Voyage of the Vaquero
 

My story starts back in July of last year (2014). I was online looking at some exhaust and random other things for the 2012 Vaquero I bought that January. I went to the Thunder Manufacturing site, as I had many time before, and found myself looking at the HI-Performance kits for the 1500’s and 1600’s. I had recently read an old magazine article about two editors from competing magazines settling an old rivalry on the dragstrip using Meanstreaks that Thunder had worked over with the 1500 kit.

“Where is the kit for the 1700?” I wondered to myself.

So I decided to email them.

The reply I got back was short and to the point. “Are you near Phoenix? We need a bike to do development on.”

After about 5 minutes of thought, I sent back, “No, I’m near Austin, but I could bring it to you.”

“Why don’t you call us and talk to Dave (Rollins).”

This began the getting to know Dave process.

After several phone calls, we had developed a solid report. I began to understand just how much he knows about building motors, and he started to realize my passion for bikes and performance.

A deal was struck.

One Friday in mid-August, I mounted my vaquero and headed west. 18 hours later, I pulled in to the parking lot at Thunder, just about 8 a.m. local time. There were 2 Indians and 1 Harley waiting as well, to get some tune-up work done. Since I wasn’t in a hurry, we went ahead and let them go first. And I’m glad we did. I got to watch Travis (Dave’s son) pull these machines, one by one, on to the dyno and tweak them. I have seen many people dyno bikes, but let me tell you, Travis is an artist.

Once all that was done, we went ahead and strapped my bike to the big roller to get an idea how it was running. A couple of pulls later, with no tuning other than my adjustments made by butt tuning, we had some numbers.

Roarin Toyz intake, PCV, Freedom Performance 2-1

85 hp 100 lb/ft

Not too shabby.

We discussed what we wanted to get out of the motor in terms of power and torque, and where in the RPM range we wanted it to hit. We were all excited. They had never had a 1700 open, and neither had any of their many friends and contacts in the performance world. This was going to be a learning project for everyone.

A couple hours later, I got on a plane and flew home, leaving my bike that I had only had for 7 months and 15,000 miles, behind.

The next few months, I talked with Dave on the phone many times as he sent pictures and described the process of tearing down the motor, and designing new pistons and cams. The porting and polishing of the heads and intake manifold and the flow testing, and the reassembly process (most of the time was used by the manufacturers tooling up and creating the first prototype parts).

Then around Christmas, I got the call that the bike had started. And it was time to begin the task of tuning and breaking it in.

So on January 30th, I went to the airport and boarded a plane (2 hours late) to fly to Phoenix (where the Superbowl was). Dave picked me up at about 11:30 p.m. local time, from a very crowded Sky Harbor International, and took me someplace I could get some sleep.

3:30 a.m. local time, my alarm went off and it was time to get up and get geared up for the ride home. The most important gear for this ride was the rain gear. It was raining when I set out, and it rained almost all the way home.

18 hours later (ok…17 ½ hours later), I pulled in to the driveway of a friend’s house where there was a birthday party happening, that I had promised to attend.

The ride was wonderful! It was wet, and chilly through New Mexico, but the bike performed flawlessly. The power was on tap, in every gear, no matter where the tach was pointing.

The reason for this? Easy…

111 hp 117 lb/ft

Worth every second I had to wait. Worth the crappy plane rides. Worth the lack of sleep both ways. And the best part, mine is now a one of a kind…until someone else buys the kit…which will be on the website soon.

Before-

Comparison of before and after. Before in blue, after in red.

Does it run on 87 or does it require higher octane? Does it ping? Just wondering. Those numbers are an improvement, especially on the HP side. It has to pull a lot better than stock, which I found sedate, like the 1600 was.

With an aftermarket fuel processor and BAK a 1700 pulls pretty good, much better than stock. The Thunder improvements must make the 1700 a blast to ride.

When I test rode a stock voyager and ultra, I couldn't tell any difference in performance and the HD had a 96" engine. Kawasaki tunes it very mellow, so it's no surprise it wakes up.

Cool story and kudos on the patience and perseverance to wind up with a one of a kind bike that has helped further the 1700 platform! :tup:

Gypsy, I saw you drive by the house this week on the Vaquero, now I know where it has been for months. You were two up and I sounded good going by. I did not see if you were smiling ear to ear, but I know I would have been.

GREAT NUMBERS!!! That thing's gotta be a monster. Gotta be a blast to ride it!

When I had a looksie into the intake ports back in 2011 when I sealed my intake manifold I could see there were huge improvements to be made with the heads. In many many ways the 1700's are very mildly tuned and specifications. The work done on your skoot shows how so much of that can be negated.

Alas I am fortunate to have a 165 H.P./100 pnd torque Hayabusa that weighs 500 pnds fully fueled that fills my need for more than what the Vaq delivers....So far!!!

But the thought has always and will always be there, pull the engine, pull the heads, flow em, develop porting changes, make the changes, perform my fully contoured 5 angle valve job, re-flow the heads, deck them to bump up the compression, degree in the cams, etc. Even tho I enjoy doin this stuff and have the equipment to do it, it's gonna take a major thrust of the brain to make it happen. I can't just "drop it off" to have it done as I'm the darn fool that'll be spending late nites at the shop, doesn't appeal to me like it did 15 years ago.

But it would be nice to have something stronger than my 88 H.P./108 pnds torque, that was when the skoot was much younger. Last time on my dyno with bout 65,000 mls it was down to 85 H.P./105 pnds torque. Now where's the key to that Busa/

Darn it GD...those gears that have been layin dormant are spinnin again!!

How about a full pic of the whole dyno graph showing the end results?

RACNRAY

It DOES require high octane. Dave recommended in the summer, especially if I am going to be hot rodding, to add octane boost, even to the 93, just because of how aggressive the timing is.

I've been ear-to-ear all week. :D:D

Ray- once the port and polish was done, and that big dividing wall was taken out of the intake port, the flow test said the heads would support 160 hp. We wanted to keep it below 120 so we could use the stock bottom end.

NOTE- for those that have complained about intake noise when installing an open air cleaner, you ain't heard nuttin yet. There are dividing walls in the intake ports that act as sound baffles. Once you remove them, and open up the intake ports and the manifold, the sound coming out of the intake is nothing short of insane. You can actually hear the intake valves slapping closed after every intake stroke. Me...I LOVE IT!

I will get him to email me one the maps at the end of the process. Apparently it took 79 rides on the rolling road, so there are plenty to choose from.

Also, I'm EXTREMELY glad i had the opportunity to do this. As much as I would have LOVED to build the motor myself, alas, I don't have the equipment, or space, or time. I also don't have the connections to the manufacturers he does. And, to be honest, this kind of prototype build is above my knowledge. I really would have loved to be able to be there to turn wrenches, helping to tear it down and build it back up, but 1042 miles separation is the price I chose to pay, when I decided on what I believed to be the best shop to do this work. Their history building drag bikes for the Kawasaki team is long and successful.

Voyage of the Vaquero
 

Wow, really cool story/ 'adventure'..... enjoy! :tup: