The first iteration of this website appeared in late 2014. I had two decades in the MC industry {commission mechanic and parts manager), then I quit to attend university. Thirty five years ago I had bought a chain-drive new off the showroom floor and proceeded to make an eleven second bike out of it. It blew up and I proceeded to ride the remnants for half a million miles. Then I decided that I wanted to go fast again. I looked around and there was nothing designed for these bikes. Oh, there were a few exhausts available, but they were designed for noise - not power. I saw that all adult-sized Viragos are almosat identical internally and I decided to explore. I tore apart hundreds. I looked around. Pistons had to be made to order and cost as much as a thousand dollars a pair. My background in math and physics told me that they weren't shaped right for real power. Too much valve shrouding and poor flame propagation. Cams were a little better, but the specifications were too short on timing and too low on lift. A problem with standing waves and fluidics. I pulled together some cash and created Big Twins LLC; I couldn't see any advantages in incorporating. I acquiried all the documents which took some work and some visits to city hall and the tax board. I sent thick slabs of documents to every vendor and manufacturer I could think of. Most wanted me to send them pictures of my store; inside and out. My inventory is on racks out in the driveway under a tarp. This is a residential neighborhood. Needless to say, most vendors gave me a pass. I did take a bunch of pictures of a friend's dyno room and work area -- along with a few shots of my own "shop" -- for limited distribution. As a result, I believe that I am the only one-man merchant for ProCharger, Athena USA, and some automotive concerns.
I drew sketches and made molds; I filled sheets with calculations. I sent pistons and rods out. I calculated airflow against cam timing and lift. I got some good responses. Business grew and I found that most of my sales were overseas. For the TR1, a motorcycle I have never seen. But airflow is airflow; the calculus is the same.
A year or so ago, my piston supplier was absorbed by another concern. Suddenly I had to tell people that I lacked the heart of high performance and sales disappeared. I approached some manufactureres and told them I had no store, but I sold all over the world and dared them to supply me. Two took me up. Working from samples of stock and modified pistons, they offered their products. Two years ago piston kits were five hundred dollars a pair. Now the cheapest is over eight. Business has restarted, but slowly. Where I was selling two to four sets a week, I now see less than a set a month. It astonishes me. There are many bikes that are in my realm. I am the only source for specially designed goods on the planet for these bikes. This is a last refuge for those seeking performance for their '80s vintage XV series bikes. The site bigtwins.org provides what knowledge that I am able to produce on a as-time-is-available basis. Reading and understanding it all won't make you a master, but you'll become a tyro - more than a journeyman.
Writing web pages is fun and challenging and a voraceous time hog. I lean back after five minutes and see that a dozen hours have gotten past me. Everything is written in PHP (from scratch) at a very low level. I am trying to overcome my fear of Javascript. As I learn better coding, the look and feel of my sites (I have over forty!) changes. The gimmicks and hover effects are slowly disappearing. Clicking the yellow title at the top of each page takes you back to the landing page; clicking the banner there takes you to the information site, as does clicking either of the enngine logos. If a page has a subtitle, clicking that refreshes the page and probably will bring up a new background. I toy with a login feature, but frankly see no need for it. I have a small program that tells me the local time and location of each visitor.
My operation stands out in my driveway. Rows of racks covered with cylinders, cranks, and other parts stand under a high arching tarpaulin on a plastic pipe frame. Empty are the areas for pistons and cams - until I can regenerate some business. I have a few ideas. This is a residential neighborhood and I've had vendors deny me because it is not zoned commercial or indusrial. Right now, I am sitting eight miles from the Pacific; on clear days the giant Santa Catalina Island looks close enough to touch from the boardwalk. I am about three miles from Disneyland and can see their nightly fireworks displays from my front yard. Fruit trees abound on this quarter acre lot: oranges, mulberberries, persimmons, avocados, guava, loquat, kumquat, apple, walnut, pomagranite, and probably a few that I'm forgetting. It's like a jungle. I am right on the edge of the local (Orange County, CA) Koreatown and about three miles north of Little Saigon. Within five miles of here there are three hundred thousand people who were either born in East Asia or at least one of their parents were.
All first person references: I, we, my, our, and so on are only myself. If you are curious about me personally, here is an incomplete site that I mostly wrote before I learned any PHP (my programming language of choice). Clicking on the map(s) brings up a five year old picture of me. I usually do not wear a beard. Someday, when I am particularly bored, I will work on it some more. Oh, here I am working on my personal chain-drive - the Euro. Again, primitive and not worked on in a long time.