GEORGE'S BLOG

CTO: Burgers aren't the only thing you can have your way.

One of the things that have always set S&S Cycle apart from other companies in the v-twin high performance aftermarket is the fact that we made parts that nobody else did and we would make S&S parts the way our customers wanted them.  Many of the guys buying S&S parts were either racers or very tech savvy Harley® riders.  So if they wanted something special S&S would try to make it for them.  We still try to do that as much as we can, but it's not as easy as it used to be. 

S&S still makes a lot of special parts for racers.  Racers will always be trying to find that competitive edge, and we make a lot of special "skunk works" type components to help them try out new ideas and hopefully whip up on the competition.  However, even though the average street rider today is not the person who usually turns the wrench on his engine, they generally stay well informed about what's available by researching the internet.  Racers want special parts and certain street riders want to pick and choose a specific combination of parts, so S&S has developed an ordering procedure to satisfy both types of customers called CTO – “Configure To Order”.

CTO is a feature of our business software that allows S&S to offer specially machined parts for racers as well as allowing our dealers to put together high performance kits that contain just what their customers want.  CTO allows us to offer options for certain types of parts or kits.  S&S only offers the options that work with that specific kit, and we only offer what we can deliver.

Let's say you want one of our stock bore stroker kits.  To build a stroker engine, at a minimum, you will need a flywheel assembly and pistons.  The CTO process allows you to choose the style of flywheel assembly you need and to specify the required piston oversize.  In some cases you may even be able to choose the compression ratio.  If flywheels and pistons are all you want, you can stop there.  However, to get the most out of your stroker engine you will need some additional performance components.  Here is where CTO can really help you get the right stuff by offering parts that S&S recommends for your specific application.  You can choose a cam (or a set of cams), pushrods, an S&S carburetor, a set of cylinder heads, rocker arms, rocker boxes, and a lot more, depending on the kit.  CTO allows you to get the parts you need, but you don't have to take anything you don't want.  Maybe you already have one of these parts, and don’t want to buy another one.  As you look at various products on the S&S website, you will see some that list items called “Basic Kit Contents.”  These are components that always come with that specific kit.  After that there will be a number of optional choices and/or parts that can be chosen when the kit is ordered.  These products are either Special Order or Made To Order through CTO.  So when you talk to your S&S Dealer about your project, think about the extra parts you are going to need to complete it.  Chances are they will be offered as CTO options with the basic kit. 

CTO makes it easy to get everything you need, and to be sure that everything you get will work together.  We know from experience that a combination of incompatible parts can cause a high performance engine to be a dog.  We also know that if customers follow our recommendations, they will have great results and ultimately feel that they got their money’s worth.  Customer satisfaction is really S&S’s most important job.

Flathead Power® - Keeping vintage iron on the road

One of the most popular features of the S&S website is the Flathead Power® forum.  This surprises some people, but it doesn't surprise me.  Flathead Power is S&S Cycle's brand for motorcycle vintage parts and since nobody throws a Harley® away, it makes sense that all those old bikes that are still out therewill eventually need to be fixed.  S&S Cycle has been in business since 1958 and my father was making high performance parts on his own for years before that.  As a result, we have a pretty good feel for "vintage".  One thing we know for certain is that the guys who are into vintage motorcycles are "really" into them - bordering on fanatical.  So it's no surprise to me that the forum is popular.

Those who have followed the vintage scene for a while will know that Flathead Power actually originated in Sweden.  A gentleman named Anders Nygren was producing parts for flathead and knucklehead engines and gained quite a reputation for producing high quality performance and restoration parts.  In the late 1990's Mr. Nygren formed a partnership in America so the parts could be manufactured in the USA.  Unfortunately, that arrangement did not work out and in the end, the company went bankrupt.  In July of 2007 S&S purchased the Flathead Power (FHP) brand name and intellectual property (trademarks, patents and designs) along with the remaining inventory of parts and tooling. 

When S&S got all the material from FHP, it was not just a simple matter of resuming production.  We needed to validate the quality of the parts, and in most cases improve the design and material.  This is the same thing we do with all the parts S&S manufactures.  S&S has always been driven by the need for quality, and the basis for quality is good design and sound engineering.  That means we had to dot all the "i's" and cross all the "t's" to ensure that we could consistently make excellent parts time after time.  In our plant we have state of the art CNC machining centers, which can rapidly and efficiently machine parts, with one part virtually identical to the next.  The investment in time and effort to make sure that everything was right before those machines started making chips was job one.

This very necessary up-front work resulted in over a year's delay before we could actually begin to supply parts to satisfy the demand for quality vintage products.  We introduced the KN-Series engines shortly after our 50^th anniversary celebration in 2008, and of course if we can sell a complete engine, we can sell all the parts needed to build it.  We've come a long way, but it's not over yet.  Our next FHP product release is likely to be cylinders for big twin side valve UL engines, or flatheads as they are commonly called. 

There is a strong demand for vintage motorcycle parts, and part of the reason is that there just weren't that many flatheads manufactured back in the 1930's and 40's.  At least the number is not large by today's standards.  Another reason is that back in the day, they weren't held in the reverence that they are today.  They were just old motorcycles.  Since the 4-9/32"stroke of a 74" UL motor was longer than the 3-31/32" stroke of the 74" knuckle or pan, it was common to take flywheels from UL engines and use them to build "stroker" knuckle and pan engines.  According to some conversations we had with a couple of old timers at the Cincinnati Dealer Expo, the UL crankcases were just smashed with a sledgehammer to get the flywheels out. The rest of the motor was just thrown away.  I'm not sure that's really true, but it makes a great story.  It does make me cringe to think of what those engines would be worth today!

The popularity of the Flathead Power forum just goes to show that "vintage" never gets old.

Until next week . . .

The S&S Red Chopper - Special contributor Ken Smith

 

In 1958 my dad and Stan Stankos had just went into partnership calling the new business S&S Cycle Equipment.

They both had Harley dressers and wanted to use them to showcase some of the parts and new ideas they had been working on and planned to sell. Dad wasn’t interested in using a nice, expensive dresser since he planned to modify it and mold it to his needs. He wanted something light, and a stripped down big twin with chopped rear fender (“chopper” in the Midwest) was just the ticket. A local Harley dealer had bought some police bikes at an auction and was selling them. A non-descript 1953 ex-police bike was perfect, and cheap.

That summer was spent riding the stock ’53 and working at nights and weekends on the new business. There was no time to build the motorcycle he had in mind. Putting product ideas on paper and developing them was his main focus. He and Stanley had made big bore steel cylinders for the Knucklehead they raced at Bonneville in 1954 and they intended to make and sell them along with solid lifter aluminum pushrods, big valve, two carburetor heads and stroker flywheels. A series of accessories they had made and used before was also in the works.

That first year was a losing proposition, all work with little return. Stan’s auto upholstering business was suffering and he decided he wanted out. He needed the security of his business and didn’t have the time it would take to develop S&S.

By early 1959 my ma and dad made the decision to buy him out and make a go of it on their own. They couldn’t quit with some of the new products so close and ready for testing. It was time to start working on the ’53.

The engine was rebuilt using an S&S 4-1/2” stroker kit that included flywheels, cylinder base plates, longer pushrod cover keepers and base studs. Stock cylinders and modified stock pistons made a displacement of 84 cubic inches, 10 more than stock. The heads were modified stock castings with the intake ports welded up and redirected to the left side of the engine. Customers could pick the type of carb they would use and my dad would make the proper mounting bolt pattern. He chose late Linkert carbs for the ’53. In addition to dual carbs, he modified the heads for 2-1/16” intake valves by machining out the old valve seats and threading in new custom made aluminum bronze seats. He tried several aftermarket cams settling on an Isky HH20 with S&S solid lifter pushrods.

Next came the chassis. The rear fender was chopped behind the vertical fender bracket and an aftermarket taillight/license plate bracket assembly was added. The front fender was sectioned down the length and stylized by his brother-in-law, Sid Smith to accommodate an 18” narrower front wheel. The gas tanks and fenders were refinished in his favorite color, red, by his other brother-in-law, Merle Smith. The stock oil tank was modified so it could be filled from the right side and chromed (a service that S&S did on an exchange basis early on). Six inch rise buckhorn style handlebars from Flanders topped off the stock Hydra-Glide fork. With chrome primary chain covers, a few other do-dads and a solo seat, it was ready to roll.

The bike was to be the test bed for products while serving as his “rider”. Early on it was equipped with a prototype dual point, dual coil ignition system with no manual spark retarding mechanism. He had to be on his toes when starting the thing, because if he didn’t have the engine cycled right, it could kick back and launch him over the handlebars. The dual carburetors also presented some problems. To prime the engine with no choke, he would kick the engine over with the switch off and lean the bike to the right to let raw gas run into the cylinders. Needless to say, fires were a constant threat and he had to be ready. He could usually put them out by kicking the engine through with the switch off and sucking the flames back into the engine. Sounds exciting? It was more exciting to watch when it happened.

Over the next several years the ’53 red chopper graced the cover of early S&S literature and was ridden all over the South side of the Chicagoland area. During that time it was ridden annually to the Illinois State Fair to watch the Springfield Mile motorcycle races. For longer distances when riding two up where a little more comfort was required, a 1961 H-D FLH was purchased.

In December of 1963, my ma and dad bought the farm where S&S is located now. His dream of farming and moving from the city had finally begun to materialize. In five years when the last child graduated from high school, they planned to sell the house in Blue Island, quit his job and move the business to Wisconsin. They were committed to the move and their plan and some of the summertime activities took a back seat including riding the motorcycles.

By 1966 the farmhouse in Wisconsin had a new basement built under it and needed a modern heating system to make it livable. The job went to Ma’s brother, Sid, who was a journeyman heating and sheetmetal worker. During the summer he got a good used oil furnace from a job and installed it along with all the required ductwork over a weekend. Earlier that year Dad bought a new ’66 Harley dresser so he could study the new cylinder head design. Ironically, Sid had sold his ’56 chopper and was without a bike. Not needing the red ’53 anymore, Dad gave it to Sid for doing the furnace work. It couldn’t have gone to a better home.

In January of 1967 I quit college and started working at an apprenticeship in the printing industry in Chicago. That month a big blizzard hit the Midwest, and Chicago received about 27” of snow over a 24 hour period. The “Big Snow”, as it’s referred to now, paralyzed the city and surrounding area for almost a week. Nothing was moving. Cars were stranded where they got stuck and slowly the snowplows opened one lane areas for only blocks at first. We had a1961 Chevy ½ ton pickup that Dad drove to work. To make it mobile in the deep snow, he tried to find some tire chains. Sid found some near where he lived in Dolton, Illinois about 10-12 miles from Blue Island. Two days after the snow stopped falling I set out walking to Sid’s house to retrieve the chains. When I got there around 1pm, my feet were wet and my uncle said he’d take me home on the ‘53. Sid put a battery in it, a knobby tire on the rear and around about 4pm we were ready to go. With the solo seat Sid had to sit way up on the gas tank which was customary for the driver if you didn’t have a buddy seat in those days. I sat on the back with the box tire chains that weighed about 20 pounds. We took off plowing through the deep snow and drifts. Some of the main roads had been somewhat plowed to clear stalled cars so there were sections with parts of a single lane open. Each time it was the same thing. We‘d have to break through big drifts to get to the next road. We’d get off and Sid would stand alongside the bike and throttle it through the drift. Often, I’d have to put the chains down and push whenever he needed help. Once we were clear, I’d hop on and off we went. We had to go through many unplowed sections to get to a cleared area. I can still see him seated way up on that tank, elbows sticking out throttling the engine, and snow flying off to the sides like a speed boat as we went along. Sid was amazing! The strength it took to control that bike with me on the back drained him. When we got back to Elm St., it was dark and around 6 o’clock. My ma and dad talked him into staying over and waiting until the next day to return home. What a ride! (see picture – Sid is 6’4”, Ken is 6’1”)

Over the next 3 decades the ’53 went through some changes. The fenders and various other parts were used during the chopper craze of the ‘70s and the bike became a 92” full fendered motorcycle painted black. It became another motorcycle in Sid’s collection and took a backseat there as well to a number of other bikes he preferred to ride. Shortly after Sid retired from S&S in 1994 I asked him what he planned to do with it. Eventually he planned to sell it along with all of the other parts and motorcycles he’s accumulated. I said it would be fitting if it could return to S&S and made a deal for him to restore it. The rest, as they say, is history. It can be seen in the S&S museum outside Viola, Wisconsin and while it’s not identical to the way it was originally built, it’s still the same ’53 red chopper.

The story of the S&S® Sidewinder® cylinders & kits.

Every now and then someone asks me why we call our big bore cylinders Sidewinder® Kits.  The naming of that product was one of those things that just sort of happened.  An idea or a circumstance occurs and it just sticks.

My father introduced Sidewinders for Shovelheads back in 1978, shortly after the United States bicentennial celebration in 1976.  With that in the back of our minds, we were thinking of the Gadsden flag of the original 13 colonies.  This flag showed a coiled rattlesnake with the slogan "Don’t tread on me!"  It was natural to associate the Gadsden rattlesnake with the sidewinder rattlesnake from the western U.S.  So that's what we decided to call our new big bore cylinders - Sidewinders.  It was just one of those things that took hold and stuck, but there are a lot of reasons why it is appropriate. 

A lot of people don't like snakes and might wonder why S&S would name a product after one.  Well, without a doubt, rattlesnakes are surely not something to mess with.  They don't look much different from other harmless snakes (I mentally compare those harmless snakes to stock motorcycles).  However, rattlesnakes have the means to defend themselves.  They don't look for trouble, but they won't back down if threatened.  Contrary to popular belief, a rattlesnake will not strike without warning, but if you are dumb enough to persist in bothering a rattler after it has warned you with its rattles…look out.

Originally, our Sidewinder cylinders were made  in Japan because we couldn’t get an American foundry to cast them using the special cast iron alloy we required.  We offered them up to a dollar a pound more than normal going rates at the time, all to no avail.  After several years of beating the bushes, our persistence paid off and we managed to locate a US foundry that could do the job. Since then, all of our Sidewinder cylinders are made in the USA.

Within a few short years after their introduction, they were so successful that copies began to appear in the high performance motorcycle parts industry.  The overseas knock-offs created some bad press we had to overcome.  Fortunately for us, what they didn’t copy was the special alloy that we used in our cylinders.  As a result, these counterfeit big bore cylinders wore out fast, and in some cases broke.  More than once, we had customers send broken cylinders to us for warranty, only to find that they were not ours.  "Sorry about your luck, buddy, but you'll have to send these back to whoever made them."  It just illustrates the old axiom that "The bitter taste of poor quality lasts much longer then the sweetness of a low price."  Having your motor self-destruct will definitely leave a bad taste in your mouth.

When S&S Sidewinders were introduced in 1978, it was a groundbreaking product.  Before that, building a big bore engine was a really involved project.  Guys were doing it, but it wasn't easy.  Typically, companies that offered cylinders might not have supplied them with pistons or other parts necessary to complete the installation.  You had to locate a piston manufacturer who could machine blank car forgings to the desired bore.  Often after receiving them, they required finishing by the local engine builder’s machine shop of choice.  Other parts such as pushrods, intake manifold, head bolts, base nuts and pushrod clips had to be made or gotten from some other source.  Then you had to have a really first rate engine builder, possibly the same guy who made the parts, to make sure it all went together okay.  The guy who built the engine had to do a fair amount of engineering on the fly, because these were one-off custom engines.  Sidewinder kits changed all that.  S&S did the engineering ahead of time.  Like all of the other products we offered, we supplied everything needed in a nice, neat kit including detailed instructions on how to modify the stock crankcases and assemble the engine.  What this meant was that any competent engine shop could build big inch Harley big twin engines at an affordable price.  Building a high performance engine became not much more difficult than rebuilding a stocker.

Of course these big bore cylinders were a natural to use with our stroker flywheels and Super B carburetor.  These combinations, considered to be large engines by the standards of that time, really made power and were quite durable.  To prove the point, we took them to the Bonneville Salt Flats complete in street trim running the same parts we were selling to shops and recorded a best run of over 145 mph with our 98” 1977 FX Lowrider.  That same motorcycle was used testing cams at a local drag strip and made 45+ runs on one occasion.  Incidentally, this same bike “The Gray Ghost” currently resides in the S&S museum in Viola, WI.  Of course today, we have much bigger engines that produce a lot more power, but at that time, like today, S&S produced the best performance parts and the most complete performance solutions available.

I guess you might get the idea that I'm pretty proud of S&S Cycle, how far we've come, and the things we've accomplished.  I certainly am.

Until next week, go fast, but play safe.

4 Steps: Step 4 - CNC Ported Heads

For the last three weeks I have been talking about the S&S 4-Step program to improve performance in Harley® Twin Cam 88® and Twin Cam 96™ engines. This week I want to tell you about our CNC cylinder head porting service, which is the fourth and final step in the program. Cylinder head porting is important because making your cylinder heads flow more allows you to get the greatest benefit from the increased displacement of the big bore kit. In the past cylinder head porting was as much art and experience as it was science, and in the development phase for a port design, it still is to a great degree. We have a pretty good idea what kind of port shape we want but we have to test a lot of variations to find the one that really performs. Modern technology including 3D computer modeling can help us calculate and design a port, but we can’t rely on that alone. There are just too many variables. As a result, we need to rely on a lot of experimentation and our own racing experience to develop our port design. It's not just a matter of putting a head on the flow bench to find out if it's going to work. We need to run these heads on engines to prove they really perform in the real world and that repeated use doesn’t cause the valve seats to move losing valve seal. We did a lot of testing on the dyno and on the street to compare and finalize our port and chamber designs. I wanted the S&S heads to be the best. To be doubly sure they were, S&S obtained and tested modified heads produced by prominent competitors in the marketplace to establish performance targets for comparison purposes. That’s why our company motto is Proven Performance.

Our goal was to make more power without sacrificing low and midrange torque. Big inch motors like our 124" Hot Set Up Kit® have different requirements from stock displacement engines, or even our 106" big bore kits. When designing ports for smaller displacement engines we need to increase flow without making the port much larger. We don't want to make the ports too big, because that would decrease the air velocity in the ports. Low port velocity will make the engine lazy at low rpm, so we kept the port diameter as small as possible and relied on the new shape of the port increase the flow. Once we have a great design, making copies of it is not really difficult with the right tools. The shapes of the ports and the combustion chamber are all digitized with a special three-axis coordinate measuring machine. This machine creates mathematical 3D models of the surfaces of the ports and chamber. It then outputs a program that our CNC machining centers can use to recreate those shapes. And of course, we test the CNC created ports to be sure they work as well as the prototype.

So what does this mean to you, the guy twisting the throttle? It means that when you send us your stock heads, we will put them on our CNC machining center to recreate our port and chamber shapes. Then your bike will make more power because your heads will flow just as well as our hand ported test heads, but we won't charge you for hours and hours of hand porting.

As part of the CNC porting package, (LINK) we assemble your ported heads with new valve seats, valve guides seals, forged stainless steel racing valves, and .640" single coil valve springs. This allows you to run a high lift cam to make the most of the increased flow. Your heads will come back ready to run. At $950.00 MSRP, this is about the best deal going.

One thing that I should mention is that when you look into the ports, there may be some areas that were not touched by the machining. That's because the stock ports have quite a bit of variation, and some ports they are slightly larger than others. This will not affect the performance. If we had made the ports large enough to ensure every head we machined “cleaned up”, the ports would have been too large for engines in the 88 to 106 cubic inch range, and would actually hurt performance in the all important low and midrange rpm.

S&S CNC porting service is only available through S&S dealers, and is only for 1999-up Harley-Davidson® big twin engines for the time being. S&S is continually working on new port designs in an effort to constantly make our parts better, including some for earlier model H-D® engines. We’ll keep you posted. Until next week. Go fast, but play safe.

4 Steps: Step 3 - 97 inch and 106 inch Big Bore Kit

Last week I talked about Step 2 in our 4-Step program for better performance.  That's where we added a set of S&S cams to the performance exhaust and intake installed in Step 1.  If you still want more power, let’s go over Step 3. 

They say "There's no replacement for displacement."  In Step 3, we increase the displacement of the engine with one of our "bolt-in" big bore top end kits.  When I say "bolt-in" I mean that it can be installed in a stock engine with no machining and there is no need to split the crankcases.  There is no need to remove the motor from the frame.  It's no more involved than rebuilding a stock top end. That means that it won't cost you an arm and a leg to get it installed.  Another thing that makes the 97" and 106" kits economical is that you can use your stock cylinder heads with very good results.  For even better performance you can have your heads CNC ported here at S&S (Step 4), but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Although installation of an S&S big bore top end kit is relatively simple, I still recommend you have it installed by a qualified S&S dealer.  The mechanical installation of the kit is pretty straight forward, but the increased displacement makes the need for fuel and ignition system tuning absolutely essential.

There are two different top end kits available, a 97" kit for 1999-2006 88 cubic inch engines, and a 106" kit for 2007-up 96 cubic inch engines.  The kits for the two engine sizes are virtually identical.  They both include 3.927" bore cylinders, pistons and gaskets.  The difference is the deck height of the pistons that are supplied in each kit.  The 97" kit includes pistons to match the 4" stroke of an 88" engine, and the 106" kit has pistons for the 4-3/8" stroke of a 96" engine.  The difference in the resulting displacement of the kits is due to the stroke difference of the engines.  Of course both kits are available in wrinkle black and silver powder coat finish that matches late model Harley-Davidson® engine paint for a very stock look.  That's important if you want your bike to be a "sleeper hog".

When it comes to tuning, there are number of options available.  For carbureted bikes it’s usually no more involved than the installation of a jet kit.  Of course an S&S Super E carburetor is also a great way to upgrade a carbureted engine.  For fuel injected bikes some installers prefer to use the Harley-Davidson® race tuner software to adjust the stock ECM.  Others may use an aftermarket add-on controller like the DynoJet® Power Commander®.  Another option is to replace the stock module with and aftermarket ECM like the S&S VFI module.  The VFI module offers the benefit of closed loop oxygen sensor control for earlier engines and has the tuning range to handle anything from a stock Twin Cam 88® engine to our 160 cubic inch NHRA Prostock engine.  Unfortunately, S&S doesn’t have a VFI module for 2008 and later baggers with electronic throttle control. 

When increasing the displacement and compression ratio of an engine with a big bore kit it's important that what ever tuning solution you choose has the ability to adjust ignition timing.

The combination of the mufflers and air cleaner or tuned induction system from Step1, the cams from Step 2 and the increased displacement of a big bore kit in Step 3 provide a tremendous performance increase over stock.  I think it's  great that anything you purchase in the early steps ends up being used.  You just build on what you already have to make something better. 

So what if even this amount of power isn't enough?  Are we at the end of the line?  The answer is no!  We can still have Step 4, which is to have your S&S dealer send your cylinder heads to S&S for CNC porting.  I'll talk about that in my next blog.  Until next week . . .

4 Steps To Better Performance: Step 2 - Cams

In my last blog, I covered the gains you’d get by installing a set of S&S performance slip-on mufflers and an S&S intake system - either a teardrop air cleaner kit or our tuned induction system.  That's step 1 of our 4-Step performance program.  Today I want to talk about taking the next step.  Step 2.

In Step 2  we add a set of cams to the mufflers and intake.  This will result in even greater power gains, but it requires someone with fairly advanced mechanical skills and technical know-how.  That's why we strongly suggest that the cam installation and tuning be performed by a qualified S&S dealer.  Any time you open an engine, there is a potential for trouble for an untrained mechanic who may not have the proper tools.  But just as importantly, installing a set of S&S cams will certainly require fuel system and possibly ignition tuning.  Although there are many riders who are excellent tuners, I would urge anyone who has any doubt about how it works to have your dealer take care of installation and tuning.  

When considering a cam change there are several things to think about.  The first is the kind of riding you will do, and the second is how far you intend to go with performance modifications.

If you are a drag racer, you are looking for the most horsepower you can get but a touring rider wants more midrange torque.  The racer is going to launch hard and wind it up from there.  The touring rider is just the opposite.  They’re more concerned with being able to roll it on and easily pass a semi or go up a big hill and will probably rarely rev the engine over 5000 rpm.  So high rpm horsepower really doesn't matter.  These are two very different applications and require two different cams.  For the owner of a 2007 or later big twin who wants top end horsepower, I'd recommend our 585 cam.  The touring guy should consider our 551 cam because it is a midrange torque monster.  Our 583 cams are somewhere in between.

If cams, pipes, and intake are all you intend to do to your bike, you should choose the best cams for that configuration.  If, on the other hand, you are going to install a big bore kit and have your heads ported later, you may want to go with a cam that may not be the best fit right now, but will be killer when it all comes together.  That's a personal choice and  something to think about.

One product I recommend to anybody considering a cam upgrade for a 1999 and later big twin, is the S&S Easy start cams.    These cams are the latest S&S innovation and have an automatic mechanical compression release built into each of the exhaust cam lobes.  At cranking speeds the compression release is active, releasing a little of the cylinder pressure so the starter can easily turn the engine.  When the engine starts and rpm increases, the compression release is centrifugally withdrawn, and the engine runs at full compression and power.  The result is that with Easy Start cams, a stock starter and battery will start just about any engine – regardless of displacement or compression ratio.  What's more it will start it repeatedly without wearing down the battery! 

During development to test these cams, we built an automatic control box and hooked it up to a late model bike with Easy Start cams.  The control box automatically started the engine once every minute, let it idle for about 30 seconds, and shut it down again.  This cycle repeated over and over.  A great test, but it can be a little unnerving to have a riderless bike starting up and shutting down by itself.  One of our test bikes had over 30,000 consecutive starts on it before we pulled the plug.  The amazing thing is that during the test, it never ran down the battery.  When we tore down the motor to inspect it, everything was fine.  S&S has a display that we bring to the major rallies that demonstrates this.  You can see it at Laconia and J&P open house  in June, and at the Sturgis Rally in August.  View our event calender here.

In case you are not convinced, here's another demonstration of how well the Easy Start cams work.  We took two identical bikes with stock 96" stock engines, and installed our 585 cams in both of them.  One bike had our standard cams and one had Easy start cams.  We put a brand new, fully charged battery in each bike, pull the spark plug wires off, and hit the starter buttons.  Within a minute the bike with standard cams had ground to a halt, but the one with the easy start cams just kept on going - like that rabbit beating the bass drum in those TV commercials.  We re-attached the plug wires on the bike with Easy Start cams and it started up instantly.  We made a video of this test in case you want to check it out.

So to conclude for this week, in Step 2 we added a set of cams and a big performance boost to last week’s Step 1 air cleaner and mufflers.  Remember, if in doubt, to have a qualified S&S dealer do the installation and tuning required to make it work.  I personally recommend the S&S Easy Start cams - your battery and starter will thank you.

Next week we’ll talk about Step 3 and bolt on an easy to install big bore kit to bring that 96" engine up to 106", or that 88" engine up to 97".  Until then. . .

4-Steps To Better Performance: Step 1

Let's face it - stock motorcycles aren't very exciting for performance.  For some people stock is OK, for others improved power and performance matters big time!  That's why S&S Cycle has been so successful in the high performance aftermarket business for over 50 years.  There are enough riders who want more from their Harley® than what they got off dealer's show room floor, that S&S has a large customer base all over the world.  So if you don't care about going fast, you can stop reading right now.  For those of you who do care about increasing your bikes performance, read on.

Last week I mentioned the 4-Step program for increasing the performance of your bike in manageable and economical steps.  Today I want to elaborate on the first step, which is performance exhaust and intake. 

The first step most Harley® owners take to increase performance is to install a set of aftermarket performance slip-on mufflers.  That's a great start, but you have to be sure the pipes you are looking at are really performance oriented, and that they aren't just bling.  They say that "chrome won't getcha' home" and I can tell you that it won't make you go any faster either.  Of course everybody wants their bike to look good.  I'm no different.  I won't bolt something ugly on my bike, but I won't bolt on something that doesn't work either.  That's why S&S slip-on mufflers are great looking, but first and foremost, they are designed to perform.  We’re especially proud of our new line of touring mufflers for 1995-up baggers.

What a lot of riders may not be aware of is how the combination of a performance exhaust system and a low restriction air intake yield a larger performance increase than either one by itself.  S&S has been known for performance carburetors and air cleaners for Harley riders since the mid 1960's. Our high flow teardrop air cleaner has become an icon in the industry.  It looks great on almost any bike, but more importantly, it lets your engine breathe and make more power.  An S&S air cleaner and a set of our slip-ons generally will get you about 10 more horsepower on an otherwise stock motorcycle.  That's a pretty good return on your investment.  It's probably the cheapest horsepower you can get.

More recently, we introduced the S&S tuned induction systems.  These are very cool looking with dual forward swept tuned length intake runners, and conical air filters.  Admittedly, not everybody likes this more radical styling, but anybody into performance can appreciate the boost in torque and horsepower from the "tuned ram effect" that the tuned length intake tracts provide.  The tuned induction system and a set of S&S slip-on mufflers can give you up to 15 horsepower over stock, plus more torque.  So S&S offers a couple of options for style and performance, teardrop air cleaners for the more traditional minded, and tuned induction systems for those who are looking for even more performance and want something with a more aggressive look.

Another important factor about Step 1 of our 4-Step program is that it is not usually necessary to recalibrate the stock closed loop EFI system after a muffler and air cleaner are installed.  If you decide that you do want to maximize performance through fuel system tuning, we carry several jet kits for stock CV carbs plus our EZFI® and VFI modules for tuning your EFI system.  So an air cleaner and muffler combination is economical to purchase, easy to install, and doesn't always require tuning.  That makes it really attractive as a first step. 

Next week, I'll talk about Step 2.  That's where we add a set of cams to the mufflers and intake we installed in Step 1.  This is a little more involved and we definitely recommend that this step be installed and tuned by an S&S dealer, so you get the most bang for your buck. 

Let's take the next step next week!

Back To Basics

My father, George J. Smith  founded S&S Cycle in 1958 with a friend of his named Stan Stankos.  Smith and Stankos - that’s where the S&S originally came from.   My dad had established a reputation for having the fastest Harley in the Chicago, Illinois area and there was demand for the innovations he had incorporated into his own bike and he and Stankos thought there might be a market for his ideas.  Stankos was busy with his auto trim service, so a year later  he sold his interest in S&S to my mom and dad.  My mom Marjorie had been doing all the advertising and bookwork, and since her maiden name was also Smith, my dad  continued with the S&S name, but now it stood for Smith and Smith.

S&S started out producing light-weight aluminum pushrod and solid lifter conversion kits for Harley® big twins.  The pushrod kits solved a valve train performance problem in the knuckle and pan engines.  With the stock valve train, the valves would float and/or the lifters collapse at high rpm, limiting the performance potential of those engines.  Later, stroker flywheels, carburetors, Sidewinder® big bore cylinders and pistons, and a host of other parts were added to the product line.  The point is that S&S built a reputation for making the best parts you could buy to hop up the performance of a stock Harley-Davidson® motorcycle.

By the early 1990’s, we had enough parts to put together a nearly complete engine.  At that time there weren’t enough new bikes from Milwaukee to go around, and it could take a year and a half or so to get a new Harley.  There were enough aftermarket replacement parts available to scratchbuild a complete rolling chassis.  The only part that was hard to come by was the engine, and S&S was able to fill that gap, so it’s no surprise that many entrepreneurs began building custom bikes in the Harley style. 

Through the 1990’s S&S became the premier supplier of engines for these new companies who were building v-twin motorcycles.  We came to call them the “Custom OE” manufacturers, and they bought a lot of engines from us.  At that time the economy was booming and a lot of Harley riders would replace their stock engine with one of our S&S high performance engines.  S&S became known more as an engine company than as an aftermarket performance parts company.  That’s how the market was until a few years ago

The past decade, Harley-Davidson increased production so that there is no shortage of bikes.  Import bikes have made an art form of copying the Harley cruiser and bagger silhouette.  At the same time, the U.S. economy has gone into recession aided by the credit collapse.  The result is that a lot of the custom OE companies are struggling or have gone out of business, and a lot fewer Harley owners can afford to replace their entire stock motor with an S&S engine, because that requires a large cash outlay at one time.  These riders still like going fast, but to do it they are modifying a stock Harley as their budget allows.  That’s how the market is now.

In response to these market demands, S&S has come up with a number of economical, easy to install products to boost the performance of stock late model (twin cam) Harley-Davidson bikes.  Our Easy Start compression release cams, teardrop air cleaners, tuned induction systems, 97" & 106" big bore kits, CNC porting service, and a new line of touring mufflers are all good examples of this type of product.  These parts can be installed one at a time, and each addition will complement the performance of the go-fast parts you've already installed. We call this "back to basics" because making go-fast parts for American v-twins has always been the core of our business since the beginning in 1958.

That's the basics of our 4-Step performance program, but more about that  next time.

What "Proven Performance" Really Means

It all started over 50 years ago when my father, George J Smith, tested his own go-fast parts on his Harley at the local dragstrips throughout Illinois and the punishing high speed runs at the Bonneville Salt Flats. S&S designed parts proved their superior performance at the race track. We continued that heritage throughout our history. Today, about half the qualifying field of 16 bikes at each NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle National Event are powered by S&S v-twin racing engines. Those bikes have wons national championships two of the last three seasons. That’s “Proven Performance!”

At S&S Cycle, we are committed to designing and producing the best parts possible for Harley-Davidson® motorcycles. Parts are conceived using the latest 3-D modeling software, and initial prototypes are often made on our rapid protyping machine. The parts are tested at the track, a number of different dynos, several engine endurance test stands and we put on a lot of good old-fashioned road miles. Sometimes we break things on purpose just to see what it takes. We always learn something from it, and that makes our parts better. We use the best materials available, and machine our parts on modern CNC machining centers to ensure the highest quality and the best value for our customers. Our quality control department also uses state of the art digital measuring equipment to make sure our parts are made to rigid specifications and tolerances.

In spite of all these efforts, once in a great while, a bad part gets out the door. Unfortunate as that is, anyone who has been involved in manufacturing knows that it can happen. It's just a fact of life. What separates the men from the boys is how the situation is handled should it arise.

Here at S&S we have built a reputation on performance and quality. With our exhaustive testing program, we know how well our parts perform. After all, our company motto is Proven Performance®. But there is another aspect to Proven Performance that has to do with how we do business. If a customer has a legitimate problem with an S&S part, we will take care of it. Period.

We maintain a full time tech staff, and these are some of the most knowledgeable guys in the industry. In a lot of cases they can correct potential problems right over the phone. In the event that we do need to get a part back for inspection or repair, our remanufacturing department is well equipped to handle just about any situation that may arise.

What this means to you is that you can buy S&S products with confidence. We want you to be happy with your purchase, and we will do our best to make sure you are. Great parts and great service. That's Proven Performance too.