Wednesday
The key word was, “Today's the day.” We only had a day-and-a-half left!
We changed the plugs to 4163 Autolites. We hadn't employed the Nitrous system, and I could see the need in Berry's eyes. He spent an entire year building this engine specifically for nitrous, to counteract the nature of the salt and lack of air density, and we hadn't reached a comfortable stage for its use.
Valerie was also a factor. She still wasn't completely comfortable with the bike or the salt conditions and the thought of 30 more horsepower spinning the rear wheel against the uncertain salt was daunting.
Some team members grouse and threatened to steal leathers and make a pass, but we stayed the course with our GoDaddy.com pilot. The plugs we set at .028 and Berry switched the main for an 80, one step leaner. He retarded the timing two degrees in the rear cylinder and asked Valerie to go like a mutherfucker.
“Pull a Burt Munroe and get it on the salt,” Berry said.
Another weather front was moving in and only three or four bikes ran in the morning including Jay Allen, who blew his engine. The wind kicked up and rain threatened. Some team members were forced to split. My son, Frank and his wife Yvette took off, Hiway and Marc were forced to return to work 600 miles away in the Bay Area. Gene Koch's health wasn't the best and Dr. Hamster took him home. The maximum wind rule for the short course bikes was 11-13 mph and they shut the track down. At 3 mph, streamliners won't run.
We were scrambling and watching the barometer. It showed 68.5 millibars and we were calculated to be at 5700 feet. Good news. The rooster tail of salt was a concern. Every night we hit the Billiard Bar at the Nugget Casino where the racers hung out, had a couple of “Adult Beverages,” and discussed racing tactics. One of the starting line judges was always on hand, freshly shaved, in a clean shirt and smiling, Bob. We looked like shit and smelled. He followed the Assalt Weapan build on Bikernet.com and was amazed.
“There's a balanced triangle of elements for success on the salt,” Bob said. “You need horsepower, aerodynamics and tractions in equal parts. You're loosing traction. The forth element is the rider.” We discussed adding weights to the rear wheel and that seemed to be the answer, plus we owned the duct tape to make it happen.
I called Nate once more, the tire master from Signal Hill, California for advice. Could we lower the rear wheel tire pressure?
“No,” he said, “38 psi is perfect. Lowering the tire pressure will jeopardize the tire construction and it could breakdown. Add weight over the axle.”
We had tent weights to hold our tents from blowing away and Gypsy packed one 5-pound tent weight on each side of the fender. Then we discovered 10-pound cast iron dumbbells in Duffy's motor home belonging to his wife, Kim.
“At least they're silver,” Gypsy said.
“Weight in front of the rear wheel amounts for 50 percent over the axle,” Nate explained, but when we suggested weights on the rear pegs right at the axle, Valerie vetoed the notion.
“I wouldn't be comfortable with weights there,” she said.
We were able to place all the weights inside our panels for no negative Aero effects. More good news.
The air was cool and a blessing for the bike, but we stood in line too long. Each time we might make a pass or advance in line, the wind shut the track down. It was 1:15 and the sun was burning the positive air density away. In addition to burning daylight, we were burnin' air quality. At 1:20, Bub's staff released another five bikes to pre-stage including Roger Goldammer.
At 3:30, we fired the bike to make our first run of the day, and it popped on one cylinder. Under pressure to make a run, Berry shut it down, fooled with some wires and tried again. We were standing on the starting line. Other riders were damn anxious to make their passes and we had to move. He fired it to life and both cylinders ran, but not for long. Val made her pass on one cylinder at 103 mph.
That damn chain guard broke again and we scrambled to find a bad wiring connection. One of the coils was losing connection and it turned out to be number two. We ran single-fire, dual-plugged heads. It couldn't be the plugs. We were going for broke. The afternoon was slipping away and the only way to make a winning pass was to engage the nitrous. We fixed the wire and the chain guard with tywraps, by Jeremiah, and jammed to the staging position at the other end of the track.
Valerie hit the nitrous button but was unsure and data acquisition indicated only a momentary boost to one cylinder. But our run came in at 157.743. Not bad. Berry and Duffy pulled the plugs and Dave Rash from D&D checked them.
“Perfect,” he said. “Don't fuck with the mixture.”
Mixture and air velocity were critical considerations. Berry initially wanted to run a velocity scoop. Larry Petrie developed a ram velocity stack for his Chop N Grind, 100-inch V-Twin, but it never ran over 133 mph, whereas last year he easily turned over 150 mph.
There was so much to consider. Wind tunnels call for moving the air around the vehicle as neatly as possible: anything else will slow the vehicle down. Plain velocity stacks work to a degree, except when the passing air yanks oxygen back out of the carb for a drop in air velocity. Air scoops and rams jam air into the carb, but it's difficult to determine how to control or regulate the pressure for best performance at various speeds.
We hauled ass back to impound at 6:05 and negotiated with the AMA officials about one more run. At 6:11, Ken from the AMA stopped all runs, but promised that if we were ready to go, bright and early in the morning, we would be in the first group. It also meant we had to start making passes all over again for an improved record. The FIM requires that the second pass take place within 2 hours and the AMA dictates the second pass is made within the calendar day.
Thursday
Barry was up a 4:30. He never slept, but paced the halls and his mind for answers, solutions and performance mods. He had become the madman team captain. He removed lotsa pressure from me, and I was relieved at times to have a partner at the helm. His girlfriend Gypsy, a bike builder and surgical nurse, darted around us constantly assisting and running for anything we needed. The track was scheduled to open every morning a 6:00 and runs began at 7:00 if weather and salt conditions prevailed.
At 7:00 a.m., we rolled the wounded and repaired Assalt Weapan to the staging area and requested our place at the fire-line front.
The sun came on strong, drying the track and driving the air density down, and we made our first pass at 9:45 blazing down the track at 151 mph. Valerie struggled to use our makeshift nitrous button and the track conditions weren't helping. Every day, as Berry straddled the Assalt Weapan for the three-mile run from the pits to staging, with Jeremiah peg pushing him, on his dirt bike, he was beat half to death on the jagged and lumpy saline surface. He was splayed out on this long rigid and the brackish plane surface was not designed for rigid frame travel. The bike took a beating with each run and staging, but that was part of the game of endurance on the salt.
I was beginning to understand the true obstacle to success for 2007 at Bonneville. At 10:20 we staged once more for a return pass and a nitrous attempt. Gypsy drove the rental SUV around the small pit inquiring for the use of a propane bottle to warm the nitrous container for the final pass. She was successful and Berry warmed the bottle to 900 psi before we launched. He was strident about this reading, knowing full well that as soon as we moved the terrifying torch from the bottle and the bike, the warmth would drop and so would the pressure.
“Give her all she's got,” Berry shouted.
Paul Holdsworth from IronWorks Magazine scored the propane. “I'm only too happy to help,” he shouted and Valerie rolled for her back-up pass at almost noon.
We crouched at the line and listened, praying for complete and high revving shifts. We crossed our fingers and toes. Then dashed to the other end of the track to retrieve Val, while listening to the radio for a report.
The information came, 161.7 mph and our best run yet. Still the nitrous wasn't used. Still we were nowhere near the redline we were after. We barely edged out of the 5,000 rpm range. The Assalt Weapan was capable of so much more.
We were told we had until 1:00 to make a record-boosting pass, but we had more repairs and Bikernet.com Television was attempting an interview. Another report came in that we had until 3:00 for a record pass and the Bub's crew would run bikes until 5:00 without times. We tightened bolts, checked her over and peeled to the staging area at 1:15. We had received bum info. Timing was closed and our week was complete.
Our educational process wasn't finished, though. We would learn more from other riders and at the banquet at 8:00. We set a record for the 2000 cc APS PF class, we knew that, but we accomplished far more. We just weren't aware of it yet.
Before, during and after the banquet we heard from other riders who couldn't survive passes at any speed due to the inclement salt surface conditions. We spoke to Larry Petrie of Chop and Grind.
“For a ground-up, first-time on the salt,” he said, “the Assalt Weapan performed extremely well. I ran consistently 20 miles under my regular times.”
That seemed to be the consensus. Then at 9:00, while I attempted to post a brief Thursday News report on Bikernet.com, a call came to my Nugget room from the Banquet.
“Bandit, at 8:44 exactly,” Berry Wardlaw said in a nerve-racked voice, “we were awarded the Best Engineered Motorcycle of the meet.”
That was the icing on a growing cake. The Assalt Weapan survived in harsh conditions. It made outstanding passes through a mud bog of salt. And finally it was recognized for engineering and design. We must have done a couple of things right.
Sidebars:
Here's our list of upgrades and improvements for the next brackish attempt:
1.We need to fix a couple of elements on our dash to allow the wiring pigtail to be removed and gauges to fit better.2. Jim Waggaman will repaint the front fender and take a couple of dimples out of it.
3. Although the bike tracked like a champ I would like to have the frame checked for straightness.
4. We need a 44 and 46-tooth sprocket.
5. We will move the NOS solenoids back behind the panels and run braided steel lines to the heads.
6. There's been thoughts of running Zeus fittings for the panels. It's a consideration.
7. We are considering remaking the oil tank with heavier guage steel so we're confident that it will sustain the weight of the bike and won't break our backs to move it.
8. I have a plan for the chopped rear panels. We are going to smooth and repaint them. Then we're building 1/4-inch thick peg panels where the cut-away area was, with a variety of peg locations and weight holding capabilities on the inside. This will accomplish three elements: Improved peg location for ergonomics, repair our Aero problem and afford a secure weight containment area.
9. Make a new chain guard, goddamnit.
10. Definitely need a wind tunnel test.
That should do it to make that 200 mph pass ours. Let's see what happens next.
Packing for Bonneville:If you want to leave for Bonneville with just your bike and your clothes, you could do that and possibly survive. They do serve food and water on the salt, however at a price. If you want to pack to be self-sufficient, here are a few necessary things I learned.
It’s always good to book your hotel early. There are PLENTY of hotels in Wendover, however, they do fill up fast the closer you get to race days. I booked three months in advance and had no problems. For the last couple of years we’ve stayed at the Wendover Nugget. Keep in mind that this is the host hotel and fills to capacity. You will not get fresh towels and room service everyday, as I think this event overwhelms the staff and they have not figured out how to hire extras for the week of BUB. Overall it is a good hotel; just don’t expect to be treated like you would in a Hilton. The restaurants get busy and are slow so we fixed our own coffee, breakfast and lunch on the salt. It was important to me to take care of our team. These guys and girls work hard and have to stand in lines for hours.
For the salt, you will need the following:
-Tents, walls for tents, weights for tents, chairs and tarps for the floor. You must leave the salt as you found it and do not want to spill oil on it. Cover the ground of your workspace.
-Folding tables are good and very useful.
-Trash can and bags, or just bags.
-Bicycle or dirt bike. You will be traveling distances every day to and from lines to pits. This year we took a motorized Cooler Scooter. Karley filled the cooler with ice-cold water and took it to rider and crew stuck in line throughout the week.
Broom and dust pan. Seems pointless as you track salt all day long but it is nice to start each modification with a clean workspace.
-Duct tape and zip ties.
-Lots and lots of water, and beverages of choice. You will NEED to stay hydrated.
-Ice chests
-Shop towels and paper towels and bath towels.
-Padding for knees when working on the ground. (Bad knees in our group).
-First aid kit
-Baggies for small parts.
-Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen and chapstick.
As for tools, extra parts and food, you’ll need to pack these according to your tastes, needs and storage limits or abundance. There is a grocery store in Wendover so daily trips for ice and fresh food were no problem. We took a motor home this year with lots of room and a fridge so food was fresh and healthy. If you have the room, more is better.
The Chop N Grind team had a coffee can full of all sized bolts, which was helpful to many teams. Also, if you’re one of the lucky few that make a record, when you tear your bike down in Impound, you will need boxes, baggies, etc., to hold the parts that come off the bike. A small bag or backpack was helpful for carrying tools to the line as well.
I’m probably forgetting something, but you get the picture. You will be on the salt from dawn to dusk, pack with that in mind.
Nyla
