Ken "Holeshot" Hunter
Inventor | Designer | Entrepreneur

BACKGROUND SUMMARY:

 

Selected Accomplishments:

EDUCATION:

I have been drag bike racing since 1972. My first race was at Englishtown, NJ. I won on a 750 Honda, then got thoroughly beaten by a Kwakasaki 903 K1 (remember them?). I graduated from FDU in '76 and fled west, where there are no more winters.  Picture a 7 year drought. Permanent summer!!

I bought a new 1985 V-Max  (serial #0000357), Ca plate “QIKR-N-U”.I posted a terminal velocity of 186 MPH on the salt in 97. The bike ran 9.38 sec @ 143 MPH…last month! Since ’85 I’m unbeaten on the street, 168 wins and no losses, at $100 per clipping. The bike and all the mods were well paid for by the winnings. I won the last Open Super Street trophy at Baylands Raceway in Fremont, CA.  

In ‘96 I tore mad Max down to the frame, did many engine mods. I then powder coated everything (not in the engine air/fuel air path) to a very shiny gloss black. The clutch cover and all other details are gloss black, too. I chromed the scoop and polished the entire air tract on the carbs and engine sides, then used a chromed Vortex pipe. A dark beauty and massive raw power!! All hail Frank Frazetta! 

My bike (starting from the front) has Lindemann forks with cartridge emulators and progressive springs, a  3⁄4” billet fork brace from Holeshot Products, and a Storz active steering damper. For the best hand comfort ever, Hunter Flat Bars are installed in the handlebar. The bike’s frame has perimeter braces, and the rear swing arm has a U shaped tubular brace welded underneath. Shocks are Works Performance Street Trackers. The rear wheel is a cast magnesium 16” Dymag, faster to spool up for quicker launches. No more 15” tire blues…there’s better stickier rubber. There are precision bearings everywhere on the bike and the engine. The heads have been decked and the ports polished, with titanium valves, dual row flat helical springs and titanium retainers. I used Carillo rods and forged pistons. The crank’s been balanced.

I had the gears undercut, and installed a taller top gear for longer legs. I modified a clutch basket from a Venture Royal and installed Barnett springs and plates. There is Kilktronics shifter with an ignition interrupter. Shift like lightning! A stage7 Dynojet setup breathes in thru K&N filters, and out thru a Holeshot Vortex pipe. There is no V-Boost or butterfly valve, upping the power and the torque from 2500 rpm to the 10,500 rpm redline. No v-boost “kick in the pants”, just 154 BHP and massive torque at all speeds. There’s a Corbin Gunfighter saddle on top and  Kuryakin foot pegs on the bottom. 

      Many thanks to Dale Walker for support and advice over the years.  And the occasional free bolt.  

That OSS trophy is with a dozen others of mine on the trophy shelves at the SFMC clubhouse (2194 Folsom St, SF;  Show up on a V-Max and I’ll buy you a beer). While you’re there, look for two large gold cups side by side in our trophy collection. During a road trip in 1999, I got a trophy for 'Long Distance Rider' at the ‘6th Concentration de Motos Espana’ in DaRoca. I also collected the trophy for the 'Long Distance Rider' for all of Europe in 1999 at the 54th FIM Rally at Epernay, France.

In mid-March of '99, one of my inventions paid off.  I had a great idea: ROAD TRIP! I flew into Rome on Al Italia, with my bike in the hold, to test the FlatBars in hard use. I began the road trip on April 16. I saw 18 countries in 10 months, and rode 29,680 miles. The far corners of the trip included Edinborough in Scotland;  Marrakech, Morocco (in June no less) and the Turkish border with Syria. I even rode 5 COUNTRIES in a single day.  I started in southern Germany, rode  thru Austria, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland, up and down 5 incredible passes (like the one in ‘Goldfinger’), finally stopping at Lake Como in Italy. In all this time I only got 3 traffic tickets. Tickets in Turkey all carry the same fine: 11,000,000 Lire (that’s $4.78, fans). I got the second one for going 167 in a 50 zone. I stopped wherever I wanted to. 

I won the FIM trophy for the highest rider mileage IN EUROPE!

During the trip, I got busted for walking across a UN Blue Line on Cyprus; it cost me 2 days. Later, after island hopping from Izmir back to Athens, I saved the life of a 4 year old Greek girl who fell from a wall upon the Acropolis. I wouldn’t have been there but for those 2 days spent in a cell in Nicosea.

I met the locals, drank the Absinthe, smoked the hash and saw everything I wanted to. Now that's big fun!

Ken "Holeshot" Hunter, Fremont, Ca       

Life Member SFMC - 2194 Folsom St  SF    

www.hunterflatbars.com

Dated CV:  Since 1989 I have designed and managed for HDG:

2007: Boston Scientific: Redesigned and stabilized a Calorimeter for production line (FDA product) testing

2006: Inspx I invented the first dual beam, single source X-Ray machine, designed and developed it between March and October, so it could be run at a trade show.  I also invented the first snap solenoid internal shock absorber, lowering shocks to the X-ray tube from over 15Gs to under 7.5Gs, absorbing 4.7 pounds of impact in .050 inches.

2006: Jet Propulsion Lab: Developed and commercialized the first real time optical anthrax detector.

                   2005: Nanometrics: Designed a stand alone, monolithic, unitized elipsometer to measure 1/2 Angstrom objects etched onto a 300mm silicon wafer. I also stabilized the enclosure to .05 degrees C to improve repeatability.

2004: Circle Medical needed a magnetically driven, patient operated cartridge of medical gas to be used to fill an internal skin expander without medical intervention.  I designed it from a napkin sketch

2004: Emcore developed board systems to raise the speed of internet switches, outpacing copper by 850Mhz to 10Ghz. I developed the designs for all of the parts on 3 product lines utilizing machined and cast metals and cast plastics.

2003: Megadyne Medical wanted more than one se from their electronic scalpel, then a disposable. I perfected a design in which 2 plastic racks would lock into each other and a base rack cast into the plug shell.   When the plug is inserted into the generator, the racks advance automatically.  Using shaped memory alloy, which lengthens itself to its original form during autoclave sterilization I engineered a rack to regain its original position. I also engineered the plug to deploy a rack return blockade pin after a chosen number of cycles.  The single use device can now reliably be used 12 times, and the company’s share of the market has increased significantly. 

2002: Nanomuscle wanted the world’s smallest low-pressure 5-way air valve, needed to operate segments of their pneumatic building equipment.  I devised a tiny spool valve using the smallest readily available o-rings to keep costs low. I attached a bi-directional shaped memory alloy stack to the valve to provide motion.  The cost is under a dollar ea.      

2001: Pacific Consultants had developed a catheterized cassette style valve delivery system.  Their client needed a way to measure the ID of heart valves.  I devised a SMA driven deformable cast plastic lens to do that.  I then miniaturized and catheterized the system, produced all documentation necessary for FDA acceptance.    

2000: Markel Motor re-invented piston engine. The new architecture raised efficiency from 29% to 63%, with extremely low pollution, high horsepower, and less than 100 parts.  I invented: frictionless valve actuation, integral supercharger and 2 sparkplug one valve cylinder heads.  Solidworks and Cosmos/Flow analysis (FEA, gas flow and thermodynamics) was performed on the entire assembly. A licensee was found within 9 months.  METAL MOLDS

1998: Hyseq had developed a lab scale method for DNA mass analysis.  They needed an automated machine to do the same thing.  This machine had to deal with plutonium, super saturated salts and heat and chill cycles.  I devised the heat and chill connections to be plug-enabled.  I designed independent accessibility while the machine was running, and did a thorough FEA to insure that the shelves would be strong enough to be withdrawn a full 8 ft without spilling plutonium laden chemicals.  I designed the entire system, from the frame out: fast 3D fluid supply and injection of liquids including suspended plutonium, strong rocker shelves with integrated heating and cooling, laser curtains (an NRC requirement), and all appropriate waste disposal systems.  This machine helped the Human Genome Project decode the entire DNA structural map.        This Capital Equipment required both FDA and NRC approval

1997: Molecular Dynamics needed an automated, argon laser driven bioassay machine measuring florescence of a biological sample. I devised a vibrator feed system, as the sample holders were less than 1 gram each. I developed a 6-axis alignment stage to place each sample in exactly the same spot. I more than doubled the efficiency of the optical train. I also included a temperature control system since bio-florescence is temperature sensitive.        

1995: ADAC Labs makes scintillator arrays for mapping cancers in 3D, but body attenuations would produce inaccurate results.  I engineered a gamma ray projector using a Cesium 137 source and depleted Uranium shielding, and worked closely with Oak Ridge National Labs to produce the device.  I had to invent a shutter assembly to produce the NRC required million to 1 extinction ratio.   The improved mapping machines have been linked to linear accelerators, and beta test systems now in use can destroy tumors without surgery.         This Capital Equipment required NRC approval.

1994: Photon Dynamics needed an inspection machine, a very high speed LCD defect monitoring tool.  I developed their successful lab experiments into modular quad lens cameras, including structural FEA and heat flow analysis.  I then designed 2 clean room ready inspection machines with robotic handling systems, each capable of multiplexing 16 of my cameras. I designed motorized polarizer arrays and fiber optic illuminator panels.  The DMT was  100x faster than all competitors, with the same sub-micron accuracy      This Capital Equipment is still in service.

1992: VPL Research was the pioneer in virtual reality. I studied medical aspects of virtual reality.  I developed and patented the first head mounted display system with lenses adjustable for inter-pupillary distance and facial asymmetry, with a wide field of view and high resolution.  This has allowed Virtual Medicine and robot control in high hazard situations such as building the Space Station.    

1991: Nellcor, a manufacturer of pulse oxymeters, needed testers that would meet FDA Medical Device requirements while being operated every 8 seconds in a machilladora.   Their existing testers yielded many false results.  I knew that natural Delrin mimics the light transmission characteristics of skin.  I devised 7 types of pneumatically operated, computerized testers around it.  I supervised installation and startup and trained the Mexican operators in their use.  At Nellcor’s request they were quite rugged; no tester has yet had a failure.  False test results have fallen to 1 per 1,000,000 units.          This FDA Capital Equipment is still in service.     

1989: Tencor Instruments needed me to design a laser-based device from RCA patent documents dated 1964 showing how to measure oxide thickness on silicon down to 10 Angstroms. The device was used by Applied Materials for wafer fab cluster tool in process control.  It measured accurately down to 3 angstroms from 12 inches distance.

Ken Hunter   415-786-6312    holeshothunter@yahoo.com