Sweden is a country of massive contradictions. Much of the terrain is mountainous and many of the roads are tight an' twisty … so the Swedes build rigid chops with forks a mile long. The Swedish winter lasts for about 10 months, it's dark most of the time and it snows a lot, (sounds a bit like Britain) … and the Swedish women are famous for their blonde hair and suntans. Sweden has the largest permanent and one of the best equipped armed forces in Europe … and hasn't fought in a war since the siege catapult was invented. A certain Swedish estate car, so beloved of Sociology teachers and people who have a sign in the rear window telling the world that they have, 'Show Dogs In Transit', is widely recognised as the most boring automobile in the world ... until Volvo took one touring car racing and won races. Magnus Romeborn and Ake Nygren race 'Harleys' under the collective banner of the Flathead Power Racing Team … and both bikes are overhead valve jobbies. Like I said, a country that's as much a contradiction in terms as 'Police Intelligence Unit'.

Sweden may be famous for safe and respectable motorcars, horny porn flicks and let's not forget the dulcet delights of Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and the other bint with the dark hair, but Volvos, vaginas and vomit-pop are as familiar to the Flathead Racing boyz as trying to assemble a flat-pack wardrobe from Ikea, because these Swedes like to race and they like to race motorcycles a la Américaine - long, low and loud Harley-Davidsons. But here, yet again friends we find even more contradictorial behaviour from our Swedish chefs, because although this bike may look like a Harley-Davidson, sound like a Harley-Davidson and have the Harley-Davidson™ logo written on either side of the Harlyesque petrol tanks, apart from the modified late model Softail Springer forks, the ancient Harley drum brake and maybe the timing cover and tin primaries, this bike is as Swedish in content as the reindeer shit on a Volvo bonnet.

Built as a rolling test-bed for the products fabricated and purveyed by Anders Nygren Motor, aka Flathead Power, Magnus Romeborn's Knucklehead has been hammering the quarter mile on both sides of the Atlantic since 1993. When I met Magnus his Knuck had only just been beaten into second spot at the annual AMI Brute Horsepower Shoot-Out at Daytona. Beaten by a measly 0.6BHP, the Knucklehead had put up a stiff challenge to the 132.5 horses of Kownacki's Evolution Harley - 131.9 out of an engine with a cylinder head design from Jurassic Park isn't too shabby … considering that it was done with Magnus' spare engine. Just before the team shipped the bike to Daytona the #1 engine with a BHP bodycount of 155.2 had broken a gudgeon pin, so with no time for a rebuild, the 'old' motor was slipped in for the AMI Brute BHP bash.   

It must be something in the basic nature of Scandinavians, (probably the long dark nights and the high suicide rate), but they do seem to revel in taking the most esoteric of engines and tuning them to run as hard and as fast on the drag strip as their modern-day contemporary counterparts. Flathead V-8 Ford motors are the darling buds of the Swedish hot-rod fraternity and although Ake Nygren makes a crust with his side-valve V-twin schmutter, both his and Magnus' race bikes are powered by mean an' nasty OHV 'Knucklehead' motors. Using the familiar mainstay components of the ersatz Harley-Davidson engine scam, namely the excellent bottom end bits of Mr S&S, Magnus has added a pair of fat Axtell cylinders with a combined swept volume of 1880 cubic centimetres to the Flathead Power-manufactured E-Model look-a-like cylinder heads to produce a killer combo. Ported, polished and running valves like jam jar lids, the big-bore jugs and Flathead Power heads need a pair of 42mm Mikuni flatslide carbs to satisfy their need for an adequate atomised mixture of petroleum spirit and H2O. In order to shift the grunt twixt engine and tarmac with a minimum of effort a rebuilt ratchet-top 4-speed gearbox seems an adequate mechanical medium to transfer the drive from the primary belt to the chain final drive via a fat 160x17 Continental tyre on a 5.5 inch wide Akront spoked rim. In typical Swedish tradition the front brake is about as much use as Stevie Wonder's binoculars and with a small race-spec Brembo two-potter hanging on a lightweight disc at the blunt end of the bike the braking power of Magnus' Knuck is easily almost on a par with a modern version of Milwaukee's finest motorcycle.

Despite having about as many genuine Harley-Davidson parts in its construction as yer average Hardly-Rideable show bike Magnus has painted the Knuck in the traditional Harley race livery of bad black, Willie G white and International Harvester orange backed-up by an accompaniment of dull aluminium and a film of 50 weight giving the bike the well-used persona of a machine that can genuinely walk the walk.                  

For a country whose population are mostly descended from a horde of horned hooligans Swedes have a penchant that borders on the obsessive for many things American - Hot Rods and Harley-Davidsons being just two of them. But in this scenario one and one make three, because wherever monster-engined V-8 cars and Harley-Davidsons piss in the same pot you'll be sure to find drag racing. And again we find even more contradictions, inasmuch that Sweden has one of the best-equipped airforces in the world and yet there is a distinct lack of venues for serious quarter mile fun and frolics because there are no runways. The reason for this strange anomaly is due to the fact that the Swedish Airforce conceal their aircraft in underground bunkers in the woods and take-off and land on the country's dual purpose motorway system … so being flashed by a Saab Viggen trying to take-off in the fast lane with ABBA belting out of the cockpit window as you cruise home from a shift at the meatball factory in this country of contradictions is a very distinct possibility.

Specifications    

Make & Model:	MR Knucklehead
Engine:	1994 Magnus Romeborn 1880cc "Knucklehead": S&S crankcases, crank, flywheels and rods. JE pistons. Axtell barrels. Flathead Power heads, valves, pushrods, inlet manifold and ignition. Leinwebber Cam, JIMS lifters. Two Mikuni U5 carbs: no air filter
Exhaust:	Loud
Transmission:	1965 4-speed ratchet top, Belt primary with stock/modified, Barnett Clutch Plates
Frame:	1990 custom rigid with 35 degrees. Edlund Frames, Sweden
Forward Controls:	Made by Owner
Forks:	H-D Springer with hydraulic dampers, 6in Extension
Front Wheel:	Metzler 3x21in on Akront 2.73x21in aluminium rim / H-D hub
Front Brake:	H-D brake drum, Stainless steel spokes
Front Mudguard:	For cissys
Rear Wheel:	Continental 160/60x16in on Akront 5.5x16in aluminium rim / flathead Power hub, stainless steel spokes
Rear Brake:	Brembo 2-piston on Flathead Power
Rear Mudguard:	Made by Owner
Seat:	Thin and hard
Petrol Tank:	Pattern 3.5 H-D fat-bobs
Oil Tank:	Made by Owner
Paint:	Black, white & orange by Owner
Chrome:	??
Handlebars:	Flat, black an' low on Ariel 350 risers, (wartime model)
Wiring:	Wiring by owner, home-made alternator
Headlight:	Old
Tail light:	Sometimes
Other mods:	Too many. Best time on ¼ mile ~ 10.08, terminal speed of 155.2mph. Power output of best engine ~ 155.2BHP. Bike built to test and develop parts made and sold by: Flathead Power, Fredriksfors 4149, S-820 60 Delsbo, Sweden. Phone 0046 653-230 02. Fax 0046 653-230 02.
Thanks to:	Ake Nygren at Flathead Power, Sweden and all the rest of the Flathead Power Racing Team.

This feature first appeared in SuperTwins 11