2008 Bonneville 865cc to Custom Bonneville 1100cc

rbirkey

NBRAdmin
Staff member
I bought my 2008 Bonneville Black new from Motor Cycle Center in Villa Park, IL (near Chicago) in the summer of 2008. After riding it and modifying it for a number of years I reached over 63,000 miles and it needed a valve job. So, I decided to send the entire engine to Bill Gately of Bonneville Performance, for a complete engine overhaul and upgrade/modification! After discussion with Bill, we decided that my final rebuilt engine would have the same spec’s as the BP 1100cc crate engine, including:
  • New bearings
  • New oil pump
  • Billet cylinders with Nikasil lining
  • BP performance head porting with BP valve train
  • BP Cams
  • Crankshaft dynamically balanced
  • All paper and MLS gaskets
The modified engine, along with the twin Mikuni HSR42 carbs and the BP 2 into 1 Exhaust system should produce approximately 100 HP and 76 ft. lbs. of torque. Bill also had a number of the engine covers powder coated satin black for me.

Here are photos of the engine removal process in my garage.
 

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rbirkey

NBRAdmin
Staff member
Here are photos of the crating and shipping phase to get the engine from Chicago to Bonneville Performance near Daytona Beach in Florida.
 

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rbirkey

NBRAdmin
Staff member
These next photos were taken during the engine rebuild process at Bonneville Performance.
 

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rbirkey

NBRAdmin
Staff member
Next, I loaded up the Bonneville frame and parts into my pickup and headed down to Daytona.
 

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rbirkey

NBRAdmin
Staff member
At Bonneville Performance, I assisted Bill in reassembling my Bonneville with the new 1100cc engine.
 

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rbirkey

NBRAdmin
Staff member
After a few days putting it all back together, test riding and sorting everything out, I headed back home and restored the Bonnie back in my garage.
 

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ttbonnie

Scooter
Thanks! Can’t wait- what’s the average cost, of dyno on a carbureted bike?

Edited the auto spell
 
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rbirkey

NBRAdmin
Staff member
A dyno can cost anywhere from $30 to $300 in my experience. The differences are:
  • A mobile dyno unit designed to just give a baseline of the current engine output = $30 (usually at a motorcycle event of some kind)
  • An in-house dealer dyno where fine tuning of the carbs and/or EFI is adjusted between each dyno run, to obtain optimum performance = $200 - $300
 
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