About RB Racing
The need for Speed
First visited Bonneville (Search the exact
phrase "Bonneville Salt Flats") in 1958...bought a Rollie
Free/Vincent post card. Raced Go
karts...not bikes.
Bonneville 1958
1974 Los Angeles
1974: Three months in
Los Angeles before returning to Europe to begin preparations
with suppliers on both sides of the Atlantic to race at the Bol
D'Or 24 hour race in France. Designed this merge collector
four cylinder exhaust or sale in Europe, manufactured in Los
Angeles. Dual radius primaries: 2.5" at ports and 6.0" leading
to merge collector. Way ahead of its time.
1972-1976 imported US
motorcycle products into Europe selling high performance parts,
racing chain, tie-downs, shock absorbers etc., to European race
teams. Also specialized in high performance brake systems
selling AP Lockheed, Scarab, Brembo, and Fontana brakes to
European constructors like Hermann Schmid (GP sidecars).
1976-1977 Built special Monoshock, Kawasaki Z-1 powered Endurance Racing chassis in Los Angeles...Taking first USA team in 41 years to 24 Hour Bol d'Or Race at Le Mans, France. 390 lb., 24 liters gas, 3.5 sec Quick-Fill Systems, 165mph. Sponsored by Joe Miller, Tri-Mil Industries; and Russ Collins, R.C. Engineering; Michelin France; Total Petroleum France; Amortisseurs DeCarbon; Champion Spark Plugs; Jerry Greer, Camber Fairing..and Dave and Vic... Born in the USA.
1977 Bol d' Or - Behn Monoshock, Click on photos to enlarge
1978 Won 24 hour races: St. Louis, W. Palm Beach
with Monoshock chassis. Various pilots included: Roland
Freymond, Gilbert Piot, Jean Paul Chaubert, Francis Erard, Gary
Scott, Lang Hindle, Greg Cox, Peter Cooper, Charley
Finney, Gene Harris, Frank Mrazek, Carry Andrew, Gary
Gates, Sam Williams, Jim Kress, Ed Hileman, Terry Statum, Paul
Turnbull. Produced customer versions for Kawasaki Z-1, CB750,
Suzuki 1000.
Behn Monoshock Development and Bol D'Or
Lang Hindle left and
Gary Gates right. Gary did the frame fabrication for three Behn
Monoshock chassis at our base at Tri-Mil after dealing with a
certain hard head fabricator who liked to drop chocolate
mescaline and make aluminum railings for Disneyland. One frame
was used for testing and then after Nelson Ledges 24hr test we
raised the engine position 5 cm...and Gary made two new chassis
(46 and 47) for the Bol D'Or. No one else.
We based our engine
assembly at MTC engineering in South Gate with the ex preacher
Ken Tipton, but we pulled out of MTC after Ken stole virtually
all the $5,000.00 of supplies that Randy Hall of Kawasaki
USA Racing had furnished for our engine assembly. Pops Yoshimura
provided us new blank engine cases for the project. He spoke no
English but liked cash. Dave and Vic supplied the donor motors
L.A. style. Gary provided the phony Texas license plates.
Note the prototype bodywork. We made one initial tank (pictured above) for testing the quick fills. Jerry Greer of Camber Fairing thought he had a better idea and made a roundish 8 gallon blimp tank that we ran at Nelson Ledges. After Nelson ledges we again designed newer 6 gallon gas tanks using foam blanks and wax incorporating the quick fill valves. Our testing showed, with the tubular backbone splitting the tank, we needed to move the two quick fill ports to the back edge of the tank for a 3 second fill. That's why the top of the tanks were flat and deep at the rear.
People like to use these
black and white images that we published implying they were
there. They weren't (Vinsky).
Here is Lang at Willow Springs where we did the initial testing prior to going the the 24h test race at Nelson Ledges. Ride around Willow sitting on the tail section with Lang going full tilt. That was interesting. The track management went to lunch and left us alone. Ride the track backwards. Those days are long gone.
Count the spokes. The
rear wheel is a seven spoke Morris Magnesium wheel with a cush
hub from a Kawasaki LTD. The front wheel is six spokes, made
from aluminum, and came from the Maserati foundry in Italy.
The late Elliot Morris,
famous for his seven spoke magnesium and aluminum wheels. As we
were running his magnesium rear wheel Elliot had doubts a direct
bolted sprocket would survive the 24h...So he came up with the
idea of using a Kawasaki LTD cush hub. Great guy, very
smart. We were with him when he got fed up with foundries,
rejected castings, and he put in his own furnaces. An engineers
engineer.
When we asked Elliot
Morris "Why seven" he said the human eye liked odd numbers and 7
gave better support than 5 spokes, with triangulating spokes on
the opposite face. Elliot Morris supported our effort loaning us
a Dodge Van to shuffle parts around with that
we launched into the air over the railroad tracks in
Compton...no damage. Elliot, early on, was
a mechanical engineer at Packard Motor Company designing
mechnical linkages. Interesting guy.
We had tested the, new at the time, spun Mitchell
wheels but they were sensitive to side winds and not as true as
the machined cast wheels. We consulted with both Tony Mills at
Dunlop and Elliot Morris to set the rim widths to Grand Prix
specs. We toyed with running wider front tires but were advised
against it. We ran Michelin slicks in France.
Team members wanted to run skinny KR91 Dunlops but that was just not going to cut it in this level of competition.
We should mention that
Lang Hindle was the initial development rider and was
responsible for us raising the Z1 engine in the frame to get
more lean angle after testing at the Nelson Ledges 24h where we
scraped the cases below the oil sight window. Lang was chosen as
he had a history of going fast. Damn fast. Lang put the bike
into the lead and lapped the entire field. Faster than TZ 750 on
the Behn Monoshock...1:14 lap times at Nelson Ledges...over 40
years ago.
At the first rider
change the 2nd pilot crashed the bike...Sent him home. We ended
up running around 18 hours and then pulled the engine to put the
motor in a bike that had an engine failure. We found we could
out-handle and outrun anything.
Bol D'Or 1977
250,000 Spectators
We should also mention that Lang went to France
with us and crashed on the first lap of practice and was
immediately sent home. Idiot. Lang's excuse "Cold slicks".
Everyone had cold slicks.
Above: Lang leaving for the lap he did not
complete at the Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans. In 2015 Lang called us
up to clear the air a bit. We like Lang but are still pissed
four decades later.
Lang and Bob, the
designer of the bikes and organizer for the race effort, in our
pit at Le Mans. There is only one cook in the kitchen.
It should be noted that Lester Wheels had nothing to do with the effort. We ran magnesium wheels supplied by Elliot Morris of Morris Wheels. Elliot was a huge help, a true engineering pioneer. Elliot was, in a past job, an engineer at Packard. At his suggestion we ran Kawasaki LTD cush drives on the rear magnesium wheels to prevent the bolts from tearing out.
Zero participation by Lester. Period.
Nos Pilotes
Our Swiss and French
pilots...Gilbert Piot not in the frame. Riders were: Roland Freymond, Gilbert Piot, Jean Paul Chaubert,
Francis Erard. All professional. All known quantities. They came
on our say-so, took care of their own accomodations and asked
for nothing. Try that these days. Passion.
Here you can see one of
our Bol d"Or rental vehicles, the second being a small Ford
Escort. Two of the Hunsaker USA quick fills are visible that we
fabricated with the large Induction
Systems valves supplied by Dave Ayers. This was five years
before Gordon Murray utilized quick-fill as a pit strategy.
A little known fact is
that Gary and Lang drove the bikes from Charles De Gaulle
Airport to the Le Mans Race Track. Open exhausts, no passports,
no valid registration, no money for toll booths, no helmets, and
phony Texas license plates. Wheelies for the French Airport
personnel after they filled our gas tanks with free Avgas when
we uncrated the bikes out of customs. Try that again. Vive La
France.
Necrology/ Post Mortem
Over the last 40+ years (1977-onward) various
racers who raced our Monoshock bikes have contacted us like Sam
Williams (above), Gary Gates, Charles Finney, Ralph White and Ed
Hileman. Pretty good memories and some victories to talk about.
Various people have surfaced here and there with saying they had
some connection to the racing activities. If your name isn't one
of the above paragraphs then you sat on the sidelines and didn't
go out on a limb like we did. People have used photography that
we took to infer they were places they never were...like at
Willow Springs where Lang Hindle and Gary Gates did
testing...and where we ran around the track unsupervised when
they left us to our own devices.
Sam Williams (above) called us up before he died
in 2014 looking for parts for his Behn Monoshock. We told him
that was ancient history. Sam went to France with us, not as a
rider though. He did win 24 hr races on our Monoshocks however.
Cancer got him at age 69. We asked him if he had stopped
drinking...he said he had and he felt a lot better. Once, while
assembling a Monoshock, Sam asked about the weight of the
control levers...We threw his hamburger in the trash as a weight
saving measure.
Nelson Ledges was his home track where he raced with his #47. When he wasn't racing Kawasakis and winning races he was popping wheelies in Mack Cement Trucks.
Ed Hileman and Terry
Statum
Our friend Gary Gates (picture below) welded up
the frames for the Bol D'Or race bikes...no one else. No one. Of
the two bikes that raced at the Bol D'Or one returned to the USA
and was raced and won 24 hour endurance races. The second bike
was left with Gilbert Piot in Switzerland...a friend of ours who
put together the team of Swiss and French riders who rode the
bikes. Carlos and Kari Mestre got the trailers to the race track
for the crew.
There are a few of these bikes and frames still
around that we sold after the race. After the 1977 Bol D'Or
there was an attempt for those peripherally involved to copy the
frames and take over the project. Guess what...no one knew how
to do it, including those who had raced them. Little things like
gas tanks, fairings, seats, shock absorbers, compression and
rebound ratios, custom shock springs, forks designed and custom
made in Italy after visiting the factory there, molds, wheels,
brakes, exact geometry and a myriad of details were suddenly
lacking. One or two were assembled post Bol D'Or that did
not come from RB Racing.
One fabricator welded up a copy frame with silicone bronze and the frame came apart (not one of ours). Another welder was called in to copy the frames while we were in France and the front to rear track was off 9/16" as the steering neck was not perpendicular to the centerline. We were asked to straighten that out when we got back from the Bol D'Or but we declined.
Glory is a funny deal. Everyone wants to bask in
it, rewrite history, and claim credit for what they never did.
They did not design the parts, race the parts, assemble the
bikes nor ever even ride or test the bikes...A 165 mph blast on
Interstate10 with no license plate, and a wide-open exhaust
taking the bike back from getting the seat upholstery made.
Endless 20 hour days and, at one stretch, 5 days without sleep
to make a race. Funny how people who said they were there
actually weren't, either for testing, or racing. Small people
grasping for ancient glory they had little to do with three
decades plus after the fact. If you did not go to the fire and
feel the flames, hide in the shadows where you belong.
In racing and business there are the innovators,
the racers, and the risk takers. The rest are bench warmers,
armchair experts or simply the hired help.
Here's Gary Gates circa 2012, some 35 years later, with the 1944 T34/85 tank he bought for his Texas-based tank corps, headed by Commanders Sacha and Nicoli. Gary still races XR750's and Nortons. Some people on this earth are worth staying in touch with...not many. Gary is the real deal. Gary welded up the frames for #'s 46 and 47 race bikes and went to France with them. Gary went around the pits and not speaking a word of French came back with a replacement windscreen for one that we broke. Gary.
Charley Finney 35 years later
35 years later Charley Finney sent us 9 pictures from his winng racer at the 1981 WERA Pocono 6 Hour.
Charley writes:
"I came across these and thought you might enjoy them. The pictures were taken spring of 81 and the race was the WERA 6hr at Pocono International. We took overall. It was a product of its day, but it was a nice tool for the job. Thanks, Charlie Finney"
Behn Monoshock Chassis - Click on photos to enlarge
These are the Behn
Monoshock bikes and chassis that we designed, raced and
marketed. There was an attempt while we were in France at the
Bol D'Or by Joe Miller of Tri-Mil Industries to make copies of
these (he failed). Joe signed on as a sponsor but bailed
before we left for France.Various team members of the Bol D'Or
effort tried to call the bikes Tri-Mil bikes later on even
though they bought them from us as they thought Joe Miller was
going to be their Sugar Daddy to keep racing. Joe was no one's
Sugar Daddy and those efforts went nowhere.
To see the catalog we
offered in 1978 when we were selling the chassis kits we offer this webpage
When the bikes were
protested, the race organizers, like Dr Peter Frank in the
WERA, called us to verify the chassis could be purchased by
anyone.We parted ways with Joe Miller although, in a strange
way, we sort of liked Joe and he liked us even though he stole
all our personal possessions like Leica cameras not to mention
his aborted attempt to take over the Behn Monoshock project.
Joe came by RB Racing ever so often up until his death at age
70 from alcoholism...pretty much genuinely concerned how we
were doing. Joe was sort of famous for his Tri-Mil Bobcat VW
exhausts, a prototype design he stole from another Speed
Equipment Company and put into production before they did.
Anyone who tries to
call a few chassis that were floating around "Tri-Mils" simply
knows nothing about the history of the project...which
actually started in 1972-1974 , years before the Bol D'Or,
with trips to Northern Italy to secure supplies from Grimeca
and Ceriani...plus the help from the race department at
Amortiseurs DeCarbon in France. Visits to Danielle Fontana and
the importation of supplies from AP Lockheed. Discussion with
an existing Bol D'Or winning mechanic (Godier-Genoud) in
1974-1975 as to what were the weak points to look for in a 24
Hour race with Z-1 motors...the same people we supplied their
#60 oil impregated Diamond endurance racing chains to (used in
Grain Elevators).
People like the late
Elliot Morris of Morris Mags who supplied magnesium wheels and
loaned us his van to cart the chassis around in. Randy Hall
of Kawasaki USA Racing who provided internal parts for
the Z-1 Motors, and Jerry Branch who prepared the cylinder
heads... Dave Ayers of Induction Systems who sketched out a
quick fill suggestion on a napkin in a coffee shop at LAX.
Jerry Greer of Camber Fairings who made the molds and who made
the fugliest 8 gallon gas tank ever seen that we redesigned
into the one you see on the bikes. Hunsaker USA who custom
made the clear plastic NASCAR style quick fills that we
adapted to Dave Ayers
large quick fill valves. Bob Gorsuch of Excello Plating who
provided particle inspection of rods and crankshafts.
Even Byron Hines, who
worked for Russ Collins, who we called on a Sunday at home to
get him to have someone open up Arias Pistons so we could get
our pistons...and Russ Collins of RC Engineering who told
Terry Vance to give us whatever we needed for the project.
Russ pulled out all the stops.
If you weren't there for any of the above you are a four-flusher wannbee, not a racer nor a designer. Get a life. Find some other coat tail to hitch on to.
There are times in history when you can be ahead of the curve but these evaporate with time. We moved on to get ahead of the curve again in other areas like tubocharging and fuel injection. Be prepared to change as it is a constant. Buggy whips and coal fired power plants.
A few times each year,
some 40+ years later, someone will call up wanting to "Restore
one of our Bol D'Or chassis". We sort of impolitely tell they
weren't there for the show...Only two chassis were raced at
the Bol D'Or and they are long gone...And that we only talk to
people who were involved, many of whom are dead at this point.
There are no parts. We were there for the history, standing on
the line at Le Mans, with the American Flag flying...and with
the accompanying PSD racer's syndrome we are just not going to
talk to you about it.
More 1980s Photos...Howell Photographic Arts
45 Years Later
2022: Gary Gates went
over to see someone who had one of our old Monoshock Race
Chassis and realized he did not have any mementos from 1977.
We sent Gary some Black & White photography and support
material from the 41st Bol D'Or. Gary had several 24 x 36
posters made up and sent us one. The Bol D'Or was, in large,
due to Gary's hard work. Lower right is qualifying order
before the start.
Post 1977 Bol D'Or
1978 Began production of Harley Davidson, Japanese and BMW
exhaust systems.
1979 Built first turbo kits - 150 hp Harley Davidson
Shovelheads and Japanese 4 cylinder
SOHC Hondas.
Developed Shovelhead Turbos with SU draw-through
carburetion. Designed SU Turbo needles. Mel Magnet of Rivera
wanted to sell the kits we developed. Said he wanted "100 kits",
and, after receiving the first batch of 25, decided to copy
them...We got a call from Woody Harrah at PaceSetter saying
Rivera Engineering had sent over some parts to copy...Woody sent
the turbo header over to Kas Kastner (Nissan Race Director,
Sailor, Turbo Guy) as he did not want to mess with it. We called
up "Kaz" and went by to see the parts..They were ours. Told Kaz
to go for it.
As Mel told us at the time, when we forced him, locking him in his office in Whittier to collect what he owed, "You just don't understand how the business works"
Mel then went off to rip off the Belt Drive business.
After two years Mel came back to us and said "He
had made a mistake about trying to rip us off and wanted to work
with us again". He delivered his Shovelhead Superglide to
us. We tore it down into 100 pieces, told them we were making
good progress when they called and, later on, told them to pick
up the bike...In 100 pieces.
Mel passed away years later. It was very clear how
he understood business...Starting when he ripped Carl Morrow off
in the SU Carburetor business and exited his TV repair shop to
start Rivera Engineering.
1979: Imported brake systems from Europe selling
to US wheel manufacturers and race teams.
Turbos: At various times in the late 1970's and
1980's built Turbo Kits for Honda CB750 SOHC/DOHC, CBX, CX500,
CB1100, Kawasaki Z-1, KZ650, KZ550, ZX10, ZX11, Yamaha V-Max,
XS1100, XJ550, BMW K1002V, K1, K75, K1004V, R100, R1100S,
R1100RT, K1200LT, K1200RS, Triumph Triples, Triumph 1200
Daytona, Harley Shovelheads, Big Twin EVOs, Sportsters, Buells,
V-Rods.
1980 Began producing BMW turbo kits and exhaust systems for BMW distributor. Built last monoshock chassis. Ran Kawasaki turbos (street) 9.40 @ 148mph.
1982-1984 Developed special
"PowerMaster"carburetor for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. We were
looking for a carb to sell to the Harley market and Dan Ford who
was working for us found a 38mm casting on the shelves at Mikuni
American Corporation...It was off a motorcycle not sold in the
USA. We made a deal with Mikuni Japan to import several hundred
of them for $70.00 each and then began development adding a
larger volume accelerator pump we made and converting the
castings from spigot over to flange mount, plus making up custom
throttle cables and inlet manifolds.
Mikuni American Corp i.e Kay Nishi, Lee Chapin,
and others decided we might be onto something, so they demanded
one for testing. After their testing they requested a meeting
where they told us we were no longer needed as they were going
to copy our work. We then said "Go right ahead...because what we
gave you is not what we plan on selling". We then showed them
our "new" version. They went back to Japan and Mikuni Japan said
the revision we did was too expensive and to let RB Racing sell
the carbs. We did for awhile, then Mikuni American Corp raised
our prices from $70.00 per casting to $140.00 per casting.
We sold what we had, junked the rest, tossed
$2,000.00 worth of cables in a dumster and moved on. At one
point we even developed an automatic enrichening circuit with a
solenoid and a snap-action thermal switch.
Keihin Corporation was aware what we had done for
Mikuni so they asked us to develop the 41mm FCR Carb for the
Harley market. We did...achieving 54 mpg and doing 8000 ft
altitude tests as well as odd tests like 45 minute idle testing
leaning the bikes to the left and right for both Shovelheads and
later on for the first EVOs. We suggested to the Keihin
engineers that a 45mm FCR would be required for the larger
motors...They said the tooling to do so was out of the question.
The 41mm Keihin FCR project was then turned over
to Sudco Corporation and lingered with them for years. They
changed our jetting and needle specification...ending up with 36
mpg. Go figure.
Mikuni Corporation then asked us to do development on their 42mm Carb for Harleys which was originally tooled for the inline 4 cyl market for V&H. We declined. Good Reason to do so.
Onward
1985 Returned to Bonneville 27 years later with
Harleys and Suzukis. Built blow thru carb fuel systems and inlet
breather/blow off valves for turbochargers. Introduced first blow-thru turbos for Harleys. Built the World's first intercooled fuel
injected motorcycle with our BMW K100 Turbo kit...some still
running 25+years later.
1987-1988 Developed specialized carburetor
calibrations for CV carbs..ran GSX750's in the 10's and
GSXR1100's in the 9's with stock engines. Began fuel injection
development program., First Blow -Thru the carbs intercooled Suzuki Turbo. Engineered mechanical turbo scavenge systems for low
mount turbos.
1989 First fuel injected Harley. First Fuel Injected Intercooled Harley Turbo. Suzuki GSXR Turbo runs 187 mph at Bonneville wirh rear wheel going 237 mph (aero pig).. Expanded BMW Turbo kits to include newer models.
1990-1992 Suzuki Turbos/Harley Turbos set 200 mph Bonneville speed records--all fuel injected and intercooled. Introduced AIC (Additional Injector Controllers) for use on fuel injected bikes and cars. Sponsored two separate motorcycle streamliners in Bonneville speed records - BMW and Harley powered. Worked extensively and crewed with Bob George's 2nd generation Nitro Burning, Double Engined streamliner. Bonneville and El Mirage records set with both streamliners as well as BMW, Harley, Suzuki RSR Fuel Injected Turbos.
On BMW turbo K100 206 mph El Mirage bike employed
our Eight Injector RSR Fuel Injection, Water Injection,
Intercooler spray bar, and fuel cool can. Repoed the parts after
the record was set. 5 days work just making the stainless 4-1
turbo manifold for that one..plus worlds first nose mounted ice
cooled intercooler.
See Bob George's double-engined Harley streamliner at Bonneville in a
new video. Get an idea of how complicated these nitro burning
missles are. We worked on this one for several years before it
was retired and sold in the 1990's. We drove Dave Campos'
Suburban to chase him down the course and disarm the fire
protection system...Dave getting a soft 200 mph record. Eddie
the Eagle went along for the ride. We kept Eddie. Lots of
stories with Bob George and his ex Roberta.
Bob George went broke squandering an inheritance
running the Millenium Falcon...Bonneville insanity kills
everything in it's path.
1992-1998 Continual racing at Bonneville/El Mirage/Muroc resulting in seven 200 MPH Club Speed Records. Developed new turbo systems and exhaust systems for Harley Davidson and continued testing with customers on Fuel Injection on 11 different types of motorcycles as well as automotive and marine applications. Introduced AUTOCAL Fuel Injection Software. Built the first intercooled BMW R1100RS turbo kit which ran a 10 second quarter mile.
Innovations: Closed loop efi produced in-house;
Nose mounted intercoolers, computer controlled water injection,
first fuel injected intercooled Harleys, Triumphs, BMWs,
Suzukis, Kawsakis etc.; Cool cans for fuel on turbo race bikes,
intercooler spray bars...records set at Bonneville, El Mirage,
Maxton,
1999 Introduced new Blackbird, Pro Street and Pro Gas Harley Turbo Systems. Expanded exhaust system line to over 200 applications. Introduced revised AIC 400 to the automotive market for supercharged/turbocharged applications. Developed new Black Hole muffler systems for cop-evading high speed runs.
Introduction of 113" ORCA RSR Fuel Injected Motors. New 500hp capable BoostMaster wastegates integrated into all turbo kits. Completed 5,000 mile year-long test of new Harley "Blackbird" 250hp turbo with zero problems. RB Racing turbos dominate AHDRA/SCTA events.
2001 One year of designing and testing new BMW
K1200RS/LT turbos. Designed new 113" ORCA turbo pistons.
Expanded Harley Davidson exhaust line to 300 part numbers.
2002 Began production of older BMW K100 and
R1100RS Turbo Kits and updating existing kits. Set up a large
separate R&D Facility for testing, engine assembly,
prototyping and installations. K1200 series BMW forged turbo
pistons tested in K1200RS and LT models. Land Speed 200 mph
records set with out ZX-11 Turbos running 221mph in the mile
with out RSR 8 injector system.
2003 Completed testing of new Black Hole exhaust systems. Launched new Bonneville project based on 132 cubic inch ORCA motors. Expanded exhaust system line to include LSR Black Hole 2-1 Harley exhausts. Launched new polished silver ceramic finishes. Developed new water injection system for high output street and racing applications.
2004 Continued development of Black Hole Exhausts with introduction of BMW R Series exhausts and fuel system upgrades. New solid state digital instrumentation developed to replace troublesome analog and liquid filled gauges. Introduced new RSR EFi systems with new billet enclosures and 40 pin waterproof connectors with gold-plated contacts. Finalized designs of 139" Turbo ORCA motors. Introduced BMW R series turbos.
2005 Introduced new Harley LSR 2-1 Pro Stock Challenge systems which win AHDRA championship in first year. Redesigned Harley Turbo systems with larger intercoolers and both center mount and left mount turbos. New RSR ECUs enter competition setting records.
2006 Designed new Twin Cam Dyna exhausts and introduced new 113", 126", 132" and 139" ORCA motors in both Twin Cam and V2 configurations. Installed new production and test equipment to include an eddy current dyno. New BMW turbocharger systems designed. Expanded turbocharger applications for Harley big twins both oem and custom as well as race versions.
2007: Readied introduction of solid state instrumentation packages. Fabbed up new 500hp turbo configurations. Purchased new CNC equipment to introduce new, sort of unusual, products. Continued a 6 year support system for Nitro burning Harley Top Fuel and Pro Fuel projects. Bonneville Bullett nears completion.
Mike Geokan's Bonneville Bullet nears
completion as a testbed for new RB Racing technologies. Salt
Flats in 2007 were wet and less than ideal. Follow Bullett's progress as we gear up
for 2008. The RB Racing's involvement ended in 2017...zero to a
soft 200mph record in three years. In 2017 Mike showed his ugly
side, so we departed.
Completed ORCA Tach projects and went into final test of ORCA Turbo Dash project, pictured below. Also completed ORCA GPS Speedometer and tested it at Bonneville.
Continued funding of a Caltech Physics student.
2008: Flat out completion of the Bonneville Bullet project ending in first test runs at Bonneville in August of 2008. Starting producing digital gear position indicators.
2009: Graduated a Caltech Physics major now headed for a 5 to 7 year Doctoral Physics program. While we grab the twist grip and go past 200 mph others use particle accelerators at 99.99% the speed of light to study gluons and quarks. Someone always has more expensive toys than you do. Qualified the Bonneville Bullet for long course at Bonneville at the 2009 World Finals with Bryan Stock taking over for the injured Mike Geokan.
2010: Expanded operations 100% and purchased more
CNC equipment to build a new range of high performance products.
Stripped the Bonneville Bullet down to ground zero in preparation for
2010/2011 record attempts. Upgraded dyno operations with a
Superflow Dynamometer.
2011: Introduced new Harley Turbo systems aimed at
FLT/FLH Baggers featuring 360 hp turbos with large intercoolers.
2011: Made two trips to Bonneville and picked up a 200 mph record on the Bonneville Bullett with Bryan Stock doing the driving chores.
2012: Introduced new LSR 2-1 RaceCat exhaust systems marrying our race winning Pro Stock exhausts with a clean burning catalytic converter to drop the Db a bit. Finished a 10,000 mile test of our new Harley Turbos and started development of our 360 hp Road Glide. The Bonneville Bullet began it's next stage to the upper 200 mph range with upgraded high-end Cosworth electronics, beta tested on our own "Road Toad".
2013: Testing with ORCA motors and Cosworth Pectel SQ6M electronics
for the 139" Bullett and our 126" Road Toad. Also designed new V-Rod exhaust and turbocharger
systems.
We also designed new
1000psi water injection systems for our turbocharger systems.
Super fine atomization is the key to more power and no
detonation at high boost levels...like 535 hp Harley Turbo Orca
motors.
2014: Revised our BoostMaster wastegates and continued development of advanced turbocharger control with Pectel SQ6M engine controllers. We machined up billet mounting systems for Pectel SQ6, SQ6M and SQ6M12 engine controllers and began shipping these out. We converted our Bonneville Bullet and test Road Toad to Pectel Fly-By-Wire control which is quite complex. Carl Pelletier updated our 139CID Bullett ORCA Motor for racing in 2015 (2014 was rained out) and we installed a new mil-spec wiring harness on the Bonneville Bullett for the Pectel SQ6M with 49 outboard connectors and sensors.
2015: Kept up work on advanced electronics calibrations for our Bonneville and test projects. Built a simulator for the Pectel SQ6M Controller
2016: Prototyping of new
Indian Scout Exhausts. Student finishes 23 years of schooling
with a PhD in Physics...he does not know what a Crescent wrench
is.
Shit! We forgot to take a vacation.
2017: Harley comes out with the new M8 motor and we tool up for a variety of LSR 2-1 exhaust systems. Here is a 2" LSR 2-1 Pro Stock Spyder exhaust 00-1396 in Dual Coat Black Ceramic. New 2018 Softail M-8 exhausts prototyped.
2017
SpeedWeek:
Diana Sterk is
busy
documenting
the scene at
SpeedWeek. The
below link is
Diana's
photography of
2017
SpeedWeek.
Diana has
varied
photographic
interests...old
cars, hot
rods,
bikes/bikers,
musicians,
bands, nature,
the homeless,
and others.
You can
purchase her
photos by
clicking on
the link on
those pages.
Diana
maintained a
Facebook page
for us for two
years but we
asked her to
shut it down
in 2019...
Time to move
on as we
closed out our
Bonneville
support in
2017. Politics
and egos. We
funded her
trip to
Sturgis in
2018 as a
final "Thanks"
for all the
effort she put
in...then
adios Diana.
https://photography-by-diana.smugmug.com/Bonneville-Salt-Flats/Second-Folder-2017-Speed-Week-/
https://photography-by-diana.smugmug.com
2017 SpeedWeek...Diana
Sterk was palling around with Burt Munro's son, introduced us to
him, and we got to exchange lies and tall tales about
motorcycles. His tall tales were better..like riding through
town in New Zealand at full throttle standing on a motorcycle
seat running all the lights all the way to the harbor.
We countered with a 1985
story about exiting the salt on a twin turbo Suzuki going 135
mph back up the access road and then realizing we had no brakes
and a 90 degree left hand turn was coming up. Of course we
died...Plus financing a trip to visit the ladies in Wells.
Crazy as his dad. Stories about Ed Iskendarian and his father and many others. We asked him if he worked his way over on a tramp steamer..."Yes at 30,000 feet". His stories were definitely better.
2018: Developed new Indian Chief true LSR 2-1 exhaust systems with separate left side bag support system
2020: Added new 00-1306R
Challenge exhausts to give horsepower freaks a bit of
sound attenuation. Straight through 2.5" I.D. resonator
to knock off a few Db. Acceptable noise and 180HP plus
on new M8's with 124/128 CID.
Upgraded our long running RSR Air Fuel Ratio
gauges..both the dual and single display models.
Continued work on our completely revamped Turbo Orca FXR...Finished
design of an extremely complex motorsport wiring harness
for the FXR Orca,
2021: Developing new Turbo Systems for Shovelheads and
EVOs. Revamped BMW R100 2-1 exhausts adding Dual O2
displays. Stay tuned for more insanity.
2022: Expanded exhaust system line filling
in new designs per customer feedback . COVID and freak
weather slowed things....over 1,000,000 dead. The dead
don't buy Harleys...only 100,000 or so sold in US.
2023: Brave new world. Bikes far more technical than their owners. Multitude of tuners who are not . New Harley M8 350HP turbo designs (difficult) to supplement our proven Twin Cam ones.