Mechanical Resonance
Run Five – For Real
“If everything goes ‘as planned’, you aren’t doing anything interesting.” – Tom Peters
It was day 3, Monday. The sunrise over the salt with the mountains was just as breathtaking each day. The hot rods parked beside tents and RV’s outside the salt along the access road were waking up. The night before was a busy night for the crew. Randall took the damaged header pipe from the turbo bike and drove two hours to Salt Lake City and stayed up until 3 am to custom fabricate a new one from a pipe he robbed off a Honda. He returned to the salt with it very early and the team worked to get it mounted on the bike without the advantage of a full shop and equipment.
Chris and Dean had made a connection and got tires that were rated for over 200 mph. They were slicks – no tread at all. They would not “grow” with speed; that means with very high centrifugal force they wouldn’t get taller. They went to tech inspection and got the 200-mph speed limit sticker off the bike. We were cleared for our goal.
We were in line, nearly our turn with AJ in front of me, ready for another run at it. When I started the bike Chris and Dean were attracted to the sound and listened to it. I didn’t like the look on their faces. They muttered to each other and listened closely to the engine. Their faces said something was wrong. They shook their heads over the noise. They shut it down. “We can’t run it. There’s a noise we don’t like.”
The 320 hp Turbo bike was out. Here’s where the wisdom of bringing two bikes paid off.
Since my turbo bike wasn’t ridable, we bumped AJ, since he was sort of an exhibition rider getting free rides with the support of the entire team. Honestly, I think he may have been somewhat relieved since the last run he wobbled so bad. I got on the stock red bike, 120 hp less than what I was used to, minutes before I was to get the green light from the starter. All of a sudden, I had a different set of challenges. I had never been on this bike before. It was different. Bodywork in front, shifter position, and a few other things. But the biggest difference was the stock gas tank. It was a huge hump in my chest compared to the lower tank of the modified bike. I was worried I couldn’t tuck my head down enough and rotate my neck up enough to see with a big tank in my chest. No time to think about that – I got the green flag.
The red bike was powerful and smooth. Less of a monster, but still very formidable. I just met the bike minutes earlier and I took it to 185.64 mph at Mile 5, weight on the pegs and off the seat, and tucked in nicely. I had a maximum speed of 188. I hit some ruts at mile 3-4.
No swap. Relieved. Smiling…still 12 mph short.