This World’s Fastest Bagger craze is really catching on. The Klock Werks crew started it and now the West Coast’s Chris Rivas is the record holder. Hal Gottsacker and the gang at Gruene Harley-Davidson in New Braunfels, TX have now thrown their Bagger into the mix as well. With a reported speed of 178 mph at the Texas Mile, could this be the first Bagger to run 200 mph?
To claim the title of World’s Fastest Bagger you have to be the fastest at Bonneville. At this point, Rivas has that title. We keep hearing the debate about stock frame vs. rigid frame and stock-based motor vs. aftermarket motor. I’ll leave that debate up to Dennis Manning and his rules committee. We are just going to continue to have fun watching these guys go for 200 mph and hope nobody gets hurt.
At the heart of Hal Gottsacker’s drag-strip Bagger is a 131” JIMS Twin Cam style motor. The top end was rebuilt by American Turbo Power, while the bottom end is all JIMS. American Turbo Power supplied the turbo which gets its fuel/air mix from a Mikuni 45mm carburetor. A custom-built ATP exhaust system expels the gases. All this adds up to 250 horses and 225 ft.-lbs. of torque.
A stock Harley-Davidson® primary delivers power to a Harley transmission case equipped with JIMS six-speed gears. Shifting is performed by a Pingel Easy Shift electric shifter, because every fraction of a second counts on the drag strip. The rigid frame (yes a Bagger with a rigid frame) is from Sam Wills’ Racing Innovations. The front end was taken from a ’09 Buell XB, as were the wheels, rotors, calipers, handlebars and grips.
American Turbo Power sprayed the flat-black paint. Alton and Bill Pelton painted the old school graphics by hand.
This Bagger was not designed to be ridden cross country; it was designed for pure speed. We are not going to take sides as to who has the fastest Bagger, but we are going to have fun watching and reporting the facts. I have a feeling if the weather and the salt cooperate; Bonneville is going to be crowded with Baggers this year.
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