Great Pretender
Great Pretender
Lord A-Mighty, I feel my temperature risin'
DAVID EDWARDS
NOPE, GUESS AGAIN. HAVE a closer look. The low-ridin' custom V-Twin you see before you is not a chopped Harley-Davidson.
In fact, it began life on an assembly line in Hamamatsu, Japan, one of thousands of 1994 Suzuki VL1400 Intruders. That’s before aftermarket empresario Ken Boyko of Cobra Engineering commissioned Time Machine’s Denny Berg to transform it into one cool cruiser. The resemblance to stripped-down Harley customs of years gone by is purely intentional.
“It’s almost like a '70s chopper, but with a shorter front end,” says Berg. “Those bikes were built around a big nasty motor. Nothing but motor and wheels, something to hold gas and a seat to sit on-everything else was minimalist and hidden.”
Twenty-five years ago, the requisite nastiness would have been supplied by a Shovelhead or Sportster motor. The Cobra Intruder is powered by Suzuki’s four-speed, I360cc, air/oil-eooled V-Twin. This is a muscular-looking lump with cylinders splayed 45 degrees and performance numbers to back up its meaty looks. In stock from, a 1400 Intruder puts out some 60 rear-wheel horsepower, about the same as other Japanese big-bore V-Twins. Torque production is prodigious, though. Peak output comes at an ultra-low 2500 rpm, where the Intruder motor is thrumming out an impressive 78 foot pounds. Compare this to a 1340cc Harley engine, which can manage "only" 63 foot-pounds of torque at 4000 rpm.
Out on the road, this translates into roll-on acceleration that rivals anything on two wheels. Snicked into top gear, a stock Intruder takes but 3.1 seconds to go from 40-60 mph; that’s quicker than a Honda CBR900RR, quicker than a Kawasaki ZX-11, quicker than a Suzuki GSX-R1100. Sixty to 80 mph comes in an
equally arm-tugging 3.4 seconds. Among current streetbikes, only Yamaha’s mighty V-Max bests a stock Intruder 1400 in both categories, and the Cobra bike, with untweaked internals, but shorn of 50 pounds and, er, unencumbered by either air filters or excess exhaust baffling, should be quicker yet.
Externally, the powerplant was spiffed up. First to be pitched were the Stocker’s
chromed cylinder-head covers, pure styling hokum intended to give a quasi-Panhead appearance. Berg shaved four or Five Fins off each cylinder base, then the engine cases were split
and sent off to be chrome-plated. Rockerboxes were dipped in the shiny sauce, too. Cylinders were blacked-out, cooling-fin edges polished.
Berg’s artistry is more apparent in the chassis. “Everything I didn't like about the stock Intruder, I changed,” he says. Chief perpetrators were a fuel tank that sat too high, a 15-inch rear/19-inch front tire combo that “just didn’t look right” and an “ugly goddamn sissybar.” Other areas were left relatively untouched. “The bike has a
beautiful front end, no doubt, as clean as it gets,” Berg points out.
In stock form, the fuel tank rides high because it has to make room for an upright carburetor that feeds the front cylinder. Berg deep-sixed the carb, welded-up a new manifold and mounted a 36mm sidedraft Mikuni-identical to the rear jug’s mixer-on the engine’s right flank. A muffler tip liberated from a Mercedes automobile serves as an ersatz bellmouth. The 3.5-gallon fuel tank was fabricated from a pair of aftermarket fat-bob halves, welded together then stretched.
Buchanan’s supplied the Cobra’s Sun rims, custom-drilled to mate to stock, 60-hole hubs. Up front, a suitably skinny, 21-inch Metzeler leads the way, backed up by a wide, sticky 18-incher at the rear.
The shaft-drive frame itself is largely unchanged-that raked-out look comes from the stock frame’s chopperesque 36 degrees of rake and 6.5 inches of trail. Unneeded brackets and lugs were ground off, and the area around the steering head was molded in, a realsteel replacement of the Stocker’s plastic beauty panels. The only serious surgery took place under the seat, where Berg sawed off the frame rails and welded in others that continue the downward sweep of the fuel tank, an operation that also lowered seat height to an easy-straddling 25 inches. Helping out with ground-hugging chores are specially shortened Progressive shocks and a Cobra fork-lowering kit.
Berg is especially proud of the 1400’s fenders. The front is original equipment, trimmed, turned around backwards and with a small flip added at the rear. “In the old days, you took a stock piece, modified it, made it look different,” says Berg. The fiberglass rear is from the Harley aftermarket, reworked so it hovers just above the tire. It’s attached to the swingarm and moves up and down with the suspension. “That’s how you get the back end to look so low. Otherwise the fender would have to be four inches
higher,” Berg explains. Neither can we.
The stock I400’s oil radiator, hung under the steering head, was done away with, replaced by a vertical Jagg cooler that snuggles, almost imperceptibly, between the frame’s front downtubes.
Damon’s Motorcycle Creations laid on the flawless paint job, a red-to-orange blend picked by Boyko for maximum eye-popping appeal. Predictably, traditionalist Berg thinks the color choice is a little over the top. “I thought it looked good in primer gray,” he jokes.
While the frame and body parts were at Damon’s, most of the remaining parts made the trip to the dip tank. “Everything that’s not paint, rubber or leather was chromed,” says Berg. Drag Specialities chipped in with various bits and pieces, including the bullet headlight, gas caps, footpegs, handlebar risers and dual taillights. Fibertech stitched up the solo leather saddle.
When the finished product has done its time on the show circuit drumming up enthusiasm for Cobra’s new line of cruiser boitons, Boyko has promised Cycle World an extended ride. “I can’t wait to fire this thing up and put on some miles,” he says.
