Two of the most American things ever are cruisers and V8 engines. It was only a matter of time until someone put the two together, creating the Boss Hoss. Bikes and Beards just picked up a 1992 model, something that Sean admits he's been scared to ride because of the insanity of this bike.

Boss Hoss was originally known as Boss Hogg. Rather than attracting the ire of lawyers for liberating our favorite villain from The Dukes of Hazzard, they attracted the ire of Harley-Davidson, as people refer to Harleys as "hogs." They forced the non-Harley bike builder to change their name to leave the pigs out of it.

The Hoss does use a number of Harley parts, however. The comically dashboard-wide gas tank is made of two Fat Boy tanks, with even more metal welded between them. The fork comes from a Wide Glide. It even uses Harley-Davidson hand controls, so most cruiser riders will be immediately familiar with them. We've ranted before about how car tires do not belong on motorcycles. Until 2000, though, the Boss Hoss came from the factory with a car tire on the back, since it was the only tire the company felt could handle the V8's 350 horsepower. Even now, the only true motorcycle tires Boss Hoss has certified for their bike are the Avon 230 and 300.

The heart of the Hoss, however, is anything but Harley. It's a small-block Chevrolet 350 cubic inch V8, which GM used in the Corvette at the time. The entire motorcycle is built around this engine for the sole purpose of... well, having this engine. Ironically, the 350 was the reasonable choice, the economy model, so to speak. The other engine option was a 502 cubic inch crate motor.

Because the engine is so huge, the transmission is tiny—certainly not well suited for handling 350 horsepower. The car clutch is too strong to be operated with a hand lever. The Hoss has a vacuum pump to help you squeeze it, with an additional pedal and funky mechanism to use when the engine isn't running. It's complicated, but Sean does a good job of explaining exactly how it works in the video.

As a great philosopher once asked, "Is it a fast ship?" It idles at 35 mph. It'll outrun Bikes and Beards' turbo CVO Road Glide. It takes a mere 6.28 seconds to accelerate from 50 to 115 mph. The CVO takes 8.69 seconds just to run from 50 to 100. Even a Suzuki GSX-S 1000 takes a yawningly long 6.54 seconds on the 50-115 run. She's fast enough for the old man.

Ironically, it turns out this Boss Hoss was only running on six cylinders when it ran these times, too. I can't wait to see what it'll do once it's firing on all cylinders. As for Sean, who's riding it, may the odds be ever in his favor.

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