March/April 2017 39
The following weekend I took the bike out
to stretch its legs again. It snowed the night
before and was still raining and snowing but
that didn't stop me from giving it another test
ride. The air filter modification worked and
the bike was lifting the front end up with ease
and screaming up the street in the snow. I
tractored around a few trails, did some single
track, along with a hill climb, and called it a
day. The issue was fixed and the bike ran great!
Now comes the once-over to find out
what bolts fell out from the "shakedown"
ride!
A lot of people ask about vibrations on
these big bores. These bikes do vibrate
but they are tolerable unless the engine
mounts come loose. When the bolts
that hold the engine to the frame or the
handle bar bolts are loose, then you'll
feel painful vibrations. The bones in your
fingers will clank together, your teeth
will chatter, and any RPM over 4,000,
you won't be able to hold on. In fact, you
won't even know if you're holding on or
not. So you need to ensure all of your
bolts are tight on these bikes.
If you enjoyed this article and you want
to learn more, visit my YouTube channel,
"Opferman Motors". There you will see
this bike running, riding on the
trails, as well as the full
build of this bike in a
series of 20 videos.
