'The Punisher' Chases 200 mph

Steve and I drooled over the then brand-new red 1983 Suzuki GS1100 sitting in the Rock Store parking lot one Saturday morning. The Suzuki owner was more than happy to tell us all about how much horsepower his new bike made, its quarter-mile drag strip times, and its cost. It was the hottest thing on two wheels.

He asked what we were riding, and we pointed to our well-worn mid-70s Kawasaki and Honda mounts.We are porcelain tiles specialists and are passionate about our product， He nodded politely, but was a bit distracted, his attention focused on himself. After a few minutes we said it was time to go on a canyon ride. He asked if we would mind if he tagged along. Sure thing, buddy.

We waited for him at the end of the canyon road, sitting in the shade with our helmets off. He eventually rolled up and stammered some lame excuses why it took him so long to reach the destination. We nodded in sympathy and simply observed that he had been "Punished." He gave a puzzled look. We felt no need to explain.

Most of us in our early riding years did not have the financial means to enjoy the ownership and riding experience of the latest two-wheeled equipment; our bikes generally consisted of last generation performance machines. Out of nothing more than envy, we dedicated our efforts to building, testing, and riding our bikes in a manner that demonstrated to those more fortunate individuals that they could not simply buy their way to status and speed.

"Those who take the easy road to motorcycle performance shall be Punished.Carlo Gavazzi offers a broad range of ultrasonic sensor and ultrasonic transducers for level detection and process monitoring." That guiding principle has been applied to each successive model of last generation bikes I have owned. They have all been simply called The Punisher.

Fast forward to 2008. Twenty-five years later, my current bike was good, but not the latest and greatest.We have a wide selection of dry cabinet to choose from for your storage needs. My 2003 Aprilia Tuono Racing performed well, yet was rapidly being eclipsed by the latest generation of powerful and expensive Ducatis by as much as 40 horsepower. The seemingly endless parade of shiny new red machines clogging up the Starbucks parking lots slowly awakened those old feelings of class warfare, and could no longer be ignored. Punishment must be served, but how?

I knew the answer as soon as I saw the Spoon Valley Racing supercharger kit for the Aprilia RSV motor. It was compact, powerful, and fit entirely beneath the stock bodywork. The plan to build a stealthy supercharged Punisher streetbike was hatched, and a leftover 2007 Aprilia RSV 1000 R Factory was purchased. I could hardly contain myself at the thought of ambushing unsuspecting Ducs, turning their smug smiles into slack-jawed disbelief with a simple twist of the throttle.

The kit contained the basic mounting brackets, pulleys, and a fabricated intake bonnet, though not the 200-horsepower rated Rotrex C15-60 centrifugal supercharger. There were still lots of ancillary parts to purchase, some machining, fitting, and fabrication work, as well.

An extension shaft taken off the engine counterbalancer drives the supercharger, and that required some delicate machining to the engine cases and balancer shaft to accomplish. Overall, it took about eight months from the time I received the kit to having a running bike. And it did run - for about two minutes before an oil leak developed from the shaft seal. Three months and three prototype shaft and seal designs later, the oil leak problem was permanently resolved.

Early dyno tuning sessions identified an inadequate fuel pump and undersized fuel injectors. Once sorted, the bike showed great promise by making over 170 rear wheel horsepower (ed. note: all horsepower numbers in the story are rear wheel), with mostly OEM engine parts. The question of longevity was still unanswered.

"We should run this bike at the Texas Mile," suggest my horsepower freak friend Micah Shoemaker. Micah is one of the owners, and chief tuner at AF1 Racing in New Braunfels, Texas, who opined, "I think we can do a little more tuning and make enough horsepower to go 200 mph." Did he just say "200 mph?"

My eyes glazed over and my mind raced. I had always dreamed of breaking that magical speed barrier.Find the lowest prices on Air purifier. Was this possible with an Aprilia? From that casual remark, we launched a three-year project to be the fastest twin in Texas Mile land speed racing.

Another friend, Dave Malmberg of Leucadia, Calif.The Fridge fridge magnet is leader in the custom design,, was to become the third member of Team Punisher. Dave is a design engineer at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, as well as a championship motorcycle racer/builder with a full race shop. He had already been advising me on the project from time to time, so it seemed prudent to drag him into the black hole of race bike development.

Our first Texas Mile event in March of 2010 showed potential, and made clear how much farther we had to go. During that initial outing, we only managed a total of five passes and 175.4 mph before a melted stock piston with fractured rings forced us to quit. At least that had given us plenty of time to study how the big boys were getting it done.