I know its been while since i posted anything, but after speaking with HANKSXXX and chasing down a self induced problem with my blackbird, we started discussing the origin of the turbo kit Hank used and where he got it from.
I could listen to Hank talk about that bike all day, but unfortunately there is this thing called work (no coincidence its a 4 letter word) and I don't want to steal a story, I'll just give off the cliff notes. It came from Mark Moisan multiple year Daytona Bike Week Dyno Champion (that I can find sources for) and a pro drag bike racer and noted builder of forced induction bikes. Hank mentioned that they wrote an article about Mark's turbo'd Blackbird way back when he started his company American Turbo Systems. I think it was out of Naples but I'm having a hard time finding a source for the location of the shop. And I decided I would find that article just as a history for the bike and our beloved CBRXX model with the hope that maybe it could be added to the archives here, for posterity sake.
It took a lot of searching obscure links on google and other forums as i could not find any reference in the Cycle World Archives to the article, but find it I did! Maybe they just haven't updated the archives, I didn't use the right keyword, or you have to be a paid member. (they still have their 1997 first review of the CBRXX available)
Guys and Gals, I present to you a "possible" kind of forgotten history of our beloved CBRXX and the legend Mark Moisan as written in Cycle World June 1997.
Here is the Google Books link for the article: Cycle World Magazine
On the vertical scroll bar on the right side of the screen click the higher gray area, and then you may need to scroll down a few pages to find the start of the article. Last picture in the attachments if instructions are unclear.
Also attachments are the screen shots of the artilce and its relevant info I could find.
P.S. I found a posting on this site that claimed that they found the 1st production kit installed on a bike listed as ATS 00101. I don't know if that really is the first or the 101st as I'm not privy to the starting serial numbers, but still cool all the same:
Found ATS first Blackbird 00101
I could listen to Hank talk about that bike all day, but unfortunately there is this thing called work (no coincidence its a 4 letter word) and I don't want to steal a story, I'll just give off the cliff notes. It came from Mark Moisan multiple year Daytona Bike Week Dyno Champion (that I can find sources for) and a pro drag bike racer and noted builder of forced induction bikes. Hank mentioned that they wrote an article about Mark's turbo'd Blackbird way back when he started his company American Turbo Systems. I think it was out of Naples but I'm having a hard time finding a source for the location of the shop. And I decided I would find that article just as a history for the bike and our beloved CBRXX model with the hope that maybe it could be added to the archives here, for posterity sake.
It took a lot of searching obscure links on google and other forums as i could not find any reference in the Cycle World Archives to the article, but find it I did! Maybe they just haven't updated the archives, I didn't use the right keyword, or you have to be a paid member. (they still have their 1997 first review of the CBRXX available)
Guys and Gals, I present to you a "possible" kind of forgotten history of our beloved CBRXX and the legend Mark Moisan as written in Cycle World June 1997.
Here is the Google Books link for the article: Cycle World Magazine
On the vertical scroll bar on the right side of the screen click the higher gray area, and then you may need to scroll down a few pages to find the start of the article. Last picture in the attachments if instructions are unclear.
Also attachments are the screen shots of the artilce and its relevant info I could find.
P.S. I found a posting on this site that claimed that they found the 1st production kit installed on a bike listed as ATS 00101. I don't know if that really is the first or the 101st as I'm not privy to the starting serial numbers, but still cool all the same:
Found ATS first Blackbird 00101
Attachments
-
1 MB Views: 86
-
1.1 MB Views: 88
-
1,009.6 KB Views: 102
-
929 KB Views: 88
-
438 KB Views: 90
-
649.6 KB Views: 90
-
240.9 KB Views: 76