Harley-Davidson Night Train to Racer

I’M a mechanic and have been for the past 20 years. I’ve worked on everything from everyday cars, hotrods, race cars, boats and so on, dyno tuning them and modifying them. 

This Harley-Davidson Night Train was the first bike I ever brought back in 2013. It was stock other than the Big Radius pipes. I had hardly ridden on the road before (but had been riding dirt bikes from a young age) I rode the Harley away from the shop I got it from.

It had 12,890 km on it and at 13,323 km it all started. It’s the first Harley i ever worked on. I did everything from swapping engines and fitting all the bolt-ons.

I got hold of a 103 ci long motor from my mate Daniel Breeze in WA. It came with 120R rocker covers, rocker boxes and timing cover so there was no need to modify the standard rocker boxes to take the large valve springs fitted in the heads. It’s got SE 258 cams, Perfect Fit pushrods, MVA heads with manual decompression buttons. It’s pretty much a Stage 4 103 ci with 58 mm bigger injectors, manifold and SE Pro Race Tuner.

It’s also fitted with a SE adjustable race clutch and basket.

I tuned the bike myself on a bike dyno I was lucky enough to get the use of as a friend worked for the manufacturer at the time. I was only interested in tuning the mixtures and timing. I never printed a power-graph as they’re only numbers anyway that people try and say mine’s got more than yours. It’s on the street where the bullshit stops and the racing starts.

It’s all standard bottom-end and most people would say I’m crazy but I regularly turn the engine to 6800 rpm where I set the rev-limiter to, and its power all the way there. It’s very easy to hit the limiter in 1st to 4th gear giving it a little gas.

I changed the hand control and mirrors to Arlen Ness RAD lll controls, spike grips and other spike accents.

Fat spoke rims: front 21 x 2.15 inches; and the rear is 18 x 5.5 inches with matching rear drive pulley and two-piece rotors. 

Billit 2-inch forward control with matching rear pegs.

It now has a solo seat instead of the factory one. 

The bike goes really well and I’m very happy with it at the moment. Later, I’m looking to modify the engine with bigger cams, more comp, porting or just go Pro Charged.

BRADLEY PEAK