Team 5-Ball Racing launches the assault on the 2006 Bonneville Speed Trials by BUB, September 3-7. The team is gearing up with three snarling race bikes and two hungry female pilots to master the salt and bring home a world record. This effort is also a tribute to Bikernet.com’s 10th year in business.

Below you'll find 10th Anniversary Run To The Salt info, descriptions of the bikes, the team members and Sponsorship info. You’ll be able to check on bike-build progress and female racing success weekly, right up until the day we pull out on the 10th Anniversary Bikernet Run to Wendover, UTAH and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Hang on!

Bikernet 10th Anniversary Run to Wendover, Utah– for the Bubs International Motorcycle Speed Trials. No, this is not our 10th ride to Bonneville. It’s a first time run and tribute to the 10th Anniversary of Bikernet—we survived. Click on the Bubs banner to grab a room at the Nugget from the 1st to the 7th of September (if you plan to stay for the time trials).

We’re riding out from Wilmington, California, Wednesday, August 30th. We will make arrangements at a hotel between Los Angeles and Wendover for our first Party night layover. There’s no charge to ride out, but you’re responsible to cover your own expenses and hotel rooms. Hell, we’re trying to raise Sponsorship funds to offset the Bikernet expenses for our staff and crew.

More info on the ride out will be forth coming as we get our shit together. Everybody’s welcome!

The Team Members

Valerie Thompson, www.VTRaceGirl.com, Sponsored by Monster Energy Drinks, will take charge of the Custom Chrome derived 120 Panhead V-Bike and the 45 Bonne Belle Flathead. Valerie is a successful drag racer and rode a Turbo-Charged V-Rod over 153 mph on the flats last year.

Suicide Blonde, aka Nicole Hoffman, Sponsored by D&D Exhaust Systems, www.blondeonwheels.com, will commandeer the Chop and Grind sled along with the builder Larry Petri. Nicole is a successful road racing champion.

Team Captain of this expedition is Bikernet’s own, Bandit. He’s got a salty history. Back in July of 1990 he crewed on Dave Campos world record run in the 23-ft-long Easyriders streamliner that was powered by two 1,491-cc Ruxton Harley-Davidson engines hitting an overall speed of 322.16 mph. That overall motorcycle world land speed record stands today. K. R. Ball is also a three tour Navy Vietnam Veteran. He’s also the major builder for the 1940 Bonne Belle and 120-inch Panhead, Salt Shaker.

John Vantrump, is the Bikernet young gun, Bandit’s bike building assistant. He grew up at the MMI school, and worked at H-D dealers and for Yamaha.

Barry Wardlaw, President of Accurate Engineering, is designing the Panhead Engine Package for the Salt Shaker, Sportbike Panhead. He will kick the salt and be responsible for tuning, gearing and Salt Shaker performance.

Lee Clemens, the Master of Departure Bike Works, Richmond, Virginia. He’s responsible for the Bonne Belle engine and transmission hop-up. On the Salt he’s our tuning master with years of drag racing experience.

Sin Wu, The Bikernet Team CFO, CHR, CPR, CDR, CCK and babe.

Larry on the left and Bob T. looking bad.

Larry Petrie will pilot the racer, with years of experienced racing and motor building. A USMC Gulf War veteran and 10 year plus veteran Harley Davidson mechanic.

Bob T is doing all public relations and Chop N Grind rattlecan painting. Also a USMC Vietnam Era veteran and former crew member of the Jammer-Easyrider Streamliner Designed by Bob George.

“OC” Danny McPherson pit crew chief and renegade mechanic, Navy Vietnam era veteran. He was riding before the word Old School was fabbed.

Big Steve Arrona Chief fabricator, designer and ass kicker

Rob T. Jr. K9 Officer with his attack dog “Koenig” keep’s guard on the Bonneville racer and a watchful eye out for spies from the 5-Ball Team. He is our all-around photographer.Rogue, the official Bikernet, 5-Ball Racing Team journalist and whiskey drinking hot head.

The Machines

This is a terrific History shot of an actual racing 45 flathead from the era. It was supplied from Bob T’s collection. He’s a Bikernet 5-Ball Bonneville racing team member.

Bonne Belle, a 1940, 45-cubic- inch flathead built by the 5-Ball Racing Team at the Bikernet Headquarters. The engine and transmission are being worked over by the team at Departure Bike Works in Richmond Virginia. It will run in the vintage 750-cc class and shoot for speeds closing on 150 mph.

Chop N Grind– 100 horsepower big twin built by Chop N Grind team. As part of the BikerNet Bonneville Race Teams, they are located out in the Southern California High Desert. Their Bonneville bike project is being done by “The seat of their pants” with a small budget and big dreams.

Bandit’s Bonne Belle and that goddamn Salt Shaker, Better get on the ball, because we are not messing around with all the glitz and glamour Hollywood people. Chop N Grind is getting Down N Dirty, no frills here just old school technology. No fancy paint or new blue jeans. Yeah, they call us “The Sand Snortin Desert Bastards”. That’s just fine with us. Our team is a bunch of roughnecks ready to kick some ass.

The Bonneville racer is a100 inch Harley Davidson EVO with a Twin Cam top. We are running a BDL 3-inch belt drive, old Bartell`s race pipe found in the desert rusting away with our unknown technology we were able to bring it back to life, ridged frame from Midwest, oil tank came from flat tracker Don “Snuffy” Smith, we will run it in his memory.

The class we are running in 1650 cc APG (Altered, Pushrod, Gas) class. The record is 168mph plus, we aim to beat it.

Salt Shaker–Is a John Reed designed, Custom Chrome Sport Bike chassis, powered by a Barry Wardlaw, Accurate Engineering, 120-inch Panhead engine, Baker 6-speed transmission and BDL belt drive. The first Panhead Sportbike is being built by Bandit and John VanTrump in the Bikernet Headquarters. The entire Chassis is Custom Chrome with the exception of a La Pera seat, Eye Candy taillight (for the ride to Sturgis) and D&D Exhaust. We are also looking into testing Mil Blair’s Fuel injection system manufactured by BDL.

We’re too busy building to figure out what class we’re running in, but there’s a notion that we could put Valerie into the 200 mph club. Her goal for Monster Drinks is to become the fastest motorcycle girl on the salt. We’ll see

BIKERNET BONNEVILLE 2006 5-BALL TEAM SPONSORS

“So far our sponsors include AMSOIL, BMC Choppers, Jims USA, AVON Tires, S&S Cycle, Leinweber Cams,” Bob T. said. “We also have help from my brother at Expressive Designs in Oahu, and LMC Concrete Pumping. We want to thank each and every sponsor and we will in our articles, on our Bonneville Banners, truck and bikes.

Bikernet Platinum Level
Custom Chrome Inc.
Accurate Engineering
Baker Drive Line
Departure Bike Works

Bikernet Gold Level
BDl
Avon Tyres
Nick’s Performance and Amsoil Oil
BMC Choppers
JIMS USA
U.S. Choppers
Leinweber Cams

Bikernet Silver Level
Chris Kallas
Nick Roberts

Bikernet Reader Level
Rick Krost
Glen and Kerri Priddle

This article doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the machine shop, but this illo sure helps.

Just about the two top things on my “to-do” list are ride motorcycles and listen to music that rocks. Beth Orliss’s company, Hearing Dynamics, had me in mind when they developed custom radio headphones exclusively for motorcycle riders.

I was lucky enough to get an iPod for Christmas, and after spending countless hours ripping my entire lifetime CD collection and loading it on Apple Computer Company’s latest windfall, I decided to try melding my personal music with riding. I’ve seen plenty of riders wearing headphones so I decided to give it a try. The “ear-pods” that came with my iPod sounded pretty good, until I got on my motorcycle. I found myself blasting the tunes at top volume and still couldn’t hear the music over the wind and exhaust noise while riding. After a couple of commutes to work while attempting to listen to my favorite songs and arriving partially deaf (what?), I pretty much gave up on combining the tunes with my motorcycle trips.

Mom was right: “You’re going to go deaf if you don’t turn that down. ”

After years of playing the drums, pounding on metal around the shop, and riding motorcycles, my hearing isn’t what it used to be. To avoid losing any more of what’s still left of my precious hearing, I normally ride with spongy ear plugs. I was hoping that riding with tunes from my iPod would be a great alternative to listening to those pesky voices in my head out on the open road. But after my initial attempts, I figured it just wasn’t going to work. Then out of the blue Beth Orliss sent me a letter with an invitation to test ride a set of Hearing Dynamics custom radio headphones, and I jumped at the opportunity to give them a shot.

The word “custom” is not misused in this application. As with anything custom, it implies the lack of immediate rewards, but the promise of long term personalized benefits. The first step to getting a set of personal audio devices is a visit to your local audiologist to make castings of your ear canal and outer ear for a custom fit.

I was surprised to find how many hearing centers were within a very short commute from my home. These are professionals that specialize in making hearing aids for people like me who have been abusing their hearing when I hit 70. Beth recommended a center that was only a few blocks from my shop. I called, and they got me right in for an appointment.

I had my trepidations regarding the process to make an ear impression. The last thing I wanted to do was have some guy pump too much plastic in my ear and break my ear drum, or worse not be able to get the hardened plastic goo out of my ear. The audiologist was very professional and took the time to explain the process completely before starting.

He performed an initial inspection to make sure my ear canal was clean, healthy and that I didn’t have any physical damage to my tympanum (ear drum). Luckily, all was well and good. The next step was to insert a small piece of foam rubber into my ear that had a piece of white string attached to it. This served as a block to keep the rubberized compound from reaching my ear drum, and the string was used once the compound had hardened to pull the “plug” out of my ear. (see photo of blue creatures pulled out of my head for details)

Insertion of the foam was about the most uncomfortable part of the whole process, which wasn’t really bad at all. I’m not crazy about doctors or dentists, let alone somebody shoving something foreign into my ear. The foam went just a little further than you’d ever want to shove a Q-Tip, but after the first side, the second ear insertion didn’t alarm me.

The mold is made of a quick drying catalyzed 2-part rubber compound. It’s applied into your ear with a giant syringe. Once the mix was injected into my ear, it only took about 3 minutes to harden. Before filling my second ear, the audiologist explained that I wouldn’t be able to hear anything. He was right. For 3 minutes my hearing came to a complete halt. All I could hear was my breathing and my heart. The plugs pulled out painlessly, and the whole experience was over in a flash, no worries.

Now that I had my two ugly blue castings of my hearing canals in hand, I shipped them directly to Hearing Dynamics in Cresskill, New Jersey. They take the custom impressions and make a mold, and then from the mold make a finished rubber part that ultimately becomes your personal custom ear piece. They have 3 levels of “drivers” or speakers that you can choose from, depending upon your budget and how particular you are about the fidelity of your musical experience.

Right about now, you might be asking what makes these headsets special and exclusive for motorcyclists to use. Well, it’s a pair of simple details that are commonly overlooked in other manufacturers’ standard headsets. The biker trick is in the way they finish off the outboard side of the pieces so you have room to wear a helmet comfortably, and the connection wires are positioned so you can run them out of your helmet without snagging them.

I went with the mid-priced units for the demo. Prices run from a couple hundred dollars for a single driver, to over five-hundred for the top of the line units with 3 drivers per ear for full range hi-fidelity. These prices included the local custom fitting process too. The high-end units are like having a 3-way speaker, high, mid and low end drivers, packed right into your head. All I can say is the 2-way system I purchased sounds incredible. Beth said the 3 way units would have slightly more bass response than the 2-way set I purchased. She promised me the bottom end on my units would exceed the bass on the set of ear-pods that came with my iPod, and she was right.

It took less than two weeks from the time I sent my ear impressions until I received my custom crafted set. Slipping them into my head for the first time was a bit of a challenge, but after I read the directions, I figured out how to comfortably put them in my noggin. They almost screw into your head and certainly won’t fall out. They make a tight seal which blocks out most external noises, but you can still hear people talking at a normal tone when the music is off. You can still hear with them in, unlike the total-seal experience I had during the impression making process which blocked out everything.Now it was time to plug them into the iPod and see how they sound. Immediately they boosted the entire sound spectrum, and the sound quality was amazing. I set the volume of the iPod at about half the gain that I was using with the OEM ear-pods, and the sound was simply incredible. I jumped on my motorcycle and took a trip around town with my ‘pod set on “shuffle”. I was able to ride with the iPod at a comfortable volume because all the wind noise was eliminated. I could still hear the bike, and hopefully the siren of an emergency vehicle. It simply doesn’t get any better than this for me.

The Hearing Dynamics package included a carrying case, directions and safety precautions. Some states outlaw wearing headsets while operating a vehicle, so you need to check your local laws. I wouldn’t recommend cranking the tunes too loud around town where you might expose yourself to hazardous situations. Out on the open road, these totally add to the riding experience and actually save your hearing if you use them properly since the white-noise of 80 MPH wind is eliminated and traded up for your favorite tunes at a comfortable volume.

If you didn’t already know it, motorcycle riding is a dangerous pastime, and if you’re not an experienced rider who is very comfortable riding, the process adding tunes to your list of critical things to do while riding probably isn’t for you. On the other hand, I’ve been on two wheels long enough to know it’s going to really hurt if I fall over, and I’m not going to take any unnecessary chances. I felt comfortable riding with these, and they certainly are easier on your ears than riding with the stock set of phones from Macintosh.

All in all, if you share my love of music and riding, these headphones from Hearing Dynamics are literally the ticket. You can use them with any audio device, CD player, MP3, home stereo, walkman or whatever sound device you own that will adapt to a stereo mini-jack connection, and they come complete with a one-year warranty. It does take a certain amount of effort to own a set. You can’t just run out and buy a pair to use in one afternoon. You’ll need a little bit of patience to get fitted specially for your ears, ship the castings out and wait for your personal set. So you’ll just have to take my word for it that the wait is worth the effort. Ride hard, and rock hard!

Keep the rubber side down,
John Covington
Steed Musclebike
www.steedmusclebike.com

Source:
Hearing Dynamics
23 Milton Street
Cresskill, NJ 07626
201-697-3372
www.hearingdynamicsusa.com