The countdown to the 2012 BUB Speed Trails at the Bonneville salt flats, has started. To kick things off, we have a few racers who are attending with S&S go-fast parts that we wanted to make mention of.
First up: S&S Engineering Manager, Jeff Bailey, is no stranger to land speed racing. In 2008, he bought a Buell® S2 frame with the idea of building a Bonneville bike. The S2 was chosen because it had bolt-on side plates that locate the rear swing arm mount. Fabricating a special set of side plates allowed the pivot point to move down to accommodate the 160 cubic inch S&S cast Pro Stock engine which is 5.5” taller than the stock engine. The new side plates and some frame modifications got the engine in the frame, and a longer swing arm gave the bike added high speed stability. To hold the nearly 200 horsepower, Jeff fabricated a one-off clutch and added the S&S centrifugal pressure plate for Victory® motorcycles that squeezes tighter the faster you spin it.
The engine is a special version of the S&S cast Pro Stock engine, which is similar to an engine from an over-grown Harley-Davidson® Sportster®, or possibly a Buell® motorcycle. With its 4.8” bore and 4.375” stroke, this engine is several times the displacement of a stock engine. This engine is fuel injected and uses one throttle body from the S&S billet Pro Stock engine on a special manifold built with the help of S&S’ rapid prototype machine. To control fuel and ignition, Jeff chose the S&S VFI fuel ignition module.
This bike was raced in 2010 as an open bike and took home two records in the A-PG 3000 and A-PF 3000 classes at 180.35 and 176.271 respectively. Both records were set running on gasoline even though the second record was in a fuel class.
This year, Jeff is going for the big numbers and wants to break 200 mph in a partially streamlined class. He’s planning on attending the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials, which will be held August 25-30 this summer. The same engine will be used, but Jeff is counting on the reduction in aerodynamic drag of the streamlined fairing to get him over the 200 mph mark. Work smarter, not harder!
He started with some AirTech fiberglass bodywork but had to do extensive modifications to make it fit his bike and to make it large enough to “hide behind”. Starting with a windscreen from an XR750, an impression of the windscreen was made in 30:1 expanding foam, and the impression was mounted on the modified fairing. The foam shape was then attached with more of the foam, and shaped to blend into the existing fairing. Using the foam shape as a pattern, fiberglass was built up to create the final outer shape. The original windscreen was laid over the shape and traced. The traced area was cut out to allow the windscreen to be inserted. You won’t see another one like this!
There’s still a lot of work to be done on this bike between now and the BUB meet, but Jeff is well on his way and he looks forward to breaking some records in August.