VICTORY MAGNUM PROJECT BIKE – BUSTING ITS DRAG-CHERRY

So before we start inserting thundering evil into the Magnum’s guts, we needed to establish a baseline quarter-mile time.

Traditionally, this is done by racing your mates late at night after you’ve left the pub. But in these holistic and safety-conscious times, dark back streets have given way to proper drag strips, where you race the clock and get bits of official paper with your shame recorded upon them.

I contacted my old mate Mick Withers, who is verily wreathed in the manly stench of drag racing, and he put me onto John Henman, Western Sydney Dragway’s (WSDW) Operations and Compliance manager.

Could we avail ourselves of his excellent facility’s hospitality on Bike Night?

Entering into the arena.

Of course we could. John was most helpful, and at the appropriate hour on the appropriate autumn day, as Sydney baked in the Summer That Never Ends, the Arlen Ness Magnum and I rumbled into WSDW.

It’s been a while since I last drag-raced. So of course I flubbed the first two starts because I was overstimulated. There’s just something about staging up on a proper dragstrip that gets a man’s internals squirming with glee.

Oh…he’s got an extended swingarm. I have panniers.

“Why is that silly ABS light on?”

So I squirmed a bit and managed to post the following three times 14.806 at 92.26mph, 15.223 at 90.68mph and 15.345 at 92.76mph.

If all the stars had aligned, I reckon the bike was good for mid- to high-14s. The only issue it had was a bit of a miss when I opened the throttle hard. It was intermittent and I think it’s down to fuelling or maybe a lack of air. It breathes out fine, it just doesn’t breathe in as well as it will. Damn you Californian Pollution legislation. It’s not like you have any polar bears to concern yourselves with in Sacramento, is there?

That’s my arse being handed to me.

Oh, and the ABS light came on (probably in alarm), the first time I warmed the rear hoop up, but then it went away and the Magnum ticked on flawlessly.

As a comparison, there was a slightly worked and flashed Crossroads there, which was posting high 13s, so with even a little bit of nudging around the ignition module and some more air-flow into the engine, a second can easily be shaved off.

Just remember, the Magnum Opus as only got tri-oval pipes to help it along at this stage. The bigger brake rotors, tear-drop mirrors and apehangers are not what one might call performance accessories.

So it’s pretty much what I expected of a 356kg (dry) bagger.

But that’s just fine, because what comes next is everything.

I’ll be back.

And by everything, I mean everything, including a Llyodz supercharger from Llyodz Motor Workz in New York.

Because there’s 200bhp ready to found and prodded into life inside that engine, and that is without having to strengthen gearboxes, cases and other internals. If you’ve seen those two amazing Victory baggers drifting on YouTube, you’ll know they’re internally stock apart from the Llyodz blower.

So that’s where we’re going to next. Stay tuned…

Here’s the video

Wanna drag-race your bike and not go to jail? Check out WSDW Bike Night HERE. Perfectly great smoky, noisy, speedy fun.

Check out Victory’s great range of cruisers HERE.

Follow the Victory Magnum Opus build HERE and HERE, and in Heavy Duty Magazine.

Tags: Drag Racing, Feats of Strength, Laughter, Motorcycle Art, Victory Project Bike

About the Author

Boris is a writer who has contributed to many magazines and websites over the years, edited a couple of those things as well, and written a few books. But his most important contribution is pissing people off. He feels this is his calling in life and something he takes seriously. He also enjoys whiskey, whisky and the way girls dance on tables. And riding motorcycles. He's pretty keen on that, too.