't ask for help from us. Those companies won't help either...you are the tuner.

                            3. Shipment of Turbo Kits

Some people in the past have picked up turbo kits here. Whenever we ship the kits it usually consumes several days to custom package, control the items, prepare the parts for shipment, and cart the boxes over for shipment with all the paperwork (triplicate for international shipment). We used to do this for free until we woke up. There is a $500.00 charge for the packing and cartage to a shipper. As stated above: "Shipping charges are paid for separately by credit card. We negotiate the best shipping prices at time of shipment." One turbo kit: Three double wall boxes with all parts individually packaged. 76 pounds.

Cosworth Pectel SQ6M Systems Throttle By Wire

These days FBW/TBW is pretty much the way to go and is a critical element in traction control and torque management strategies. The Pectel SQ6M comes standard with traction control and FBW capabilities. We use specialized 60mm Bosch Motorsport units on our Road Toad.

60mm Bosch

FBW/TBW Bosch throttle body for the SQ6M on the Road Toad. You have to fabricate this stuff. Gets expensive. Full fuel bypass. 1050cc, 1300cc, 1700cc, and 2000cc Injector Dynamics fuel injectors. Expensive Custom Fabrication and programming.

Chain Drive Swingarm

A belt has to know it's limits. As is frequently said, "Chains are for racing...Belts are for holding up your pants". When you start putting in high compression big inch engines, or high output turbos, you are going to start snapping final drive belts. Hayabusas, BMW S1000RR's, or any highly-engineered 180 to 195 hp street bike, would never have a final belt drive. A 140 to 360 hp Harley surely needs one.

We have complete chain drive systems for Dressers.

Does Get Complicated

When you have to deal with more than 30 years of Harleys you have all sorts of inlet and fuel systems. We deal with all of them and even some not pictured. Injector capacity, fuel pump and regulator capacity. Fuel rail design. Two or three injectors. Stand alone closed efi system for carbuteted bikes...all the way to high end Cosworth Pectel SQ6M controllers with specialized Bosch Fly-By-Wire systems. We have the methodology.

Doc Sweeney's TC88

Final road test for Doc Sweeney's Ultra TC88. Doc Sweeney flies in from Hawaii and rides the bike to Texas. We upgraded the oil system with an SE Billet Plate and new pump, put in turbo cams, an SE Race Clutch and fixed all the usual issues. The bike is a 2005 non-closed loop Delphi ECM. We use TTS MasterTune and our Dual Air Fuel Ratio Gauge to tune the bike in real world operation. Oh, we have a 750 hp Superflow CycleDyn eddy current dyno but the real world is where it's at...cold start, hot start, idle quality, transitional fueling, steady state cruise at all rpms and, of course, under boost.. The race plugs have to come out dead clean when we are finished...i.e. >40 mpg hwy...maybe not cruising @120mph...which we also test.

Besides steady state and dyno work we easily do 200 miles of instrumented road work.

Doc Sweeney really knows motorcycles. He has his own Motorcycle Museum full of rare early Harley, Indian and other motorcycles. Doc Sweeney cruised from Los Angeles down to the Texas Mexico border without incident save turning up the boost a bit to outrun a few things..then reeled off 28 States in nine days for a total of 5950 miles plus the run from LA to the bottom of Texas. We asked him to hold the boost to 9 psi on his trip but he did a few 12 psi (175hp @ 5500 rpm) test accelerations.

We went nuts trying to tune his bike initially. It turns out he had, buried in the bike, an aftermarket intercept box for his efi that kept altering our programming.

Turbos Down Under

We ship turbos direct to the purchaser without any "exclusive distributor". Turbos are something in our DNA and we don't want parts peddlers messing with them and having you stuck with their exorbinate markups. We won't build a cheap, poorly engineered, and inferior product just to play that game. We race them and we ride them...and make sure they are reliable enough and well engineered enough for you to go coast to coast or across the Outback. Bonneville or Bar to Bar...we've done it.

Poetic justice. We shipped a FLT Turbo kit to Australia which is being installed on a 2009 Dyna...not something we have done. We'll see how this works out. The engine has been prepped for the turbo kit. Poetic justice becase a long time ago we sent a turbo kit "Down Under" which got Jeff Richardson at ChopperWorks and bunch of PR for his, at the time, new business. Jeff split the scene years later owing a lot of people money...doing a "Runner" as they say.

Bike produced, in early testing, 200hp and 228 ftlbs of torque @ 11 PSI of boost.

"Who/Why Someone" Should Buy a Turbo

1. You have the money.

2. You probably have some experience with turbos or understand what they do...and then there is no choice whatsoever. More power than anything and very civil unlike overheating big inch engines full of compression. 2x to 3x normal horsepower. Enough said.

3. You understand that Superchargers, either gear or belt driven, are inferior to Turbos...No we won't explain this to you.

4. You most likely do the work yourself because you are either cheap, a gearhead, a turbo fanatic...or you simply don't want others messing with your bike. It is never a good idea to let anyone else ride your turbo bike. Never.

5. You want to ride and not "Park & Talk" or trailer your bike around to "Shows".

6. People call us up and want us to explain to them "why they should buy our turbo"...If you haven't already pretty much decided turbocharge your bike we really are not going to try to "sell you". You can compare our technology and engineering to anything else out there and decide for yourself. We offer some comparisons of what you get compared to other firms further down this page.

7. There are a certain percentage of people who will buy these that have zero idea what they are buying. We try to weed these out...40 years of experience has taught us that.

Stainless Steel Braided Oil Lines

We cover our RB Racing Turbo braided stainless steel oil lines in high temperature shrink tubing. We know you just love to see braided stainless steel lines but they get dirty, scratch everything they rub up against and tend to eat everything they come in contact with. Black is what you get.

Note: We test turbos with stock Harley-Davidson oil pumps not aftermarket ones. In the case of aftermarket pumps there my be too much volume or pressure and a restrictor on the turbo feed line may be necessary. Too much pressure will cause leakage past the compressor and exhaust seals of the turbocharger. Our turbos only need 9-30 psi of oil pressure.

Standard Inlet Priority Breather Valve

The Priority Breather Valve serves one function: Closing the throttle under boost it allows the boost pressure to vent before the butterfly which keeps turbine speed up during shifts and prevents backflow or "surge" through the compressor. Plenums polished or Black.

The turbo plenum to the left is for our RSR 2001 EFi System..The turbo plenum to the right is our Cosworth Pectel Fly By Wire plenum.

Both have sockets for the Priority Breather Valve. RSR has boost and I.A.C ports. Cosworth has two ports for the programmed Phase-Antiphase wastegate control.

We make our own and put it in up to four different plenum locations depending on the engine type..EVO, Twin Cam, ORCA motor, or specialized race system. We also make our own wastegates. We test these frozen as well as up to 300 Degrees F. These come with our turbo kits but are not sold speparately.

Evos and Twin Cams...Baggers Rule

Evo Road Toad..RSR EFI for early carburetted bikes

Inlet volume is critical with Harley turbos and even more important with 103/110/120/126/131 big inch motors. Add up the turbo discharge volume from the turbo discharge all the way through the intercooler and into the plenum...It has to be a multiple of the engine displacement for the engine to operate efficiently. Mount the turbo next to the inlet with or without small intercooler and you have a bottleneck built into the system. Two coffee-can sized pistons tugging away at the volume between the compressor wheel and the inlet valve require a stable reservoir of air to work properly. We only do it the right way.

RB Racing uses large 360 hp intercoolers and can employ an optional Priority Breather Valve on the back side of our inlet plenum. The Priority Breather Valve allows the engine to vent pressure when the throttle is closed under boost to prevent compressor surge.

With turbos you can cruise at high speed without boost, roll it on and slingshot past everyone. No need to pump extra air and fuel when you don't need to. If you want to go to kill mode then turn up the dial with your left hand and adjust the horsepower and boost to whatever level it needs to be handle the situation. Normally you leave the boost set at 8-12 psi, short shift at 5 psi, and you can outrun anything you come up against. We use large turbos, not small ones and they pump a lot of air at low pressure ratios. We have a Boost and Airflow Calculator to see what is required.

Take an 850 lb Road Toad and add a couple of hundred horsepower...You get the idea.

Evo Softail Fat Boy Turbo S&S 96" RSR EFI

Closed loop RSR Fuel Injection and 96 cubic inches. At 8-10 psi it will handle about anything. Large intercooler keeps things from detonating.

Front exhaust dumps underneath the bike. Turbos are surprisingly quiet in operation. Running closed loop at highway speed these things can get 50 mpg although that's not the main reason you put a turbo on a bike...You do it to whisk past anything that might want to run you, or just to pass a line of semis out on the open road. There is no way you could ever build an engine this civil that can make this much power.

Prototyping for Bullett..600 hp turbo

360 HP Turbos are standard....Black Ceramic or Polished & Ceramic Coated

We start with $1500.00 custom 360 HP Genuine Garrett Ball Bearing turbos with custom housings before we start modifying them. There is a lot of work to get them ready.

We spend a lot of time and money to pretty up the turbo and modify it for the Harleys. Cutting, welding, polishing and ceramic coating as well as replacing rust-prone hardware with chromed and stainless steel parts. We also have our aluminum Intercoolers and Plenums polished and ceramic coated.  We do both Silver and Black Finishes on the turbo housings. Normally ceramic black.

It's not about "Show Bikes". We could care less about bike shows. For us it just has to be pretty and stand up to the heat and the elements. Bonneville is as rough as it gets.  All stainless hardware.

Boost and Airflow...Size matters

For over 30 years people have been asking us about "Boost". We prefer to talk about CFM at a given pressure ratio in relation to engine size and rpm...of course the conversation gets completely lost at that point. People only want to talk about how much boost they can run. Take the large turbo on the right at 8 psi and compare it with 8 psi from the smaller turbo on the left...Guess which one has more CFM at 8 psi or a 1.5 pressure ratio... If you guessed the bigger turbo you would be correct. RB Racing uses large turbos that move a lot of air at low pressure ratios so you don't have to twist your engine so hard to make the horsepower. The power is instantaneous with no lag.

Think about Honda's CX500 Turbo that was introduced 30+ years ago in 1981. It ran 19 pounds of boost on a 30 cubic inch engine and made 82 horsepower. Small engine, very small IHI Turbo. There's your 19 pounds of boost and 82 horsepower. RB Racing uses large turbos that make a lot of horsepower at low boost levels and astounding power at higher boost levels. Size does matter. We do not use cheap $600.00 small turbos like other turbo vendors use.

Intercoolers..Size Matters

With our newer 360 HP turbos the power went up so the charge cooling had to keep pace. In the center is one of our old designs from the 1990's flanked by a couple of larger cores. The smaller intercooler was only rated for 150 hp. These two black intercoolers were made for a client long, long, ago, who decided the bike building business wasn't all it was cracked up to be...no money, so we kept them. Later on we just cut them up for scrap.We only use larger intercooler cores rated for 360 hp.

We use large intercooler cores rated for 360 hp with 13 passages for the compressed air and 14 passages for air cooling. In our designs we place the 14 passages directly in the oncoming airstream for maximum cooling. Run 25 pounds of boost and your charge temperature approaches 300 degrees F. If you cut the core in half your horsepower potential and cooling are severely compromised.

Pictured above is one of our RSR Closed Loop EFI Intercooled designs from the late 1990's. We were running intercoolers four times as large as this on drag racing applications and more than twice as large on our 1990's Bonneville bikes. This smaller intercooler was designed to drop inlet temperatures about 75 degrees F at low boost levels...It was not designed for higher output because there was too much of a pressure drop.

Poseurs..Ineffective or Silly

Other companies seem to have copied our smaller 1990's intercooler design and location, only they use an even smaller intercooler. In some cases they even turn their intercooler sideways to the airstream which pretty much negates its purpose. Hey, it's something to sell. It doesn't do crap and causes a pressure drop to boot. We have no idea how the air is supposed to flow through the bottom of the intercooler on the above left. The manufacturer claims a 30 degree F drop....All we see is a restriction. These poor designs don't do shit.

In case you didn't realize it, compressing air (boost) makes it hotter. The hotter it is going into your engine the more prone your engine is to detonation. At higher race levels the compressed air can reach 300 degrees F. Employing a larger intercooler allows us to drop charge temperatures 75 Deg at lower boost levels and 150 Deg F at higher boost levels. Combined with our 1000 psi  RSR Water Injection you will make more power without engine destroying detonation.

Those air cleaners pictured above are 1/4 of what you would put on a Japanese inline four.

Vacuum Cleaner

Suck unfiltered air on one side then blow it through and air cleaner on the other side. Must be a Dyson design. These are typically setup with a very small charge cooler on the right side and have drive ratios that give you a 30 to 50% increase in horsepower. You might as well put in a higher compression bigger motor. 124's with B2/B3 heads typically make 145 to 150HP.

Actually, this is a belt driven supercharger and not a Dyson. It forces more air into the motor directly related to engine RPM and not to load like a turbocharger. On our turbos you can cruise at high cruising speed and not be under boost and then instantly go to whatever you have the wastegate set at, say anywhere from 8 to 25 psi. 8 PSI is what these Supercharger setups typically run at higher rpms.

RB Racing EVO and Twin Cam Intercooler

We're sort of specialized in Road Glides or "Road Toads" as we call them because they are one of the best bikes Harley has made aside from the FXR. Fun to outrun everything you come up against. Here's our charge cooler solidly mounted on the Twin Cam Road Toad FLTRI crash bar. We mount the turbo solidly to the engine with thick 3/8" laser cut steel plates. Silicone expansion joints allow the turbo and inlet plenum to move while the intercooler stays locked to the chassis.

Every once in awhile a customer will call and want us to build a turbo without an intercooler. We generally reply that "If you don't understand that a turbo compresses the air, and that as you compress the air it gets hotter, and that the compression stroke in the engine compounds this temperature rise, then you should not be getting a turbo." We don't think you'd be riding your bike around if it was a 150 to 300 degree Fahrenheit day outside.

We first put larger intercoolers on Evolution Baggers in the early 1990's. Pulling a constant boost over the infamous "I-5 Grapevine" the inlet plenum would roast your leg without the intercooler...With the intercooler it was barely warm to the touch. In short, we don't make turbos without intercoolers. We can run around with 8psi of boost, outrun anything, and the intercooler remains cool, and so does your inlet air.

EVO Turbo...1998 Road King

We mount our turbos on the left side and route our exhaust down out a large 2.5" dump tube. The wastegate dumps directly into the 2.5" dump tube. No exhausts or turbos run inside your legs. The turbocharger is solidly mounted to the engine and uses silicone rubber isolated couplers to go to the intercooler and from the intercooler to the plenum. Professional quality parts.

We use air filters that will flow enough for the 3" turbocharger entry. The front facing small air filters you see on other turbo kits are a joke. The RB Racing Boost Master wastegate is pneumatically controlled from the handlebars. You can turn up or down the boost while you are riding. We do not use cheap integral wastegates.

500 HP Bullet Intercooler

Twin core charge cooler for Mike Geokan's Bonneville Bullett pictured above with rubber isolation mounts top and bottom. Two 3.5 x 6 x 9 Intercooler cores for 500 hp. You can see from this and other photos that Mike Geokan solidly mounted the turbo to the two thick aluminum plates. On the Bullett, just like on our street kits, the turbo is mounted independently from the exhaust and the exhaust has slip joints to prevent cracking. Hanging 20+ pounds of turbo and exhaust on a shaking engine, supported only by the exhaust tubes themselves is a bad idea.

Not Needed

If you have a late model FL with a Fly By Wire throttle do not use the above device with our turbocharger systems. We suggest you get Steve Cole's TTS MasterTune software described earlier on this page. When purchased with the Turbocharger we offer a $50.00 discount i.e. $375.00 v $425.00 list. TTS MasterTune allows you to adjust your electronic throttle without the expense of the V&H device as well as everything else in the Delphi ECU.

Water Injection Option

Hard anodized water injection reservoirs with our integral 1000 psi water injection pump. Sophisticated two stage RSR Water Injection is standard with our kits. Even with large capacity intercooling you need to reduce inlet temperatures and increase charge density to keep your motor alive and to keep you in front of anything you come up against.

We only do it the right way. There is no other way. The way we do it at Bonneville.

We don't want you going into your fuel tank and messing with your oem fuel pump and regulator as long as you want to run under 200 hp. No running of boost lines into your fuel tank and drilling holes in your oem fuel regulator.  The oem pump is ok for most of what your will do unless you want to run 250 to 300 hp. Then we have to change things.

For our turbo motors and high output Pro Street Delphi systems details like fuel pumps are a bit of an issue as the stock pumps simply do not have the flow necessary. We have sorted through various suppliers looking for the best pumps for our applications. Some were smaller than others, which was a plus, but the quality varied and formed metal nipples or plastic casings could crack...and some had shitty push-on blade connectors that, while they worked, were questionable. Water proofing these tended to be a hassle if the pump was mounted externally.

Pumps have to be of very high quality and are typically rated for about 3,500 to 5,000 hours life...assuming you don’t try to pump even microscopic grit through them...and if you don’t run them dry. We sorted though many manufacturers and tend to use pumps that have a German accent...pumps which have weather seals on the connectors, screw-on terminals, banjo fittings, and a distinct lack molded plastic parts. We make sure you filter the gas before it gets to these expensive items.

Powder coated mounts for external wounting, rubber isolated and stainless steel hardware. Different pumps for different horsepower ratings. The German pumps we use are static @ 400hp and 550hp....We like to see at least 30% bypass fuel at peak numbers so we use these pumps for applications up to 307.7 hp and 423hp respectively.

For larger applications, like the Bonneville Bullett, we use larger 1000 hp pumps and regulators from SX Performance.

These 1000 horsepower rated units allow the use of 600+ hp capable turbochargers and remove restrictions that would occur in regulators with less bypass area. It all gets expensive. The pumps are $346.95 and the regulators are $149.95. Then you get to go buy some expensive pretty fittings and large hoses to complete the ensemble. We run large AN10 lines on the Bullett.

Big Air...RSR Closed Loop EFI...Non Delphi (Discontinued)

Note: Everything is Fly-By-Wire these days so we are discontinuing the above after more than 28 years of maching castings, butterflies and shafts as well other items.

We have a completely integrated inlet system with a 56mm (2 3/16") throttle body with integral stepper motor Idle By-Pass, and ball bearing shaft support with shaft seals. Combine this with a full 1/2" fuel by-pass fuel rail and port injection in either 2 bar or 3 bar systems with up to 6400cc/min delivery capability and you have the ultimate turbo package. Fully engineered and proven.

The throttle body incorporates push pull cables, screw adjustable idle stop, vacuum/boost port, TPS mount, Idle Air Bypass circuit, and a two bolt flange using 7/16" Allen Bolts that hold the fuel rail and throttle body to the inlet manifold. The TPS is bolt-on and forget. There is no need to "set" it. The throttle shaft rides in sealed ball bearings.

Here is a system with our RSR EFI set up with two (2) 650cc Bosch EV6 Injectors in a 2 Bar system for an 80" EVO motor programmed for 195hp @15 PSI.

Killer Wire...RSR Closed Loop EFI (Discontinued)

 Later on we switched to Raychem DR-25 coverings sealed with Raychem SCL and Resintech RT125 Epoxy.

Water-proof, abrasion -proof, Harley-proof wiring. Never a wiring failure since we started doing them in 1989. Automotive grade high temperature wiring with waterproof connectors, gold plated and silicone sealed Deutsch ECU 40 pin connector, Weatherpack silicone sealed sensors, and fused peripherals, all sheathed for abraision. Very professional. There is also a waterproof tuning switch that allows programming with the ignition "off".

One of the last RSR Closed Loop Fuel Injection Harley Turbo Kits being shipped....What you see is 30 years of development. In 1990 there was nothing remotely like it and these systems went on to set Bonneville Land Speed Records and win Drag Racing Championships.

This one is headed for an 80" EVO Dresser...The RSR EFI is pre-programmed for 195HP in a 2 Bar (15 PSI) system. These systems shipped complete with a laptop, software and tuning cable . Time to move on to more sophisticated Cosworth Pectel engine control systems for Scratch Built ORCA EVO Motors that we have been developing for a number of years. Our Twin Cam Delphi systems remain the same in either 2 or 3 Bar configurations.

V-Rod Turbos...

Note: These are high compression 11.5:1 motors. Compression must be reduced.

Right side view RB Racing V-Rod Turbo. BoostMaster Billet wastegate (rider adjustable). 2 1/2" Chromed exhaust. 360 hp turbocharger.

We sort of left V-Rods alone as we are always busy and new projects take an awful lot of time and resources if you want to do things right. More than a decade after Willie G and Porsche came up with a 60 degree street bike and after the failed water buffalo road race VR1000 we decided to turbo the V-Rods. Time, money, resources. Left side view showing ram air 360 hp intercooler. Horn and clock switch get relocated. No need to cut any coolant lines.

The VR1000 came to the show heavier than the competition and with less power. This is not a formula for success. The V-Rods are sort of the same way. They are high RPM 4 valve engines that are pretty quick but not real fast...and they are a bitch to work on or hop-up... Harley's answer to the metric crowd. There is no end to the hop-up route on the big twins, but nowhere to go on the V-Rods.

Harley's answer to the slow and heavy formula was to crank out a factory drag bike, the V-Rod Destroyer, that had about 165 hp and ran 9 second quarter miles. We'd go to the races working on our friend Carl Pelletier's Top Fuel Harley and gaggles of these would show up..mostly Dealer owned. A few times some V-Rod Turbos by two other manufacturers would show up and run in the 11's. That was pretty embarrassing. There really isn't any point in showing up with a turbo if you can't outrun a normally aspirated V-Rod Destroyer. A 165 hp turbo that only makes boost high in the rpm range with a small turbo has no chance against the Destroyer. Tuck your tail between your legs and go hide.

RB Racing V-Rod Turbo: RB Racing uses 360 hp turbos, not 160 hp turbos. Our turbos move a lot of air at low pressure ratios and are rider adjustable. You want to be able to cruise at high speed, not be under boost, but go into boost instantly when you roll on the throttle. You can adjust the boost from the handlebars while you are driving...5 to 25 psi. No muffler goes inside your legs.

V-Rods are sort of annoying at speed as a fast cruise has the motor spinning along at 5000 rpm like a Japanese sport bike. We recommend regearing the bike with a chain drive and gearing it taller and use the turbo's torque to keep the cruising rpms down and the mileage up.

These are strange bikes. The bike is a narrow V-Twin but the bars and the pegs stick way out in the wind. We put on 360 hp worth of intercooler on the V-Rod but had to use ram air to keep the bike narrow. Dating back to 1985 with our work on BMW K100's we knew the intercooler could not block the radiator. If you do not drop the charge temperatures you simply cannot run higher boost levels.

Fixtures, R&D

After 35 years of turbocharging motorcycles we have come to some conclusions:

From our first draw thru carbureted Harley designs in 1979 (See photo below) to the first blow thru carburetted designs in 1985 and on to the first fuel injected models in 1989 there has been a constant progression to improve and advance the art. We were pumping out 150 Hp Shovelheads in the first successful "draw-through" carb design in the late 70's and early 80's. See photo below. Some backyard garage types are still trying to market "draw through" carbureted systems but they aren't nearly as sophisticated as what we did over 20 years ago.

Some people claim they have been doing turbos since 1977 and that they were the first to do all sorts of things. We sort of remember them buying parts from American Turbo Pak, spending lots of money with Orient Express and bugging us about how to do remote oil systems. American Turbo Pak went out of business in the 1980's and one of it's founders, Bill Hahn Sr., a real turbo pioneer, passed away in 2009. It sort of makes you wonder why someone would use the initials ATP some 20 years later. Still clinging on coat tails.

Don't confuse or even try to compare RB Racing Turbos with other "Harley Turbos" such as Aerochargers which are a simple copy of our "blow thru flat slide carb" design of 1985 to 1989 that reached a high point with Joe Walker's famous show-winning "Jap-Zapper" Turbo/Nitrous 1989 Springer Softail that won 1st place at the 50th Sturgis Rally (See Photo below). Blowing through a carb not designed for pressurization is an invitation for disaster due sealing problems, backfires, lack of float capacity and possible overflow problems not to mention no one ever tells you they can't possibly get it "correct" for all the different motors out there. We know, we've done it, we've been there and we dropped the deal after four years of seeing the good and the bad side of blow thru designs.

Joe Walker's famous "Jap Zapper" our last "blow thru" design (1985-1989)

Other Turbo Companies...110 Horsepower...Can You Handle It?

These tubing vendors and pseudo turbo people do not give you any form of sophisticated fuel control, do not offer rider boost control, use an integral cheap stamped steel wastegate, and ask you to drill and tap a regulator in your fuel tank running a 1/8" plastic tube to it. No one tells you 110 horsepower coming from a hair dryer tucked next to your leg makes less power and costs more than your standard big bore hop up. Hell you can drop in a bone stock 124 S&S engine and get 130 horsepower and not have to deal with poor engineering. Get an integrated 110 kit from Harley and 110 hp...it's cheaper....or a new SE 120R engine and get 135 hp.

If you ask other turbo vendors the usual question that prospective buyers ask.."how much horsepower will my motor take", as if it was some sort of guarantee, they usually come up with an arbitrary figure of "maybe 135 horsepower". Well bippy, you can buy a normally aspirated engine that makes that much horsepower without a turbo for less money and skip their poor engineering. We aren't the least bit interested in limits.

Our answer to the usual question about horsepower is " We give you a 360 hp turbo that moves a lot of air at low pressure ratios and you can dial it up to deal with anything you encounter simply by turning up the boost while riding". Larger turbos move far more air at lower pressure ratios. RB Racing does not place limits on what you need horsepower-wise. We have the technology.

SE 120R Engine...135 hp No Turbo

New 120R Engine for Baggers and a new AHDRA racing class...another way to get your money now that V-Rod Destroyers are old news. Think of all the early adopters who went 95/103/110 and now they can go 120". Stimulus money! Of course it's about 100 to 200 hp shy of one of our turbos. Add an intercooled RB Racing Turbo and 200 hp is dead easy.

As all the mythical lemmings head off the cliff we might remind them that a S&S SA B2 126" engine is rated at 154 hp and John O'Keefe at Branch O'Keefe has been working SA B2 heads for big inch Sportsters, S&S 124" motors and getting 166 to 200 hp depending on compression. Bob Bennett has set a bunch of Bonneville records with Branch O'Keefe S&S SA B2 heads modified by John O'Keefe. Of course you could get one of our turbos but the extra 100 to 200 hp might be too much power for you.

Stick on a set of S&S SA B2 heads on the S&S 124 and get 150 horsepower. Put on one of our turbos and get 250 to 360 horsepower...or 200 horsepower with 12 pounds of boost.

Why in the hell would you put on a turbo to get only 110 horsepower? These people will tell you " Extensive engine damage may result" if you go above 8 psi and 110 horsepower. Like we said...no fuel control, no engineering. Hell, we made more than 112 hp just using a standard 96" S&S engine more than 15 years ago with just a LSR 2-1 exhaust and mild engine work.

No Turbo...Think about it

Hers's a perfect Video example of one of our customers with our LSR 2-1 Pro Stock pipe and no turbo. If you think one of the "in your leg turbo" vendors can outrun this bike think again. If you see this bike pull over and park. No turbo and it's FAST.

Twin Cam FL Chain Final Drive for High Horsepower

We converted the Road Toad to an EK 530ZZZ final drive chain, the same as we use on the Bonneville Bullett. A Baker Drivetrain 24 tooth transmission sprocket with a .200" offset and an anodized 45 tooth rear wheel sprocket lets us run the Road Toad up to a leisurely 180 mph without revving the 126 Orca Turbo motor too high. We geared it a tad taller so we can cruise at 80 mph well under 3000 rpm and get 50 mpg.

Chain / Belt Adjusters

Three customer arms. Two for turbos and one for a Twin Cam S&S 124" with SA B2 heads that makes 150 hp. Go big or go home as they say.

The 2009 and later swingarms are completely different. We have fixtures and offer a service to convert these to chain drive. Aftermarket wheels can be used with direct sprockets or the cush drive mechanism can be machined to accept a sprocket. Chromed adjusters below.

The swingarms are finished in gloss black powdercoat after all the surfaces have been smoothed. Much hand preparation gives a perfect finish.

7 Second Old Pro Gas Design...Way More than Two Decades Ago

This Pro Gas 500+Hp system is custom built for race application and involves fabrication for intercooler mounts etc. at the builder / fabricator level. The Pro Gas system pictured below was built for National Modified Champion Wayne Pollack of Fuquay Varina, North Carolina. Wayne flew out to see us and agreed to build a bike around the system we would design instead of vice-versa. Wayne wanted to build a sophisticated Turbo bike but he made the serious mistake of ordering some cylinder heads from Nigel Patrick who did zero, zip, for a year after he took Wayne's money. The year delay caused Wayne to miss a complete season and his sponsors cut the purse strings and his "crew" dispersed to other projects. Wayne sold the parts to Ken Browne, who continued with the project, but cut up the parts and left off the 500hp intercooler. There went 1% in hp for every 11 degrees F the charge cooling would have provided. Those of you unfamiliar with how much air heats when you compress it...at 22 psi the discharge temperature can be 265 degrees F. You can't find any turbocharged race vehicle without a large charge cooler.

Ken still managed to run 7.55 @ 173mph (176mph best mph) in the quarter mile and 4.80 @ 147mph in the eighth mile, and built a new bike with a bigger tire!

Ken's new bike is (2002-2004-2005 etc.) was further away from "what should be" and didn't work well. More weight, poor turbo location etc. Ken is a nice guy, but bad ideas, no matter how nicely executed, simply won't work. We talked to Ken, hoping he would just execute our original design, but everyone wants to do "his own thing". There is always a price for this. Hey! It's not death..It's a hobby!. Hey, he's even building a third one. Ken had to quit riding after a not too successful neck operation.

Wayne Pollack went on to wrench and ride the beautiful Majestic Turbo bike, initially with twin turbos (didn't work well) and later on with one very large turbo similar to the one pictured. We sent Wayne the turbo specs and drawings for a new design so he could shit-can the two turbo deal that Kevin Draper and Don Vesco cooked up. Wayne got to deal with methanol and Hilborn injectors with nitrous added to the mix. Boom! Blow up an Overkill Engine.

Wayne was always straight with us, he's a hard-core racer and like Wayne, we think there's nothing much better than kicking ass and trying to be the best at what you do...Wayne went off to ride Ray Price's Top Fuel Harley and to stay in shape just ran a 242.587 mph World Record ( Sept 2003) on Rich Yancy's turbo Hayabusa at Maxton. In 2005 Wayne upped the Maxton record to 258mph on Rick Yancy's Hayabusa.

We get a few calls each year about Pro Gas systems. We suggest you call us before you start building. Everyone wants to do their own thing but decisions can haunt you and they get expensive. If you're already far along we'll sell you some parts and keep our mouth shut in the advice department because it will already be too late.

Click on the below pictures for more details on these parts and people.