Supercharged Harley-Davidson Night Rod Special & Charlotte

DANNY had a hankering for a new ride that stepped a little outside the bulk of what he was seeing on his local and online streets, so he headed into his local dealer to pick himself up some Italian wheels.

“I went in to buy a Ducati Diavel as it wasn’t being targeted by the police as much, but ironically ended up with a Harley-Davidson V-Rod which seems to attract a lot of unwanted attention now-a-days!”

The updated and modern styling of the new Nigh Rod caught Danny’s eye but the extra performance was what sealed the deal.

“It had a sportier stance, being a cross between a sport bike and a normal Harley-Davidson. The main selling point for me was that it was the quickest Harley-Davidson off the showroom floor.

After doing his research a long list of modifications was written up but first Danny had to put some miles under the wheels to satisfy the dealer it had been run-in sufficiently.

“Back then you had to do 1600 kays before they’d let you do any modifications like fitting pipes to it, so the very first Saturday I went straight to Pinjarra Bakery for lunch and then back, plus a few more hundred kays. I then went back to the dealer and told them to fit my bloody pipes! They’re actually quite quiet from the factory so I chose the loudest Vance & Hines I could get.”

The Vance & Hines Indy Series pipes were duly bolted on, heralding the arrival of the bike well before any sign of it is possible.

Some original styled bars came next but keeping ahead of the curve required some changes soon after fitting them.

“Initially, I went with ape-hangers and everyone laughed at me, but now every second V-Rod has apes so I changed to 16-inch T-Bars. They’re the first of their kind and custom made by Adam at Burleigh Bars being two-inches thick. Coops at Coops Custom Cycles did all the work to get them made and fitted. Now Burleigh has started to produce the two-inch Highballs after getting a lot of interest after making mine.”

More mods followed with a monster rear tyre soon making its way west.

“I struck up a friendship with Nick Dalton at Garage 84 through Facebook. He’s an absolute guru when it comes to V-Rods. So I saved my pennies and got the first 300 rear kit for a V-Rod through him. The 26-inch front wheel came from McCully Customs a bit later and was selected to match the rear.”

 Muscle plastics were fitted, and after initially going with a white finish on his rims with matching white stripes, Danny had Simon from Wheel Gleam polish and paint the wheels for the result you see now. The paint was returned to its original denim guise.

Once the looks and sound were out of the way, Danny needed something to stay ahead of the pack in the horsepower department, and adding more capacity made the most sense.

“I went to see Tony and Andrew at Perth Harley-Davidson for some help with the Destroyer kit, which was cams, injectors and throttle body. This got me around the 147 rear wheel HP mark so the bike was pretty quick.”

But it wasn’t enough.

After getting into contact with David Costa at Knight Industries in Melbourne, Danny soon had himself a Sprintex supercharger ready to bolt between the jugs, but to keep intake temps down and allow for a safety margin for the engine, a conversion to E85 fuel was first carried out. This involved changing injectors, fitting a larger fuel regulator located in the horn’s normal position, new fuel pump, plus the fuel lines needed to be changed to eliminate the degradation OEM rubber lines see after coming into contact with the corn juice. Iridium spark plugs topped off the changeover.

Getting the tune right to suit the supercharger and E85 took a couple of workshops to nail down, with the final 187 rear wheel HP being achieved by Simon at Extreme Ford Tuning.

“He’s a wiz at tuning the bike!”

The extra power is handled by a Barnett clutch after the original finally cried no more.

Danny would like to thank all previously mentioned as well as Leigh Robson for his tuning tips, Steve Bulla for all the tows, and Charlotte for a great shoot.

words by Danny Cuccovia; photos by Brad Miskiewicz

Charlotte

I WAS asked by my good friend Danny to be in a photo-shoot with his amazing bike, but as I have never done modelling before or a photo-shoot, I was a bit nervous. But after meeting photographer Brad I felt relaxed and appreciated his ideas on the right poses to use and now I definitely feel really comfortable in front of a camera and ready to do more.