With Sturgis 2000 looming over Bandit's
head we've been firing away at the getting the job done. Bikernet East
machine was well out in front in the competition when we wheeled the Agent's
low slung Softail onto a slick Gold Rush semi and said goodbye as the rig,
packed with Ultra machines, Big Dogs and customs from the west coast, headed
east. Eddie Trotta from Thunder Design was more than happy to have the
bike unpacked in his shop in Fort Lauderdale, so he could point a finger
at Bandit's creation for Agent Zebra and bust out laughing, "You expect
to ride that to Sturgis?" he said rolling on the floor of his shop. We
weren't discouraged and neither was Bandit as we strapped the road wings
wheels, the Weerd Brothers Front end on the Daytec rigid and went to work.
Now with the sheet metal in place and Bandit,
wiring his own bike, was finished, we were ready for the carburetor. Carburetors
are like booze, everybody's got their favorite. With all the choices out
there, we had to give this choice some serious thought. We considered the
performance requirements as well as the appearance, and settled on a Mikuni
HSR 42. Hell, CCI installs Mikuni carbs on their complete Rev Tech engine
packages, and Mikuni's are standard equipment on some OEM bikes. They provide
great performance, torque and tuneability, so that's where we took the
Bandit's Blue Flame. Lee Chaffin, Mikuni big wheel, suggested that we bring
the bike to them to insure the proper fit and installation of the cables.
Joe Minton, a long time moto-journalist, was on hand to assist, and Bryan
a Mikuni expert performed the installation.
This was no ordinary installation. First,
time was a factor, second it's no normal, stock carburetor swap. The 98-inch
S&S motor offered taller cylinders and improper intake manifold fitment.
The stock Super E S&S manifold was too big for the 42 mm polished Mikuni
Carburetor. Stock manifolds shove the carb out too far and aren't wide
enough for the tall S&S cylinders so a quick call was made to James
Simonelli of S&S who rushed the correct manifold to Mikuni. Lee also
wanted to explore an American Iron Horse manifold available for their customs
which pull the carb in closer to the engine and "L.T." or James Little
of American Iron Horse moved equally fast and the parts were in hand in
one day. The next hurtle: The cables. A call went out to Xavier at Barnett
Cables who turned about a set of Mikuni compatible cables which are set
up the same as stock H-D cables, but cut to Bryan's specifications for
the job. They also arrived in time.
Bryan decided to mount the choke cable to
the motormount, but decided that a super clean installation was necessary.
He cut and re-connected the choke mechanism to fit the look of the bike.
Then he reviewed the two manifolds, chose the American Iron Horse version
and detailed it on the polishing wheel. The final touch was a difficult
decision regarding the air box. We had a Little John Buttera velocity stack
that's clean as a whistle, but the minds at Mikuni were skeptical about
a ride to the badlands with no air cleaner. They spotted a tear-drop K&N
on one of their own bikes and decided that was the unit for the job. Easy
installation, it slipped into place and the bike was good to go.
Bryan pointed out an adjustment on the
left side of the carb as you face it, a main jet air adjustment. He told
me to inform Bandit to turn it out a half turn in Denver for more compatible
running in altitudes. The bike immediately fired to life for the first
time. Two weeks to go.
--Wrench
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