Buells are the Harley-Davidson street fighter. They are inexpensive, sharp-handling machines that give the American rider something to shout about, something to fuck with and something to race.

This bike won't compete with the 200 mph Japanese sport bikes, but it will handle like one, and brake like one. So we got hold of one and evaluated it for the Sturgis 2001 run. Since I come from a custom bike or chopper background, I wasn't sure the Cyclone would do the job for me. If you ask a guy who rides a custom bike what style of bike he enjoys and why, the answer might be strange. I want something distinctive and bad. I want it fast and cool. I need it to handle, but be a chopper. Perhaps an oxymoron of conditions, yet there's a mixture of factors that go into any ride and machine. Last year I rode a stretched rigid with a 14-over front end. What a machine. For a rigid, it rode like a dream. For a 14-over front end, it handled well and I passed everyone I dared to pass, generally because I had the ground clearance to shove it close to the pavement and the raked triple trees allowed me to turn the front end where I needed to go.

Each year the trek to the Badlands takes on a different demeanor, and this will be no different. After a week, I discovered a serious sense of enjoyment about straddling the M-2 Cyclone. It's light, fast, a nimble handler that stops on a dime. I needed to learn to ride it like a race bike with my toes on the soft rubber pegs to enhance turning radius and ground clearance. There is also a notion that in the sportbike position, you're forcing too much weight on your wrists. I discovered quickly that if I put my ass down, the weight on my wrists was not a problem. The force is substantial, however, when braking with a passenger on board. Ultimately, after riding two Buells, I decided that this motorcycle deserved a shot at a Sturgis trek. It had class, felt sporty, even nasty, and I could make it rumble. So I stood back and thought, "Can I make it even cooler?" It didn't take long to discover that I could strip it down even further than stock. I picked the Cyclone over the model with hard bags because of its bare bones feel. The crew here at Bikernet.com developed a five-pronged approach. One, we wanted to enhance the Harley-Davidson marriage with Buell and downplay the little-known name Buell for the time being. We also wanted to enhance the Sportster motor and bring out the looks of the Harley-Davidson power plant, and chop it in a Buell way without altering the geometry of the frame, the front end length or lowering it, which is a tradition with our custom bikes. There's more. We wanted the bike to sound more like a Harley and we wanted to enhance the performance without disturbing the long-range reliability.

Our team included myself, Professor NuttBoy, consulting from Paul Davis of Charlotte, Gene Tomasen Jr. from the Harley-Davidson fleet center, and a number of Bikernet readers who knew about and were testing Buells. This is the first of several techs on the modifications and the experiences we have with the M-2. We collected and ordered parts, then ran to the fleet center to get the job done. The initial plan was to unleash the natural performance of the bike without breaking down the engine. We started by removing the carburetor.

We replaced the needle in the slide with an '88 Sportster needle, and drilled out the carb body above the idle adjust plug.

That allowed us to knock out the plug and back out the idle adjuster 2.5 turns.

Stock carburetors are adjusted from the factory to a very lean condition. Usually they are so lean that warm up takes a long time and you get an occasional cough through the carb.

Others have recommended drilling directly through the plug, but Gene warned that if you slip, you will drill into the adjuster screw and possibly damage it. Gene also recommended head work ultimately coupled with a 44 mm CV carb, manifold and roller rockers in the future. I had a Screamin' Eagle air box for a Big Twin, which I modified for the carb with an open K&N filter. We also dropped the float bowel and replaced the 42 pilot jet with a 48. Be careful not to strip the screws holding the float bowel in place. Treat them with respect or they'll cause you nightmares.

We set the carburetor aside and began to remove the timing cover to replace the cams. It's important to take a scribe to the timing plate so that you can duplicate the timing once you have replaced the cams. Then pull the plate and the rotor cup, which is screwed into the No. 2 cam. Before you go any further, remove the rocker boxes and the rocker arms to unload the tension on the non-adjustable pushrods. Now you can remove the cam cover, but don't forget to drain the oil first.

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