S&S Cycle X-Wedge Powered Custom Harley-Davidson FXR

All part manufacturers will tell you that custom bikes sell their parts. And on the show tour, when visiting a booth people will always stop first to check the custom bikes even before looking at the parts. And it’s true even for the most well known after-market manufacturers like engine maker S&S Cycle.

George Smith Jr. (Interim President of S&S Cycle Inc.) wanted a new custom motorcycle to showcase the company X-Wedge engine and XW-R Transmission. He called Doug Wozney of DOUGZ Custom Paint & Fabrication requesting a meeting. The bike featured here is the result of that meeting.

“Where should we start?” The consensus between S&S team Scott Sjovall, Jeff Bailey and Doug Wozney was to start with a Genuine FXR chassis, stretch it for the required 2’ to accommodate the X-Wedge powerplant and to use as many Harley Genuine components possible during the customization process. The objective was to create a motorcycle looking custom at 1st glance, requiring a reasonable budget by our economic times standard, and of course a motorcycle that can be titled and insured.

Doug started with a 1992 chassis, sent it to Rolling Thunder Frames for the modifications.  The custom frame masters cut the FXR frame, modified the front section for the X-Wedge motor and S&S rubber mounted transmission and built a 2 ” stretched swingarm. (It is a service that Rolling Thunder Frames offer to clients with FLH bagger or FXR frame who want to use the S&S X-Wedge motor. As a matter of fact, I think that this company is the only frame manufacturer modifying stock frames to take other motors as well as bigger tires.) Works Performance adjustable shocks are used for a comfortable ride. Doug used lightweight genuine Harley cast aluminum wheels, stock sheetmetal and brakes, modifying and massaging those and many other stock components to save a chunk of money.

The engine displaces 132 cubic inches and has an all new twin carburetor induction system. Exhaust is made of a Bassani muffler with primary pipes built by Doug. “The combination sings a very sweet 56 degree tune” remarked Scott Shovel fron S&S. Preliminary computer models suggest this engine will make 130 to 140  HP and approximately 150 tree stump pulling foot pounds of torque. More on that in a couple of months once its through the break-in period.

S&S Cycle will be traveling the country this year and this custom FXR will be on display at all major events and rallys, beginning with Daytona Bike Week. (On Beach Street across Carl’s Speed Shop)

35 Responses to “S&S Cycle X-Wedge Powered Custom Harley-Davidson FXR”


  1. 1 busfreak Feb 24th, 2010 at 7:37 am

    The FXR has got some cool lines.

  2. 2 BadMonkeyMW Feb 24th, 2010 at 8:40 am

    Fuckin nice! Next to Chopper Dave’s X-Wedge powered rigid, this is the slickest bike I’ve seen using that engine.

  3. 3 Lyle Feb 24th, 2010 at 8:42 am

    Hat’s off to S&S for not building a clone HD engine.

  4. 4 Patrick Jansen Feb 24th, 2010 at 11:01 am

    Cool motor. Played with them at BBC before they came out. Problem is, who is going to work on them? I know S&S has classes but 90% of those working on bikes learn it “on the fly”. But, again, great motor. And I would love to own that particular bike. An FXR chassis with that motor! Sign me up.

  5. 5 Robert Sentzle Feb 24th, 2010 at 11:35 am

    Like it very much.

  6. 6 krugger Feb 24th, 2010 at 11:37 am

    I like it!
    Black, fast and low….

  7. 7 J Feb 24th, 2010 at 11:48 am

    Wow- that stretch really adds a lot of character to the FXR….

  8. 8 Bobfather Feb 24th, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    The FXR style chassis seems to be making a little bit of a comeback. I’ve always been a fan of that chassis myself, one reason we’re doing an FXR style model now too. Curious what the budget was, didn’t see that mentioned anywhere. I’m still confident the market is heading toward practical motorcycles once again. Bobbers and Choppers have their place but the majority of the people we’ve talked to the past few years have asked us about a budget conscious rubber mount style custom bike that handles well and can be ridden on a daily basis as well as longer distances with a passenger.

  9. 9 Mark Platt Feb 24th, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    Congratulations Doug! 2nd nicest X-Wedge Bike you’ve ever built. (But I may be biased…) Great job!

  10. 10 ian Feb 24th, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    yes the stretch makes a real difference -a nice bike that looks a pleasure to take on a long ride.

  11. 11 WT Feb 24th, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    So is this the new standard set for all up and coming Son’s of Anarchy bikes?

    Nice motor though……to bad they couldn’t have made it for a replacement for Twin Cams or Evo applications.

  12. 12 Bagger Jim Feb 24th, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    This is proof that good things come from Wisconsin! This thing looks bad and fast just sitting still. Doug builds some of the coolest bikes in the world – this is just another quality build from the Most Famous Unknown Builder in the business – for now…Keep up the effort Doug – Dougz will be a household name soon………….P

  13. 13 JIM W Feb 24th, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    Another cool bike by a talented builder. I watched this bike being built and can only say that Doug does not compromise on quality. One of his best to date. JIM_______________

  14. 14 BT Feb 24th, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    Nice!, you would think the Polish Picaso would have added a bit more color though. Good job anyway Doug.

  15. 15 36 Special @ Open Road Biker Feb 24th, 2010 at 7:36 pm

    I wonder what the 2″ stretch on that swingarm does to the handling of that fxr frame? FXRs are supposed to be some of the best handling Harleys out there.

  16. 16 Mike Kiwi Tomas, Kiwi Indian Motorcycles Feb 25th, 2010 at 9:26 am

    Congrats to a great trio Scott, Jeff and Doug. Outstanding bike from 2 great companies.

  17. 17 choppertom Feb 25th, 2010 at 10:32 am

    one of the best builds, PERIOD. awesome job!

  18. 18 cwglide Feb 25th, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    I like their concept starting from virtually stock components and adapted the frame to accomodate the X Wedge. Very nicely done, and I agree Choppertom, one of the best builds i’ve seen!. Chopper Guys have a TC FXR frame, do i see a X Wedge FXR frame in the works?

  19. 19 Spencer Feb 25th, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    CW Glide

    Where have you been, we’ve been making an FXR and Bagger frame for the X-Wedge motor for over two years already Hell we worked with S&S on the transmission for it to be rubbermounted. We also make them to accept Twin Cam A long or short primary as well as B motor and trans,Dyna Drivline,Right or Left side drive any stretch or rake any tire size or tube size and now we’re working on the V Rod Bagger. We’ve got the rubbermounted frames covered call us

  20. 20 Dougz CP&F Feb 25th, 2010 at 3:55 pm

    In my humble opinion, Rolling Thunder is the Authority on X-Wedge chassis. They’ve done their homework and completely understand the dynamics of the X-Wedge engine and the XW-R tranny. Not knocking any other chassis manufacturers here – just saying I’ve worked with Spencer, Sammy and Skeeter on both of the X-Wedge bikes I’ve built and when I get the chassis here at the shop I can just start bolting them together. Simple – the way I like it.

  21. 21 cwglide Feb 25th, 2010 at 4:44 pm

    Thanks Spencer for letting me know, again great work on the FXR.

  22. 22 cwglide Feb 25th, 2010 at 4:49 pm

    Spencer, did you say VROD Bagger?? I’d love to see that!

  23. 23 Walstib Feb 25th, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    Nice looking bike. A shame to have to alter the dynamics of the chassis though. A longer swingarm and backbone dramatically affect the handling.

    couple of things: How’s Doug get to use a carb on that bike? S&S only sells the motors with EFI, at a nice pricetag of $10,000. For a motor. Could you not get the EFI to work properly or was it too hard to hide the garden hose sized wiring harness to the throttle body?

    I realize it’s a cool bike and the motor makes power but who is going to really do this on the consumer side? You need a proprietary frame available from one(?) manufacturer and are forced to use S&S’s EFI.

    It’s been two years since the X-Wedge introduction and where are they? Other than a few show bikes I’ve yet to see one in the real world. I guess I have but they were in the BD dealership getting torn out and sent back due to problems. So, what’s the deal? Someone from S&S want to let us all know?

    It’s surprising that S&S flies the emissions flag all over the X-Wedge site yet partners to build a bike that is completely illegal- the carbs, the motor with the carbs, the exhaust, most likely the ignition.

    It’s baffling!

  24. 24 Spencer Feb 25th, 2010 at 6:00 pm

    CW Glide

    What we have right now is a sport bike frame for the V Rod that we did for a customer that we will show on the blog shortly.This is the same jig we will use for the V Rod Bagger which we hope to have completed by Spring. Is there a market for this?…You tell me.

  25. 25 Dougz CP&F Feb 25th, 2010 at 8:44 pm

    Walstib,

    I’ll let someone from S&S chime in regarding the induction system / legal issues you question and I’ll answer the aesthetics that you’ve mentioned.

    I didn’t build the bike with the intention of running it at Laguna Seca. From its stance it should be pretty obvious its more of a Pro-Street style bike therefore the longer swingarm and chassis stretch are beneficial when launching the bike at the drag strip.

    One of the reasons for going to a carbureted version of the X-Wedge was to simplify the process for the small quantity builder or someone who would chose to do this in his/her garage, making it a more ‘builder friendly’ powerplant. Omitting the EFI hardware and accompanying ‘garden hose’ wiring required to operate that system will likely bring the price down considerably.

    If you read the press release more closely you’ll see the part where it mentions I started with a 1992 Chassis. To clarify – a modified 1992 Genuine H-D chassis was the starting point – not a proprietary chassis. Also if you read the other comments you’ll see that Rolling Thunder has been making chassis for the X-Wedge for over 2 years so its not like they’re hard to come by.

    This conversion was an exercise in showing that with a little creativity the X-Wedge is a great option when looking for brutal horsepower/torque without the undependable characteristics associated with powerplants of equal strength.

    S&S has many carbureted engines that meet EPA standards, so I expect the carbureted X-Wedge will meet those standards as well. The muffler on the bike is a Bassani with their baffle fully wrapped with fiberglass blanket and will easily pass any state’s DB rating. As a side note, and I’ll probably take a rationing of shit for saying this: I don’t care much for wide open exhaust – for the most part it hinders performance and its flat out sickening to listen to on a long ride. I didn’t feel that way when I was younger (and the hearing aids I now must use are proof of that) but now at 50 years of age I’ve grown tired of all that racket and prefer a mellower – real deal performance exhaust note coming from my bikes.

  26. 26 raycwheeler Feb 26th, 2010 at 6:26 am

    Lookin good!

    Were gettin closer to a winner, looks rideable, mechanically sound and comfortable.

    WTF and with a bad ass motor too, time will tell.

    If your lookin for a coast to coast test rider , put me on the long list.

    raycwheeler usa

  27. 27 Spencer Feb 26th, 2010 at 8:16 am

    Walstib,

    Wow! What a party pooper you are and just when we were having fun however I will address some of your comments.

    Handling.The FXR is a shorter wheelbase motorcycle and because of that it tends to be a little bumpier of a ride especially on city streets so extending the swing arm 2″ and adding another 2″ in the backbone will help smooth out the ride making it easier to handle.

    Proprietary frame. I wish. There are several other manufacturers doing an X-Wedge frame and Daytec is one of them.

    As far as how many Bikes are out there using the X- Wedge motor all I can say is we have produced right around 100 X-frames in multiple configurations for customers all over the country and we continue to get responses for it on a regular basis so there is a growing interest in the X-Wedge motor.

  28. 28 Patrick Jansen Feb 26th, 2010 at 9:46 am

    But how many shops out there are really equipped to diagnose and correct problems? Do you have to take the thing out and send it back to S&S every time something goes wrong? Not being a hater, just thinking about it on the service/consumer side.

  29. 29 Scott Sjovall Feb 26th, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    Hello everyone,
    Scott here from S&S. I thought I should answer a couple of the questions that have been brought up.
    First of all the X-Wedge motors have been very reliable since since they were released. I’m passionate about that and it is the reason my personal bike is now powered by an X-Wedge. We did have a problem with the case sealent we used on the first few builds and the motors you referred to were returned to S&S due to that. We stood behind them and brought the motors back to Viola to get re-assembled with the improved sealent to stop case seam leaks.

    There really haven’t been any other issues to speak of but if the motors do need to be serviced in the field they are very easy to work on. The electronics are all industry standard items and the mechanical parts of the motor don’t require any special tools to work on them. We went out of our way during development to make sure the motor would be simple to service. We also have published a complete service manual for reference.

    Doug’s FXR was done in a carburated version to gauge public reaction on a carburated version. If there is demand for it, we will offer it.

    I hope this helps answer a few questions. Thanks to everyone for the positive comments on the motor and the bike. It looks even better in person. Doug did a great job in a very short amount of time.

  30. 30 Fluke Feb 26th, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    Scott, I have some questions. why not euro 3 on the X wedge? really, i thought the big seller of the X wedge was its emmissions credentials. Yet as I understand it you are not planning on any euro 3 compliant X wedge anytime soon.

    Your evo based engines seem to be totally stifled to meet the euro 3 standards. Why?. What does the euro 3 compliant 124 EFI turn out, 80 BHP at the flywheel, not exactly very sellable in this economic climate. For that power and pricepoint I will just get a V rod engine/gearbox and the customers have smaller road tax costs.. Even the Ultima 113 with a simplistic Pegasus EFI system has gotten euro 3 compliance with more HP than that.

    Also, is there someone from the technical side who knows the X wedge going to be at the European Custom Chrome dealer expo next month? I have a big bunch of questions. all relating to euro 3 and the tune-ability of your EFI system. I will be there Sunday.

    We are seriously interested in the rubbermount X wedge for an upcoming small run project, but at the moment it seems like it is we, the customer, who have to do the development work for certification.

  31. 31 Scott Sjovall Feb 26th, 2010 at 7:07 pm

    Fluke,
    The reason we haven’t done Euro III with the X-Wedge yet is that we haven’t selected anyone to partner with. The testing needs to be done in a complete vehicle. You may be a perfect fit for that project.
    As far as HP is concerned with the Euro III motors the constraining factor is noise and that is controlled by the exhuast system for the most part. If we can work with a partner willing to put the correct exhaust on the bike for the displacement of motors that we are talking about the power will jump up considerably.

    Please email me at SSCUST@SSCYCLE.COM with my name in the message so that it gets to me. We can talk more about this project and answer your technical questions one on one.

    Thanks for the interest!
    Scott

  32. 32 dan winters Mar 5th, 2010 at 9:33 am

    i found your web site by accident .i have a 91 fxr 113 s&s ,frame reinforced by me i think its set up nice . i want to say i learned so much here today .thankyou so much . check out my bike if you like dan winters facebook . ill be here again thanks again dan

  33. 33 nelson cochran Jul 31st, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    Love this bike had an FXR it was one of harleys best bikes. This is a graet use of the X-wedge and this frame. Keep bringing us these kinds of bike not choppers no one can ride.

  34. 34 econnor Aug 14th, 2010 at 10:24 pm

    Not sure how I feel about cutting up OEM FXR frames. I like the X-Wedge. Would like it allot more if it was being raced in the AHDRA and AMRA. What is the retail price on this engine in carb’d form?

  35. 35 littlelou 64 Aug 16th, 2010 at 11:30 pm

    with the resources that s&s has why would they have to modify any other companys frames? i would like to see a s&s motorcycle. victory did not wait until someone had a frame and seat to fit thier motors to present to consumers. i would love to twist the throttle on a s&s bike with the x-wedge. if everyone that wanted an x-wedge has to modify or find a blown evo to replace they will more than likely seem to be the company that has a door waiting for a house to be built around it.

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Cyril Huze