Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/751464
60 nDecember 2016n www.thunderpress.net THUNDER PRESS Lost history of the 8-valves This was supposed to be easy. The idea was to simply inform those who might not know that the new Milwaukee-Eight was not Harley- Davidson's fi rst dance with multi-valve engines. No sir, not by a long shot. Fact is, The Motor Company built an 8-valve engine for racing almost exactly 100 years ago. Well, to be a little more pre- cise, they built a precious few of them; no one knows for sure exactly how many, and in several iterations to boot. That's what keeps this from being simple. As for being easy? Well, while the idea for this article was shaping, it turned out I could only offer you, dear reader, a paragraph or two of solid fact about this historic, almost mythi- cal, landmark machine. For those who want only answers, I hope that will suffi ce. But for me this whole era and the machines that made it is laden with a lot more questions than answers. But, that's what makes it worth it. Usually, in cases like this, it's best to start at the beginning, so… Origins of the original Bill Ottaway had his work cut out for him. Lured to H-D in 1913 from a fl oundering Thor, he had already been tasked with making the J-models all they could be. He did. By the fall of 1915, improved intake manifolds, bet- ter cam profi les, stronger valve gear and a high-capacity oil pump meant a whopping 25-percent increase in power for the J. All good… but in the meantime the founders had reversed their attitudes about factory-backed racing and had handed him the chore of coming up with a competitive racing machine. He did. The pocket- valve production-based 11K model was holding its own against some pretty formidable competition, but it had given all he could get out of it… so, what next? Times were tougher than you'd think for the industry as a whole, and lots of manufacturers were drop- ping like fl ies during the wholesale switch to cars. The founders meant to be among the survivors in the only way that worked: getting your name and reputation in front of the public. In those pre-Internet, pre-television, pre-radio days that meant articles in newspapers and trade papers. It meant racing… successfully. Getting from old gray mare to swift gray race horse was Ottaway's job. He did it. The opposition's technology was looking pretty ferocious. Excelsior (deep pockets provided by Ignatz Schwinn's bicycle empire) had come up with their impressively fast "Big Valve" racer. Indian had been racing Oscar Hedstrom's 8-valve track bikes since 1911, and naturally enough, dominated the fi eld. But the machine that kept Ottaway awake nights was the awe-inspiring, ferociously potent and futuristic overhead cam Cyclone! It wouldn't be easy to mount a chal- lenge to this kind of superior hardware without a scratch-built, race-only monster of his own. Impossible with a pocket valve like the 11K. But, Ottaway wasn't getting "scratch-built" support from Walter Davidson during hard times. Instead, he had to compromise and settle for a new top end on the proven 11K sin- gle-cam bottom end. The 8-valve idea looked good; much cooler-running, less hammering of frail valves and springs, not too many different parts to worry about, might even breathe better. Bill was an engineer in his own right, and kept himself informed of the latest thinking in internal combus- tion. He knew how good (and proven) Hedstrom's 8-valver was. Under the circumstances and constraints, seemed like the best way to go for H-D as well. Meanwhile, all the engineering journals and papers available kept talking about this fella in England, a gent named Harry Ricardo, who knew his way around head fl ow like no one else. Following his principles, Ottaway had his own prototype 8-valver up and running by the fall of 1915. But… but… it was pre-igniting so badly it melted spark plugs! With a cool 25 grand into the project and the 1916 season looming large, Ottaway had to go, hat in hand, to Walter Davidson. Walter—the penny pincher—wasn't happy! A steamship voyage to bring the man himself to America, paying top dollar for his expertise, not to mention putting him up for weeks, was another major expense, and not part of the original plan. On the other hand, not bringing Ricardo to the rescue meant scrapping the project and wast- Here's the ad H-D took out in 1916 trade papers to announce availability of their spanking new 61" Model 17 8-valve V-Twin racer. The astronomical price was enough to distract you from the intention- ally vague specifi cations listed. My personal hunch is the specs were vague because the lead time for getting an ad in the paper was such that Harley themselves weren't certain about the details of their new racer, until after the ad came out. No matter what… they had to show the intention of compli- ance with the (pre-AMA) FAM governing body "rule" that such machines were to be sold to the public. At the listed price… fat friggin' chance! It might come as a surprise, but in 1911 there was no NFL football, big league baseball, or any other popular professional sport that could top horse racing and boxing. No TV or radio also meant that when people were looking for weekend entertainment and the ponies or fi sticuffs didn't do it for 'em… motorcycle racing had a natural audience. A big one at that! Most of them came to see the sheer spectacle of spindly machines, slinging around a track making a sound many had never heard and going faster than any could imagine. At the time, one of the best of these racers used an Indian 8-valve engine, like this one. To say, in hindsight, that Oscar Hedstrom was a hell of an engineer is to put it mildly. But Oscar retired in 1913, leaving the competition with… ah… a hell of an opportunity to catch up! "Times were tougher than you'd think for the industry as a whole, and lots of manufacturers were dropping like fl ies during the wholesale switch to cars."