Straightliners World wheelie and Speed Event
Elvington August 2011
After the success of the Goodwood
Festival of Speed. It was agreed that we would have fun with the 2005
turbine
bike and keep it in the UK
for 12 months, taking it to various events. A chat with wheelie champion
'Dodge' resulted in the bike being invited to the World Wheelie and
Speed
records at Elvington in 20/21st of August. For those that don't know
Elvington
in Yorkshire is one of the UK's
longest runways. It is just over 2 miles of perfect flat ground suitable
for
the heaviest of military planes and jets. It is a dream and privilege to
be
able to race at such speeds in such a place. Having never raced the bike
before
on UK
soil, it was a steep learning cave, with some of the best wheelie
champions and
Speed racers you've ever seen and big crowds expecting big speeds!
Continuous
wheelies for over 1 mile at speeds in excess of nearly 180mph. Jack
Frost and
his impressive 600hp Turbo Hayabusa doing speeds well north of 200mph.
Even
the Ghost rider and his 450hp Turbo special was in attendance. We
didn't
disappoint though. We rode the bike up to the event (with van of bits
and crew
following obviously for the event), to demonstrate that this is no 'bike
in a
van' demo bike, but the real deal bike you can actually ride on the
road. It
was a real hoot riding up, with people looking up to the sky as the bike
comes
past, (due to the jet sound), following by a double glance at the bike
and then
a furious round of photo's from their camera phone, as they look on at
disbelief. Stopping at Petrol stations was amusing, as every attendant
looked
on at shock as I filled the bike with pump diesel. I reassured them it
was
okay, I was running a jet turbine to their look of confusion! We didn't
disappoint
at the event. The crowd reception was good. We built up speed gently
over each
run, as we lacked a dyno to test the bike before. The scariest part was
stopping the bike. A turbine has no engine braking, so when you shut off
the
power at full speed, it just keeps going. You need to use every little
bit of
brakes you have to shed that speed, before the end of the runway. With
only 1
mile up to max speed and half a mile to brake, things happen really
fast. At
circa 300 feet per second, there is little time to think or
procrastinate. If that wasn't enough to worry about... all was going well,
when at
196mph we burnt the clutches out. This caused the transmission oil to
boil out
into the exhaust system, creating huge plumes of white smoke across the
runway,
much to the enjoyment of the crowd who though it was a special 'jet'
display,
like you see at Santapod from the funny cars. The gearbox got so hot, it
then
seized, which at those speeds was a little bit scary. But all was safe,
and
good enough to win first in the Extreme bike event. The bike was placed
back in
the van, with my well earned trophy and taken back
to Guernsey for a total strip down to check that everything
was fine, ready for the next event....
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| Yes, my head should be lower, but the helmet blocked my vision! |
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| 196mph, before the clutches burnt up and the gearbox seized! |
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| At the start line, firing up the Turbine |
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| Some of the other nutters... |
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| The quest for speed... notice his 'Aerodynamic' front wheel guard. |
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| This crazy guy had only one arm! |
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| How to do a proper fast wheelie |
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| If you think you're good at wheelies... watch these guys! |
