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Monday 10am - 6pm Tuesday 10am - 6pm Wednesday 10am - 6pm Thursday 10am - 6pm Friday 10am - 6pm Saturday 10am - 2pm

Rage Racing Inc., 38 West Division Street, Coal City, IL (2026)

07/10/2026

Ahh freshly machined engine parts

Some of you might be wondering why the wait time to get bikes in for service has been extraordinarily long this year. There are several reasons.

It seems every Harley I have worked on this year has had some hidden issue with normal appearing symptoms. Like the picture here. What came in for a simple oil leak and head gasket replacement turned into rebuilding and remachining the entire top end of the engine. Take another example of a quick in and out dyno tune on a 2002 Harley that got jammed up because of a ECM that would not cooperate. Speaking of ECM’s, how about an ECM problem causing intermittent no start when that wasn’t even the reason the bike was in for service. How about changing a tire and the axle is seized in the wheel. Changing fork seals and find the lower slider is unusable. Bolts that strip or break on final torque or just removing them. I could go on and on.
Parts availability. Parts shortages from Covid were bad enough but now I don’t know what the reason is I have to wait for tires, brakes, spark plugs, gaskets, as well as engine components like cams, lifters, pushrods, oil pumps, and so on. This year has been awful for getting parts.
Then there are personal reasons. I have had to take a lot of time off for physical therapy for my old broken mechanic body.
The good news is I see a light at the end of a tunnel. The body is feeling better. Parts are coming back slowly. And once I get these last several headache bikes fixed and on the road I expect the worst will be over and it will be business like usual. At least I hope. I’d like to ride my own bike. I just purchased a new(used) bike after 20+ years. So far this year I have only ridden 50 miles total on my motorcycles. That was not a misprint. 50 miles Or less. Im always working to catch up with these Harley’s.
I just hope that light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a freight train coming my way.

07/08/2026

New Bike Day!

Well, not today but I very recently did purchase the 2006 VRSCR Street Rod for myself that I talked about two posts ago.

New to the Rage Racing family is this beauty. My first new (used) motorcycle in 22 years. I’ve wanted one since they came out in 2006. So far I’m having a blast with it even though I’ve only ridden it twice. I don’t need to go into the specs on this bike again. You can find my other post on these bikes.

Today I’m going to talk about getting a new ride, even if it’s used. I’m gonna get nerdy on you here so bear with me. After having my Sportster for 22 (23?) years and changing it up and modifying it more and more every few years I feel like having a 20th level Dungeons and Dragons character that is time to retire and start over at level 1 (some Gen Xers and Millenials will get the reference)

Basically, I’ve done all I can to the old 1987 Sportster. Rode it everywhere. Hot rodded it as far as I can reasonably go. I know every little thing about it. After 20+ years riding the same bike the only next step on its journey for me would be to totally rebuild it as a drag bike or to let it go to someone else can have new adventures with it.

My new Street Rod is 100% stock. It’s like a blank slate. I get to start over again with something new. Level 1. That’s part of the joy of a new (even if just new to you) motorcycle. It feels different. It rides different. It’s a new experience. It may make you want to ride again if you lost the thrill. You may take old familiar roads again with a new perspective. It feels fresh and exciting again. Even being quite a bit slower than my Sportster (yes the Sportster could whoop up on a v-rod) I find the new cadence of the 60 degree twin with a powerband that works from 5000-9000 thrilling. The handling slightly resembling a sport bike.

Sometimes just a new paint job or different exhaust pipe can give a similar “new” feeling to an old bike.

Soon my cherished Sportster will be for sale.

07/07/2026

100% Stock 107 M-8 blown head gasket!

Ive been throwing a lot of shade on the M-8 over the last few years.

Soon I am going to post about all the good things going for the M-8. There are actually a few things that are really cool about it that are absolutely positives. It’s true! I’ll pull up my big boy pants and stop living in the past for a little bit and acknowledge that the M-8 has some very cool and unique engineering to it.

But this is not that post.

Stock 107 (even the stock air cleaner) in an ultra classic ridden as Ultra Classics should be ridden. Easy cruising at comfortable speeds for long distances and short to medium trips.

Rear cylinder sucked IN the head gasket. IN, not blown out! Sucked it it! Never seen that before. My idea is there was a lack of compression force to hold the gasket still. Once just a tiny bit of it crept into the cylinder the piston would grab it at TDC and as the piston rocks as the connecting rod switches from push to pull the piston crown pinched the gasket between itself and the head and slowly over many miles pulled the head gasket inwards.

You can see from the picture the piston was hitting the head gasket pretty good Smashing it against the head. The gasket is hanging into the cylinder 1/8 to 5/16 inch.

The fix? New pistons. Can’t trust that top ring land anymore. Plus machine the heads and cylinders.
Front head took .006 to get flat
Front cylinder took

07/05/2026

The 2nd best Harley ever made!
( #1 is the Sportster)

The 2006 VRSCR Street Rod.

I know anything labeled ”the best“ is subjective (except the Sportster being #1, that part is non negotiable) but let me put in the case for the Street Rod. The short lived unknown nearly perfect motorcycle.

Only made in ‘06 - ‘07. The Street Rod was based off the V-Rod but came with a slightly different frame, 5 gallon fuel tank, inverted 43mm Showa front forks, mid mount foot controls, less steering head angle at 30 degrees vs 34. Less rake at 32 degrees vs 38. Shorter wheelbase, lighter 10 spoke wheels, 300mm Brembo brakes (3 rotor), 4” taller seat height, flatter handlebar, a 40 degree lean angle before scrapping parts, 180 rear tire, and 5 more horsepower and torque than the standard v-rod.

The V-Rod engine was based off the VR1000 super bike program Harley built in the mid ’90s. It was a road race platform. The Street Rod was the only production bike using that engine platform geared towards good cornering. Not super bike territory but besides Buell products the Street Rod is the highest performing production Harley ever made.
Let’s look at the V-Rod engine. Based heavily off the VR1000 super bike which made 150 horsepower at 996cc. Porshe helped develop it into a streetable reliable production engine. Oil and liquid cooled. 1130cc (1250cc for 08 and up models). 60 degree v-twin. Automotive style plain bearings. Dual overhead cams. 1.575” IN valves. 1.358 EX valves (bigger than M-8 valves!). 11.3 compression pistons. Automotive style connecting rods. Oversquare 3.937” bore x 2.835” stroke. 9200rpm redline. Peak claimed horsepower 120 @ 8250rpm. Peak claimed torque 80@ 7300rpm. Dual 53mm throttle bodies on independent runner intake ports topped off with velocity stacks. In 2006 there were no O2 sensors so can run on leaded race gas if needed but 91 octane pump is all that is required. Horsepower per cubic inch is 1.739. Modified can easily surpass 160 horsepower

07/02/2026

The most knowledgeable Harley guru ever!!

Today I‘d like to remember Kenneth “Craig” Garretson.

Dec 30th 1948 - July 2nd 2006

Today it has been 20 years since Craig has passed in a motorcycle accident. He was riding his 1988(?) FLHT along side his best friend Don Rolando. Thats probably how he would have liked to go. Although i‘m sure many many years later. He was only 58 at the time.

Craig loved Harleys and motorcycles. He knew more than anyone I have ever met. I’ve been in this business over 25 years and I have never met anyone close to him. Craig was a living legend. He would get calls from across the county even from dealerships to ask him questions. He always had an answer and usually it would come off the top of his head. Not only that but he was the nicest guy in the world. (As long as you stayed on his good side). I’ve heard stories about how, when provoked, he would fight like a damn honey badger. (I recall something about spitting a man’s ear back at him).

Craig served in Vietnam as a Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. His ashes are resting comfortably at Abraham Lincoln national cemetery.

When not feeding the squirrels cookies outside his house in Coal City, Craig lived motorcycles. He built a shovelhead chopper that took 2nd place at the Chicago McCormick place bike show (he lost points for stainless cables vs chrome. Craig viewed the stainless as a superior metal)

Craig was also into performance!!

All you fast bagger guys think you are doing something different should know you are all following Craigs footsteps. Back before anyone was making fast baggers Craig had a monster. The 1988 FLHT (I think that was the year) of his was an absolute beast. He had two motors for it. One was a really big built 96” evolution that could smoke the tire on demand at any time. And he proved it. That was his street engine. He also had a 80” evolution that was built to the moon that was much faster and nastier.

Craig was also my good friend.

06/25/2026

You can hear the switch from gasoline to Nitromethane.

06/24/2026

Blown Methanol Pro-Mod
Super Bird 1/4 mile at Cordova

I think this car ran 6.40’s at 212 or so miles per hour that day.

Continuing the talks about horsepower per cubic inch. I said gaining numbers like going from 2.0 horsepower per inch o displacement to 2.5 horsepower per inch is a monumental feat and every 1/10th of a point has to be fought hard for to attain.

Well that is true of naturally aspirated engines. Once the power adders start coming out like exotic fuels, supercharging, nitrous, turbos, and nitro the ball game changed quite a bit. Power can be made in leaps and bounds… up to a point. But you better know darn sure what you are doing or you will hurt the engine and possibly hurt yourself in the process. There is a point these things can be deadly when ignorance meets opportunity.

So want more power? Add more boost. Add more nitrous. Add more fuel. And dance that fine razor sharp line between a happy engine and a disaster. Good luck. In the case of this pro-mod. I’m just guessing it has probably around a 500 inch engine with a 14-71 supercharger pushing 40-50 pounds of boost on top of 14:1 compression pistons running methanol as a fuel delivered by a mechanical pump. Estimated horsepower would be 4000. So that would be around 8 horsepower per cubic inch of displacement. Get the tune a little off like a degree or two of too much timing or go a step lean on the air/fuel ratio and it will melt a piston or all 8 pistons in short order.

I love drag racing!

06/23/2026

Front Engine Top Fuel warmup
(7 second video)

A couple days ago I poked some fun at the Harley M-8 for poor horsepower per cubic inch performance. Some of you agreed with me. Others thought I was nuts. That’s all fine. I am a little nuts.

This is in no way related to that discussion other than still talking about horsepower per cubic inch of displacement.

It gets exponentially harder and harder to make more power per cubic inch as the power increases. Go from a figure like 1.2 horsepower per cubic in to 1.3 isn’t too hard. Going from 1.3 to 1.4 gets tougher. 1.4 to 1.5 and now it’s noticeably more difficult. To get to around 2 horsepower per cubic inch of displacement you are dealing with a serious engine generally speaking. 2 horsepower per inch not long ago was the area of professional race teams. At least for naturally aspirated. (No turbo, super charger, or nitrous).
At this point every 1/10th of a point you will have to fight for. Going from 2.0 to 2.5 is a mountain to climb and is an entirely different animal. At 3.0 horsepower per cubic inch you are dealing with some type of power adder (turbo, nitrous, supercharger, or exotic fuel) unless you are a world class engine builder and professional racer.
Going up from there just gets harder and harder. Parts have to be more exotic. The life expectancy goes down dramatically. Money goes out the window. The tuneup must be perfect.
The 7 second video filmed with an old I-Pone is the warmup of approximately 5,000 horsepower engine. Maybe much more. Minimum horsepower per cubic inch on this blown nitro engine would be 10. Just to stand close to and engine at idle capable of producing 10 horsepower per cubic inch is awe inspiring.
NHRA top fuel cars have around 24 horsepower per cubic inch.
The car in the video is no slouch. It ran the 1/8 mile in 3.76 seconds at 206 MPH. This is a sportsman car ran by average people. I know, Or knew the driver years ago. They do this for fun mostly out of their own pocket.

06/21/2026

Your Harley M-8 is a huge disappointment!
(Picture for eye candy and reference later in the story)

There, I said it. Now that I have burned a few bridges let me explain myself.

The M-8 cylinder heads with 4 valves flow a mountain more air than previous twin cam heads. The fact is though that its not making much more power than the twin cam. Sure, you see big power numbers (big, ha!) these days out of the M-8 but it’s not because they are better. They are just bigger. Sure there is some improvement in design and efficiency but not as much as there should be.
I can point out the downfalls of the M-8 (there are many) and I could point out some of the great things it has going for it. I could also describe how I would fix them for a true high performance motor but why would I give that knowledge away?
What I will do today is simply a comparison. First, usually a highly efficient hi powered small engine is a lot more fun than a lower powered less efficient big engine. For today’s discussion I am talking about horsepower per cubic inch.
Let’s take a big M-8 build of 136 cubic inches that makes 150 horsepower to the ground. (Just throwing up some numbers). That 136 probably makes 170 horse at the crank. So 170 divided by 136 equals 1.25. That’s 1.25 horsepower per cubic inch. let’s look further. A 103 twin cam making 120 horsepower at the crank is 1.214 horsepower per cubic inch. My personal sportster from 1987 with 883 heads (modified) makes around 100 horsepower at the crank out of 74 inches so that’s 1.35 horsepower per inch displacement.
Let’s look at other combinations:
-stock v-rod = 1.73 hp/in
-500 horse 350=1.43hp/in
-750hp 358 SBC cup motor from 1995 =2.095hp/in
-2000hp methanol 500 inch big block drag motor = 4.0 hp/in
-3500hp pro mod engine = 7.0hp/in
-5000hp nitro engine = 10hp/in
-12,000hp top fuel = 24 hp/in

I’m not saying the M-8 needs to compete with drag car engines but the measly 1.25 horsepower per ci for a highly modified engine is crap.

06/18/2026

Cordova drag strip.
One of the worlds oldest tracks.
How about going out to see some old school racing and give them some support this Friday and Saturday.
Zero chance of tornadoes!
Take your dad!

Rage Racing Inc.

07/10/2026

07/08/2026

07/07/2026

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06/25/2026

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Monday	10am - 6pm
Tuesday	10am - 6pm
Wednesday	10am - 6pm
Thursday	10am - 6pm
Friday	10am - 6pm
Saturday	10am - 2pm