Visit to Thunderdome

[Stainless1]

On my way to the Enduro X in Oklahoma City from Sturgis so took a side trip to visit Max yesterday. The bike looks great and the decals are going on, should be a great meet at BUB.

surely you took more pictures... post them and I wont call you Shirley again

I am jealous... All you Wichita lurkers might need to go by and help Max get loaded up.

Rocky, I'll bet if Max is defending the title he will be there... Let's see what Bub brings.... 
See ya on the salt 

[Larry C]

Stainless, mainly Max wanted the troops to see how good the main decal looked, besides, you have done such a great job of recording the build that Shirley I couldn't ad much!

[Kansas Bad Man]

Hey Max,

You coming to the Top 1 World Land Speed Shootout?

Rocky R

Hey Rocky,

Mike has been keeping me posted for the past two or three months as to the Big Shootout that has now been publicly confirmed as a "done deal".  Mike called me three or four days ago and said being as how I expressed my interest in attending he was calling to see if I would.  Initially Denis Manning was going to be one of the entrants, but I believe Ack said that Denis had second thoughts because of a tire thing, or something of that nature.     

                                       Max

[Kansas Bad Man]

Hey Max,

You coming to the Top 1 World Land Speed Shootout?

Rocky R

Thought I might get timed out, hence the second post.

The old saying, "Success is found at the junction of preparation and opportunity".  In lieu of this, I'm honored to be included in this exclusive group of prepared LSR racers.  Your answer is an emphatic, "YES!"

I'll put it all together somehow, expenses  will be a primary problem, and getting an all volunteer pit crew together on such short notice, another.

                                               Max

[bvillercr]

Your liner is truely something special.  I wish you were going to speedweek so all of us following your build could see it.  Good luck at BUB.

[Kansas Bad Man]

I'll try to give those who are interested an all inclusive update as to what happened at the Bub Meet on a daily basis.

First I want to thank all who attended the meet, particularly those who supported the Black Lightning Project for 2008, and those who paid all their own expenses, worked their tails off with no pay, and finally went home with only the satisfaction that they participated in the ultimate world of speed for the Vincent marque.

After the howdy's, the how are you's the good to see you again's the shaking of hands with a few hugs thrown in, the 2008 Salt Crew were ready to do battle.  The first task at hand was to get the Vincent streamliner through tech.  Tech was scheduled to commence first light, day one, and finish prior to noon that same day, so a half a day of racing could commence.  As it turned out, the FIM official, Charlie Hennekim, had an airport delay and was not able to show up on time as planned.  That left only two inspectors to tech the over 50 FIM entrants.  Tech wasn't completed for the Black Lightning entrant until after 6:00 the evening of the first day; in fact we were the last FIM motorcycle to receive the two stickers on the nose and be cleared to run the event.  Bottom line--a half day rnning was lost.

                                               Max

[Kansas Bad Man]

You start work at first light when running at Bonneville. Around 6:15 the sun begins to glow over the horizon.  You would just have to be there to witness this, there's no way to explain the grandeur of it all--a bit of nip in the air, clear skies, and no wind; we all thought this was going to be a good day.

I fired the liner for the first time that morning since reaching the salt.  It sounded  quite healthy-loud, with more of a multi-cylinder sound than a four and a half inch stroke V-twin multi big bang motor, it sounded somewhat like ripping canvas on steroids.

After everyone arrived I passed out the job assignments to the Salt Crew, such as telling Ernie L., Peter W. and John P., "You guys take care of keeping the liner and side car salt free.  Steve D. get yourself 4 or 5 husky lads to help, and you'll be in charge of getting the liner in and out of the trailer, as well as truck driving duties.  John M. you'll do the chains as always, also valve adjustment.  Lenny M. you'll be the starter and the electrical man.  Joe (Hartmut's German friend) you'll be the oil man.  Max Re' you'll take care of the fuel, and help Don and Hartmut with the loading of the parachutes.  Jesse O. you'll be in charge of getting the pants on and off, and also the side car removal.  Neil D. you'll be the clutch man, and help Jesse O. and Steve D.  Don A. and Hartmut W. you take care of loading your parachutes and making sure the cockpit and windscreen is kept clean--and oh yeah, you'll also be in charge of keeping the shiny side up.  Ray H. you'll be in charge of the tires.  Caroline M. as always will keep us happily fed.

[Stainless1]

I was unable to provide much assistance to Max at the salt due to a previous commitment working with Travis Sutton and the TS/MSA bike.  Luckily Max has a cast of folks that show up to help race the Vincent.  Here are a couple of shots I managed to sneak in while visiting with Max in the pits.  I was lucky enough to be able to talk with several of them, WOW, what a diverse group of guys from all over the world.
The first day started with Max and crew working on the clutch, parts arrived as Max was packing so "on the salt" installation was necessary.  The "steels" were a little tight on the pins so a little modification was in order.  The riders are the 2 guys under the hats working the mods.  Just like at the house, you show up, you get put to work.

[Stainless1]

Max's pit is a constant flurry of activity preparing the bike for the next run.

[Stainless1]

The next pics are the team removing the liner from the trailer with the SSLD, seemed to work well, but may need tougher than HF casters.  Max wore a couple of them out...   

[Stainless1]

continued....

[Stainless1]

Max struggled this year with electrical and fuel gremlins and getting the clutch to work correctly.  While some armchair QBs may have the woulda, shoulda, coulda answers, it ain't that easy on the salt.  When you are fighting more than one issue, it is often hard to know until you run through all the scenarios.  Those take runs and when the scooter putted down or turned out at the 3, that is what was going on, data collection and analysis.  The last run the bike accelerated perfectly through first and second gear, the guys at the 1 and 2 were ecstatic, they said it was singing... and going 250 plus approaching the 3, then it quit.... the blower shaft broke... the salt has a way of always finding the weak link.  Wanna bet on whether Max puts an outer shaft support bearing on the end of a beefier blower shaft next year. 

I have enjoyed this thread more than any of you.  Occasionally you get to meet real salt legends, have some real fun and share something interesting in this sport.  I'm going by Max's tomorrow to congratulate him and his salt crew on a great job. 

This pic sums it up... 

[Kansas Bad Man]

                    Bub Meet Day Two

The liner was made ready to run.  Don Angel would be the rider, as Hartmut had the last ride last year.  The event was run quite well I thought, very ittle waiting time.  When we got to the zero both Ack and Denis were already there waiting for the wind to die down so they could make a run.  We already had the side car on, so I didn't feel the wind would be an issue for us, and it proved not to be, over the week.  Don left the line in a not too impressive manner.  We heard the announcer on the radio say, "166 mph through the lights."  We picked Don up at the 7 mile turn off and brought the liner back to the pits.

Don's report was as follows: the liner was vibrating a lot; the engines acceleratd to 5000 rpm and began to stutter, the handling was really good, straighter'n a string.  He shifted to second; the transmission shifted like butter; went to three grand in second; the bike quit pulling.  He went on to third and stuttered through the lights at again 166 mph.

After the run's inspection we found the air cylinder to the shifters top fitting had worked itself loose and was wobbling.  The cylinder was disassembled, locktighted, and put back together.  The oil was changed, and quite a bit of emulsification was noted.  The logical conclusion was that the fuel curve was too rich.  A two step heavier spring was installed in the check valve to the four port nozzels below the blower hat.  The high speed opening pressure was reduced.  I decided to take the 376 mph gear off and go two teeth larger on the rear, making it a 338 mph gear at 6500 rpm

All the checks were made, and the liner was prepped for the next days run--Hartmut riding.

                                          Max

[Kansas Bad Man]

First a correction to Day Two.  I reported what the rpm was during the run.  Actually this was just a guess from Don, as the tachometer was jumping all over the place.  I attributed this to a rough running motoor with lots of vibration.  Later I was proven wrong on this one.

The liner was taken to the zero; Hartut was to have the ride.  Ack was waiting for the wind to die down, so was Denis, and Sam had also taken his liner to the line for a run.  Thewind was too high for them, so they let us go ahead and make our run, as we had the side car.

Hartmut made the run--again, not an impressive sound for acceleration.  He made it through the traps at 150+mph; we picked him up at the seven and brought the liner back to the pits.  I was beginning to get a bit baffled, as this should have been a much faster run.  The bike wasn't responding as it should.

Hartmut's report was as follows: Lots of vib ration; the tach was unreadable; the handling was superb.  He guessed he got it up to around 5000 rpm which was much too low.  Preferably lock-up was causing the engines to load up, decreasing initial acceleration a bunch.

After the bonnet was taken off, I immediately observed the blower belt had broken.  This was the cause of the shut down.

I had Lenny check the sender to the tach--the pin that holds the roter to the shaft was gone.  Lenny found a drill bit the right size, which made a new pin.  After fire up in the pits the tach worked just fine.  The blower belt was replaced with a spare, and then Hartmut, Neil, and I played with the clutch for about an hour and a half.  I finally figured the problem was that last year when the clutch burned up on the last run it really got HOT, taking the temper out of the springs and softening them up a bunch.  Weak springs--premature lock-up.

Again we took the liner to the zero, and got a report that Sam Wheeler had made a shakedown run of 276 mph.  No other report as to how his new aluminum front wheel worked.  This was the only run Sam made during the 2008 Bub Meet.  Mike Akatiff had started a run, but had a chute pre-deployment before the mile, and aborted.  Ack and Denis were still waiting for the wind to die down when we got back to the zero.

                                        Max

[Kansas Bad Man]

                     Bub Meet Day Three

The liner was taken to the zero again, this time Don Angel riding.  We got word that Chris Carr had to leave for other commitments.  Denis' Lucky 7 machine wouldn't be making a run at the 2008 meet.  Rocky, riding Ack's machine was ahead of us and made a run speed 288 mph.

It was our turn; Don was strapped in; the run was made; again the clutch locked up too soon.  Don had talked to Charles Hennekim, who had told him to take it all the way to the 10, so Don did what he was told.  During the run Don said he took it to around 3000 rpm; the engines were nosing over--no power; shifted to second; no second gear at all; shifted to high and putted to the 10 at around 120 mph.

We picked the liner up at the 10 and brought it back to the pits.  The following checks were made.  The timing was rechecked; it was O.K. but I bumped it up from 40 to 45 degrees advance.  I had worked many hours back at the farm on the transmission, so I knew it was good.  I had Hartmut recheck the air cylinder length from Himes to Himes center.  During the earlier fix on the loose end of the cylinder, we had installed it without it being adjusted for length, which is critical to proper shift.  By all indications it appeared to be rich.  I had Hartmut adjust the high speed while I worked the throttle.  The engines sounded real good.  Later we found out you can't always go by what an engine sounds like revving it up in the pits.

After all the checks were made, oil changes; topping the fuel off; checking the tires and so on, we took the liner back to the zero.  This was about 2:00 pm  Hartmut was all suited up and in the cockpit.  We were told by the line judge that it would just be a few minutes, as a liner was returning from the other end for a record run.  The next report we got was that the liner making the return run had crashed, leaving debris on the track for 3/4 mile.  Then we heard that the rider was severely injured.  The word filtered through the competitors that it was the Gullett/Costella machine with Cliff Gullett as rider.  After about an hour of waiting, we were told that the track was closed for the day.

                                          Max