These words are from Bert Baker himself. It’s the way he describes his new starter named the Firestarter. Building custom bikes with big engines, I learned a long time ago that so called performance starters have notorious reliability issues. With smaller engines, Harley-Davidson starters do fine. But it seems that some performance starters sold as new contain rebuilt, meaning used cores. Baker listened to the complaints and released the Firestarter, a very good looking chrome & polished starter with an output of 3HP. Before being sold, each unit is tested on a dynamometer for proper function. Exactly the way it should be done before being incorporated to our custom bikes. The Firestarter is available as a conventional remote start button type or as a manual push button type for those who want the clean minimalist look on their handlebars. From Baker Drivetrain
I feel that Bert Baker builds awsome transmissions. However, I have to disagree with this starter. In my opinion, large kw starters are not always the answer. My reason is that these “high output” starters hammer too hard on the ring gear, eventually causing problems there. I feel that a properly tuned/timed motor, with properly functioning compression releases, will start fine without the need for such a starter. Two cases of my own: My ’98 Road King (80″ EVO/with Baker DD6) produces around 195 lbs of compression per cylinder, and is using the starter it was delivered with….63,000 miles later. Secondly, my custom has a 114″ TP Engineering motor with 10.5:1 compression, manual compression releases, and is started with a 1.4kw starter. Additionally, I build a lot of high compression/high HP Twin Cam motors, and have never had a single problem with a stock starter. I guess if I was having problems, I would first consider replacing the ring gear/starter pinion gear with gear reduction items. The set can be bought for just over $100, and is easy to install.