My wife Sandy and I first purchased our dyno for the purpose of conducting Horsepower Shootout competitions. We soon discovered that what our customers really wanted was for someone knowledgeable in the industry to tune their engines.

So we went to school! I have a 25 year background of owning and working on my Harleys, so I have attended the "real world" school of engine tuning. Sandy and I have both been to school at the Dynojet factory in Belgrade, Montana and have also attended two additional advanced training seminars in Phoenix, Arizona at the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute.

In our travels over the Eastern two-thirds of the United States, we stop at Harley dealerships and aftermarket shops of all sizes. Our primary customer base is an owner of a late-model Harley Davidson, usually 1984 and newer. Very rarely does this motorcycle reflect the factory stock appearance. Nearly always the owner has added various items to change the performance of their motorcycle to suit their personal tastes. Most often those items that have been changed are in the category of bolt-on carbs, cams, or exhaust. We use our dyno to optimize the performance of our customer's Harleys. The Dynojet dynamometer is well-known for its capabilities to determine horsepower and torque numbers at the rear wheel.

When word gets out that there is a "tuner" in town, we get very busy.  We work our schedule similar to a Doctor's office, setting appointments hourly from 10:00a.m. until 7:00p.m.  At the big rallies we will often fill our schedule a day or two in advance.

My clientele has an above-average income and has already invested from ten to fifty thousand dollars in the motorcycle of their choice. They have then purchased many additional items to enhance the beauty and performance of their machine. Often the cost of these upgrades runs several thousand dollars.

In the last 30 months, I have run over 5,000 motorcycles on my dyno. The total number of runs I have done numbers over 60,000. This experience has led me to claim an expertise in dealing with nearly all kinds of carbs and in tuning drag pipes. Many of my customers are surprised at their 4 - 8 h.p. gain with a single jet change, or a 5 - 10 h.p. increase with a timing adjustment, and 10 - 40 ft.-lbs. of torque increase with exhaust tuning.

I can show these improvements on the screen, which is in full view of the crowd of observers that gathers around my dyno area at every event. I give to each customer a file folder with charts and graphs of their motorcycle's performance before and after tuning, including a dataset showing their horsepower and torque at every 100 RPM. I can show them their optimum shift points for improved acceleration on the street or strip.

I conduct my business out in the open, with no smoke, mirrors, or mystery! I explain to the crowd watching us work what I am doing and why. We explain all phases of our tuning procedure and explain to each customer why their motorcycle's performance is either good or poor.

Customers who come to me after having had their motorcycles on other people's dynamometers tell me the following:

1. No one explained much to them; they just ran their motorcycle and handed them a piece of paper.
2. No one explained why some parts worked better than others.
3. No one has proven to them that some parts worked better than others.

After I have tuned their bikes and made an appreciable improvement, some customers say "My local shop has a dyno; why didn't they do this for me?"

Countless times I've heard people say they always wanted to test their motorcycle on a dyno, but were afraid to, because of the way other dyno operators they have watched treated the customer's motorcycle. After watching my operation, they are surprised and pleased by my technique.

When my customers leave my dyno, they are pleased they made the decision to have their bike tuned by me. They leave knowing the parts they already have do or do not work together.

We often find that our customer is a referral from a past customer. When shop owners are our customers, they often call their customers over for me to tune their motorcycles, also!

Our customers trust us. They look to us as an authority on performance and are constantly asking me what's new on the market, or what can they do to or install on their motorcycle to improve the performance or looks.

Sandy and I currently travel 32 weeks per year to events covering the United States from the Rockies to the Atlantic. We work at most of the large motorcycle rallies, at Harley-Davidson dealerships, and aftermarket shops from coast to coast. We love our job, and are very good at it. The job satisfaction is tremendous!

- John (The Dyno Guy)