Ultra Customs
Apparently Ian is a betting man as he bought a pair of trashed Continental W670 radial cylinders on eBay to mockup a 3-D plan to see if it was dimensionally and aesthetically correct as a base to build around. “I liked the way the cylinders looked, these have elegant lines, and they were a reasonable size,” said Ian. “ Some of the bigger radials are huge, the dimensions are such that a motorcycle would look odd.” The W670 was a seven-cylinder radial design from the ‘30s that has seen use in many planes including the stunning Stearmans, blimps, and even in tanks. “The technology is amazing for a 1930’s design. They’ve got sodium-cooled exhausts, triple valve springs, and roller-tipped and truncheon rockers,” said Ian.
After sourcing a pair of totally refurbished cylinders from Radial Engines Limited in Guthrie, Oklahoma, Ian began design of his crankcase. He started with an S&S stroker flywheels that happen to be exactly the 4 5/8” stroke of the Continental. “I did it all myself, pencil and paper, not CAD. I made a model in wood so there were no clearance issues. The crankcase is in components to make it adaptable to other radial aircraft cylinders,” said Ian. “Most of it is cast, I made the patterns in laminated wood and a local foundry, OBCO Foundries, really helped me, and it’s partly billet. I did all the machining myself.” Next he had to figure out how to connect the radial piston/rod to the crank. “The big ends were cut from S&S rods and I used the link rods of the radial and blended the two together,” said Ian. In a radial engine, the main rod or master rod joins one of the pistons with the crankshaft, and the other rods, called articulating rods or link rods, connect the other pistons to this same master connecting rod. The pistons are cast aluminum with a honeycomb under the dome that Ian ran further up the bore and cut bigger reliefs into them to increase compression to 7.5:1 “to be on the safe side.”
Balancing the 191” engine was the trickiest bit because the pistons are about four times the weight of a Harley Big Twin’s. “I had to use a lot of osmium and tungsten slugs that I pressed in and crescent-shaped cheek weights that bolt to the wheel as well,” said Ian. But that wasn’t the only thing that was tricky as he said,” The cams are very similar to a Sportster. I adapted Harley camshafts, which was very hard as that was the most precise machining to get the cam orientation right between four cams. It also was tough ‘cause that drives with a helical-cut gear for the oil pump and that had to be in right orientation too. It’s easy if you get it wrong to multiply your mistakes.”
Oh there were lots of other little things like building the battery/coil ignition for the dual plug heads, making dual manifolds and tuning the S&S carbs, and fabricating the dual-chain primary drive with adaptations for a starter and race car alternator to mention just a few.
And lest we forget, all of this is surrounded by a frame, fuel and oil tanks, handlebars, and a million other things that go into a one-off (and I do mean one-off) custom that Ian designed, fabbed, and assembled. Not getting into all of this in detail doesn’t demean the work by Ian or the righteously simple and tasteful Hemi ‘Cuda shaker hood silver paintjob by George Kanavaros or nose art graphics by artist Jennie Persak. It’s just that the engine is the focal point of interest. Period.
Does it run? “The exhaust sounds like the dragons from Hell,” said Ian. “The vibration is better than I expected, smoother at idle than a lot of big-inch Harleys. When you open it up, it vibrates like Hell. It’s mechanical art. It’s not going to replace modern motorcycles, but it is cool.” Canadian understatement at its best.
Builder Ian Douglas
Even in these days of the lightning-fast global Information Highway, geography still seems to play a part in creative thinking. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that the further away a builder gets from the epicenters of American custom influence, the more outside the box their creations become. Making your bike stand out by building your own engine from the crank up with parts contributed from a 1930s aero radial engine must be the work of a big industry name you’d think, but you’d be wrong. Warbird builder Ian Douglas of Richmond, British Vancouver, might fall into the “home builder” category and whatever sentiment that brings to mind, but you’d be wrong. He’s not some guy cobbling a bunch of parts together to make one more cobbled custom, but relishes the idea of throwing himself into a potentially impossible challenge and successfully overcoming it with style. “I’ve been sort of a mechanic nut since I was a kid.
I grew up on a farm so I had to fix everything, as my dad really wasn’t very well versed in repairs,” said Ian. “ I bought my first engine when I was about eight and modified it in ways you can’t imagine. I got a welder when I was twelve and it just went from there.”
Giving up his Green Acres life, Ian owns a successful outdoor clothing business in Vancouver called Specialties West (www.specialtieswest.com). “I started it 25 years ago and it’s been able to fund my hardcore hobbyist endeavor,” said Ian. That’s not to say he just pays to have things done, but he really is a hands on guy when it comes to making things like that little engine project you’ve already read about. For all the time and hard work involved in this project, he just quietly said, “ It’s been a hell of a lot of fun.”
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