The Bikes of Bonneville - 2011 Edition

[jfurf]

So many of you might remember my thread from last year's Bonneville SpeedWeek. Go here if you missed it: http://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,56897.0.html

Well this year, my dad, brother, myself and our family friend/trusty mechanic made it back to the salt. This time we wised up, though, and brought TWO BIKES for more runs  .

Here's a pictorial tour of the badassery that is Bonneville. Stay tuned over the next few days. I have a LOT of pics, so I might not be able to post them all tonight.

So we brought two motorcycles to the salt: The Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird and a Honda CBR F4i. Here's me getting ready to run on the baby CBR.


Here's our trusty mechanic and family friend Robin about to do a run on the Blackbird. Note the GoPro mounted to the tail. We shot video too, but the Old Man is not the most computer-savvy and he's the one with the files so we're at his mercy. I'll post them here as soon as their up on the GoogTube. (They're ridiculously awesome, imnsho.)

Also, big thanks to MotoDog650 (Scott). He sold me his old AGV leathers for a ridiculously good price. Not a bad looking suit!



Here's another shot of Robin riding and my brother walking around like an idiot.  



At B'Ville, the old meets the new.


A modified Triumph 650, I believe.


A Yamaha XS650. (I think. Apologies if I mis-identify any of the bikes in these pics.)


A Honda 250. The kid brought this little screamer all the way from Canada and set a record. My ear drums are still hurting. Note to self: Small displacement bikes can be LOUD.  


A BSA 650 on the salt.


Some sort of Harley. FXDDSCXSCSDSD, I think.  


A GSX-R1000 with open pipes. The rider told me the bike is a Canadian national champion dragster. Apparently he found the salt to be a challenge and that he plans to put ballast in the swingarm next year.


A custom v-twin with an S&S engine and the biggest pod filters I've ever seen. I can only assume they came off a pickup truck or something.  


Stay tuned. More moto-goodness to come.  

[motodog650]

Way kool !! Looking forward to the next round of pics. Glad the old AGV's worked for you. Would like to see a set of my leathers out there with ME in them one day  

[jfurf]

And the saga continues...

If you're slippery enough, your un-blown bike with a stock Gixxer 600 engine can hit 200 mph. More power is one way to go fast (brute force), but more aerodynamic is arguably the more noble way to haul ass.


Some of these bikes have TINY rear sprockets.


I think this a customized 80s Yamaha. Not sure exactly. Dig the front fender.


This is what I meant when I said brute force. A blown Busa with drag racing-rated tires. I believe he was well, well over 200 mph.


Here's a shot of our bikes waiting together at the starting line.


RILFS.  


Buddy the course official is a legend.


I have no idea what this is exactly. It's in the 175cc class though. I didn't even know there was a 175cc class.  


An evil-looking Honda CX.


Another FAST bike. This one also had a 600cc sportbike


Here's a chopped up old Gixxer 750. I feel like this is the epitome of what hot-rodding is all about. Just a rude looking bike!


A little help here.


A Gixxer 600. Not sure if the long swingarm was a good idea. Salt racers tend to go for heavy swingarms to improve traction and to reduce the amount of wheelspin/skipping.


Another evil-looking Harley. I think this is a turbo'd Panhead. There are separate records classes for pushrod engines so you see a healthy mix of American v-twins, Japanese I-4s (suck it, SammySeann), Japanese twins and Brit parallel twins.


Hack time! Yes, there are separate sidecar classes. Note the aluminum(?) wheel. No need for rubber here!


Here's me about to take a run on the baby CBR.

[jfurf]

OK. I'M ON A ROLL. SO LET'S KEEP THIS THANG GOING.  

Here's a Harley with a quite elaborate Vietnam Vet theme. It even had some sort of scary quote hand-painted on it about how "THEY TRAINED ME TO HATE." Intense.  


This is the most beautiful ride I saw the entire week.


Another shot of the Triumph.


Here's the electric bike that set a new record. It was downright spooky how quiet this thing was. It just rolled off the starting line like a bicycle.


Here's another electric bike.


Don't roast yer nuts!


Yes, that is what you think it is.


Leslie Porterfield. My girlfriend. Leave her alone, you jerks, she's taken.  


I don't know if you can see it, but this bike's fairing actually had a rear wing on it. Downforce!


On Sunday night it rained, which turned the campground on the edge of the salt flat into a huge mud flat. Trust me when I say, you've NEVER seen mud like this. It was so slippery you could barely walk on it without falling down. Luckily the old CT70 was able to slog through it.


A nifty Busa.


Utah sunsets are not too shabby.

[veefer800canuck]

Most excellent photos, thanks for sharing.  


A couple corrections, no biggie:

GSX-R1000 with open pipes. The rider told me the bike is a Canadian national champion dragster. Apparently he found the salt to be a challenge and that he plans to put ballast in the swingarm next year.

Looks like a ZX-14.

Another evil-looking Harley. I think this is a turbo'd Panhead.

Supercharged, not turboed.

[jfurf]

Most excellent photos, thanks for sharing.  


A couple corrections, no biggie:



Looks like a ZX-14.



Supercharged, not turboed.

Oh yeah. It's a Kawi, not a Suzuki. Good catch. It's definitely a Zx-10, though. You can tell because it's in the 1000cc class.  

[2DFlyer]

Excellent.  Thanks for sharing.  I gotta ask about the taped up lights.  At 150+ does it really matter?

[JSharp]

Really nice thread!

Um... any more pictures of the GF?  

 

[Kootenanny]

Didja see this bike there?  (the top half of the shell was painted blue, and the "sidecar" fairing was different...).  Was running a single cylinder 500cc Honda 2-stroke.  Set a record in the 500cc modified sidecar class, or so the owner told me--Ron Scroggins, he lives in my area.

[Kneescrubber]

 

Great stuff! Bonneville is definitely on my bucket list. Someday.

[Rincewind]

"RILF"  Awesome pics and what a fantastic way to spend time with your bro and dad!  Great pics of all the hardware - I love the aerodynamic designs.  

Were the E-bikes able to achieve some good speeds?

[kyzrex]

"RILF"  Awesome pics and what a fantastic way to spend time with your bro and dad!  Great pics of all the hardware - I love the aerodynamic designs.  

Were the E-bikes able to achieve some good speeds?

I heard that one of them ran over 200 for the 1st time ever for an E-bike....impressive!

[jfurf]

Didja see this bike there?  (the top half of the shell was painted blue, and the "sidecar" fairing was different...).  Was running a single cylinder 500cc Honda 2-stroke.  Set a record in the 500cc modified sidecar class, or so the owner told me--Ron Scroggins, he lives in my area.

I didn't see that there. It's possible I missed him if he was at the "short" course (short being a relative term, it's still a 3-mile run).

[jfurf]

"RILF"  Awesome pics and what a fantastic way to spend time with your bro and dad!  Great pics of all the hardware - I love the aerodynamic designs.  

Were the E-bikes able to achieve some good speeds?

I believe the Lightning Motorcycles e-bike went over 200 and set a record. They were telling me that the bike was actually the exact same model they road race with, but they put on a streamliner fairing for Bonneville. Apparently it's a pretty well-funded venture and they plan to start manufacturing soon. I'm sure if you Google them you'll find lots of stuff about them.

[jfurf]

Really nice thread!

Um... any more pictures of the GF?  

 

Oh she's not actually my GF.  

http://www.leslieporterfield.com/

[bomber]

what a great series of pics! thanks for posting, and thanks, also, for teaching me a new word. RILF, indeed!

[jfurf]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...

It turns out Tonya Harding (of ice skating/knee-breaking fame  ) was there driving a Ford Model A car in one of the vintage classes.

We made it onto the front page of Jalopnik.  
http://jalopnik.com/5834017/tonya-harding-holds-a-land-speed-record

[DogBoy]

I like the QR Code on her leathers. Clever.

Leslie Porterfield. My girlfriend. Leave her alone, you jerks, she's taken.  

[scottzilla]

Did I miss the top speed numbers on the Blackbird?
Looks stock, except for the pipes?

[jfurf]

Did I miss the top speed numbers on the Blackbird?
Looks stock, except for the pipes?

Blackbird ran a top speed of I think 176 this year. Last year it hit 181. So we went slower for some reason.  

The Blackbird is mostly stock. Only mods were an aftermarket exhaust, a PC-III, a smaller rear sprocket (which didn't actually help like we thought it would) and front brakes removed.

The little CBR is also mostly stock. It ran a top speed of about 165 I think. (Don't quote me on that.)