V-Twin Expo 2007

Cincinnati

Bobber: If the bikes on the floor are any
indication, the Bobber phenomenon is still
very much a current trend.

Once a year, the V-twin motorheads all congregate in one place, and that place is Cincinnati. The event is the V-Twin Expo, and it is quite simply more cool stuff than you’ve ever seen in one place at one time. All the big vendors are in evidence, like Drag and Custom Chrome and Performance Machine, along with a huge mix of what I call medium sized companies with names like TP Engineering, Rolling Thunder and Xtreme Machine Wheels. Of course there are likewise a large number of smaller and newer companies like Maverick Publications with two new magazines (American Bagger and American Cycle) and Revolution with their ultra light wheels.

Perhaps the best thing about Cinci is the fact that everyone there is involved directly in the motorcycle business. The salesmen at the Avon or Drag booth are writing orders or explaining new products to the men and women who work in, or own, a shop or store. There are no moms and dads with the kids like there are at a more typical motorcycle show.

X-Wedge: From Rucker Performance,
this very sexy hot rod with hand formed
panels is one of the bikes at the show
powered by the new S&S X-Wedge engine.

The Really Big News
The biggest news would be the S&S X-wedge motor, much in evidence not just as a display piece, but as a running engine installed in a number of bikes built by shops like Arlen and Cory Ness, and Big Dog. This new air-cooled V-twin uses a 56 degree cylinder angle, a wedge shaped combustion chamber and three camshafts to operate the valves through pushrods and rocker arms.

Designed to bring the air-cooled V-twin into the future while meeting more and more stringent EPA restrictions, the new engine is designed to operate with a S&S fuel injection system, one that puts the injector directly in the head instead of in the intake or throttle body.

Hot: A raw chassis equipped with a pair of
too tall wheels.

What’s Hot
The hot stuff in Cincinatti included the super-tall wheels, with diameters up to 24 inches for the front and 21 in the rear. Response to these seems to be a mixed bag, though both Avon and Metzeler are making tires in the new larger diameters. Though these might look cool, the diameter is larger than any other wheel/tire used on V-twins, meaning the wheels will lift the bike further up off the ground (at a time when most of us are trying to get the bike closer to the asphalt), don’t match the radius of any commonly available fenders, change the final gearing and may even require a longer swingarm. Whether we like them or not, they seem to be here to stay. Years ago, when my Mother would complain about rock and roll music, I told her that “the music has to change.” So perhaps when it comes to wheel diameters, the change is unavoidable.

Display: FBI offers these fat tire kits
as well as complete motorcycles.

Just as hot as the too-tall wheels is anything having to do with Baggers. FBI (Fat Baggers Inc) is now selling their own complete motorcycles equipped with mostly Harley-Davidson sheet metal. Like Baggers on steroids, these come with a 250 or 300 tire, a stretched frame, 124 inch engine and wild paint. These are cruisers that haul ass. If the FBI Baggers aren’t cool enough, Redneck Engineering introduced a totally custom Bagger that could only come from the computer screen of Vince Doll. With a long frame, lots of rake, a very sleek fairing and a set of long skinny bags, this twin-cam powered ride pretty much stole the show in Cincinnati. Available either as a rolling chassis kit with fairing and bags, or as a complete bike, The Redneck Bagger comes with a 300 tire, yet it’s probably not as wide across the rear as a stock Bagger.

Redneck: The bike that stole the show,
the Redneck Bagger

Fat?: Notice how this fat-tire Bagger
isn’t really very fat at all.

In the brake department, Arlen and Cory Ness, and a few others, are offering wheels with perimeter brakes. Instead of pinching a rotor with a diameter of 10 or 12 inches, which is bolted to the hub, these new brakes attach the rotor to the rim, which gives the caliper much more leverage. Because the rotor attaches to the rim, the action of the caliper is transmitted directly to the tire, without the need to be transmitted through the spokes.

Cool Wheels: A new feather-weight wheel
from Revolution.

Among all the chrome and billet, however, were some very cool wheels made from carbon fiber. With a weight of about 9 pounds for a wide wheel, these are waaaaay lighter and stronger than anything cut on a CNC machine. They’re not cheap, but actually are not as expensive as some of the upper-end billet wheels. The look is as new as the wheels themselves, and for some people, wheels just have to be made of polished aluminum. For those of us with a somewhat more open mind however, it might be another example of new music with a pleasing melody. Listen to the lyrics and you begin to understand how a motorcycle can accelerate faster without more horsepower.

The sales of complete custom V-twins and customized parts may have slowed down, but that deceleration doesn’t seem to have transferred to the people who make the calipers, frames, lights and complete motorcycles. At Cincinnati the lights are green and everyone is running full speed ahead.