Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Jim Handhllrdt seta out on his V-8-englned Ford/Honda. ThIs craatIon was classed with the cars. By Dorde Woodruff BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS, UT, SEPT. 25-29 Each year the motorcycling scene at Speed Week is different in character from every'other year. Last year there were three concentrations of competition: how many records could be accumulated by a single rider during the week; big turbocharged bikes; small streamlined bikes. This year the pre- 8 the bike running so strongly that he wasn't sure he was in fifth ~ar. But the down run was only suffiCIent for a vailing contest was big turbocharged bikes going for the 200 mph mark. Six, at least, showed promise, all but one turbocharged, all but one Kawasakis: Bob Tomrose's sleek black Harley, Tom Elrod's ferocious normally-aspirated double-engined Kaw, Ken Davis' innovative heavyweight Honda, Jack Dolan's Kaw drag bike, Jack Murphy's ZIR-type Kaw, and charles Toy's last minute, S&S-carbed Kaw. Only a handful of riders have made it over the magical 200 mark, ever. Since Dave Campos set his two outstanding records for a nonstreamliner like in 1974 on a doubleengined Harley, 208 on gas and 2S1 on fuel, no one has even come close, with the sole exception of American TurboPak rider Scotty Hansen's 197-plus on a hopped-up ZI R-TC last year. Bob Tomrose, a carpenter from Santa Rosa, CA, is one of the few that continue to run Harleys rather than the more efficient -type Kaws, and the least committed to motorcycling in a way, since his Bonneville bike is his only bike and he doesn't work in the industry. The bike, new in '74, has improved every year and he qualified on the first day of the meet, Sunday, against his last year's record. During Monday morning's record runs, everyone did the return run much faster than the down run, including Bob. His return run wa.s over 200, with with a fairing almost 20 mph faster than the one he set last year. As often happens in the wacky world of Speed Week, he spent the rest of the week making tuning changes, trying unsuccessfully to reproduce that one fine run. He didn't do as much to the bike this year as he wanted to. He had decided that the pistons needed more clearance and used some old ones out of his collection. ''Junk pistons and I went 2001" But he knows what he has to do next year, now, and he's pumped about the bike's potential. Tom Elrod is an IBM systems engineer in Austin, TX and has a Kaw-Harley speed shop on the side, building street and drag bikes as well as Bonneville bikes. The bottom end of his bikes ~re standard, with welded cranks, beveled transmission dogs, and a heavy d~ty racing clutch. They have strong cylInder studs and a strong cam chain. The he sets up the. top en~, the heads a~d t.he compressIOn ratio for the applIcation. Usually he uses 900s bored out to 1198cc. In 1974 Tom's number 29 bike WAS a double-engined Harley. But he's always trying new things, and after that he switched most of his effort to Kaws as the better machine for Bonneville. Tom has been coming to Bonneville for 10 years, and this year he hit the jackpot. He, too, ran well right ou~ of ~:~~~ ~:e::rbl~n;~o;:c~ra~ the van, qualified at an impressive 197.119 on Sunday and on Monday set a record in the open-framed SOOOcc class of 200.02, on gas, adding one more motorcyclist to Bonneville's exclusive 200 MPH Club. Tom also set a record on his turbocharged openframe bike in the 1SOOcc class on Thursday, and John Haider rode to two records on a normally aspirated Elrod Z, both open-frame and faired. Ken Davis' bike was new this year, incorporating many ideas .that he wanted to try. Getting the power to the ground is a common problem for Bonneville bikes, so he made it heavy: 700 pounds. The gas tank sits below the engine, front and center, for a low center of gravity and to clean up tbe airstream behind the front wheel. He thought about using a Kaw but had so many Honda pans laying around that he settled for the same 01' brand, a 750 bored and stroked to I 180cc, as big as you can go with it. Since this is an original Bonneville bike, not a convened street bike like its predecessor the magneto and fuel pump could be located tucked in, where they're out of the airstream. Ken wants to stick to fours because they're narrower than the new sixes, but he could go to the newly-designed '79 Honda 750 and most of his parts would fit. A Southern California Timing Association board member from Oakview, CA, Ken didn't have much time to run this year because he was a very busy official during the meet. But he did run enough to find out what the new bike's problem's were. It ate a special Barnett racing clutch which Ken has been running in his bikes for three years, so it got a sintered iron dutch transplanted from the old Honda. It needs air in the front forks to keep the gas tank from bottoning on the salt - and Ken found what others have from time to time - a square cross-section car tire doesn't track straight on a bike at Bonneville when you get up towards 200. Jack Doland of San Diego. a Pacific Telephone rep., again discovered, as has been noted before, that successful drag bikes don't automatically transfer to Bonneville. The miles of salt definitely do a different number on a motorcycle than the quaner mile. Jack's engine is set up similarly to one of Don Vesco's streamliner engines but the cam is different and it runs on aviation gas rather than methanol. The bike has not yet reached its capability on the salt, although Vesco crew member Marcia Holley took it to 194 on one run last year just before a piston failed. Jacl<. concluded that the main problem remaining at the end of Speed Week this year was an inadequate fuel flow for the distance at Bonneville. After Speed Week the bike performed adequately for visiting Irishman Harry Lindsay, who wanted to go faster than his hometwon buddies. ever had in Ireland's limited space. Lindsay rode his rent-aBonneville-bike to 179, beating hiS friend's recent Irish motorcycle record of 167. Jack Murphy, Kawasaki's wellrespected tuner, is not accustomed to failure in getting what he wants from his bikes. After Scotty Hansen's near miss of 197 last year, Jack was confident he could surpass the 200 mark this year with a similar bike. But he and the American Turbo-Pak crew spent a most atypical Speed Week, for them, twisting wrenches and making passes that weren't quite good enough. Jack's own turbocharged 1000, his Z-2 750 (a model not imponed to the U.S.), and the new KZ ISoo - noneof them went quite fast enough or stayed together or both. At week's end the riders were still gamely making passes, as Jack contemplated his worst year at Bonneville in 14. After Speed Week. last year, ATP rider Scotty Hansen became homesick and went back to Nebraska where he was the ace mechanic at Bluff Cycle, a , '

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