Our pal Chuck Noble has been on the electronic pages of BangShift before. He’s the guy, we featured running a nitro motorcycle that had iron heads and carbs on it. Well, Chuck was using that bike as a trainer model to get himself familiar with both sitting atop a stupid fast two wheeled terror and for getting more acclimated to nitromethane. His master plan, as you will see in this video was to scratch built a real deal, big boy Nitro Harley, and it appears he is damned close to being done with it!
Chuck is a crafty guy and a great fabricator who does things the BS way, by using his brains and meat hooks to bring his tapped mechanical dreams to life. On the flip side, we wouldn’t climb out of the electric chair to ride a Nitro Harley, but I guess that’s our problem. The video is a collection of still photos documenting the whole construction of the motorcycle from building the frame all the way up to fabbing the crazy looking exhaust and mounting the big V-Twin engine.
The only thing we are left to wonder about is the transportation method. Chuck’s other bike rode to the track in an truly beat down old UHaul truck which had come custom Chuck touches. If the has more than 10 gallons of nitro with him, the fuel alone will be worth more than the truck it is being carried in!
We’re going to catch up with Chuck when he starts making some test passes on the bike to bring you photos and video of this hairy beast making noise on the track! Viva la BangShift!
Well Brian… the UHaul hauler was traded straight up last summer for a 1984 Chevy-powered motorhome. There was a little ribbing on the way home by Uncle Jay and Silent Bob about how long before the sawzall came out to customize the motorhome to accept a motorcycle for transport.
So far I have 10ft open utility trailer as my sole choice of “transporters”…!! I do have my eye on a neighbors enclosed ten footer that his wife says “he loves to sell everything”…so maybe by launch date we will have purchased that.
While fancy transportation doesn’t make you run faster it sure does make the whole process smoother. Having the luxury of loading the night before or a few days prior does take the curse off race day morning.
The bike should be running shortly and race ready by opening day….we hope. It’s still a few steps behind a modern TF Harley but a big jump up from the “blue bike”.
Plans are being made and parts collected for the NEXT fuel Harley…. something very modern and competitive by even 2012 standards.
The orange bike is a 118 CI (1933CC..!!!), fuel injected, 4 cam, direct drive, 81″ wheelbase, 11″ tire, Dyna fired, BDK regulated, Nitro burning “electric chair” on two wheels.
The big differences that separate the orange bike from a modern TF Harley are mainly the tire size, wheelbase, engine displacement and crank / rod configuration. A modern TF bike runs a 14″ plus wide tire, a 90″ + wheelbase, displacements between 175 and 200 cubic inches and a “car style” one piece billet crank with side by side plain bearing aluminum rods.
The orange bike retains the factory style Harley “knife and fork” inline connecting rods and roller bearing 5 piece crank…. but features shafts, pins and rods built specifically for a Nitro-burning motor. The 5 piece crank limits the amount of torture it can endure but it still should be close to a 600hp ride. Not bad for two cylinders…!!!
The parts bin here at Nitro Cycles already features parts for a 175″ Overkill motor with enough spare rods and pistons for quite a few “tuning errors”…a double beadlock wheel for a TF-sized tire….clutch management stuff…etc…etc… A new longer / stronger/ taller chassis will be in order.
Hopefully this year will prove to be a successful injected Nitro bike endeavor……RIDE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT….!!!!
All BANG-SHIFT’d UP…..!!!!!
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