Chuck Noble is a name that we were familiar with long before we actually met the man. Chuck’s been around the drag racing scene in New England for a while and ran a totally bad ass, blown, alky-burning Hemi altered for a stretch. His latest adventure? A freaking nitro swillin’ Harley done the BangShift way, with his brains and on a budget. Yes, he’s totally mental, but he’s mental in the best way.
Chuck is no dummy, so he spent a lot of time researching and seeking out the right bike for what he was looking to do. He found a bike and a seller that took the time to give Chuck a basic education to prevent blowing himself to smithereens when he first fired up the bike.
Make no mistake, this is not a bike that will be resetting world record, but it will be running a 98% load of nitro through it and hauling Chuck’s large-ish backside down the strip with flames licking out of the headers. Epic win.
Here’s the best part about this angry sounding bastard (the bike, not Chuck), it runs factory heads and a freaking’ carb! The bike is legal for the AHDRA (All Harley Drag Racing Association) class known as Pro Drag. The engines have to run a carb and maintain lots of factory items. The heads on this bike are factory heads modified to accept dual spark plugs. One is in the stock location the the other is machined into the other side of the head.
The cylinder jugs are after market, and rightfully so, the factory jugs would be toast in a very large hurry. The motor measures out a 96ci and features a big single throat carb hanging off the side. It’s gravity fed with a load of nitro. When we heard the bike run it was on about 80% and had a killer small and cack factor. When Chuck is fully licensed and has a handle on tuning the thing on a full load, it’ll be drinking 98% OOGA BOOGA!
Like we said, Chuck is a smart man and a thinker. He developed a system that uses two nozzles and a quick connect to allow him to start the bike on alcohol fuel, then turn a knob to start the nitro flowing. On the backside, after a run, he can hook the system up and run the bike on alky to burn all the nitro out of the system to prevent any from detonating in a hot engine.
The factory parts thing has some ups and downs. With only four head bolts per cylinder, the bike has a massive nylon strap over the tops of the heads to prevent them from flying up and smashing the rider in the chest. Guys have been killed that way on bikes like these.
The bike uses a clutch like you’d find on a fuel dragster, only way smaller. That clutch is attached to a jack shaft that drives the chain to power the rear wheels. It’s basic, brutal, and totally neat.
Chuck is in the process for gaining his license on the bike for now. We’ll update you on his progress as it comes along.
One last note. The tow rig for this baddie is a very well used former U-Haul truck that was purchased at an auction for a few hundred bucks. Like we said, Chuck rules. This seems to us to be the best way for anyone obsessed with nitro, to get involved actually racing on the stuff.
