Mike Tomas "Just thought I'd let you all know of a few happenings
from Kiwi"
  The
Kiwi 84"er now has just over 11,000 miles on it without any problems what so
ever and not even an oil leak anywhere. 4 weeks ago we did 1000 miles in 1
week which is no big deal really after accomplishing 4000 miles across the
US on the Century Ride Home. In that week it was ran into LA several times,
up to Las Vegas and back and then on a road run near Pasadena Ca up in the
mountains. Most of the freeway riding was between 65 to 80 mph. The bike was
being put through it's paces and is never usually ridden gently. The run to
Las Vegas and back was 500 miles and it pulled in a respectable 45 mpg at 70
plus mph at each fuel stop. Some of the advancements in the engine allow for
some mpg improvements but we doubt this much.
The only big departure from stock is we are running a dual firing ignition
and some experimental stuff inside the engine along with piston skirt
coatings (see below). The 84"er cruises so effortlessly up the steepest of
hills and with a tall output sprocket. I'm just glad we have the nice
weather to do all of this test riding even though to me it was bloody cold.
The December IronWorks magazine shows a 4 page article on the Repro 84"
engine in the 48 Chief chassis as well as on our shop.
More photos of
this engine here.
Specs here
In June some of our Indians were used for a photo shoot in Malibu Ca with
Lauren Hutton, Dennis Hopper and Lawrence Fishburn for the Las Vegas
Guggenheim Museum advertising billboards. The picture they ended up using
was of Lauren Hutton upon our red and cream 48 Chief. These can be seen
around Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The photo shoot was extravagant to say the
least and we were unbelievably well taken care of. You've never seen so much
food and people in all your life. Several cars and drivers were on hand at
all times just to take runs up the road if someone should want something not
on sight. We were consistently asked if there is anything these guys need to
get for us. A sack full of hundreds please!?
We have been working closely with Jesse James of West Coast Choppers who is
building one of his creations around our Repro 84" engine and transmission
units. His creation will have a rigid frame and most likely a leaf spring
front end. He's promising something out of this world for the custom wheels.
When it is done we'll have it at the shows for everyone to check out.
Jesse is an outstanding craftsman and without any doubt is the leader in
his custom chopper field. While I was visiting he was beating away on a flat
piece of steel and a tank starts to take shape for one of his customs,
that's amazing to me. He is also the wildest and craziest guy I have ever
come across but that's a whole other story. Some of his creations can be
viewed on his web site
http://www.westcoastchoppers.com
We took our 37 custom to Jesse for a little bit of advise on the rear fender
mounting and tail light bracket. He suggested leaving it and coming back in
a week or so. Next thing we knew he had made up a new rear fender and fancy
tail light bracket. I'll try and update our web site and put some pictures
of it in a new section. His work is outstanding and it is no wonder he is
the king. He'll get to do his magic on the exhaust when that time nears.
What is so fascinating, here are all his guys working on high end and high
dollar custom Harley stuff and the one bike they just are head over heals on
is this 37 Indian. The next thing we are fabricating is an alternator that
is somewhat close to resembling an Indian generator.
About 6 months back Jesse bought Steve McQueens late 30's Indian Chopper
with an extended 47 front end which we ended up getting running for him.
Jesse allowed us to take it to the Death Valley road run in Oct which I rode
it on the last day. It was the hit of the road run. The bike itself is
pretty tired and well worn but to cruise the bike that was McQueen's most
favorite was an awesome experience. It rode darn good for a rigid frame and
Scout sprung style seat but then again I love rigids and maybe I'm just
immune to the rough ride. Jesse recently sold the bike to JP Cycles which
has just built an outstanding museum in Iowa.
We got to see Indians new proprietary engine recently. It appears to be all
based upon the existing Harley Evo platform. It does have new cases that now
say Indian on it. The cyls are well rounded and have nice fin spacing to
blend in with the heads. The top cover to me reminds me to some extent of a
pan head. The carb comes out the left side in more traditional Indian
fashion. It still has the traditional Evo crossed push rods which is a good
giveaway of an Evo. For most folks, it is an Evo with a new exterior dressed
top end.
Back to the the traditional Indian flathead engine you will be very pleased
to know that we have several very major things under development in which
some are now in final testing. These things will be of benefit to all riders
who are looking for not only some performance upgrades but increases in
durability most of all. I can't say what many of them are at this stage but
for some of us who still love to ride hard and is our only m/c of choice,
these will be of a big benefit to us all. The flathead design has some
inherent design flaws and the big challenge is to try to overcome these
using some of today's processes. One of the improvements that we have
benefited from is a quieter running engine using a particular dual piston
skirt coating process and ceramic piston head coating which has been in the
Kiwi 84" engine and a few others.
While there are many skirt coating processes available and everyone promises
that there's is the best, we finally have hit on a multi coating formula
that works extremely well for our application. To get the full benefit it is
best used with a particular piston skirt design (not "T" slot) we have
found. Another benefit is that a very small amount of the skirt coating gets
impregnated into the cyl walls and reduces friction. This leads to a little
increase in mpg and a bit more power. We'll keep you updated on the new
developments as the time nears.
Through all of our testing to date and those that are running our Kiwi
cases, we can assure you they will NOT leak oil. This was our #1 job from
the start. The structural improvements were secondary but there is no other
cases that even come close to these. If someone wants to build a 96 inch
stroker Chief, they'll handle it w/o any problems at all. Since we make the
flywheels, we'll put the crank pin hole where ever you want it.
The next big cross country Indian ride will be in 2003 as we'll celebrate
Indians 50th anniversary of the factory closing it's doors plus we'll
continue to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis. In 2002 I will also be riding
across country just to keep testing stuff out. We'll be riding across the
USA every single year in the month of July to arrive in Springfield for
Indian day. The Century Ride Home
started something good. The 2002 ride will be very low key and we'll
probably make our lodging arrangements on the fly. For those that want to
cruise along you are more than welcome but beware to remain flexible. The
2003 ride will be more organized.
I If
you get a chance to read Ed Youngblood's book "The Century Of Indian" I
highly recommend it. I'm doing a book review for ThunderPress which I got
roped into doing but after reading it I am most glad I did. Do pick up a
copy of it, you will not be dissatisfied at all, it's coffee table
quality. Tons of good reading, very well researched and with a lot of very
high quality pictures that you can actually see the details in. It's not the
usual Indian books that we're so used to seeing. Ed also has printed George
Hendee's speech given to his Rotary club in 1931 (Hendee was 65) in Hendee's
own words and unedited about Hendee's life. The speech is 6 pages long and
is nothing less than intriguing and breath taking.
Purchase here
Long Live Indian Flatheads
Mike Kiwi Tomas
update
 Just
to let you know we completed another approx 800 miles on the repro engine 48
Chief.
Last Friday I rode to the Las Vegas road run and also took in the auction on
Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I was the only one to ride to the
road run but then again it was more like I was the only one stupid enough
to. I left here at 7am and once at the top of the Cajon pass it was down
right freezing cold and I had to re ask myself why I was doing this. When I
got into Bastow for fuel and breakfast at about 8.30 the waitress told me a
little earlier it was 29 deg, more hot chocolate please, keep it coming. The
bike ran at 70-75 mph all the way to Las Vegas which is approx 250 miles
each way. The road run took in a lot of nice riding and the 84"er amazed
everyone of how well it pulls up the steep hills, in fact it was untouchable
even with a tall countershaft sprocket.
It pulls unbelievably strong.T he return trip Monday back to Riverside was
run at no less than 80 mph and up to 100 mph at times, even battling strong
winds, rain and snow flakes. It was so cold that I just wanted to get home
FAST. The few folks that did pass me gave a big thumbs up along with a huge
smile. The truckers already had their thumbs out while I was hauling along
out in the hammer lane. I think everyone got a kick out of seeing an old
bike hauling ass or was it more like seeing an idiot riding in the freezing
cold.
Sincerely
Kiwi Mike Tomas
update
The following will provide some insight of why we chose to go with 74" style
heads vs cutting then to suit pop up pistons eg, 80" or Bonne on our Kiwi
84" engines, "DURABILITY". I have sent along 2 pix to try and explain the
80izing of heads and where it can create a problem. I'd like to clear this
up as there has been some misunderstandings. There are 2 bolt holes opposite
each other where the valve pockets and piston chamber open into each other.
These 2 areas are the most prone to a head gasket failure and if a head
gasket blows you can pretty much put money on it.
The "Kiwi orig head" pix shows an orig factory 80ized head which is one of
the better ones we have come across to show as an example. Usually this
80izing gets closer to the bolt holes which does not leave much meat for the
head gasket to do its sealing job reliably or for a long time. Sometimes
this distance from the edge of the combustion chamber and bolt hole can be
much less than this one shown.
The "Kiwi repro head" pix (74")shows the increased amount of material we
have added to our cyl heads for more gasket sealing surface area. As you can
realize by 80izing the heads this would lead to less surface area for the
gasket to do its job. We purposely paid very close attention to this area
especially during casting as the core is very carefully mated so as one side
never has less material than the other which is a very common problem with
many original heads. The more material here the better. DURABILITY. If you
have any other questions please fell free to sing out
Kiwi Mike Tomas
update
The Borrego Springs Ca antique m/c road run was just completed this last
Sunday with about 70 riders in attendance. Considering it also fell on the
same date of another local antique m/c get together it was a pretty good
success. The only 2 Indian parts suppliers riding were myself and Bob Stark.
Bob was riding a late model Kawasaki 800 cc Drifter, not exactly what anyone
would call an antique but it was good to see him out and about.
The Kiwi engined 84" 1948 Chief covered a grand total of 700 miles all up
including riding to and from the run and ran flawlessly. The weather was
gorgeous and temps must have been in the very high 80's. Usually this road
run we freeze our butts off. The Sat was an official 150 mile day and before
it started myself and Dave Neiderhaus put on 75 miles just hitting the
twisty mountainous roads. In the afternoon instead of returning back to base
I headed the bike eastwards (because there were no other takers) across to
lonely El Centro (which for those that don't know is BF Egypt in the middle
of know where desert Calif), then north to the Salton Sea and then back
westwards to Borrego Springs (with a heck of a head wind) which made for a
325 mile day. The only nice thing about heading the way I did was to be able
to do some more high speed 80 mph plus test riding (because there is no
scenery worthy to check out). The bike continues to pull in a respectable
42-45 mpg cruising the highways at speed. I keep doubting the odometer but
it checks out right on the money with the roadside mile markers each time
and the speedo has been calibrated with our speedometer calibrator. The bike
just loves hills and leaves anything for dead.
I've grown to feel very trusting and comfortable with the Avon 500-16
tires. They handle very well in the curves and at speed. Total mileage on
the engine is now 12,700. At 12,000 miles (just before this trip) we pulled
the tranny cover off to have a look/see at the gears for curiosity sake as
we have never ever had anything come out of the synthetic oil we use. The
cluster runs a Kiwi ROLLER bearing set up (NOT needle bearings or bushings)
which we have found to increase the gear to shaft life especially in sidecar
use. The gears look as good as the day we put them in, absolutely perfect.
Side faces show no signs what so ever of any chipping at all from some hard
hot rodding gear changes. She's not a bike that ever gets babied as anyone
can tell you. And above all it was a very safe and successful road run for
all. I hear that it may become a national road run next year. Come on out
and join us.
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