Bob's Ultimate Sleeper

A bike that takes off quicker than a cut snake on amphetamines …

- Doc

Sleeper is a word that has many meanings – from someone who is asleep, through to a terrorist lying low until his controller activates him. And many in between. But my reference here is with respect to the first impressions when you glance at this bagger. It doesn’t have a long, swoopy, ground-hugging back end glued on to it like so many do; it is not running a front wheel with a diameter that would be more suited to a horse-drawn wagon. And it’s not covered with air brushed skulls, flames or faux-Indian feathered headdresses.

Nope, at first glance it looks kinda stock. But no no, no. No sirree Bob! Nowhere near! This is a mega-serious hotrod, with big time power to burn. How big time? Jumbo! As in an S&S T143 Long Block engine – the largest offering in the S&S catalogue that will fit in the stock bagger frame. That’s 143ci (2343cc), putting out 172 blazing rear wheel horsepower and 170ft/lbs of torque! In a Road Glide – of all things!

Which is exactly why the extreme petrol heads at S&S Cycle set up their test bed FLTRX they named Dragon – as in fire breathing – when they developed this engine a couple of years back. Available for H-D Tourers from 1999 to 2016 the company says that, “The143 Long Block is the largest S&S engine that will fit into a stock Harley- Davidson chassis. At double the horsepower of a stock motor, the power of the T143 requires technical expertise for installation and tuning, along with an experienced rider. This is an ultra performance/race engine”.

Indeed it is. It’s impressive specs are worth a closer look because many HEAVY DUTY readers are performance junkies like our esteemed editor Brum, who, I suspect, wishes that Hunter S Thompson had not beaten him to the quote; “On my tombstone they will carve, It Never Got Fast Enough For Me.”(Ed: I like that quote Doc.)