Harleys and Sex - Baker Drivetrain

ContentsMAY/JUNE 201144ON THE COVERVolume 21 • Number 4 • Our 174th IssueDon Hotop has spent some time around V-twins during histhree-plus decades in business and this bike reflects that deep understandingof what it takes to craft a clean, no nonsense, classicallystyled musclebike—a bike Don calls Old 33.A cold, crisp morning in Fort Madison provided the setting, theparking lot right outside of Don's shop, the backdrop for our EditorStephen Berner to capture this lean, mean machine in repose.FEATURE BIKESKlock’s Kwiksilver ............................8This FXR shows effortOne Pretty 1958 Pan.....................20And a long road to refurbishmentA Classy Black Shovel ....................36From basket case to beautyOld 33 .........................................44Hotop knows how to celebrateFEATURE STORIESKafton and the Cannonball ..............32Coast-to-coast on a 1912 H-DRevision Eyewear Tested.................40The eyes have itDEI pipe wrap ...............................54Looks vs. performanceVanson Riding Jacket .....................56A classic cutIW GARAGEFocus on…....................................58Andrews evaluates engine modsJIMS Tool Tech .............................60Systematic steps to qualityMetal...........................................62Mounting your custom-built tankAll About .....................................64Vanson: crafted with prideRace Tech Upgrade........................66The results are shockingDemystifying Audio.........................68Getting it all togetherProject XR1200 ............................70FTF Cycles has the cureBuell Brothers...............................73Jetting theoryDEPARTMENTSBuyer’s Guide ................................74DrivetrainREGULARSSteve B ............................................................6NumbersSam Kanish ....................................................12Where are you going?Brian Klock .....................................................14Creating a hybrid FXRTMarilyn Bragg .................................................16Some of my favorite thingsBert Baker .....................................................18The Harley mystiqueMargie Siegal..................................................781929 JD Package TruckIW Eye ...........................................................82Worth a thousand words24SPOTLIGHTShadley BrothersWhen push comes to shoveand it’s time to make thingshappen, who can you counton more than family? Markand Paul Shadley know thislesson well and they’ve been counting on each other fordecades to design and build both two-wheeled and fourwheeledcustoms in their Whitman, Massachusetts shop. Andthough looks are important to the brothers, performance is,too, and their work proves it. Stroll around the Shadley’s shopwith us, staring on page 24.48TPJ CustomsWhen an injury sidelined TPJ’sBryan Schimke, he discoveredthat things don’t always go asplanned. And that’s not necessarilya bad thing. Turningfrom active riding to activebuilding has proven a boon both to Bryan’s career path and to motorcycling’sfresh new attitude. We got a closer look at some ofTPJ’s recent builds, bikes that clearly exhibit Bryan’s firm beliefthat rideability is as important as artistry.

A Mile a MinuteSTEPHEN BERNERNumbersNumbers can be pretty interestingand a few observances lately haveforced me to take note of the multiplicityof functions that numbers perform—andtheir ability to inform, persuade,document, divide and annoy.So first off, the economy: its all about thenumbers, right? I mean, this is a topic thatis in all of our faces. It has deeply affected allAmericans and in addition it’s spanked therest of the world. I’ve been hearing about aneconomic recovery, as if we really (and behonest now) think our economy will ever recoverback to its inflated, bloated, “it can’tbe sustained” level. So what is driving thisoutbound messaging from the news mediaand government spokes-pundits telling ushow good things are and how much betterthey are going to get? Well numbers are drivingthis flurry of positive news of course, inthis instance wrapped in the near intellectuallyimpenetrable cloak of statistics.So when I listen to the news I hear: Don’twa-da-tah to the shama cow... ‘causethat’s a cama cama leepa-chaiii, dig?*… if, that is, I can get past the distractingnon-stop bombardment of broadcastgraphics and logo animations. Honestly,who needs Pootie Tang giving you thenews that your house is on fire and thatyou’ve got a problem? Not me. Not onlycan I smell the smoke, I am pretty muchblinded by it, thank you very much.So another interesting aspect of the rolethat numbers provide is one of documentation.Numbers give the ranking of thingsand events and tell you what is important;they direct your attention. When you holdthe number one spot, in I don’t care whatendeavor, you are going to want to let peopleknow and people are going to hold youin high regard. And if you are last, well, yousuck and should be dismissed, right?Weeelll… maybe…If you strictly go bythe numbers that is. But as life hasshown, if we dig past the numbers welearn that sometimes the best races arethose held mid-pack and the best storiesin competition come from the “losers.”Sometimes the numbers don’t tell the“whole truth,” whatever that might be.Numbers also help you assign credibilityand allocate your attention. If the guy nextBrian Klock and Stephen Berner, December 2010to you is telling you about how he put50,000 miles on his two-wheeler in twoyears, you are going to respect his effortsand are going to want to hear his story. Imean, how could you not? This is opposedto the joker in stiff Korean pleathers who’scornered you in an adult beverage establishment,pursuing you (Hey, bro) to lectureabout his special take on the“lifestyle” after 16 light beers. The numbersact as signposts in these instances,indications on the trail, turn left here.Like a moneyed guy who has no experienceand compensates (or so he thinks,)by flashing his Presidential in your face,some folks use their numbers as a way todemonstrate they are cool and to put upthe “hand,” to assert themselves in a conversation.When I hear someone rambling onabout how many years they’ve been ridingand how many bikes they’ve owned andhow many pins they’ve bought and howmany rallies they’ve attended (you gettingthe picture yet?) as way of assertingthemselves in a dialogue, I know it’s timeto turn tail and run. I see this happenwhen gray hairs meet hipsters, and I feelbad that they feel the need to get allpompous, when in fact they should beusing their own personal numbers to engenderthe support of these younger guysand harness some of their good energy.So now you might think that I am ahatin’ on numbers and being a big old doggie-downer.But numbers do some spectacularlygood things, too. They inform ustwo-wheeler folks of just how powerful wecould be if we could collectively get our actin order; we do have some powerful numberswhen looked at en masse. But again,numbers. We are so terribly fractionatedas a group, so splintered, there is littlehope of us pulling together unless somethingdramatically changes the way welook at the numbers ourselves. I think legislationmight be a catalyst for such athing. We are collectively getting fed up.Numbers tell us that the investment wemade in motor work not only feels good,but quantifiably works well, too—and converselyinforms us when we’ve erred. Couldbe that carb was too big, the compressiontoo high, the timing too far advanced.Numbers also inform our advertiserswhen they’ve made the right decision inspending their dollars with IronWorks. Helpingmake those numbers look attractive, wecan thank our “pay to play” readers, subscribers,and newsstand purchasers – (notthe slugs who stand at the newsstand andread IronWorks,) who buy IronWorks andbuy our advertisers’ products. We appreciateyour support folks, really we do.There is one group of numbers I’d liketo see transformed though, and that isthe number of folks who regularly consumeour digital content and don’t botherpurchasing our print. If we could get ourdigital friends and fans to sign up and supportIW we’d be rock steady in thesetimes of “numerical distress.”So if you are not a subscriber to IW’sprint magazine and like what you see, I’d liketo ask you to support us by signing up for asubscription. Finding us on the newsstand istough due to the shrinking amount of spacestores are willing to allocate to magazines,so if you want to get an uninterruptedstream of IW and support our cause, subscribetoday. Our numbers thank you!Stephen BernerSteveb@steveb.biz* Quoted from Chris Rock’s movie Pootie Tang6 IronWorks May/June 2011

Baker In GearBERT BAKER, BAKER DRIVETRAINHarleys and SexWhen I travel, I like to mix it up with the locals; nocanned tours for me. A few years ago Lisa and I wereon a city bus in Rome riding through town. The buswas packed and there was standing room only. We had a couplestops to go when Lisa yelled, “Let’s get off the bus, NOW!” Ireplied, “But we have a couple more stops.” She snapped, “No, Imean NOW!” So we got off. It turns out that a short, old, unassumingItalian man was taking advantage of the densely packedbus by rubbing his Italian sausage on her thigh. She was notthrilled. We laugh about it now.People seem to be programmed to have certain interests andbehavioral characteristics, which can be traced back to thousandsof years of ancestry. Take Lisa’s friend, who had a date with herleg on the bus. Italians, and Romans in particular, are a prettyfrisky bunch and it’s been thatway for thousands of years.I’ve been fascinated with themechanical menagerie oftorque multiplication since Iwas five years old. It’s interestingto me and it seems to beprogrammed in my DNA. PerhapsI’m remotely related tothe caveman who figured outthat if you rub a small diameterstick with your hands on acupped rock you can generatea lot of heat and make fire.That caveman intuitively figuredout how to translate linear motioninto rotary motion; drivetrain101.I can’t explain people’s relentlessfascination withHarley-Davidson motorcycles.It confuses me; it’s kind of likesex. People love it and somecan’t get enough. It’s kind of silly if you think about it. You put thisthingy in that thingy. Then you move around like you’re having anepileptic fit and you hoot and holler. Just stand back for a minuteand think about that. Couldn’t there be a more dignified way to procreate?Despite the indignity I suffer every time I get my beansnapped, I’m a big fan of the sport.So I was really trying to define this Harley obsession; I felt likeKwai Chang Caine in the show Kung Fu. A few years ago I had anenlightening conversation with a guy named Hans who owns aHarley franchise in Germany. So I asked him, “Why are Germansfascinated with Harleys?” I followed that question with anotherquestion by asking, “You guys have your own motorcycle brandcalled BMW, and they’re good machines, so why aren’t you guysinfatuated with them?” His reply was quick and required no forethought;“BMWs have no soul, Bert.” Crap. Now he’s dumpingsome Timothy Leary/Dalai Lama junk on me. Time to dig out myBeatles White Album and play it backwards to seek answers.That damn Hans had confused me more than ever. This wholeHarley infatuation is like a fat lady with no arms and legs; it’s hardfor me to grab on to. I’m an engineer and I like to describe thingsaround me with facts, figures, dimensions, and tolerances. If Ican’t describe it with a blueprint then it doesn’t exist. But sex andHarleys definitely cannot be described analytically, and their existenceis bigger than life.So I’ve reached the point where I’m done trying to quantitativelydefine the Harley mystique. I just accept it now. I use the left sideof my brain to design and develop juicy new drivetrains and theright side of my brain to integrate progressive designs with theHarley legacy and heritage. It’s a delicate dance and Harley knowsthat. Like our original 6-speed, our job is to push the technologicalenvelope of the iconic American drivetrain.Here’s a tip for those who just purchased their first Harley andmay be struggling to understand this whole thing. The more knowledgeyou gain about the evolutionary progression of Big Twins beforethe model year of your machine, the more you fall in love withwhat you got. It’s a weird concept, and that’s from personal experience.I got my first Harley in 1993 and knew nothing about a Shovelheador a Knucklehead and frankly didn’t care. But the more Ilearned about the history of the machine, the more I appreciatedwhat I had. And one other tip: If you bump into Lisa inan elevator or crowded public place,don’t get frisky. She has a specialtrick all planned out that will bevery painful. IW18 IronWorks May/June 2011