The salty dogs chase their tales: Friday

FRIDAY

The morning was clear and a brisk 36 degrees when we rolled out to the salt.  The first order of business was to get out to the Triumph and see how the night treated it.  The winds that can come up are capable of blowing a motorcycle over, thus our concern.  When we arrived, there it was right where we left it, in its plastic cocoon.

Unwrapped and in the trailer, we joined the parade of the other record run contestants.  There are a couple of big advantages that go with making your backup runs first thing in the morning.

The first is that is usually calmest in the early morning, with the winds and weather issues rising at noon or later.

The second is the air density, which is a measurement of the amount of air in a given volume, is the highest then.  A figure that is given on every time slip is Density Altitude.  This is a measurement of different factors (temperature, humidity, barometric pressure) that is used in a formula to give you a figure that corresponds to the distance above sea level the atmospheric conditions provide.  This is very helpful in making jetting, timing and nitro percentage changes.  The lower the number the more air there is to burn.  Some instances at the racetracks near the coast or specifically the dragstrip at Joliet Illinois, the density altitude can be below sea level.  When that happens, hang on as the motors will make phenomenal horsepower (and this mechanical exuberance can show itself in spectacular performance numbers or spectacular explosions, especially in the fuel categories).

Once in line, the runs begin.  The tension mounts as you get closer to the front.  Finally we are there and Jim is inspected once again by the SCTA staff and given a final check by the starter.  We crank up the Triumph, verify all is as it should be and send him off.

As he heads down the salt he moves to the left side of the lane to avoid the loose salt in the middle of the lane between mile marker 2 and 3.  He moves way left.  We load up the starter cart, pile in the suburban and follow down the return road.  Listening on the CB we hear the announcer say “125.05 at the quarter”.  This is enough for the next license upgrade and the 125mph exit speed at the three mile marker is the next announcement and we are now in search of Jim.  Luckily the Triumph is very east to spot and into the trailer and back to impound we go.

Just as the bike was going into the trailer I looked over and saw a coupe sliding backwards across the salt, coming to rest almost directly out from us.  I noticed smoke or steam coming out of the engine area and no activity indicating the driver was getting out of the car.  Hollering for the fire extinguisher, I headed across the salt towards the car.  Having seen enough Funny Car fires to last me, the increasing smoke/steam added more incentive.  As I got to the car I saw a tube from a course marker sticking out from under the right front wheel, and the banner wrapped up in the suspension, the windshield broken and the entire inside of the car coated with an oil/water mix, including the windshield itself.  The driver had opened the door and was just sitting there sort of dazed.  I pulled the pin on the extinguisher and looked for his seat belts hollering to see if he was all right.  He sort of shook his head yes and then the SCTA personnel arrived and got him out of the car.  I put the pin back in the extinguisher and started back to our truck and trailer.  That’s when the driver of one of the SCTA trucks hollered “check his heart!”  I turned around and realized she was pointing at me, not the driver of the coupe.  Must have been the gray hair and the twenty pound extinguisher coupled with the quarter mile sprint that concerned her.  I assured her I was fine, but damned if that fire extinguisher didn’t add another ten pounds to itself on the walk back.

As I was leaving I heard on the SCTA radio “flat spin mile 2” and I looked up to see David Pilgrim going around and around and around… I stopped to see how he came out and when it was said he was OK I started back to the truck yet again.

On the ride back, the run was dissected and a tendency for the bike to drift to the left was noted and without any wind socks to judge by it is hard to tell what may have caused that tendency.  It was definitely not a condition I felt at Indy when I rode the bike there to about 120 mph.  We also heard the course was shut down to clean up glass that we guessed came from David’s car.

As we approached impound, Jim went to get his time slip and we pulled in to go through the tear-down process that is part of the record verification process.  There was no time limit here, but we wanted to get it done and back in the trailer to avoid the ever-present salt corrosion possibilities.  Bob and Louie got out the tools and away we went.  Some of the items I had hoped to deal with to ease the servicing of the bike didn’t get done due to time constraints so it was a bit of a thrash to get it apart.  Items were added to the list for future consideration in name of ease of service.  Aaron Frank wanted to ride it out there, but with the Ducati needing attention and the goal of a record accomplished the extra time to reassemble the top end was not available.

Once the head was off it was time to summon the head motorcycle tech inspector, Tom Evans.  He then set about the task of measuring the bore and stroke to verify the displacement of the motor was within class limits.  The bore was a loose stock diameter.  OK so far.  The crank’s stroke, the distance the piston travels up and down in the bore was another matter.  Due to the characteristics of the pistons there was a fair amount of rocking in the bore and he kept coming up with a longer stroke than stock.  Now I knew this couldn’t be because it was a standard diameter rod journal that had never been ground or even polished.  A discrepancy in stroke can arise if a crank is reground and the person doing the grinding sets the grinder up to the wrong stroke specification resulting in either a longer or shorter stroke.  We have had shorter stroke cranks made by this method.  Measuring the stroke at the wrist pin at the side of the cylinder yielded a consistent number.  When calculated, it came out to 649.3 cc on a 650 cc class limit.  After the forms had been filled in and verified and my stomach unwound itself, Tom mentioned that the Triumph 650 did have a .010” overbore allowance because the stock displacement was so close to 650cc.  I think he was having us on, but all in fun.

Jim was glowing after that, and deservedly so.  When you are able to realize a dream that takes that much work it is like a great weight is lifted from your shoulders.  I am proud and grateful to have been able to help him do that.

Now to put everything back in the trailer, oil the bores of the motor and roll the beast back up in so we could get back to the pits.  Once again, Bob and Louie were instrumental in collecting up the debris from the teardown and not leaving anything behind.

Once back, we saw David’s Corvette minus the trunk lid, left door skin, door glass and part of the hood.  They were washing it down and changing the wheels back to the transport wheels.  David had billet wheels made for the car for aerodynamic reasons and when he spun on the salt it flat-spotted all four tires to uselessness along with the body damage.  It was surmised at the time that the decklid failed and unloaded the rear end of the car.  At that point as soon as the car came around the air got under the door skin and tore it off, taking the window with it.  The damage continued up to the hood.  He spun from the 2 mile marker through the 2 ¼ mile marker and beyond.  He sure seemed pretty cool after having gone through that.  He was a bit disappointed because the 233 mph of the spin didn’t qualify for the record.

Housekeeping continued in the trailer and I put the intake manifold back on the Ducati.  It was a bit distorted in a couple of spots, but Kip had done an admirable job on the weld-up.  All the bolts and clamps were tightened in place and the moment of truth.  Had I burned the exhaust valves out of it or not?  Cranking it over it lit normally and after a bit of a warmup settled into its normal idle with no undue noises through the turbo.  The response seemed fine, so into the trailer it went and on to the starting line.

The electric bike was providing a bit of a handling issue for Aaron as it tended to weave going down the course.  It was a great opportunity for me to watch a master, Paul Thiede, the owner of RaceTech suspension look into the situation.  Changing the tail section, along with setting the tracking seemed to calm the errant behavior.  A trip back to the pits for some various hardware bits reduced the panic factor a bit, but with a bike that has so little to extrapolate from it is always a challenge, met well by the crew.

Waiting in line was another ordeal and we were six pairs from the starting line when the wind came up.  There is a 3-4 mph threshold for running the streamliners, and an 8 mph range above which bikes can’t run and since the winds were 20 to 25 mph, it pretty much shut everything down for the day.

The electric bike Aaron was riding was in line ahead of us and we offered to let them put it in the trailer overnight rather than let it sit out on the salt with all those electrical parts.  As I said, it was a generous allowance of 500 pounds weight as it took four to get it up in the trailer.  Leaving the trailer at the starting line also meant that the supplies back in the pits would be out unprotected.  This was where a rental car was handy as we loaded all the gasoline we had sitting back there into the car and took it back to the starting line and put it in the trailer.  A little Ford with thirty gallons of race gas would make a marvelous signal fire given the right circumstances!

Then it was back to Wendover to sample a local Mexican restaurant with the crew of the electric bike.  I can tell you there were some interesting viewpoints put forth and much dialog exchanged concerning the future of motorcycling.  A brief history of electric auto racing as relating to possible parallels with motorcycles, battery technologies, supply streams from and to Asia, Top Fuel cars, and a host of other topics had the restaurant staff looking at us wondering if we were ever going to leave.

Some photos of other cars and bikes:

Next time:  the final day on the salt

*All photos courtesy of Bob Crook and Gary Ilminen

The salty dogs chase their tales: Thursday’s child

THURSDAY

It was still dark when the team assembled in the motel lobby.  A few other teams had members gathering for breakfast and getting ready to head out to the salt for the first day’s running.  Everyone was a bit nervous with anticipation and uncertainty.  This is a common thread throughout racing, and the only relief is to put a wheel on the track.

In the truck and we began the daily routine we would follow the next three days.  The speedway access road is a string of taillights and marker lights of the waiting vehicles, since you can’t get on the salt before 7 a.m.  Once the gates are opened, it’s three and four wide across the salt heading for the pits.  The sun coming up offers a truly unique and beautiful backdrop with the sunrise over the mountains to the east and the stark lighting of pink on the rock outcrops to the west.

photo by Gary Ilminen

photo by Gary Ilminen

The rider/driver’s meeting was first on the agenda and it was there I first met Dick Munz.  I had heard of him around the Madison Wisconsin area for many years but our paths never crossed.  He is a successful real estate businessman with a penchant for things motorized.  His collection included a roadster out on the salt as well as many unique two and four wheeled vehicles back home.  After the National Anthem and the prerace prayer it was off to drive the course after the rookie meeting.

It was while going down the course we realized how good the salt really was.  It was said to be as good as some had seen in 30 years.  There were none of the holes that were there in 2007 and it was so hard we couldn’t drive nails in it to hold own our drop cloth in the pits.  In the middle of the course between Mile 2 and Mile 3 there was some loose stuff, but it sat on top of solid salt.  All we could do was shake our heads and go “Oh my God!”  Another excuse for poor performance removed.

Looking down the track

Unloading the bikes and verifying their running at the 38 degree temps is a part of the routine that can be interesting, considering all the testing was done at 60 to 70 degrees at the shop.  We saw 24 degree temps coming over the mountains so it was a good thing we had antifreeze in the Ducati.  Firing up the Triumph was always an adventure with the 20/50 oil giving a 180 psi. oil pressure spike before the relief valve kicked in and the oil started to thin out a bit.

We loaded the bikes back in the trailer and headed off to the starting line.  This is another thing that takes a bit of work, the loading and unloading, that is.  Here we are out on the salt and the chase truck has to find two motorcycles over a 6 mile span, load them up and head back to the impound area if a record has been run.  If it isn’t a record run you then decide whether to go to the starting line if a little work is needed or the pits if a lot is needed to be done before the next run.  That is the reason for the ramp door on the trailer, so we don’t kill the chase crew after loading and unloading two bikes up to four times a day.

Once in line for staging which is the lead-in for the starting line you have a chance to get out and meet with people you may not have seen for a year and meet new and different individuals.  At this event there was only the one long course owing to the fact that most of the salt flats were under water the Sunday before.

Normally there is a long and a short course for the fall event and two short courses and a long for the summer Speed Week event.  The single long course made it more difficult to make a lot of runs because the streamliners that normally use the long course take more prep time before a run and even though some run near 400 mph, the time to run the entire course, slow down and exit the course takes quite awhile to allow for a safe process.  The short course is for use by vehicles running under 175 mph and/or licensing runs.  This group using the short course can have its own challenges as far as timing.  You can have a rookie rider who turns out (or the wrong direction), doesn’t get to the return road to clear the course, falls down, etc.  To correct these deficiencies is more than just yelling at someone because there is usually a mile or more between race officials.  It is sometimes hard to at first to comprehend the scale of distance.  This is shown by the extensive use of CB radios by the race officials and crews.

As we approached the starting line, it was time to unload the bikes.  One of the things unique to Bonneville is the rule that specifies the race vehicle will only be operated on the racing surface (meaning the course out on the salt).  Thus there is no riding the bikes or driving the cars in the staging lanes or in the pits.  They have to be towed everywhere.  We unloaded Gary’s Magna, then the Triumph and then the Ducati.  Final fuel levels and tire pressures were checked and then the riders suited up.  Moving forward we were approached by the SCTA safety crew and at this time we were checked for helmets on and strapped, tether kill switch hooked up, sitting on the bike before startup and tech medallions on leathers.  Ooops, remember earlier when Gary didn’t get his?  Evidently they had decided to use engine seals instead and Gary hadn’t gotten one and he was immediately shuffled to the side and sent to Tech to get his seal.

Gary

Well, that left Jim to run and then me.  As the cars ahead of us left on their runs, the tension mounts.  You are always looking at the bike for a loose this or a wiggling that.  It is a studied, practiced cool and casual you see in a crew chief as he accompanies the vehicle to whatever starting line it is.  A jittery crew chief can spook the rider or driver, making them wonder what is wrong with the vehicle and disrupting their concentration.  Speaking from personal experience now and in the past, I am as nervous walking Jim up to the starting line on the Triumph as I am getting on the Ducati the next bike after.

Bill and Jim

Ready to run

Having seen the car before leave we pull up on the line.  We are again greeted by another SCTA official, this time the official starter.  He rechecks the helmet security, tether attachment and asks the rider how he is feeling.  A few casual words from him or her (a lady starter also working the event this time) and they then step back to monitor the other vehicle on the course.  It seems like hours while they check the down-course progress (or lack thereof), and that the vehicle is safely on the return road intact (not leaving parts on the course).  A quick reminder to flip your shield down and then the same motion a flight control officer gives the planes on a carrier and off you go.

Jim moved away and after second gear looked a natural on the bike.  Then he started moving to the left.  He had mentioned that was his plan, having seen the loose stuff between Mile 2 and Mile 3, but I didn’t think he was going that far to the left.  We listened to the radio and loaded up the starter cart as they said his exit speed at Mile 3 as 119 mph.  Not what I wanted to see but we could discuss it when we picked him up.

Now it was my turn.

The car in the lane next to me left on his run and I didn’t realize it was Mike Cook, an organizer of this event and of the previous week’s private meet where Chris Carr went 367 mph in the BUB streamliner.  He was a long course car and I started everything up way too early.

By the time it my turn to go I had the engine temp up to 83 degrees C and I was wound pretty tight as well.  Taking off I didn’t clear the motor out and it nearly died and was never very happy taking throttle.  Chugging along I plugged it into second and it showed a bit of life.  This bit of teasing went on in third as well.  A bit of misfire followed by a bit of  promise.  I could see the 1 mile marker go by.  Realizing that I had to make 175 mph by the 2 mile marker I got a bit more adventuresome with the throttle and looked at the EGTs (exhaust gas temperatures).  They were showing about 1300 degrees which was within acceptable limits, but not making any boost.  I pulled in the clutch and hit the throttle a few times to try and clean it out and then rolled it back on.  A few bangs out of the exhaust and it started to run again, albeit poorly.  By this time I could see the 2 Mile marker approaching and knew something had to happen.  I rolled further into the throttle and it rolled past the marker shooting ducks.

I then looked at the GPS and it showed way below what I needed and in the true fashion of a die-hard I was sure I could salvage something of the run, so I jacked the throttle wide open and was rewarded with a VERY loud bang.  I was a little surprised by this and wasn’t quite sure what had happened.  I looked down and the entire left side of the intake manifold was folded out about an inch along the top edge.  I opened the throttle just to see what might happen (not the brightest move in hindsight) and to my surprise it relit and started to run again.  I looked back at the EGTs and the needles were past the end of the scale, covering up the “Made in USA” area which should have indicated molten, so I shut it off and rolled over to the return road.

Bob and Louie rolled up and we loaded up the Ducati after quickly surveying the damage and went to pick up Jim.

The pits and the black line

Jim was waiting down track about a mile and a half and we loaded up the Triumph and went back to the pits to unload the Ducati.  After doing that we realized we had better get to Impound as we had to be there within an hour after the run on the salt was finished, his run being the first leg of a record.  At a speed of just over 119 mph it wasn’t what I wanted to see, but we knew we were coming out a bit light on horsepower.  The bike had worked as expected with no surprises in the chassis and all the parts were in the motor.  The only vibration casualty was the shift light pill that had popped out and was in the belly pan.

We checked into impound and received a card with the time we had to be done with the bike and gone.  You are allowed three hours to service any vehicle after a record run and that is it.  The vehicle then sits on the salt that night and is among the record run parade at 8 o’clock the next morning.

We started servicing the bike, checking oil levels, topping up the fuel, setting the valves, clutch and checking for other missing parts.  An allen screw at the front of the chain guard was the only apparent casualty and we replaced it.

It was at this time that I looked over towards tech and noticed a tall blonde next to a Hayabusa.  If you have been following motorcycle speed runs for the last two years you should know who Leslie Porterfield is.  If not, look it up.  I was able to get her autograph for my girls on a course map and we talked about my girls working on the bikes.  A very pleasant lady to talk to.

We went about regearing the bike as it wouldn’t pull the gearing used on the first run.  The decision to go from a 31 to a 35 tooth rear sprocket necessitated adding a link to the chain and the air compressor just wasn’t up to the task, adding a lot of generator noise and time to a normally simple project.  It was during the servicing time that I felt a tap on my shoulder and a request for safety wire and pliers as tech wanted pinchbolts wired (sounds familiar).  I did have to look a considerable distance upward as Leslie is in fact very tall.  A short time later I’m back up to my arms in Triumph and her bolts are done.

After it was all said and done we wrapped the Triumph in plastic and left the impound area with thirty minutes to spare.  I wondered how the bike was going to take being abandoned and all alone on the salt overnight.

Gary had made his first run and was rewarded with a 72 mph blast and didn’t get far enough off the course, earning a comment or two.  Once again ,the scale of the place take some getting used to.

We talked to David Pilgrim again and found out he had just gone 262 mph in his turbo Corvette on his own 236 mph record he set when we were there in 2007.  They were busy finishing up servicing the car and not much time for chatting.  He did lend me a small stick welder with aluminum rods that unfortunately was beyond my abilities to try and deal with the Ducati.

David Pilgrim's corvette

Gary was the next to last vehicle down the salt and after a bit of frustration at waiting in line, got to make another runs and went over the 100 mph mark on the salt.  Congratulations Gary and Jackie, (his wife)!

Back to the pits and the Ducati.  The initial damage estimate was accurate as the manifold had split down the top seam on the left side.  My ear was still ringing from that and after the manifold was removed we set off in search of a TIG welder in the pits.  Well I found a trailer with a TIG welder but no argon (the bottle didn’t get loaded). Another trailer left theirs home for this trip because they had to pack quickly to get here.  The third possibility had just blown up out on the salt and packed up and I saw them disappearing into the sunset.  I called the local auto parts store and was put in touch with Kip who said he had burned up his TIG welder (I never found out how he did that) but he could MIG it and had just fixed two gas tanks that day.  The deal was struck and he took the manifold, promising to call when it was ready.

This left me time to try and figure out why it blew up.  I surmised the ignition quit due to a component failure so all the components were replaced.  Pickup coils, ignition coils, spark plugs, the works.

Well, we packed up the trailer and after talking to Rick Yacoucci (who holds more records than a vintage music store) concerning the profile of the front fenders and windage succeptibility, we got a phone call and went into town to meet Kip. Delivery right to the motel lobby with a smile and a reasonable fee to boot. MIG welding aluminum is very difficult and while Kip’s welds were strong, the airtightness couldn’t be verified because nobody had plugs big enough.  A slight leak in the manifold would cause a leanout that could lead to another rupture.

Not knowing what to expect, we stopped at the local parts store and tried to buy a fiberglass kit.  Well, Rick Dorfmeyer’s crew had bought all of them because they had to lower the back of their bodywork to conform to the 40 inch maximum height.  After looking all over Wendover, and picking up a 2-part epoxy called “Goo” this led to a trip back out to the salt where they generously allowed us to borrow fiberglass resin and scissors (more items on the packing list for the future).

After dinner out came the sandpaper, acetone and ultimately the “Goo”.  The bathroom fan labored mightily and eventually a satisfactory sealing job was done.  By morning it was ready to go, and so were we.

Next time: runs and spins

*All photos courtesy of Bob Crook and Gary Ilminen

The salty dogs chase their tales: the first few days

MONDAY

Once loaded up, the departure happened on schedule Monday morning.  A bright clear day greeted us as we headed west.  Twenty four hours in a truck with three other guys can turn ugly, but luckily Bob, Louie, Jim and I travel well together.  There is no way around an all-night drive in a 24 hour stint and it gets especially long if it is the last half.

About six hours into the trip we heard via cell phone that due to the weather the event was being moved back a day. Rather than stop over, we decided to push on to Wendover, drop the trailer and then ourselves.  Other than the snow in Wyoming and not being able to hear all of the Packer game it was a relatively uneventful trip.

TUESDAY

We arrived at Wendover about 10 in the morning and seeing the salt wasn’t open yet we drove into town, unhooked the trailer and sat in the motel lobby killing time.  At that time we met Rick Dorfmeyer, a sales rep from Indianapolis out for his first world finals riding a Honda CBR-600RR.  We checked in and after starting to wind down we got a call that the salt was open to park the trailer and off we went.  It is always a thrill to be pulling out onto the salt flats as you immediately loose your reference points due to the expanse of white that is uninterrupted once you are past  the end of the dikes used for water control.

Pulling into the pit area 6 miles out from the entrance road, I immediately spotted my landmark…the porta-johns.  They are also strategically located near tech, timing and the SCTA office.  Pulling in we also noticed a big black trailer with Texas plates and were pleasantly surprised to see David Pilgrim pull in the pits next to us.  He was a joy to get to know and a huge help in getting the procedure right for licensing and calculating speeds on our first time here in 2007.  Unfortunately his wife was having a rough time with her MS and was unable to accompany him this time but it is hoped that next year she can.

Back into town and off to the Rainbow Casino to do a hurt on their buffet and then time to crash out in the motel in preparation for Wednesday’s tech.

WEDNESDAY

Tech inspection at an SCTA event can be a long process, even if the bike passes on the first go.  Because the Triumph was a new bike, it had to be inspected by two different inspectors.  Because the Ducati was capable of over 200mph (in theory) and the class record was 219.55 mph it also got two inspections.  Gary Ilminen who was out with us was a new rider and bike so he got doubled as well.  The people behind us were very patient but I’m sure they were wondering what in the heck was going on.

Other than two pinch bolts to safety wire and a steering stop angle adjustment, the Triumph and Ducati sailed through.  All the rider’s safety gear had to pass tech with the age and spec of the helmets, leathers and gloves with no perforations, and boots of the ten inch high plus type.  Gary’s leathers were close, but needed a bit of tinkering.  You can’t run on the salt until your leathers are marked with a medallion riveted on denoting them as acceptable.  The tinkering was accomplished and a verbal OK was given.  No tech medallion was given due to their theft from the tech director’s car in the motel parking lot the night before.  This would come back to haunt Gary.

There were a few items to take care of on Gary’s bike that we were able to do and back to tech he went, with the bike passing and getting his tech decal.

Once we were done with tech there wasn’t a lot to do, so I stooged over to the electric bike Aaron Frank was scheduled to ride.  There seemed to be a quite a bit of activity surrounding the bike and I must say I never have seen that many batteries and wires nor that large an electric motor before.  Staying well clear of the electronics, I offered what help I could and found the owner Richard Hatfield a congenial individual in spite of the challenges that seemed to arise in a ratio of 2 to 1 over solutions.  We started with the most glaring items that needed to be addressed before even going to tech and went from there.  All the fork axle pinch bolts needed to be drilled and safety wired and since they were buried, required all six flats be drilled.  Well that allowed us to use the sweet little vise we had just installed in the trailer.  Returning with the bolts, wire and pliers, we took care of that and moved on.  Getting the bike around was the next challenge as they didn’t have a trailer and the estimate of 500 lbs weight of the bike was a bit generous I think, making loading it in and out of the van out of the question.  It’s hard to explain the fine points of being towed around at the end of a long tiedown behind a van, but they were able to do it, much to their credit.

Next time: the first run

*All photos courtesy of Bob Crook and Gary Ilminen

The salty dogs chase their tales: Preparations

Well it was fast approaching the time of departure for the SCTA World Finals at Bonneville and as usual things weren’t quite in as good order as hoped.  With the “new” Triumph came increased space demands in the trailer, not only because the bike was a lot longer, but there was a starter cart housing two large batteries involved as well.

WJ’s trailer so kindly lent us for the first outing was going to be too small and even if all the stuff would fit in it, dramatically overloaded.  So thus began the trailer shuffle.  As most of you know that have followed the travails of recent years we are a bit shorter on space than in the past.  I have to keep the big trailer at my house (the neighbor’s just love that) and there is no room to keep it here.  A quick sale of the old trailer (an open flatbed) allowed the space to keep one, but now to find the proper unit.  We looked around and realized that for the half-ton vehicles we all owned, an aluminum trailer was a highly desired specification.  A minimum length of 16 feet, a ramp rear door and 6000 pounds of capacity would serve well as the rest of the qualifications.  After looking at all the local dealers we found one series if trailers that looked right.  They were a bit more than originally budgeted, but offered all of the desirable traits.

Then along comes Craigslist.  Fred saw a Wells Cargo in northern Illinois that, while not aluminum framed, would do very well for our uses.  The pictures looked good, a shiny black with aluminum wheels, ramp door, removable wheel chocks and a neat well in the middle of the trailer to carry tiedowns and whatever.  I called and asked about it and he said that yes it was still available and to come and see it.  Well four hours later there I was looking at a rat.  Two tires were gone, the frame rusting out in back and all the door hardware nearly worn off (yes, off) the trailer.  Come to find out the guy kept the photos from when he bought it five years ago and used them on Craigslist.  Great recycling, eh?  I made him an offer on it as it was rebuildable and when he declined I hopped in the truck and got out of there before either he or myself could change our minds.

The next day we went to the original dealer and struck a deal on a new Legend trailer.  I have never owned a new trailer, but considering that we were going to basically load up and leave it seemed the best way to go.  The V-nose was supposed to give back 2 to 3 miles per gallon and we installed flat-floor wheel chocks and a complete covering of

E-Track with a compliment of clips, straps, cups and such.  If you have never used E-track, it is like having Spiderman secure your stuff because you can attach it to the walls, floor, and even the ceiling if you were so inclined.  I recommend it for any trailer application!

Loading a new trailer is always a treat, especially for a 24 hour drive over the mountains as nothing can touch anything else or there will be pieces and rub marks all over.  Bob and Louie helped along with Nick, Jim, and the rest of the crew.  True to form, the owner of the property around us called the police on us as we were loading the trailer on a Saturday morning.  It made absolutely no sense, as we have been loading trailers here for over thirty years up until now with no problems. This added an extra dimension of fun as the bikes had to be loaded in and everything loaded in around them, and then the trailer moved to finish packing.  Customers need not worry as they aren’t there long enough to count.

Next time: the drive, the salt, the tech inspection.

The Bikes Return

The bikes are back! Stay tuned for more updates on our second attempt to set a world record.

Adventures with oil pressure

I think the Triumph is trying to make me crazy. After closing on Sat., I was running it to check on the fuel system and the loss of oil pressure. Adding the extra discharge hole in the carb and enlarging the existing one helped, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough.

The oil pressure was again at 50 psi, enough for the crank to live but not enough for running with a load. I opened up the accelerator pump orifice and rechecked the running….better but still not enough. A couple of ignition timing changes didn’t seem to make a difference either. The oil pressure was a couple of pounds lower.

I thought this might be a good time to check the blower belt tension and since the motor was warm, I made certain the tension was on the snug side of spec by tightening it up slightly. I ran the motor again and damned if it didn’t start leaking out of the back of the primary, near the sprocket shaft.

I drained down the primary to the level plug and loosened the blower belt and after cleaning it all off ran it again and it quit leaking. All I can figure is that the tighter belt deflected the crank and caused the seal to not keep oil and/or crankcase pressure in the motor, although the outer crank seal didn’t leak (Japanese seal?).

At this point I checked the flow into the pump through the line and then removed the screen over the inlet of the line. No improvement. I took out the pressure relief valve and increased the tension on the spring, but no help there. At that point I took off the timing cover and re-evaluated the oil pump.

The pistons looked a bit more scored than I remembered them and there was a fiber in the check ball area of the pressure side of the pump. I went to the box of parts from the other motor and compared the pumps. The old parts box pump looked better and after cleaning, I installed it.

After start-up I watched the gauge go to 105 psi, and then the pressure relief popped off and the pressure stabilized at 90psi. At this point, the throttle response seemed the best it had been yet. So now we are going to enlarge the original discharge hole, add another, and watch the blower belt life at the reduced tension to in turn reduce crank deflection.

Why oil pressure and running may or may not be related makes as much sense as blower belt tension and a clutch shaft oil leak. Ya gotta love it! I think I will move the tank up to right below the pipes and carefully heat shield it to increase the head of potential pressure at the oil pump, and special care will be needed to deal with the cap at that point.

Cheers!

Bill

Driveway Test

The driveway test didn’t go as planned.

The transmission doesn’t work. The oil pressure is low. It won’t take full throttle.

Still, you have to admit she looks pretty good out in the daylight.

–Sam

Progress on the Supercharged 1966 TR6 as of 1/5/09

After seeing the Discovery Channel’s show on Bonneville last night it got us revved up enough to provide a long overdue update on the Bonneville projects.

First, there hasn’t been any progress on the Ducati.  The realization that there is a desperate need for electronic fuel injection became apparent after the trip to Byron Dragway, but the comprehension of and the loading of tuning parameters into the Microsquirt has thus eluded us.  If you know anyone who has used one of these nifty little units on a 90 degree twin, please let us know as we can sure use some help with it!!!!  The high fuel consumption of a mechanical fuel injection system would cause too great a late-run weight imbalance (inducing wheelspin) to allow that to be used, thus relegating us to electronic fuel injection or blow-through carburetion (an equally mysterious but in my mind roulette-wheel type of tuning).  Once again, the electronic devotees out there…..Help!!!!

Well, things have continued to be a challenge on the blown Triumph front as it seems this bike is insisting on being dragged, kicking and screaming, to the starting line.  The decision to use a conventional front end to keep in the “retro” motif has caused the bike needing to be raised 2 inches to maintain a relative balance and some weight bias adjustability.  This necessitated a lower triple tree made by Guy Bartz to be used to keep the hike in height to just 2 inches.  It also allowed the use of the beautiful aluminum unit in place of the stock SV-650 cast steel unit (what were they thinking?).  The rear end also needed to have the axle blocks flipped over as well.  The initial design of the chassis was also allowing for the 190mm tire to be the shortest tire, as all the drag racing slicks tended to be taller, causing the initial location to be the lowest possible.  The Ducati, on the other hand was never intended to be at the dragstrip so the 200 rear tire was expected to be the tallest.  Go figure.  An upside-down front fork would solve this problem, but we also have kept the right side shift on this project as well, keeping the schizophrenic nature of the beast intact.

The motor, being a 1966 vintage also has the delights of Whitworth, British Standard, and OBA threads.  In case you didn’t know, the British are the only people that came up with a more disparate and eccentric manner of bolting things together than the U.S.  In many instances the threads are 26 threads per inch which doesn’t coincide with anything.  Even the wrenches have issues as they are designated by the size of the bolt threads they are to fit, not the size of the bolt head. You need the British tool set, the U.S. and Metric wrenches out all at once to expect to get things done this century.  It is trying Fred’s patience, I can tell.

Reversing the cylinder head to allow the rider to sit down in the bike also requires a different set of cam timing specs.  Luckily about 26 years ago, a former employee Allen Jelle, did a reversed-head Triumph while he was here.  He was gracious enough to sell us the bottom end, and help with the intuitively conflicting cam timing.  AJ’s front-engined blown Desoto-powered dragster is a thing of beauty, so he also has a vested interest in this project.  A certain restraint is needed to keep from blowing everything to pieces via blower overdrive and/or nitro percentage in both the Desoto and our bike.

The design and manufacture of the blower/fuel pump and ignition drives is started, and will hopefully be done in the next two to three weeks.

There is a general shaking of heads when this project is viewed by the rest of the world it seems, but just watch the Discovery Channel program on Bonneville or pull out your trusty copy of “The World’s Fastest Indian” and you’ll understand.

Until the next “milestone” (millstone?).

Cheers!!

A quick jot about the trip to Byron Dragway.

Testing of the driveability of the Ducati Turbo was done at Byron Dragway on October 19, 2008.  Even after making a new countershaft sprocket and putting on the biggest rear sprocket that wouldn’t require modifying the 160 link chain on the bike now, first gear was still over 100 mph.  Not a great way to get down the quarter mile.

Driveability still was awful with the motor either in a full bog or going mental at 22 psi of boost and spinning the rear tire at half track in 2nd and through the lights in third.

Ergonomics are still literally a sore point and will give us additional things to work on through the winter.  Now the serious adaptation of fuel injection is shown to be the only way to be productive for the assault on the salt in October of 2009.  A couple of trips around the block again and a few more trips to the dragstrip should help iron out running and riding issues.

Stay tuned!

World Finals 2008 cancelled

It seems that, due to flooding of the course, the World Finals event at Bonneville has been cancelled for this year.