SKDZ Supercharged Harley-Davidson & Kristylee
“On our second ride, in second gear, just under pure acceleration, it would spin the rear tyre for as long as you were willing to hold on to it…” said Jason.
I BOUGHT the very last Softail Standard brand-new. It was the last one of its kind so it was going to be the best one of its kind—that’s my theory—it was balls out, just go for it. It took me three months to finish. It was a sideline project I did after-hours.
I started with the motor. I went with an 124-cubic-inch, S&S, high-comp drag motor with a 640 cam—except that’s wasn’t fast enough so I put a supercharger on it as well.
Every single part of the supercharger and engine was either chromed or colour-coded—gloss black and airbrushed candy orange—to the bike.
The gearbox uses a Baker insert.
The Shockwave Pipes were originally off my Rocker C. I had them re-chromed and re-jigged to fit the Softail.
The HHI front-end, raked three-degrees, was lowered an inch-and-a-half and fitted with Progressive Suspension and Ness, slotted, blind leg sliders which cover the axles.
The hand-fabricated front guard was dropped down so it sits real close to the tyre.
The Performance Machine, six-spot front brakes work on floating rotors.
Burleigh, inch-and-three-quarter T-bars were custom-made with four-inch-up, two-inch-back risers.
The RC Components Savage wheels are 23 inches on the front; 18 inches on the rear.
I used Accutronixs controls, levers, grips, and front pegs; and Joker Machine dash and centre-console.
On the rear you’ll find SAS Air-Ride suspension; Alloy Art rear blinkers and rear footpegs; and I kept the bike belt-drive even though everybody advised against it; I’ve never broken one.
A Brawler seat was modified to fit the stretched tank. Todd at Eastside Custom Trim is responsible for the crocodile around the sides and the leather insert.
KPR Industries, Joe, helped me out with heaps of different pieces, and while there’s a lot of custom stuff in this bike, I used a lot of H-D Genuine parts too because they fit the best and ultimately they last longer.
Nathan from HogLights in Queensland talked us up with the Daymaker LED insert.
The paint was done by Hans the Paint Doctor in Queensland; it was to replicate my original Softail only it had ‘No Mercy No Regrets’ on the tank same as my chest tattoo.
When it was finally finished and I put it on the dyno, it felt like it was going to melt your brains—it was ballistic. It made 202 horsepower at the rear wheel, and 178 foot-pounds of torque, and it was still only a brand new motor so I didn’t push it as far as I could have.
A lot of development went into tuning the supercharger. I kept playing around with the boost; ended up with about 10 pounds. I made a billet fuel-rail and used a 58 mil HPI throttle body.
Steve Stanley, one of the best tuners in Australia, measured what horsepower per cylinder we had and what flow rate we needed, and it worked out we needed more than 100 horsepower per cylinder so we ended up using 1000 cc injectors from a V8 Commodore.
I think the whole suburb knew about that bike being on the dyno. We have a supermarket five kilometres away and the cashiers were asking what was on the dyno. It rattled tools off the benches; it felt like your internals were melting.
The first ride up the road, in second gear, it smashed the compensator sprocket to pieces.
On our second ride, in second gear, just under pure acceleration, it would spin the rear tyre for as long as you were willing to hold on to it; it tested my ability to the max. It would lay a 50 metre skid in third gear just pulling the trigger. There’s no other bike around like it—nothing!
Once the ‘SKDZ’ number plate went, that’s what it is known as; nobody calls it a Softail. People come to see it just after seeing a video of it on Facebook.
It got knocked back at the drags; they wouldn’t let us run it because of all the sharp points so we never got a time for it. On the night, we took a Stage 6 bike with us; it was doing 10.8 on the drag strip. When we were riding together, in his third gear going flat-out, I pulled past him in fourth gear like he was going backwards, and left him in rubber and smoke and sticks and whatever.
It’s a cool bike. Unbelievable. Unbelievable sound, nothing rides like it, nothing’s as fast as it. SKDZ is phenomenal.
words by Jason; photos by John Turton
Kristylee
HI, I’m a model, actress and makeup artist. Loving life and being in front of the camera. I won Miss Crusty Demons a few years back and I regularly compete in swimwear and lingerie comps with many winning results.
My acting got me a cameo in Underbelly and a few TV ads. I’ve also done photoshoots for fashion, swimwear, lingerie with many big brands. Now I’ve got a feature on my favourite Ozbike magazine—woohoo!
