| From
The President |
 “We
were eager to do something completely different
and ‘off the map’”
“The
unveiling of the X-Wedge at Cincinnati was a historic
moment for this company. The support of the 2nd
generation and board...
Read
Full Story >>> |
| Project
X |
 There
has been much speculation about the new S&S X-Wedge
engine, and we are proud to finally present the details
of this groundbreaking product. Through a joint project
promotion, you will get exclusive photos of the first
five completely custom built bikes on the pages of
V-TWIN this year. The builders in this unique project—dubbed
Project X--are Big Dog Motorcycles, Roger Bourget,
Tim Edmondson, Cory Ness, and Bill Rucker. The bikes
will be in the S&S display during Daytona Bike
Week, Laughlin River Run, Myrtle Beach Bike Week,
Laconia Rally and Races and Sturgis Bike Week. |
| Project
X Builders |
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With
EPA and CARB restrictions becoming more and more prevalent,
S&S Cycle looked to the future and designed a new
OE specific engine more in line with environmental expectations.
This next generation v-twin is a departure from S&S'
traditional engine design and a step toward the future
of air-cooled, pushrod operated v-twins.
In
October of 2002, a small group of S&S Product Development
team members were given a green light by the S&S
senior management team to start on a new engine design
to ensure that S&S OE customers would have engines
available when the emissions laws tightened up. It
needed to be an air-cooled v-twin, with pushrod operated
overhead valves and meet the upcoming 2008 ARB and
2010 EPA regulations. The S&S Product Development
team accepted the challenge and began engineering the
engine of the future.
By
October of 2003 the first prototype design was
under way and a running test version spent time
on the S&S dyno in December of 2004. So,
in just two years a concept became a design,
which turned into a running prototype. In just
five more short months, April 2005 saw another
prototype installed in a chassis and ridden around
Wisconsin. When the prototype had reached production
intent, two different dyno tests were performed—one
to simulate highway operation at 3200rpm for
800 hours and another that ran a 200-hour duty
cycle on a dyno that varied engine speed and
load from idle to full-throttle. This rigorous
testing was necessary before any further development
could be done. Once the S&S Product Development
team was satisfied with the engine’s durability,
they finalized the functional design.
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The
engine, code-named Fred around the S&S offices
during development, is the all-new S&S X-Wedge
(pronounced “cross” or “ex”)—a
56-degree, closed-loop fuel-injected, three-cam, overhead
valve v-twin designed to deliver the performance expected
of an S&S engine, but still comply with EPA laws.
One key engineering feature is the versatility of the
design to create a range of engine sizes. The engine
design will accept bore sizes from 4 1/8” to
4 ½” and the stroke can go from 4 1/8” to
4 3/8”--equating to a displacement range of 110
to 139 inches! The 56-degree v-twin utilizes three
serpentine belt-driven, large base-circle cams; two
exhaust cams and a common intake cam achieve almost
straight pushrod angles that combine with automotive-style
rockers and roller tappets to create an incredibly
quiet, EPA noise conscious valve train.
Induction
on the X-Wedge is done with the new S&S single-bore
throttle body pumping fuel and air into a wedge
shaped combustion chamber contained in a head
with a five stud bolt pattern and increased fin
area for maximum cooling abilities. The head
has the fuel injector mounted directly in it
for even more efficient combustion. A non-structural
rocker cover that will allow various OE builders
to design a look specific to their brand covers
the aforementioned automotive rockers.
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