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After nine months of going out in the garage, usually starting before dawn, putting in anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day, with no one to talk to but myself, I can finally report that the Vincent streamliner, number 6 1/2 is ready to take a trip between those two black lines at Bonneville. For the first time since I started this project in 1989 I've done everything that I know how to do. The Vincent streamliner number 6 1/2 is far superior in every way to any of my former streamliners. My past six streamliners, two of which never made it to the salt, were inferior in many ways due to my lack of experience, funds and time. It's been quite a challenge over the past 15 years to find out what works and what doesn't work. A streamliner is a unique machine, and each of them are different from one another--their size, their power plant and their systems. Any individual who undertakes building a motorcycle streamliner has nothing to draw from unless he is cloning a streamliner which has already been built. There are many hidden things that have to be engineered, which are not readily seen by the naked eye, but are extremely vital to the streamliner's performance. If someone was to try to clone an existing streamliner, the builder of the original streamliner would probably not pass on his secrets to the many hidden things that have to be engineered. In my undertaking, as the Vincent streamliner is totally unique in all respects, there was no streamliner to clone, so nothing was cloned from any other motorcycle streamliner. I had to think out, design, and redesign all of those many hidden things that have to be engineered and are extremely vital to the streamliner's performance. What made this possible was my building streamliner number six in 2003-2004, which gave a very good base from which to work for 2005. A feature of the engine design which increased the crankshaft stroke from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 and increased the drive side main shaft size from one inch to one and a half inches was a big improvement over the stock crankshafts which were employed in streamliners number one through five. The crankshafts were made by Terry Prince and John McDougall in 2003. This year I built a robust slider clutch and geared the two engines together. I also built a new ignition system and redesigned the oiling system and pistons. All of the above systems are working absolutely flawlesly.
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