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My bucket of shit

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2.5K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  rodriguez  
#1 ·
Poor scan of my Harris Mag IV from Dec 2000 issue of Cycle World. I've owned it since 1995. This is the 2nd version and has 955 motor with 39FCRs, Falicon supercrank, Carillo rods, Franx Machine works 955 piston kit, seriously ported head with o/s valves, good springs, custom ground cams,Dyna 2000 ignition and coils, factory hopup kit trans and dry clutch. I run 2 coolers (1 under the seat) with ICORE hoses and fittings. It has Duc 916 body work, PM wheels and brakes, Graves thumbbrake to rear titanium disc, Ohlins shock, 93 1100 forks with Ohlins valving and springs. Right now, I'm in the process of updating it with R1 cowl up front (single headlight), Duc 1098 seat cowl and changing the oil lines to custom stainless hardlines. That will be a challenge but they worked out real nice on my other bucket of shit (#2). Getting everything painted/powdercoated in satin black (wheels, frame, swing arm). The body work will be black cherry (maybe). Haven't figured that one out yet. All in all, it works very well and for an old buy such as myself (60+), I enjoy it. :biggrin
 

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#6 ·
sweet bike!! rims are sick!!
 
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#9 ·
Thanx for the compliments. I work on bikes for a living so I consider all of them to be buckets of shit. Some are just bigger, lighter, etc. etc. Living in UK during the late 80s, I knew about Spondon and Harris. I was going to do a Spondon, but they were backordered for about a year or longer. Seems they had received a large contract for defense related items and the bike work took a back seat, so I did a Harris when I saw them in a special edition of Streetfighters. The wheels are Performance Machine which they don't make any longer. The 955 engine made 170 hp on the dyno with optimum timing, 41mm FCR carbs and race gas but fuel mileage is terrible. But you cant get race gas around here so I backed the timing off a bit and run 93/94 with an octane booster. I'm freshening the motor right now and will use 38mm Mikunis instead of the FCRs. They are a bit more "streetable" since they have choke circuits and aren't as finicky as the FCRs. Time will tell on the carb choice. Here is Bucket of Shit #2. :cheers
 

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#11 ·
You must tell me your secret on how to get 170 hp out of a 955. There was a guy on here a long time ago who did the 955 kit only with everything else stock except exhaust and made 124 hp. I remember another with an 883 kit with porting and cams that did 127 hp.

Where is your rev limit on this thing, and what are the cams? Need more info, I stay awake at night thinking about horsepower.:burnout
 
#13 ·
Money, lots of money and patience, lots of patience and time, lots of time. You can't use stock parts and gain serious hp. Having been a hotrodder since the mid 60s you have to spend serious $$ to get serious hp. Anything that could be done for performance gains was done to this motor. I blew up a couple in the process but found my mistakes and started over. This time, I used 92 cases and crank. The crank was sent to Falicon for their supercrank treatment. It's been lightened, polished, oil holes chamfered, shotpeened, nitrited, etc. After all the piston work was completed, the rotating mass weights of the pistons, rods, rings, bearings were sent to Falicon so it could be balanced correctly. I use Carrillo rods and Total Seal gapless rings. The head was one of the more expensive pieces. We took out the valve guides and seats, matched the combustion chambers with the new bore (79mm) and then relocated the guides and seats for oversized valves. The head was filled and re-ported for optimum flow. Since the valve spacing changed, so did the cam spacing and the rocker arm spacing. Had to have custom ground cams to match the new valve spacing and machine new stuff for the rocker arms. Had to make a new shaft for the carbs to match the new intake spacing. Finally, had to machine the piston crowns to match the combustion chambers/valve setup. From what I can remember a good Yosh 750 superbike motor made about145hp but this decreased as the oil heated up, the motor got hotter, etc. The head flowed about 230-240 or so. My head flows 330+. The shop who did the head work and piston work was Franx Machine Worx. Unfortunately, Frank is no longer in this business. He sold out in the late 90s and went to work for GM Performance Parts. This engine took about 6 months to get done. There are no bolts in the cases, only studs/nuts. I can service the valve train with the engine still in the frame. I don't spin the motor much past 12000, although it's good to 14000. Just no need anymore. I did the 750 motor since it's smaller than the 1100. On the Mag IVs that run 1100 or bigger motors, the motor must be lowered to get the valve cover out while the 750's size lets the valve cover slide right out. Having said all of that, I'm going to build a Bandit 1200 motor later this year for the bucket of S**t. I'm going with a 1340 setup, serious crank and head work and fuel injection. Gotta make a new tank
to fit the fuel pump, injectors from a Yamaha YZF or GSXR1000 on Kinsler manifolds,etc. Have to make stuff for the crank sensor, cam sensor, trigger wheel, etc but that should be relatively easy to do (maybe). The hard part will be the electronics/programs but think I have that figured out. It's stupid to do as I could just go buy a Gixxer 1000 but then I'd be like everyone else and have a Gixxer 1000. I like being different. It keeps me totally occupied and thinking out of the box but most importantly, keeps me out of the Mrs hair.:cheers
 
#12 ·
How much would it cost me to have you build me a chopper similar to the one above? Maybe take off a few bells and whistles to cut down on $$$. I'd like to be able to afford one of those in a few years.
 
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#14 ·
Holy crap. I have to honest, at first I thought you were full of it. One off cylinder head, rocker arms, cams, 14,000 rpm, etc, etc - I guess that explains it. I race a 1990 GSXR 750 in vintage and it puts out 110 hp. Makes me look silly. Hell, my 03 GSXR 1000 "only" puts down 155 hp.

My hat off to you, Sir. I've always liked the oil cooled 750 motor for it's lighter weight and 6 speed trans compared to the 1100. Like you say, Yoshimura superbike motors from the day claimed to be around 140 hp, but were rumored to be closer to 135 @ the rear wheel. You obviously have a displacement advantage over them, but still that is quite impressive.

You wouldn't be interested in loaning me that motor, so I could beat up on some modern bikes at the track would you?:biggrin
 
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