The Great Knucklehead Cylinder Controversy

Since the title of this blog is Knucklehead Theology, you are probably wondering why so little has been said about Knuckleheads so far. Not to worry, having owned and ridden Knuckleheads for over 25 years, and drag raced them for about 15, there is plenty to come.

Today I would like to talk a little bit about Knucklehead cylinders. We have all heard the horror stories of broken Knuck cylinders. And it is my guess that there are nearly as many theories as to why they break, as there are those stories. I am not going to claim to have the definitive answer, only theories of my own. This is one that I would love to have comments from others with their own thoughts.

The first time I saw a knuckle cylinder break, was while attending Motor Cycle Mechanics school at Hutchinson Area Vocational Technical Institute in about 1979. One of the other students (a Triumph guy) had brought in a Knuck chopper to work on for a friend of his. The engine that he had was a 61", but it had cylinders that were bored out to 74" plus. I don't recall exactly how much plus they were, but it would not surprise me if they were +.060 or +.070.

That is not unusual to find, but it does leave you with very low compression. There are no 74" bore pistons that are made for a 61" stroke (at least not that I have ever found), which leaves you stuck running normal 74" pistons. The only problem with that is due to the difference in wrist pin location and stroke between them, the 74" piston will be nearly a 1/4" lower at TDC than a 61" piston. (61" is 3 1/2" stroke/ 74" is 3 31/32")

Don't know if it was the owner's idea, the student's idea, or the instructor's idea, but someone's solution was to shave material off the base gasket surface to get the pistons closer to the top. I winch just thinking about it now. One wrinkle was that before the engine was assembled, another student bought the bike! The results were predictable. After the new owner finished assembling the engine, during initial start up, one backfire while kicking broke the cylinder off at the base! As a side note, the new owner bought a set of used 61" cylinders which were also at a 74" bore. He rode the bike for one season, and then sold me the knuckle engine when he bought a new "crate" Shovelhead motor. I ran that engine for many years and many, many miles with that ultra low compression.

The next time I had occasion to see an "exploded" knuckle cylinder, was a case of being in the right place at the right time. I happened to pull up to a stoplight behind another knucklehead. As the rider attempted to pull away in a quite normal manner, his front cylinder lifted. Of course I pulled over to see if I could lend a hand. This was in about the mid 1980s, so my memory is less than clear, but I do believe that the part of the piston which unfortunately was now in full view, was badly scored.

Fast forward about 10 years. While not a knuckle, the next broken cylinder that I remember seeing shares some similarities. This was on an old Pan/Shovel stroker belonging to one of the owners of the shop I worked for at the time. It had a set of +.070 stock cylinders. This one I took personally, because I had recently bored the cylinders. This one too had a badly scored piston skirt. (I believe that the scoring was due to the cylinders being powder coated after boring them which may have distorted them)

Soon after this, another acquaintance on his knucklehead had a cylinder explode while accelerating from a stop sign. As best as I can recall, this also had a badly scored piston. (I do not believe that I had anything to do with building that motor)

It should be obvious by now that all but the first incident that I related had one thing in common (at least if my memory serves me). That, of course is that in each case the broken cylinder was accompanied by a scored piston. As far as I know, they all shared one other thing in common; a large overbore on the cylinders.

Somewhere along the line a customer brought me a set of +.060 Knuckle cylinders to check for him. Looking at the bore I found something quite interesting. The bore had actually turned blue between the fins. Honestly, you could see where the fins were from the inside because the spaces between them was blue! For years after this I avoided boring Knuckle cylinders more than +.050. I just knew that if the cylinders were thin enough to turn blue like that, they had to be on the verge of exploding.

I am not so sure anymore. Over the years I have had the pistons score badly on my wife's 61" Knuckle numerous times, for numerous reasons. At least one set can be chalked up to the manufacturer. I saved the little instruction sheet that came with the pistons which called for .001 clearance. A couple more sets of identical pistons gave similar results. Then another set of identical pistons came with a similar little instruction sheet which called for .003 clearance. Oops! Another set went because we went for a weekend trip with a group of friends when the engine was fresh, the weather hot, and the speeds excessive. Another I attribute to a burned out head gasket sucking air. Well, you get the idea. But no matter how many pistons we scored with that 61", the thick cylinders held up fine.

Maybe I should point something out here. When I speak of a "scored" piston in a Harley, it is in reality a piston that has seized. The reason that in most cases the engine does not stop, is because of the extreme weight of the Harley flywheels. If pistons "scored" like this in any other motorcycle engine the motor would be stuck tight. Understanding that this piston scoring phenomena is actually a piston seizing phenomena should really shed some light on the broken knuckle cylinder issue.

Add to this, some anecdotal evidence from my 74" Knucklehead. I have run it for many years at +.050. I never was willing to bore to +.060 for the above mentioned reasons. Each time I have had it apart, I have honed it to bring it back to straight and round. I think that the last time I put it together it was with about .008 clearance on a set of high compression cast pistons. Never a bit of problem, and I run it very hard!

So here is the big question. Are the stock Knucklehead cylinders just too weak to be safe when bored much oversize? Or is the real culprit the mechanic that set them up too tight, causing it to seize? Well, before you go blaming your local mechanic, keep in mind that he probably sized your cylinders to specifications. Its not really his fault if factory specs give bad results, particularly if he does not do many Knuckleheads. Furthermore, too tight set up specs is only one possible reason for your pistons seizing. Anything that adds too much heat, or removes too much oil can give the same results. (think timing, idling in traffic, oil breakdown, etc.)

Are the "cheap" reproduction cylinders prone to breaking too? I really don't know. Some would say that they are. Part of the problem is that most of the information we have will be anecdotal (I can't believe that I am actually going to use that word twice in one day). Since a failure like this tends to be catastrophic, most who experience it once will be leery of taking any chances of it happening again. My guess is that if you had a +.070 break on you once, you would be sure to replace it with one as close to standard as possible rather than making some adjustment and using another +.070.

Well, it looks as though I am going to have to make this into two posts. In the second half I will offer my thoughts and attempt to offer some solutions. In the mean time, I would love to hear from any of you who have had Knuck cylinders break, and the circumstances.

Just a Little More Bad News

In my last post under the label Theology , I wrote a piece called First, the Bad News , concerning the necessity of understanding the bad news of scripture, before you will be able to appreciate the good news (gospel). Unfortunately, just a realization of the bad news, that you are a dirty rotten sinner (just like me) is not the whole story.

The "little more bad news" is, of course neither little in the amount that it is news or in the amount that it is bad. It is both big news, and very bad news. The "little more bad news" is that there is a penalty for breaking the Law of God. Just as our earthly governments set forth penalties for wrongdoing, so the Almighty God also has set forth penalties for breaking his commandments. A big difference is that here in this world we often "get away with" breaking laws. Often we can break the law without anyone ever knowing. Often we are not caught "red handed" and so are given the benefit of the doubt. Often the full penalty of the law is not brought to bear on us, because we are deemed to be a first time offender, or because there are extenuating circumstances.

Not so when it comes to Jehovah's laws though. He sees all of our sins, and knows all of our sins. You are not able to slip anything past God. Even your sins that no other person on earth know about. Psalm 139:1-4 says "O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether." Each of us has been caught red handed by God!

And God, being a totally righteous judge will hand down a perfect judgement. Every sin, every transgression of his law will be punished as it deserves. And there is a judgement coming! 2 Peter 2:9 proclaims "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:"

What is this day of judgement all about? The book of Revelation gives us a pretty good description of what will happen. Revelation 20:11-15 says: "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

Does God "grade on the curve"? Can a man's good deeds outweigh his bad, thus allowing him to escape paying the penalty for his sins? Not according to James 2: 10 "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Guilty of all! A just judge will not allow the guilty to go free. Just as we speak of paying a "debt to society", so must the sinner pay a debt to God.

No, this is the "little more bad news"; All of our sins must be payed for in full. Every last one of them. Bad news and more bad news! But if all of this bad news is causing you to despair, then maybe you really are ready for the good news. I know that I am anxious to get to the good news, and will in my next post on this subject.

When Shovelheads Ruled the World, Part 5

Three races; three class wins and two national records. Not a bad start for a couple guys who only started out to go to one race to see how they measured up. So why would they be thinking about making their bike faster? I guess that just comes down to the basic reason anyone is involved in any kind of racing.

With only the National Finals left in the season, I suppose it was only natural for Bobby and I to try something to go really fast at the last race. Bobby was the ideal partner in this respect. No sooner had we discussed the possibility of more modifications, than he was on the phone researching it.

I am not sure who he called first, but I suspect it was Jim Leineweber. He gave us some specs for distance between the valves while they were on their seats to see which of his larger cams would fit. Jim was probably also the one who suggested higher compression pistons. Lacing up a wider rim to spread the rear tire out and get more rubber on the pavement we figured out ourselves.

A call to Axtell Sales down in Des Moines got us a set of higher compression pistons for the Shovelhead stroker. I wish I could remember with any certainty what compression ratio they where supposed to be. They may have been 12:1. That doesn't sound quite so radical in today's world of efficient combustion chambers, but at a time when the most common modification to a Shovelhead was to put in low compression pistons (7.2:1) it was enough to really get your blood pumping just thinking about it! And beautifully machined forged pistons they were. You could almost feel the horsepower just holding them in your hands!

The cam that we settled on was a Leineweber L5. More lift, more duration, even more power! This was a much more serious race for us than the previous ones had been, so once the parts were in, Bobby sacrificed a couple weeks of riding on the street so that I could get his motor ready.

But first, I tackled lacing the new wider aluminum rim to the rear hub of the drag bike. Again , Bobby had come through by calling around until he found a suitable rim. A wide 18" rim was almost unknown in the Harley world back then, at least in our little corner of the universe. Normally a simple job, lacing this rim was a little more challenging since it came with 40 dimples, but no spoke holes drilled. Nothing my handy Black and Decker 3/8 inch electric drill couldn't handle though; that and a good eyeball that is.

With a week to go before we left for the finals in North Carolina, I got the bike finished. The motor was out of Bobby's Low Rider, new cam and high compression pistons installed, and back into the rigid frame. I think in was a Friday evening when I had it ready to fire up. I pushed it out of my garage, and fired it up.

By the next Friday night we planned to be on the east coast ready to race, so I didn't see any point in babying the new parts. I revved the motor....maybe even a little more than my judgement told me I should. The engine sounded strong, but almost immediately it came to a sudden grinding halt. What had I done?!? I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. Obviously something had gone terribly wrong. Was it from my over revving? Had I made a mistake when I assembled the motor? What now?

So off came the heads again. The valves in one head were a mess; one broken off and the other bent and folded over; the piston far beyond salvage. All of the damage was in one cylinder, but it sure didn't look as if we would be going to the finals!

As I took the engine apart, it became clear that the initial source of the damage was not the valves hitting the piston, or even the valves hitting each other. To this day I am not exactly sure what the cause was. If I had not revved the motor so high, would that have just delayed the "incident" until Bobby was on the strip?

My first instinct was to throw in the towel, but after talking it over with Bobby we decided to at least see if it might be possible to fix the motor in time. Our Matco Tools dealer, who had helped us out with some cash before the Iowa race in exchange for putting his sticker on the bike, offered to pay for a new piston if we wanted to try to fix it in time for the finals. That was enough to seal the deal. We got another piston coming, a couple of valves, and found someone who was willing to replace the damaged valve seat for us on short notice.

Time was running out, but it looked as though it might all come together for us. As soon as I got the head back from having the new seat installed, I did a standard 3 angle valve job on it. In retrospect, I hate to think how much flow we lost from that, but hey, sometimes ignorance is bliss!

Our original plan was to leave right after work on Thursday night, but now I would be re-assembling the top end right after work. The modified plan was to be loaded up and to leave from our house as soon as the bike was ready. I decided that it would be best to actually hear the engine run before we loaded it up, just in case I had neglected something. The last thing I wanted to do was to get to the east coast and find I had left a critical part in my garage in Minnesota.

As the clock neared midnight, I tightened the last few bolts, and a couple of kicks later the engine was running. We probably didn't let it run for more than 10 seconds before I shut if off and we loadeded the bike up. Against all odds we were on our way to the HDRA National Finals in Farmington North Carolina!

Mystery Revealed

I am sorely tempted to save this title for a post concerning theology, but it fits very well here also. The mystery that I am going to address is a damage that most will not have ever encountered, but if you have run in to it before, this will be helpful. I have been working on Harleys professionally for over 25 years, and only come across it a few times. The cause of the damage remained a mystery until quite a few years after first encountering it.

The mystery of which I speak is the unexplained "melted" piston pin boss. The initial symptom will suggest a wrist pin keeper that has come out. The cylinder will be destroyed from the wrist pin coming out and gouging the cylinder wall. Once disassembled though, things look a little less straight forward.

Instead of the wrist pin bore in the piston being intact for the most part, with perhaps some damage to the keeper groove, the spot where the keeper groove would have been looks for all the world like it was melted. This may be on only one end of the wrist pin bore, but more likely will be on both.

There will be no sign of heat discoloration, but it will appear as if the ends of the wrist pin bore in the pistons has melted away. This "melting" does not extend to the top of the piston, which rules out the melting originating in the combustion chamber. The first time I saw it, the word "erosion" immediately came to mind. At the time (mid 1980's), I was employed in a Harley Davidson dealership and had the luxury of calling the factory for technical help. Since the piston was from a recently "out of warranty" evolution, it was important to find an answer to what the cause was.

The tech rep at the factory who I talked with did not sound surprised by my description of the problem, but he dodged my question as to what had caused it. His solution was to replace both the piston and cylinder. Since the rep authorized extending the customer's warranty coverage to pay for this repair, both the customer and the dealership were satisfied. I, on the other hand, felt quite unsatisfied with this "solution" since I really didn't know if the origin of the problem had been addressed.

As a side note, the "non answer" from the Harley tech rep, reminds me much of the way the factory writes their service manuals. They will often state that "such and such" procedure MUST be done in "such and such" fashion. I for one find it much easier to remember the correct way to do something if I understand why it needs to be in a certain fashion. Most often the factory service manuals will give dire warnings about performing a task in a certain manner with no reasoning offered to support their "command". Sometimes the reasoning behind their procedure is sound, other times it is of no consequence and only added because they assume all Harley technicians are idiots!

Sorry for that rant, now back to the mystery. It was not until quite a few years later that I ran into this mystery again. The second time, the victim was a Shovelhead, and it was on a generic aftermarket piston. By this time I was working for one of the larger "unauthorized" Harley shops in this area, and so did not have access to the factory tech reps. This time I called a couple of the industry sources for pistons to see if anyone could tell me what this weird looking destruction was caused by. No one seemed to know, although Ron Dicky from Axtell came the closest when he said that it wasn't anything inherent in the piston that had caused the problem.

Since the original engine that had this problem at the Harley dealership had not failed again, I felt a little better this time about merely replacing the cylinder and piston, but the cause still remained unknown.

Again a few years passed, but then, mostly by chance, I found my answer! I was getting ready to final assemble a top end on a Shovelhead motor, when I happened to look through the end of a brand new, and just washed wrist pin. There to my surprise was a "gob" of metal filings. Have you ever seen how the metal filing that come off of a bench grinder can sometimes stick together because they were so hot when they landed that they kind of "fused" together? That is what was on the inside of this wrist pin! Just washing the pin in the parts washer and then rinsing with water had not budged the filings. I had to give the mass a tap with a screwdriver to knock them loose. There may have been about a 1/2 teaspoon in all, and once loose from the inside of the wrist pin the "gob" easily broke apart! Now it all made sense! The filings had obviously found their way into the wrist pin bore during the manufacturing process, only to come loose once the engine was running. Just add oil to the filings to help them slosh around and it is no wonder that the results looked so much like soil erosion!

Since that time I have heard of one more case of this same type of damage. I had a local "shade tree Harley mechanic" call me a few years back describing an identical problem on a bike he was working on for someone, and asking if I might know what caused it. I offered the story of what I had seen, and my conclusion, which he promptly rejected. (But then, of the half dozen times he has called me over the years with questions, he has always rejected my input, which really makes me wonder why he ever bothers to ask. When I have a problem I don't have a solution for, I don't call someone whose opinions I don't respect. There, done with that one last rant!)

I will let you be the judge as to whether or not you think I have solved the mystery of the melting piston pin boss or not, but as for me, I try to visually inspect the bore on every wrist pin that I install!

First, the Bad News

It has occurred to me that this blog is more than a month old now, and I have yet to post a message of "the gospel". This post will not be a gospel message either, because I am a firm believer that before you hear the good news (and "gospel" means "good news"), you need to hear the bad news. One will not have much appreciation for having a life preserver tossed their way until he realizes that he is drowning. A person will not have much use for a pardon until he realizes he is under a death sentence.

And so it is with the gospel of Jesus Christ. How can a person possibly understand the glorious good news, if he is not even aware that there is any bad news? That is why this post will not speak of the gospel, but instead will attempt to address the reasons for the need of the gospel.

Sin! Just a simple little three letter word, and yet it is the destruction of so much of mankind! Yet so little of mankind has a realization of sin, at least to the depth the bible teaches. A man's conscience may point out sin to him, but the conscience is so easily silenced, that it cannot be depended on to be a consistent witness. Indeed, all it takes to quiet the conscience is consistent repetition of sin! No, the only real guide to help us realize our sin is the law of God as layed out in the bible. 1 John 3:4 says: "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. "

If we know that sin is the transgression of the law, then would it not be prudent to know what the law says? In one of its most basic forms, God's law can be found in the ten commandments. By that I mean that there are many more commandments to be found in the bible, but certainly there are enough contained in the ten commandments to condemn every man to hell! In America today about the only attention the 10 commandments receive are in regards to whether or not monuments containing them are allowed on government property. It is likely that relatively few people can name more than a couple of the commandments, and probably even fewer can tell you where to find them in the bible! And yet they are undoubtedly among the most important of God's revelation to us.

Paul said in Romans 7:7 "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." You see, if sin is what sends a man to hell, and the law is what shows our sin to us, then it is imperative to know what the law says!

The first place we find the 10 commandments listed in the bible is in Exodus 20: 1-17
"And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
(1) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
(2) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
(3) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
(4) Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
(5) Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
(6) Thou shalt not kill.
(7) Thou shalt not commit adultery.
(8) Thou shalt not steal.
(9) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
(10) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's."

Even a quick reading of these should open one's eyes to at least one area of sin in their life. A closer reading will likely expose others. I can remember thinking when I was young Christian (not young in physical years, but young in time as a Christian), that I had broken every commandment except one, in that I had at least never killed anyone. Of course I soon found that according to 1 John 3:15 "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."

I freely admit that I have been guilty of breaking all of the commandments, but how are you doing? Do you think that you are "a pretty good person"?

How about commandment number 5? Have you always honored your father and mother? Always been obedient to them, even when you thought they were wrong? Have you never done anything that would bring dishonor to their name?

I have already related what I learned about hating your brother being like murder in God's eyes, and how it brings the same condemnation. Have you never had even a moment of hatred for your brother? (and if you are trying to justify yourself by questioning whether they are your brother or not, well that would make a whole post in itself)

What about number 7....adultery? Few in this country could claim to be innocent of this in any respect, but Jesus said in Matthew 5:28 "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." If you are a man can you really make the claim that you have not broken this commandment, the way Jesus defined it?

Have you ever stolen anything? Even something small? Have you ever had a job working for someone else? If so did you ever give less than a good effort for your pay. Did you ever "goof off" during business hours? If so, it is just as if you took money out of your employers pocket.

I have only highlighted a few of the commandments that deal with man's actions toward his fellow man. The first four commandments, which deal with man's actions towards God, are even more difficult to keep, and likely deserve a greater condemnation. Do you claim to be innocent of all of these commandments? If so, I would remind you of Revelation 21:8 which says: "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

Are you starting to see yourself as a sinner yet? "But I only broke that commandment once" you say. Or, "that was a long time ago." Do you think God has a statute of limitations? "But I told God that I was sorry!" How well would that work in a human court? Man's justice is flawed, like everything we attempt. God's justice is perfect! Perfect justice calls for a penalty for breaking of the law.

At some point sin needs to become personal, just between you an a Holy God. For several years I was involved in going door to door handing out the books of John and Romans, and attempting to witness to people. Invariably, if the conversation got that far, the person would acknowledge that they were sinners. But it always struck me that it was is a rather flippant admission. I feel that many, if not most would have become offended if we had discussed specific sins. There seems to be a tendency to feel that there is safety in numbers where sin is concerned. It is not so scary to see ourselves standing in a crowd of millions of other sinners before God.

It is something quite different to see yourself standing alone in front of a Holy God, with all of your sins exposed. Just you and the God that you have sinned against! Yet I believe that this is how we need to see our sinfulness. We need to see sin for what a serious matter it is. We cannot just write sin off as human nature. We need to see it for what it really is. A personal crime against the God of all creation. I think Paul said it best in his letter to the Romans. In chapter 7 verses 12-13 he says: "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful."

If you have come to understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin, then you know that you deserve whatever punishment God sees fit. If so, then you know the bad news. Perhaps you are ready to hear the good news.

When Shovelheads Ruled the World, Part 4

When we returned from the drag race in Colorado, as before, we pulled Bobby's Shovel motor from my chassis and re-installed it in his Lowrider. Being younger then, it just would not do to miss more than a couple days of riding! After a few more weeks of riding though, it was back into the race bike for the stroker motor.

Bobby could not get away from work on the Saturday of the race in St Louis, a small snag that wound up changing the course of drag racing history! OK, maybe that is a little too melodramatic, maybe a bit overstated, but still, it is technically true. Though I had no desire to race the dragbike, Bobby convinced me that it was imperative that I run the bike on Saturday to sort out the change in gearing we had made via the installation of the belt drive primary from his Low Rider. He would fly down after work on Saturday to take over the piloting duties for Sunday eliminations.

So my wife Jane and I loaded the bike up on that little open trailer, hitched it up to our beat up Chevette (which I had recently put a trailer hitch on), and headed south early on Friday morning. The trip to St. Louis was uneventful, meaning that after 20 years, I do not recall a thing about it.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, which forced me to face the real reason that "I had no desire to race". It had nothing to do with being afraid of the bike, after all, I had no qualms about testing it on the backroads at home. Obviously it was not due to a lack of interest in speed. If that had been the case I never would have built myself that first stroker motor. No, this was a little more deep seated than that, but no easier to admit. I was afraid of making a fool of myself in front of a crowd! Yep. That same fear that makes people afraid to get up in front of an audience and make a speech. The same fear that would keep a kid from raising his hand to answer a question that the teacher asked, even if that kid was quite sure he knew the answer. I have heard that this "phobia" is the most common in the world. I can well believe it, because I certainly suffered from it!

There we were at the track bright and early, and the track was opened up for time trials. I carefully and ever so s l o w l y went over every nut and bolt on the bike. I double checked everything I could think of the double check. The butterflies in my stomach were as big as crows. I considered making up a story about there being a problem with the bike that I couldn't fix until that night. Bobby would probably buy that, but what about Jane? Could I pull the wool over her eyes with her right there at the track with me? The last thing I could do was admit to her that "the big tough biker" had any fear of anything! In the end, that was what probably drove me into my leather jacket and with trembling hands (and I do mean trembling!) to strap my helmet on.

As if it wasn't bad enough that I was afraid of making a fool of myself in front of all those people, now I had to also worry that they could see me trembling! There was no waiting line to speak of in the staging lanes, so I started the bike in our pit area, and somehow managed to make my way to the starting line. Luckily I had paid enough attention watching others that I knew how to stage the bike, but of course that was not enough to completely ease my mind that I would actually do it correctly.

I staged the bike without any problem, but now a quick decision was needed. Drag strips were supposed to have really good traction compared to the street. We didn't have wheelie bars (after all it was a street class bike!), but I had extended my frame 3 inches in the rear via welding parts of my old swingarm to the rigid frame, so I was not too concerned about that. A bigger worry was that I would stall the motor due to not enough RPM. Now that would be embarrassing! How much RPM did Bobby use? No clue! No tachometer! Now what?!?

Erring on the side of more RPM (a tendency I have to this day), I cranked it up and when the green light came on I dropped the clutch. The results were predictable, but still fairly spectacular. The bike's rear tire spun big time, sending the bike almost completely sideways with the rear of the bike going to the left. Without letting off the throttle, I corrected, which brought the back end of the bike back the other direction, way past center going to the right, but not quite as far as it had gone to the left. This process repeated itself a few more times, each time the swing lessening somewhat as the speed of the bike started to catch up with the speed of the tire.

I suppose that this might have scared me to death if it wasn't something I had done hundreds of times on the street! Suddenly all of my fear was changed to adrenaline! The rest of the trip down the strip was a pure thrill! It was over far too quickly. I came back down the return road and instead of heading back to the pits I signalled Jane that I was gong back into the staging lanes. I knew I had to get back on the track before the adrenaline rush changed back to fear!

I don't recall how many passes down the drag strip that I made that day, but it was enough that I felt pretty comfortable in front of "the crowd". Comfortable enough in fact that somewhere along the line, I glanced over to the bleachers only to find not more than a dozen people bothering to watch time trials for the street class bikes. So "the crowd" that I had been so worried about making a fool of myself in front of, turned out to be mostly a figment of my imagination.

That evening, Bobby flew into town, ready for his turn on the bike. The next morning, showers threatened to make his trip a waste of time, but soon lightened up and showed promise that the races might still go on. Once the skies dried up, there was still the problem of a wet track. Back then there was no fancy equipment to quickly dry the track. However, where there is a will, there is a way. The track management asked for volunteers to drive their cars up and down the race track to speed the drying process. Soon there were a dozen or more cars quickly making laps up and down the track.

Maybe a little behind schedule, but better late than never, we came to eliminations. As usual, Bobby ran away from the competition. As I recall his times were around 11.70 with MPH about 112. That was not enough for a record in the quarter mile though. Someone from Texas held that record at somewhere in the 11.20 to 11.40 range (I really can't remember for sure).

After winning our class, we received a rude awakening in the first round of the run off between class winners. What worked in our favor in the past (i.e. having our dial-in set to a national record that Bobby owned), was our downfall this time. Since we were running slower than the 1/4 mile record in our class, we would have a dial-in that we could not possibly run. When we got into the staging lanes, most of the racers were trying to hang back and not line up against a racer on the Shovelhead at the head of the line. I brashly sent Bobby up to the head of the line to race him, thinking he would be an easy mark since his bike was an 80 incher in the class below ours (Hot Street FL I think). Little did I know that this racer had set a new national record in his class earlier in the day. That meant that he was running with a dial-in slower than he was running, and we were running on one that was faster. Since there was no break-out, Bobby didn't have a chance.

Despite another first round loss in the run off between classes, we couldn't help but be happy with another Street Racer FL class win and trophy! But now we knew there was somebody out there who was faster (at least in the 1/4 mile). As we loaded up and headed home, Bobby and I were both faced with dilemmas. His was; how do we get the bike to go faster? Mine was; how do I get my engine finished so that I could race it myself next season? I'll get to Bobby's answer in my next post on this subject.

Love the Brethren

Proverbs 24:17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth

I had not planned, when I started this blog, to comment on current events as many bloggers concentrate on. Recently though, I came across something that I feel the need to address. It seems that a prominent creation science evangelist by the name of Dr. Kent Hovind has been sentenced for tax evasion. I don't know many of the details of the case, except that from what I gather he had a long running battle with the IRS over whether or not his "ministry" and himself were required to pay taxes. This apparently was no small misunderstanding , as he has now been sentenced to 10 years.

But the justice, or injustice of that sentence is not what I wish to speak to. Though I have seen Dr. Hovind speak on two separate occasions, and attended one of his debates vs. an evolutionist, he is not someone whose ministry I follow closely. Dr Hovind is someone who I guess would be referred to as a fundamentalist. Doctrinally he would be toward the far end of the spectrum from me in regards to Calvinism. However, he gives every appearance that he loves the Lord, and has served him for many years to best of his ability. While I may disagree with the stand he chose to make in respect to taxes, I cannot help but admire him for dedicating his life to evangelism.

What I find most troubling about this whole story is that I came across it while reading another blog. This blogger, who will remain nameless here, wrote about Dr. Hovind's sentencing with an all too obvious glee! Reading some of the comments and following some of the links revealed this to be a quite common attitude. Now if this had been a "secular blogger" I would not have given it a second thought. Anyone who holds the theory of evolution dear would have cause to count Dr. Hovind as an enemy. But no, this was a blog that in every way presents itself as a Christian blog (which is why I was reading it in the first place). The blog author's major quarrel with Dr. Hovind appear to be that "he is a self-taught amateur" in the field of creation science. Equally as damning in the authors view, seems to be the fact that Dr. Hovind actually defends the King James version of the Bible.

Using that criteria, the author of that particular blog would likely hold me in contempt also. After all, I have no degrees or formal training in theology, and yet I have the impudence to make a feeble attempt at declaring the Gospel. Some readers may have noticed that I too use the KJV exclusively. I have even been guilty of defending the biblical account of creation both among friends and while preaching , without any scientific training beyond high school. Does that make me an enemy to some that claim to be Christians?

The above admonition that we have from the book of Proverbs obviously would not trouble most secular evolutionists. It is however, something that should cause a Christian to take pause. Most of us here in the "west" would acknowledge one such as Saddam Hussein as an "enemy." No one that I know was grieved at his execution. In fact I would say that many that I know were closer to rejoicing than to grief. According to the passage in Proverbs that is something we should guard against, although I do believe that a hearty Amen may be the proper response to the justice of his execution.

But, if you are a Christian, of whatever persuasion, do you count Kent Hovind as an enemy? This is what I find really troubling about the glee with which this Kent Hovind story was reported. 1 John 3:14 says: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." So here is the kicker. If love of the brethren is one of the proofs of salvation given in the Bible, then someone needs to be concerned. I would not be so bold or so foolish as to claim that anyone who "piles on" Kent Hovind is not saved. I do not even know them personally. Neither do I know Dr. Hovind well enough to be very sure of his salvation (If misunderstanding of a bible teaching is a proof that one is not saved, then surely none of us will enter heaven; show me a man who thinks he has never been wrong on any doctrine since salvation, and I will show you a man who the Lord will soon humble.)

My question is: if you are celebrating Dr. Hovind's fall, are you bold enough to claim that he is unsaved? If so, I suggest you re-read Proverbs 24:17 above. If not, then I suggest you consider the state of your own soul in the light of 1 John 3:14. Either way, would not the proper response be to pray for Dr. Hovind?