Last year we came across a red turbocharged bagger with the number 13 painted on the side of the saddlebag. We found the owner, Craig Kapilla, and started to ask him about the bike. The first thing he said to us was, "This baby pulled over 200hp and 200 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheel. I bet you don't normally hear that kind of power coming from a bagger?"
Craig purchased the Street Glide new in October 2009 from New Orleans Harley-Davidson. Craig's friend Gus is the general manager at the dealership and also knows Nick Trask in Phoenix who is known for turbocharged Harleys. The new bike was sent to Trask Performance because the company needed an '09 bike to figure out the new H-D computer (ECM) for its turbo system. The bike was shipped back to Craig in Michigan with less than 100 miles on it. Craig's close friend, Bob Miller, owns Daredevil Choppers, and this is where the bike was dismantled down to bare frame.
The plan was to fit a 23-inch front wheel and a 200mm wide rear tire on the bike and stretch the bags and gas tank, then add a turbo for power. But, before Craig knew it a whole hell of a lot more was going on. The frame was raked out 2 degrees so that 2-inch-longer downtubes could get added to the frontend to have the room needed for the taller wheel. A new Bad Dad front fender was bolted to the frontend sitting tight to the tire. The side panels remained stock but the fairing and saddlebags were worked to hide the turn signals and the gas tank was hand-fabricated. Looking at the bike late one night, Bobby started beating in the sides of the tank with a hammer; he liked how it was dished and the shape flowed with the bike. Next, a new 11.5-inch rear fender from Russ Wernimont was bolted on along with filler panels to clean the whole back of the bike up.
Once all the bodywork was done, it was handed over to The Chaz to do the paintwork. This gave Craig time to work on the motor. The Chaz went to town covering the parts in a silver basecoat followed by PPG Hot Wheels Watermelon. As for graphics, he added a silver leaf panel stripe to the bags and along the tank and fender. Craig told The Chaz that the lucky 13 would give a good feeling to the bike, so on the bags a speedster 13 was added.
As all this was happening, Craig and Bobby tore the motor apart, sent the crank out to get balanced, trued, and welded for durability. Next the jugs were bored to fit the Wiseco forged flat top pistons. The stock cams were swapped out and replaced with a set of Andrews 37H, and the oil pump was replaced with a Feuling high flow. The heads were taken off and sent out to get ported and add bigger intake and exhaust tulip valves. The next part of this build was figuring out how to get a chain final drive knowing that a belt would definitely not hold up with all the power the bike was going to have. The problem was no one makes any transmission sprockets for an '09, so Bobby had to machine one for this bike to fit the 580 chain.
As the parts were coming together, Craig called on all his buddies for favors. His good friends, Jim Stokes and John Kielian, both do turbo work for Ford and General Motors and were happy to help with this bike. Craig calls the two "the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the turbo world," so letting them go crazy was definitely a good thing. Once the worked motor was placed back into the frame along with the transmission, and the rear wheel was lined up with the drivetrain, Jim and John installed the Trask Turbo system. After it was all together, they discovered that Craig would need an external fuel pump and regulator due to gas tank shape, as the bike was not getting enough fuel and the stock fuel injectors were too small. Craig found that the V-Rod has H-D's largest fuel injectors, so he called Gus and got a set of V-Rod Destroyer injectors shipped out. The V-Rod Destroyer injectors have to run at 90psi at idle just to supply enough fuel to the beast. To make this work the right way, the bike runs off of two computers. The Screamin' Eagle race tuner operates all the basic H-D functions and the Power Commander V reads turbo boost and adjusts the fuel pressure to make the most of the turbo. To get it all dialed in, Craig called on Jason from SIC HP to finish all the fine-tuning and realize all the horsepower the bike had to offer. When Jason was done and the dyno cooled off, they were totally impressed with the 208 hp and 210 lb-ft of torque. These were truly amazing results from a bike that can be ridden across the state or to any biker event. Craig said, "The entire project was definitely a nail-biter from start to end, but worth all the time and money. The bike is a rush to ride and with my girlfriend on back, it is hard to keep the frontend down."