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 ayne
Hanson takes his motorcycle tuning experience and Speed’s Performance
all over the country, all year long. They’ll set up and tune
thousands of bikes a year, and these guys have seen it all. They’ve
also learned what works best and what parts combinations make the happiest
customers. In the next few issues we’ll pick Wayne’s brain
a little, starting with his recommendations for a good “Stage
I” performance kit for a stock Harley. We’ll follow up
with a “Stage II” package, and ultimately a “Stage
III” no-holds-barred program. Wayne and his crew install these
parts virtually every day—check out last month’s issue—and
they’re all proven performers. The results show on the dyno,
on the street, and in the satisfied smiles on customers’ faces.
It’ll all work in your shop, too.“The vast majority of customers you’re dealing with are street riders,” Wayne begins. “They’re not drag racers. What they really want is low-end power. To make a customer happy sell him a parts combination that’ll give him the kind of grunt he’ll feel every time he cracks the throttle.” The first area to address, says Wayne, is the air filter. “Ideally, for a fairly stock engine, a 2 3/4-inch wide filter should be fit. That’s the minimum size it’ll take to move enough air.” There are plenty in the FatBook, in plenty of styles. Next—and in conjunction with that big filter—comes the exhaust. “And in my experience,” Wayne says, “a 2-into-1 with a collector is the most efficient pipe out there. It really scavenges the exhaust.” If a customer can’t live with a 2-into-1, Wayne feels the second best choice is a set of equal-length staggered duals, preferably with a crossover pipe or chamber connecting them to balance the exhaust from both cylinders. “You can run this type of pipe without sacrificing too much of the bottom end,” he says. You’ll definitely want to adjust the fuel delivery now, too, re-jetting a carbureted bike to that new filter and exhaust or re-mapping an injected one. The third area to address is crankcase ventilation. Quality crank vents produce free power, and lowering the pressure under the pistons benefits everything, Wayne says, “from the life of the gaskets to the mileage from a tank of gas.” Follow this formula and you’ll realistically increase the horsepower to around 70 (59 or so is stock), and bump the torque number up to 80 lbs./ft. (from the OE 70). That’s significant, and it’ll be felt. Substituting a set of staggered duals for that 2-into-1 does reduce the torque to about 75 or 76 lbs./ft., though. Next up is ignition tuning, which can be optimized for either horsepower or torque, and this becomes really important with camshaft changes and higher compression, which begins to describe a Stage II state of tune. That’s what we’ll talk about next time. If you have any questions about any of this don’t hesitate to drop by Speed’s Performance when Wayne and his guys are in your area. They’ll be more than happy to help in any way they can. A satisfied customer is the goal.  |
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“Big
Sucker” Performance Air Filter Kit from Arlen Ness. 
Drag Specialties Magazine
Volume 11 #7
Parts Magazine Index