Landracing Forum
Bonneville Salt Flats Discussion => 2017 and before: SW & WF => SpeedWeek 2017 => Topic started by: desperate on April 19, 2017, 07:30:20 AM
-
My first Speedweek was in 2012, I came with 6 teams from the UK & it was amazing, a BBC film crew came with us & made a 2 hour documentary, "Speed Dreams". I brought over my 1942 Indian Scout & enjoyed it so much I built a new one with a blower, to run in 2014 (it takes 2 years to save enough to come over).
This time 10 teams arrived from the UK only to be told it was cancelled (we were parked by the sign where the road ends & the salt starts when we found out). We knew you can't control the weather. Myself & my race partner were going to sleep in the van, but as we couldn't unload the bikes, on the Wednesday before Speedweek we booked into the Bonneville Motel for 2 nights, which was virtually empty. I think he charged us about $35 for a room. Here's what really pisssed us off though. Once we realised the event was not going to happen, we booked the room for a few more days to give us time to arrange early flights back to the UK & get our bikes back to the shipping company in LA.
We couldn't believe it when the manager told us the price was now $125 a night as it was Speedweek. We explained Speedweek was no longer happening & all his rooms were empty, but he wouldn't budge, so we moved in with a fellow team mate at the Nugget & slept on the floor. So think twice before you book in to the Bonneville Motel!
In 2015 we again went through all the hassles you encounter when shipping a race bike to the USA. Shipping was paid, BNI joined, entry fees paid & flights from the UK booked. In all, I guess it cost us @ $7500 a trip per bike & rider, which isn't easy to find for myself, a 66 year old Senior Citizen on a State Pension, but hey, I've got a bad dose of "Salt Fever".
This time we found out, through this excellent forum, that it was cancelled again, but by then the bikes were already in LA & airline tickets paid for. Myself & my team mate (Mexican Jon, blown 650 Kawasaki) didn't even get on the plane, we simply paid excess storage & had the bikes shipped back. We couldn't get a refund on our air fares ($1500 each) & still had to pay for shipping each way.
2017, the team is back to 6 bikes & we're getting them ready to ship next month, but the costs have risen @30%, but we don't care, we just want our feet & tyres back on the SALT!
Here's a question. In 2014 the SCTA kindly refunded my entry fee in cash, from their trailer at the "Bend in the Road". However, in November 2015 I received a Personal Money Order for $425 in the post for 2015, but unfortunately my bank in the UK was unable to process it & I still have it. I'm hoping to return it un-cashed as part payment for this year's entry. Is it worth sending it?
Finally, "Should I stay or should I go?" is a record by a Brit Punk band, "The Clash". Good words.
-
That's an easy one -- you need to be in touch with JoAnn Carlson, the SCTA/BNI secretary. JoAnn Carlson <office@scta-bni.org>
She's the lady with the magic ability to answer your question correctly.
See you on the Salt. Tell your mates that the event is live streamed -- they'll be able to hear you. And it's archived so they can listen during real hours, not the late nights. :cheers:
-
Good best of luck Dan,
Ps, i remember your workshop at leighton buzzard.
-
Hey, Chris -
Let me tell you a couple of stories.
I towed my MG to Speedweek in 2014, only to run into the rain-out you encountered. Through the kind gestures and help of fellow racers, Wayne Yeats, Gus Ryan, Don Strong, Bud McManus, and James Stewart, I was able leave my car and tow car in Utah, I was sold an extra entry for World of Speed in September, given two airline passes home to Wisconsin, and was dropped off at the airport by my Aussie brother-of-a-different-mother in SLC.
A month later, the salt was dry, and we took a record that had stood for 22 years.
If not for the help of these folks, it might not have happened.
The Project '64 Mini Cooper Team out of New Zealand shipped the car over in 2015 for Speedweek. The event didn't happen, but they made arrangements with California based BMC enthusiasts to store the car stateside, pulled it out of dry dock in 2016, oiled it up, and walked away with records.
There is a network of very incredible people over here who will gladly step up to help, or at least point you in the direction of help.
If your bikes are ready to go and you're willing to store them for up to a year, and Speedweek 2017 doesn't happen, I doubt you'd have trouble finding help putting them up until 2018, or maybe as early as the Bike event later in August, or the USFRA event in September.
Yes, it would require flexibility, but getting people back and forth across the pond is a lot easier than bringing all of your kit back and forth.
So Mick Jones' vocals are asking a question that need not be asked. You should go, and if you have to, make arrangement for the bikes to stay until you go again.
One other thing - the other events provide much cheaper hotel accommodations than the big gig, because they don't draw as many people. Hotel discounts during Speedweek? "There's no point in asking, you'll get no reply". But during the other events, the hotels are "Pretty Vacant". :wink: (always been more of a Sex Pistols fan . . .)
-
Many times I've ended my sob stories about 2014 - 2015 - 2016 (doomed by ignition failure) with "Oh well. I could be one of those poor bastids from overseas who shipped their hearts, souls and all their money over here months in advance". I can only begin to imagine the frustration.
We're all in the same boat. Yours just has a deeper draft.
For me, the rather gloomy outlook for the Bonneville Salt Flats makes it even more important to not miss an opportunity to run there. I've got a long list of " shoulda's, coulda's and woulda's". I don't want to add Speedweek to it.
-
Last year we flew our BSA out to the BMST and returned by boat. At £1900 its not cheap but we were able to cancel up to the day before it was due to fly. Gave us peace of mind and its coming back this year.
Go for it.
Andy
-
ask me how often I stand on a lake after all the travel from Germany..... :roll:
the only thing you can make in this situation...instead of paying yourself to death (trying to go back to Europe)...is, get your stuff in the rental car and have a great sightseeing tour through the beautiful USA....it's always worth a trip...... :-D :-D :-D
September 2015 the car had only 11 000 miles more on the speedometer when I turn him back....it is not necessary to drive so much to see something.... :wink: :wink: :wink:
-
There's always a Yellowstone Park tour, and we know somebody that can handle that. Right, Pork Pie?
Doug :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
-
Or if you'd like to meet me in Milwaukee, I'm thinking a tour of the Harley Davidson plant might be possible - and the HD Museum is a must-see.
-
There's always a Yellowstone Park tour, and we know somebody that can handle that. Right, Pork Pie?
Doug :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
Yeap, Doug.....as always....do the best out of the situation....and that place is only a couple hours away from the salt.... :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
-
This year there were 6 of us sharing a container, this looks like it may drop to 5 or even 4 making shipping more expensive. If anyone else is planning to go or who is going to Speedweek 2017 and wants to reduce costs by sharing the container then please let me know. With enough vehicles in a single container the saving buy a lot of beer.
-
You better plan on going! It could be your last chance or who knows how the salt will be in the future? I drove down in 2014 when it got rained out. I have no regrets about that trip. Met a couple from Australia that year and they didn't have any regrets about there trip either. Granted they were for a month traveling the states. Just get your a$$ on a plane and go!!! :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
-
You better plan on going! It could be your last chance or who knows how the salt will be in the future? I drove down in 2014 when it got rained out. I have no regrets about that trip. Met a couple from Australia that year and they didn't have any regrets about there trip either. Granted they were for a month traveling the states. Just get your a$$ on a plane and go!!! :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
Was that Cassie and I? I was going to be given a chance to break the motor in the Midget that year but I'm a glass half full type of guy and a cancelled Speedweek was just a chance to spend another week on a holiday and it meant we went to the Idaho State Fair, the Basque Wine Festival and the Rodeo in Boise....that might not seem like much but those were some of the highlights of that trip.
I can't offer anything other than what the Milwaukee Midget suggested, there are always people who want to help and they're some of the best friendships you'll make....just avoid politics and religion.
Wendover Calling........
-
Dawn and I have said a couple of times that we won't be able to make the visit "next year" due to this or that. Then "next year" arrives and by golly we make it. But our situation is much easier than yours in as far as we are only shipping ourselves (*and a bunch of camera gear. fewer socks being packed, and more flash guns this year). Much as I would love to run a bike there I feel your pain on the ££££ of handling and shipping of doing so. Andy makes a lot of sense though. Ship it by boat and it allows you some wiggle room. Or if all goes wrong, leave it there after Speedweek and change your plans to run at BMST in the last week of August. It is a fine family of friends on the salt and I would feel sure someone could help out by storing the bikes for a few weeks for you.
On the other hand, how about shipping it out for Speedweek, then just hanging around until BMST and doing both events. You would already be there and so would the bikes. Why not make it a double event year to make up for lost time from 2015? The little bit of time in the middle could easily be spent up in Yellowstone, that place is incredible and very much worth a drive ,I love it there. Salt Lake is pretty interesting. Reno, Lake Tahoe, there is a pretty long list of places worth a visit if you have a few days spare without it costing the earth to do so.
Either way, and whichever works for you, I hope you can make it out there this year and I hope we all have smooth dry salt.
-
There is room in the boat shed here to hold four bikes between speed week and BMST or the events after it. The boat can stay out of the shed during the dry season.
-
Well Chris, I`m going-assuming I can get this darned Indian finished and find a company that will fly my bike out ! Failing that Hot Smurf and I will be three weeks in Vegas anyway so will be coming up to the salt just for a look see at the racing ........I tried phoning u a couple of times the other week but GOT NO REPLY ! I`m assuming your house was PRETTY VACANT ! :roll:(best I could manage)
-
Trikejunkie. Our container will only have 5 bikes in it, I'm sure there is room for another. We already have one guy shipping down from Scotland. Only issue with containers is it leaves in 5 weeks! Contact me if you want space. Steve 07740 673853
-
Cheers Steve, probably a bit tight for me to be honest- I`m working 12 hour nights 7 days just now so time on my bike is a bit limited !
-
OK, I'm going, the bike's in the container with Steve & the other 3 from the UK & is currently somewhere off Holland. The flight's booked & paid for, entry fee is paid & I bought a new tent for sleeping at the "Bend in the Road". There'll be a big Union Jack flying, so drop by & say hi, or find us in the pits. The bike's a blown 1942 Indian Scout flathead powered "Special".
I had one problem. We fired it up the day it was to go for shipping & it had developed a misfire with no time to fix it, it's coil ignition (electronic trigger) & I'd cleaned the carb prior to starting it as it had been stored for a couple of years. Although I have enough parts in my spares box to replace all the electrics, I don't really want to so I decided to bite the bullet & order a Hunt magneto from VT Cycles in New York & bring it over as hand luggage. However, there's a hiccup regarding tracking it so I'm sweating that it turns up by August 6th!
In the event it doesn't arrive, does anyone have one I could borrow?
-
Without doubt you need to go. My race car is entered and already in Tennessee. I just got the new seat fitted and our new engine is being bolted in this week. Then it's a long tow to Las Vegas and up to Wendover. Come say hello.
-
Easy answer, GO! if it gets cancelled, ship it to Maine for the Harvest Event. British Cycle Supply is at the track and they will store you gear. Race, then ship it home from Portland or Halifax.
-
Great news to hear that you are going to make it this year. Good luck with the bike. With luck it will be nothing more than a loose wire and easily traced.
Sounds like there will be a few Brits there this year. Good luck all of you. Enjoy it all and keep it the right way up.
:cheers:
-
Have fun Desperate, good luck,