A LAND SPEED TEAM EFFORT!

Truth is...they are all team efforts. From a MotoGP weekend in Japan to an amateur motocross race at Loretta Lynn's ranch in Tennessee. It starts with Mom and Dad and or an Aunt and Uncle along with
a friend who owns a motorcycle dealership or raced when they were kids and now jump on the bandwagon of joy derived from the team work of a race weekend. Yes that's a little bit corny and a run on sentence but it's rotten in truth and I fucking love it! Did i mention i had to go to summer school sophmore year for English?


So before we move forward to the extra juicy bits, wind tunnel testing in 2011, a 50HP Rotax motor in 2012 and the record setting run at Bonneville in 2013, I give you a brief run down of what we were after and what we finally achieved in 2010.

Now one of the records that has eluded us since the beginning of this '125cc Partial Streamliner' journey has been held by Robert Barker and his Can Am team since 1973! Nice piece on the factory effort here; Can Am 125cc Land speed record Sweet bike and an equally sweet T-shirt. Something tells me there is a mustache hidden from view.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Barker in the pits at Bonneville, he mentioned they did not run a radiator back then and it made me wonder about the few horsepower you might give up with head temp going over 45C, the temperature where you start leaving horsepower on the table. A hot head versus the horsepower loss due to water pump drag and or radiator drag. We had already ditched the radiators and i find it hard to believe the water pump eats 3.5 HP which is the equivalent HP loss if hitting 80C which is easy to do. Maybe its all a wash but i am more comfortable pinned at 150 knowing the engine is most likely a bit happier operating at the temperature it was designed to run at.

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Now onto the racing!
First fill the on-board Tupperware container with ice to ensure the copper tubing that runs from the motor and through the ice keeps the head cool. Also make sure the blue Tec-Nec tape is in place to keep the feeble adhesive backed foam insulation from peeling off of the tupperware ice cooler and speculate if tape anywhere else on the bike or on your person will help you go faster.

Then;
Physically exhaust all team members in helping to push start the bike then feebly slip clutch all the way to starting line while negotiating starting line position with +-7 degrees of steering. Then wave exhausted helpers back to lift the rear wheel up to get the bike pointed in the right direction and curse yourself for building  a bike with +-7 degrees of steering.

And finally;
Give it a handful and break a 37 year old land speed record! Now you have to wonder what took so damn long to break it. In the words of Dennis Manning, "You have to go faster than the fastest bike that ever was." I paraphrased a bit but you get the point. All you have to do is eclipse another team/maniacs effort and your in the record books. Sounds easy!