Voyage of the Vaquero

[Gypsy Dragon]

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.