In June of '04 we profiled a sweet, nitrous-enhanced VTX1800 built by Jim Guffin and friends. The bike featured a ton of one-off bits-well, maybe not an actual ton, but you know what we mean-and was a perfect example of what can be done with determination, vision and a smoking-hot end mill. The award-winning Honda, Guffin's first custom build, was by any standard a top-shelf job, but Jim, a type-A personality if ever there's been one, felt he could do better. Accordingly, the tasty VTX went on the block and was snapped up by a Ukrainian entrepreneur-of what Jim didn't ask-who planned to use the bike as a chickski magnetski at his Black Sea dacha.
What Guffin planned for the second go-round was another nitrous-powered VTX, but unlike the first bike, which used an essentially stock frame, this one would be radically raked and slammed. Being well connected within the VTX community, Jim soon found himself a leftover 2003 VTX1800C, the perfect fodder for his customizing cannon, and got to work.
Because the engine gets its nourishment straight from the bottle, internal modifications were kept to a minimum. Since the stock pistons tend to self-destruct when subjected to the rigors of laughing-gas-induced combustion pressures, they were replaced by a set of forged, 10.5-to-1 Wiseco slugs. Likewise, a 10-disc clutch pack from Kewl Metal replaced the OEM eight-plate item, which understandably would have had a rather short life expectancy once the juice-boosted engine's additional 34 horses started flexing their muscles.
External engine modifications were also kept simple. The bike inhales through what's become a Guffin signature piece-a one-of-a-kind V-2 Velocity stack/airbox-and exhales through a set of short and sweet "Top Fuel Zoomie" headers built by hardcore VTX guy Rob Jenquin of Brown County Customs. Conservatively, Guffin guesstimates horsepower to be about 140. With the bike slammed and the nitrous flowing, acceleration is best described as intense, although I'm not sure that the words insane or psychotically violent wouldn't work just as well.
Radically lowering a VTX presents certain problems, especially if you want the bike to remain rideable. The number-one job was figuring out some way to rake the frame. Normally, raking a frame is a reasonably uncomplicated procedure: You slice through the frame tubes, bend the steering head in the appropriate direction then weld it all back together, maybe adding a gusset or two for strength. But because the VTX frame employs tubes within tubes to give it strength, raking one using conventional methods isn't really an option, especially if you'd like to maintain some semblance of the original frames' structural integrity. Guffin, in collaboration with his buddies at Roadrage, solved the dilemma by cutting through the forward portion of the steering-head tube and welding slugs, which incorporated new bearing seats into the OEM bearing locations. The steering head was then welded back together and a fishplate added as a brace, allowing the critical frame tubes to remain undisturbed.
The modification, now available as a kit, increases rake by 8 degrees, and the custom triple clamp, another Roadrage accessory, adds another 6 degrees. In show mode with the rear suspension collapsed, rake is a whopping 50 degrees. Kewl Metal Fat Fork tubes with extensions complete the look and provide the requisite gleam.
Capping off the front end is a 2-inch-diameter handlebar. Initially, Jim thought he'd sub the job out to a known handlebar manufacturer, but they told him it couldn't be done. Predictably, Jim went home and immediately did it-fabricated the handlebar, that is-which he admits sounds like a lot more fun than it was. The bars contain all the wiring and hydraulics, which are linked to a one-off brake manifold located under the triple tree, and are finished off with Joker Machine-supplied controls, a hidden throttle and the biggest damn grips I've ever seen. If you look closely at the 42-inch bars, you'll notice the letters "G" and "P" milled into the cross-member. Those are there in homage to Joe Gschweng (of Kewl Metal) and Michael Payne, both men instrumental in building Mr. Nasty and both close friends of Jim's.