Dom the Phantom is a regular combatant at the Elvington Speed WheelieEvent in the UK, where riders with balls the size of cantaloupes balance bikes on the rear wheel for a full mile at speeds most sportbike owners will never see in their lifetimes. Most of the wheelie freaks favor the latest incarnation of Suzuki's GSX-R1000, but since breaking four ribs after wrecking his 2005 GSX-R1000 earlier in the year, he didn't have much of a choice but to seek out a new bike.
Used and abused B-Kings were just becoming cheap enough in the classified ads and Dom managed to find a slightly soiled B-King that came with all the right hooligan parts; big Rotrex supercharger, Power Commander, Öhlins rear shock and a tasty Scorpion exhaust that replaced the overweight and over-ugly stock B-King system. Featuring so much go-fast hardware, the B-King had obviously been drag raced and still sported bolt-on swingarm extensions, which came in pretty handy as Dom bought it on Saturday and raced it on Sunday. After five solid runs he managed a meager terminal speed of only 135 MPH in the quarter-mile.
The B in B-King finally stands...
The B in B-King finally stands for blower.
It wasn't even a decent time, and not what Dom was expecting from the supercharged B-King's 'Busa-based 1300cc motor. A turn on the dyno revealed where the ponies were escaping from-only 70 percent of the fuel needed to make big horsepower was being burnt, and the blow-off valve wasn't working, plus a few other glitches like the header pipes were too close for comfort to the supercharger unit.
After these issues were ironed out the result on the dyno was a rear wheel count of 230 horses making a run for the stable door with 140 LB-FT of torque for company. It all sorted well enough for Dom to make a 133.7 MPH wheelie on the blown B-King and finish 29th in the results. That's pretty cool when you consider that in 2003 the world record over the distance was 137 MPH.
Items like an MSD shift light...
Items like an MSD shift light and killswitch tether would usually indicate a drag-only bike, but these are also used for a serious wheelie machine.
TTS Rotrex supercharger, Power Commander, Scorpion exhaust system
Accessories: MSD shift light and killswitch, Powerbronze windscreen, R&G frame sliders
Owner: Dom the Phantom, London, UK
Builder: TTS (
tts-performance.co.uk)