Truett & Osborn
The Real Deal!
By Tom Johnson
At one
time, the terms “performance” and “Harley-Davidson” were almost never used in
the same sentence. That changed somewhat in 1957, with the introduction of the overhead
valve Sportster. Most of the advances that followed, and what made hot-rodded
American twins all but unbeatable (until the four-cylinder imports appeared),
came from a handful of outsiders far removed from
Big valves,
high-lift Sifton cams, and bored-out carburetors helped, but it took stroker
flywheels to give high-performance Harleys the edge they needed. For pushrod
American twins, there really is no replacement for displacement.
The best I
can determine, Wade Lentner, a Harley-Davidson dealer in
George
Smith of S&S began manufacturing
stroker flywheels a short time later. Smith’s success is a matter of record, as
is that of the two men featured here, Bonnie Truett and Paul Osborn.
“T&O” are two of my favorite
people. This article is based on conversations I had with them on the way to
Laughlin a few years ago. I talked with Paul at the Truett & Osborn shop in
Paul Osborn -
Wichita , Kansas
My first contact with Truett &
Osborn came in 1982, when I was traveling from
The owner of the pick-up bailed me out. He helped
me load the bike, and off we went to T&O.
Paul was working alone in the shop
when we arrived a half-hour later. Noticing the cylinder head in my hand and
the grease and road grime that pretty much covered me from head to toe, Paul
stopped what he was doing and reached for the head. “Let’s see what you have
there,” he said.
An hour later, he had replaced and
sized a worn-out valve guide and ground both valves and seats. Understanding
that I was on the road and traveling on a budget, he charged me just twenty
dollars.
Accepting my handshake and thanks,
he said, “We like to help out the folks on the road whenever we can.”
Needless to say, I think a lot of
Paul Osborn. Here’s how our conversation
went when I dropped in on him twenty years after our first meeting.
···
“Bonnie had a little shop in
“Of course, then the other
Sportster riders around
“All of our strokers were for
Sportsters, at first, most of them with the 4-13/16” stroke. We started making
flywheels for Big Twins about ten years later, and now our Big Twin flywheels
outsell the Sportsters by about 10:1- roughly the same proportion as Harley’s
new motorcycle sales.”
What was business like then, compared to now?
“Bonnie and I never had any
capitol, to speak of, during those first few years. We put every cent we made
back into the business, and we both had full-time jobs outside the shop. Bonnie
worked for the railroad, and I worked most of the time for Learjet, where I
worked my way up to Managing Engineer before I quit to work full-time at Truett
& Osborn.
“Most of our business was in
service. I worked on the Sportsters, and Bonnie took care of the Big Twins. Our parts & accessory
sales grew, although it is starting to die off a little now because of
competition from the mail order businesses.
“But our ‘Torque Monster’ flywheels
are very popular, and we sell a lot of them. They’re heavier than stock, which
gives the engine more torque to work with when you’re leaving a stop sign or
going up a hill. Another thing about heavy flywheels is that they smooth out
the engine. Torque Monsters are just about as popular in
What’s new at T&O?
“Now we have complete bottom ends
with our flywheels, Jim’s shafts, and Eagle rods, which are similar to the
Carrillos. We can make the flywheels heavy or light, depending on what the
customer needs. Usually, you want heavy flywheels in a road bike or for
kick-starting, but light flywheels are better for something that you run around
town on or race from bar to bar.
“Our newest thing is that we
dynamically balance all of our flywheels in-house on a Stewart-Warner balancer.
We feel that’s more accurate than the techniques some of the other
manufacturers use. Heavy flywheels and dynamic balancing usually make for a
very smooth-running engine, even if it’s a big one.”
T&O flywheels
are made of cast iron instead of steel. Why is that?
“Cast iron seems to grip the shaft
tapers a little better, and some people find iron ‘wheels easier to true Our flywheels are made of a special alloy
that’s a lot different than the iron in a frying pan. We’ve never had a single
failure, even with nitro in Top Fuel.”
Paul, what do you think about the V-Rod and Twin
“I think the Twin Cam 88 is the
best thing Harley has done in years. It’s bigger, and, of course, more powerful
than the other engines, and it has a lot of technical advances like the piston
oilers. I admire the engineering in the V-Rod and everything, but it’s not for
me. I guess I’m just a Sportster rider at heart.” (Paul owns a 1983 XR 1000,
and a whole roomful of K-Models.)
What’s the best
V-Twin configuration for all-around riding? Something you can have fun with but
still take on the highway?
“Bigger engines have gotten
popular, but I still like the 4-5/8” stroke 96-inch combination for good power
and dependability- all-around riding. It will last a long time if you take care
of it and don’t abuse it too much.” (Laughs.)
You have been in business for
almost 40 years now. What are the highpoints of your career- personal and
professional? And what about Bonnie, do you miss having him around?
“One of the best high points was when I took a voluntary layoff from Learjet years ago. I loaded my motorcycle in the back of a ’54 Ford camper, and my wife and I toured the country for 3-1/2 months. We stayed with friends and in campgrounds, and didn’t spend a night in a motel the whole time we were traveling.
“I enjoy this business and I always
have. Our race (The Truett & Osborn Drag Races held in May and August)
would have to be a big
“About Bonnie, well, I miss him. He did a lot
here at the shop, and he was really good on the telephone. We see each other
fairly often but, yes, I miss him.”
The phone rang as I was getting ready to leave. Someone wanted to know whether T&O flywheels were heavy or light. Paul’s response: “We make ‘em heavy, and we make ‘em light…whatever you want. Since you’re kick-starting, you’ll probably want them heavy.”
Another customer came in, walked
to the counter, and asked C.J., Paul’s son, if he had a float bowl gasket for a
Linkert carburetor. “I might have one left,” C.J. replied. He rang up the sale
a moment later, and another satisfied customer left T&O with exactly what
he’d come for. Needless to say, you won’t find many dealers who stock parts for
Linkert carburetors these days- one of the many small but important things that
has kept Truett & Osborn in business for so many years.
···
Acknowledging his contributions as one of the world’s pioneer Top Fuel Harley riders and a top-notch clutch and frame builder, the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Hall of Fame inducted Bonnie Truett in July of 2000.
Bonnie Truett - Vian , Oklahoma 
Although I had known him by reputation for many years, I first met
Bonnie face to face in 1995. He struck me as honest and direct, with a great
sense of humor that was never far away. That impression has never changed.
After I arrived in Vian and
telephoned him from the convenience store, Bonnie came to meet me- surprised
that I was traveling by car. He said, “I thought for sure you would come on a
motorcycle. I didn’t see one, and I thought that maybe the cops had already
arrested you and impounded your motorcycle. All in less than five minutes- that
would have to be a world’s record!”
A few minutes later, he was
showing me through the house and garage he and wife Diane designed on a piece
of cardboard and then built with the help of Bonnie’s brother-in-law and a few
friends. It didn’t take long for us to settle in the garage, where Bonnie’s
Ironhead Sportster nitro ‘play bike’ resided.
Bonnie, I’ll
start by asking what you’re doing to pass the time since you retired from
T&O.
“Well, for
one thing, I still travel a lot. I retired from racing in 1984, but I’ll always
be part of the Truett Race Team. I help “The Kid”* with his racing as much as I
can, and I do some engine work here in the garage- mostly on the older
stuff. I just finished a Knucklehead and a Shovelhead, and today I’m going to
pick up another Shovelhead over in
*Bonnie’s grown son, Scott, “The Kid,” was the Number One
plate holder in the A.H.D.R.A.’s high-gear nitro class at the time.
I know you like the older bikes.
What do you think about the V-Rod?
“I have no interest whatsoever in
the V-Rod. I’m not down on them or anything, they’re just different. And there
are enough Sportsters and Shovelheads around here to keep me busy forever.”
Why did you move to Vian?
“I was born
in a cabin just a few miles from here, so it’s home. And Vian is a good place
to live. Nobody bothers you here, and there are just two rules- You can’t raise
hogs inside the city limits, and don’t complain about your neighbor. Anybody
should be able to live with that.”
Hot damn- maybe I should
move here! How and why did you get into
racing?
“I had a
happy throttle hand and always rode hell-bent for leather. I was getting way
too many tickets riding on the street, and I just decided that it would be
cheaper to do my racing on the racetrack.
“I started out
T.T. racing in the early ‘60’s. I liked T.T. because, with the cutbacks and
everything, a good rider could usually make it up on riders with more
horsepower. I raced a K Model until someone stole it.
“I started
drag racing in 1962 and switched to fuel in 1965 or ’66. I went in the 11’s and
then the 10’s…I still remember my first nine-second race. It was a 9.99 in
“His clutch slipped when he left
the line, but then the heat from the friction welded everything together when
he was about halfway down the track. The clutch locked up solid, and Leo made
the fastest run he’d ever made. The slipper clutch was a big deal because it
let us go to a bigger tire. Without the slipper, you’d bog the big tires.”
The slipper was a
hell of a breakthrough, then.
“Yes, it was. Everybody was
experimenting with different things to try and go faster than everybody else.
When somebody would finally figure something out or stumble onto something that
worked, he would keep it to himself. For a while, we were drilling everything
full of holes to lighten it up- including the frame! Even the way we got them
started was different- they’d pull us off with a tow rope behind a car. Every
run was kind of like a suicide mission, and the stock rods and cast pistons we
were using didn’t help much, either.
“Nitro was a big change, and I was
among the first racers to use it- Leo Payne helped get me started in racing,
and he talked me into switching to fuel. Leo and Ken Tipton of M.C. Supply were
the first to use nitro, then me. Joe Smith and Boris Murray switched over to it
a little later.”
Where did you ever find nitro back
then? Was it expensive? And how did you figure out how to mix it?
“I bought mine from a funny car
racer in
“Doc Dytch did a lot of research on
nitro. He said 30% was the most you could use, but of course we later found out
that was wrong. Doc put a lot into the sport, though. He even sent out
brochures telling how to modify a Linkert carburetor for nitro, and how to put
a lightweight Hummer front end on a Sportster frame.
“Nitro is hard to ignite, which was
a big problem. We tried different chemical igniters, things like propylene
oxide, that we added to make it burn. ‘P.O’ is funny stuff. It’s very unstable
and at eighty degrees Fahrenheit it changes from a liquid to a gas. You’d show
up at a race and open your P.O., and there would be nothing there!
“T.C. Christensen figured that out.
He solved the problem by transporting his P.O. on ice.”
What are some of the changes
you’ve seen in drag racing?
“Frames have come a long way, and
so have tires…they have more traction than we ever thought was possible.
“And there are wheelie bars. I was one of the last professional racers to
use wheelie bars- I used to call them ‘training wheels.’ Even that took a lot
of experimenting, with everyone trying something different. One guy put a
furniture caster on a leaf spring (laughing)- he would bounce up and
down all the way down the track!
“Double-engines got popular in 1970
or ’71, but that never worked for cars and it didn’t work for Harleys. Having
two engines makes sense in theory, since you should have twice the horsepower,
but it never worked in practice. You ended up with too much weight and there
were twice as many things to go wrong. The engines were always fighting each
other in a double. I got around that a little by timing one of them fifteen
degrees ahead of the other.
Who did you race against? How was
the racing?
“The main people I raced with were
Elmet Trett, T.C. Christensen with his Nortons, Marion Owens, Jerry Cox, Dave
Campos, who drove the Easyriders streamliner at Bonneville, Boris Murray, Danny
Johnson, Russ Collins, and Joe Smith- who owed a lot of his success to Gordon
Kately.
“All the brands raced against each
other, and T.C. won everything. His Nortons were very dependable, and a lot of
credit should go to T.C.’s tuner, who was John Gregory. The Norton engines made
enough power that they didn’t have to run on ‘Kill’ all the time, and that
helped them stay together.
“Elmer Trett was another one who
was ahead of his time. He and I were good friends, but Elmer had a lot of
friends. He had a motto that was very true- ‘Always be nice to the people you
meet on your way up, because they’ll be there on your way down, too.’
“Top Fuel was like a big clan, and
the ones who raced doubles were a clan in themselves. Back then it took cubic
inches to win. Now it takes ‘cubic dollars.’
“Promoters used to pay $500 for
fuel bikes- win, lose or break- and we would usually break. That $500 was
important, though, because Harley never helped the little guy. If anything,
they might do a little something for the ones who were already winning.”
Who were some of your friends in
racing?
“My best friends were Elmer, Marion
Owens, McClure, who they used to call “The Judge,” and Pete Hill.
“McClure and I used to play around
together. One time, I bet him fifty dollars that he wouldn’t run 7.40’s, or
something like that. He didn’t, and he mailed me a fifty-dollar bill a week
later- only he had folded it up and put so many staples in it that it took me
an hour to pull them all out. I was surprised that the bank took it because of
all the staple holes.
“And Pete Hill…the first time we
met Pete was at the Bowling Green Spring Party Race. He showed up on a
Knucklehead chopper with a 6 foot sissy bar and a little canteen of gas hanging
off it. His tank didn’t hold enough gas to make it through the Smokies, so he
carried a little extra in the canteen.
“Pete has always been a one of a
kind. No one in the world has more loyal fans than Pete and Jackie Hill. Pete
and Marion Owens made one run at our race where the crowd got so excited that
they piled out on to the track. We had to shut down the races and chase them
off. That was the same supercharged Knucklehead Pete did that
“The thing about Pete is that he is
always the same every day, day in and day out. You always know what he will be
like when you talk to him.”
Bonnie
retired from racing in 1984 but, as mentioned earlier, he still helps his son,
Scott- “The Kid.” I asked Bonnie what racing was like now, compared to when he
was riding.
“Well. for
one thing, I don’t see the new racers struggling like we used to- there’s more
knowledge. Everything you need to know about nitro is on the Internet, and
parts are a lot better now. I would never have imagined that a fuel motor could
be as reliable as they are today.
“Even if you had plenty of money,
you couldn’t buy the parts or the knowledge it took to race with fuel, because
they weren’t there- nobody knew. I try to help new people out and make it
easier for them, I guess because there was no one there to help me. It’s a way
to add something to the sport.”
Getting inducted
into the Hall of Fame was a big honor. What do you see as your biggest
contribution to the sport of drag racing?
“It makes you proud that people
recognize you for something you did, whatever it was. I think I’ll be
remembered for making drag racing more professional. I worked with the
promoters to make it more legitimate.”
One story in closing. Bonnie rebuilt
a Shovel engine not long before our talk. The owner brought it back because it
didn’t run like it should. Bonnie disassembled it but couldn’t find anything
wrong. After hours of work, he finally discovered that the cam manufacturer had
pressed the cam gear on wrong- only two or three degrees, but enough to kill
performance.
“Jeez,” I said. “That must have
taken forever to find. How much did you have to charge the guy for that?”
“Nothing,” came the reply. “He already paid me once.” TJ