Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Bonneville Salt Flats - 1st Run Experience

Finally made it back home this morning at 2:30 am. The whole trip made for a long week but one that was more then worth it. Now that I have had a few days for it to settle in I am still hyped at making those 4 runs down the salt. The other plus' where all the friendly folks that I encountered; the surprising number of Triumph twins that showed up (I hope to hear reports on how they ran?); the overall experience is one I would suggest for anyone to take advantage of, but know that it is not the most comfortable place to spend your time.
Will I do it again? Once I can dedicate the budget to building a bike that I can run for a record there won't be a second thought.

PS: Thanks for all the positive comments on this post

I just realized it may be a little dangerous running tires on the loose salt and making good speeds.. still wondering about the bore kits though.

well Mr. fastests motorcyclest alive. I doubt any of us with a bigbore are gona wana talk to you, just by the way you talk I bet you have never broken a ton.

nah best I've done was 162 and I didn't have the kahoongas to go any more and thats was on a ZX-14,, I like speed but kids are buying them things and thats not right..

on a zx14 you stoped there.....

I have a zx6r that I had at 155, you had more then twice the displacement.

But i do agree kids shouldent be buying them.

I'm not going to stick my chest out,, I backed down at 162 and that bike still wanted to come off the ground..

I want to go fast but not that fast.... this salt flats pic above, seeing the salt all over the tires would scare me right back home..

Speed on the salt is considerably different than on pavement. It is also relative to what machine your on - Speedmaster 865 twin and ZX14 are 2 different animals. The top speed from one professional Busa rider was 154mph; they had more power then could be put to the ground. A couple of ZX14's did run and as I recall they hit about 162mph.
A slightly modified Thruxton had a couple of runs at 129mph; a highly modified Thruxton (over $30k) ran around 148mph.
As the saying goes, "Speed is relative to how big you wallet is."
Keep searching and you will find big bore kits and turbo's that will give you what you are looking for. Of course you could pick up a Rocket III and blow them all away - if your good!

This is what takes the big kahoongas - Ack Attack first run down 299mph; in the middle of his return run he started fish tailing at 278mph - parachute deployed - wobble got worse - pencil rolled 2 times and then slid down the course for who knows how long. Thank God Rocky walked away.

I told the dealer I bought my speedmaster from I'm not just handing over my money again for another bike I can't try... heard alot about them big rocketts but I'd have to try one and that won't happen I don't think.

thruxtons are pretty cool looking bikes and the first thing that caught my eye when I walked into this dealership and to my amazement was a bunch of new triumphs?? yeah that Yellow thruxton looked pretty cool..

I just want my bike to have enough power to give me a little thrill every now and then if I call upon it and thats it. those jap crotch rockets are just dancing with death,, my buddys bike will stand up in 5th gear already going 100mph by just hammering the throttle---> its a sad thing too cause the kids buy them and it only takes one mistake to mess you up on those things...

Dwight, it was the guys from SoBay Triumph. I met Matt also and they where working hard at getting the most out of their runs. I also am looking forward to reading their results.

Great read, great adventure. Congrats on the numbers and thanks for the pix.

I tried to find some more info on all the racing. LandRacing.com usually covers all of the events, but they were having problems and were not able to cover the Bub Speed Trials.

Soren

Nice rideup Colespeed

I recently heard of a friend (via his wife) who took his Hayabusa to the Salt Flats in August. What makes it interesting is he had a serious stroke ~12 years ago and life was a bit iffy for awhile. I need to learn of the details

jh

Congratulations, I', green with envy. So Kool!!

I had to change photo servers and cannot find the option to change the url in the original post, so here is a picture of the bike at Bonneville: