Following the concept put forth by the bike’s owner, a Mr. E. Bond, Smoken Joe Petersen of Performance Cycles in Wilmington, North Carolina, designed and assembled this smokin’ V-Rod with the idea that it was not being built as a drag bike, but as a head-turning street rod that can tear up the asphalt with the best of them.
This bike uses many fine Harley-Davidson parts along with a few interesting creature comfort features as well as additions to jack the horsepower up to around 150 without the nitrous. Since Joe and the owner are still in the process of getting as much horsepower out the bike as possible, the jury is still out on how much it will produce with the new modifications and the nitrous kicked in.
One very interesting add-on is the air-ride system that Joe incorporated on the bike. This bike has front and rear air ride with one-button up/down operation The first step in this modification was to seal the front forks and rear swingarm to hold air supplied by the swingarm air tank that is automatically controlled to a preset air pressure. The onboard compressor fills the air reservoirs in the swingarm using a simple on/off switch that acts either as a dump or a raise to the front and rear end simultaneously allowing for instant ride height adjustments on the fly. One compressor, one switch, very much like the low rider style of vehicles equipped with hydraulics.
That takes care of the creature comforts, on to the power aspects on the bike. It has a custom built wet nitrous system designed by Joe with a direct-port nitrous wet kit using Nitrous Express parts and a Holly fuel-pressure regulator. Joe incorporated a fuel pump from a Mustang and a Walbro five-liter fuel pump because you also have to change the injector size for the supercharger to use more fuel, plus he wanted to use the additional fuel for the wet nitrous kit. Since the nitrous system is activated by wide-open throttle, there is no need for a nitrous button on the handlebar. Very cool and very efficient and supplied by a pair of two-pound chrome nitrous bottles.
Since these photos were taken, they’ve converted the bike from belt drive to a chain drive since they were having problems with shearing teeth off the belt drive and added a Tak Shigematsu AIM in-clutch with a centrifugal lockup with a muscle side cover for the crankcase because the stock oil dipstick is covered by the supercharger.
When it came to the TTS Performance supercharger, Joe had some interesting ideas on how to improve the performance of a practically bolt-on component. He used a custom-made fiberglass air box that covers the repositioned supercharger intercooler as well as the oil cooler for the supercharger unit itself. It has a self-contained oil system that’s cooled and it runs great. When you’re looking at the bike, the air intake scoop is actually functional going through a small oil cooler that cools the oil from the supercharger, then it’s blown down into the intercooler which cools the air charger going into the engine from the supercharger. All this is conveniently located under the top cowl and that is where the air is forced into and is where the intercoolers are located.
This was by no means a one-man show. Joe used Pete at Forged Metal Fabrication to relocate the intercooler, oil cooler, and fabricate the engine cylinder covers, supercharger belt guard and air box scoop. Jan Karmak did the machining for the parts needed for the chain and cush-drive conversion on the rear wheel. Paul Murray (Stunt welder) fabbed the one-off heat shields for the Exotic Choppers pipes and sealed the swingarms to hold air. This great build also has a Destroyer front sprocket with a Vance & Hines speed shifter and step launch control.
This is one great looking, street-burning head turner. It’s a one-of-a-kind nitrous and supercharged Screamin’ Eagle that has its owner grinning from ear to ear. When asked if there were any problems with the build, Smoken Joe in his infinite wisdom said, “If it has breasts or wheels, there’s always going to be problems.” Looks like he has the wheels part covered.
Up close: TTS Rotrex Supercharger
TTS Performance are innovators in design and manufacturing of supercharger conversions for virtually any application. From car superchargers and motorcycle superchargers to jet skis and generators, those are just an example of the work they undertake. Over 65 different conversions have been successfully completed over the last seven years.
As far as V-Rods go, TTS’ custom Rotrex superchargers, intercoolers, and conversions kits are a specialty. This gives the V-rod the aggression that’s lacking from the standard bike. Giving an additional 40+% more power than standard with perfect drivability and absolutely no throttle lag, this bike is exhilarating to ride. Power is up from 108bhp to 160hp at the wheel.
This conversion is extremely simple to install taking no more than three hours. It does require a Dynojet Power Commander or similar to meter fueling and ignition changes and base maps are supplied with the conversion for the Dynojet PC3. Oh, and another thing, with 160hp, TTS absolutely requires you to use a Barnett hi-performance clutch.
The full race kit is machined from billet aluminum and this kit replaces the whole standard engine case. It contains its own integral crank breather system and can be supplied with a full front-mount intercooler setup and pipe work. These kits are made to order and with the correct supporting engine modifications can produce up to 300bhp. Not too shabby in my book.
As you can read from my article there are innovations that can be made to customize the supercharger to your liking. I don’t know about the 300bhp claim but there is definitely enough of a horsepower increase to get you started with the stock kit.
More info at www.rotrexsuperchargers.co.uk.
Builder: Smoken Joe Petersen
Smoken Joe Petersen grew up a po’ white boy raised by a single mom in the urban jungles of New England. From when he was a little tot Joe always wanted a motorcycle, but being poor and living in the inner city left but a small chance that he would get his wish.
When he was finally old enough to go out and work, one of the first things he bought was a bike of his own. Realizing that he couldn’t afford to pay someone to work on his bike he surrounded himself with the kind of people from whom he would acquire the knowledge he needed to repair his own. He spent a lot of time working the pit crew and hanging out at B&J Cycles in Ayer, Massachusetts, surrounding himself with like-minded individuals that could give him the training and experience he desired. His drag strip apprenticeship with them was just what he needed.
After moving to Carolina Beach, North Carolina, he got tired of bringing his bike to the local shops and getting less that ideal work done on his bike. After a breaking down in Laconia, he realized that he could do a better job himself. Living in a condo with no storage he went out and rented a mini-storage area on Pleasure Island and started working on bikes.
His day job is working for the local board of education while racing and working on Harleys nights and weekends.When Smoken Joe finally built his own house, he also added a large garage so that he could set up shop and pursue his dream. Word of mouth started to spread and he found himself doing exactly what he always wanted to do, wrench on bikes.
Check Smoken Joe’s work at www.performancecyclesnc.com or ring him up at 910-262-4106 for more info.
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