Anyone who has been by the shop since early July has probably been shown or told about Jan’s latest creation, Moonshiner.  Jan took a 2009 Road King and created a sleek, clean beauty full of copper details.  I fell in love with her the moment I saw her.   Jan built Moonshiner as a daily rider/tour bike especially for the Hot Bike Tour which is going through the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.  As Jan does with all new motors, he took it out several times before the tour to break the motor in.  I was fortunate enough to go out with him one sunny Sunday.  At one point along the ride I noticed Jan glancing down repeatedly at the single gauge in front of him.  I thought “Oh, no!  Something is wrong.”  Nope, Jan was just busy checking out different aspects of the bike.  How can this be with only one gauge?

Well, let me tell you as I was quite impressed.  The Dakota Digital gauge can tell you:  head temperature, oil temperature, digital tach, clock, gear indicator, odometer, duel trip odometer, charging system voltage, speedo tach and adjustable shift point, miles to service warnings, oil pressure, performance calculations including 0-60 time, quarter mile time and high speed as well as high rpm recall.  Think I got it all.  Talk about technical advances!  All that information on one gauge.

Jan commented to me over twelve years ago that motorcycles would become as technical as cars.  That it was just a matter of time.  And boy was he right!  Working as a technician at Nissan Corporation built upon Jan’s base knowledge of the electrical engineering components of motors.  Today’s motorcycles are no longer the simple machine’s they started out as (check out Harley & the Davidson’s on Discovery channel starting September 5^th).  Just like automobiles, it is getting more challenging for the average individual to maintain their ride.

Some of the advances include ports to plug in your cell phones and other personal devices, automatic compression releases (ACRs), throttle by wire, vehicle speed sensors (VSS), anti lock braking system (ABS), liquid cooled heads, O² sensors, computers, body modules, alarm modules and the list goes on.  We sell USB ports in case your model motorcycle does not have one built in.  We also carry voltage indicators which are helpful when using LED lighting.

I wrote this as we headed north to Madison Wisconsin with our parts guy and mechanic.  The weekend had two agendas:  first we were invited up to place Moonshiner in the Drag Specialties bike show; second to attend Drag’s product expo.  Chariots of Fire Customs LLC is devoted to keeping our staff up to date with all the newest products out there.  Especially in this fast paced world.  Jan can’t wait to get his hands on the 2017 Harley motor to see what changes they have made to the engine.  If you are interested in doing any upgrades or want a knowledgeable staff to keep your current ride functioning at optimal performance, we can help you out!