Norton Ready for Bonneville Speed Trials

lcrken

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I finally finished the prep on my featherbed/Commando for the AMA meet at Bonneville next week. Just fired it up today for the first time in several years. The only thing not shown in these pictures is the breather catch can, in this case the Coors can in the picture, which I hadn't yet installed when I took the pictures. I've run this bike at Bonneville before as a 750, but this is the first run as a 920, and also my first experience with nitrous oxide. Should be fun. The AMA record for the class, 1000 M-PF (1000 cc modified pushrod fuel) is 140.76 mph, and I think we have a good chance to go 150 or so. So far there are three other pre-entries in the class, a Buell, a Norton/Vincent, and a Harley, so there might be some pretty significant competition.

Norton Ready for Bonneville Speed Trials


Norton Ready for Bonneville Speed Trials


Ken
 
Beautiful bike. I'm proud that someone is holding up the Norton banner at Bonneville.
Good luck.
Jaydee
 
Good luck at the Salt, Ken. And wear your floppy hat!

See you at Miller? We're in Garage 24.
 
Holmeslice said:
Good luck at the Salt, Ken. And wear your floppy hat!

See you at Miller? We're in Garage 24.

See you there. We're headed to Miller from Bonneville early Friday. Eric will be racing our home-built DUBBS Yamaha in Sound of Singles 2.

Ken
 
A most inspiring post - I am very jealous. Your bike looks extremely well built. I wonder about the pipes, large diameter megaphones might give more top end ? Also if you run very high overall gearing with a very close ratio box, you might be able to climb to a higher top speed. It would just be a bit of a pig to get the bike going in the first short distance
 
I just love Feartherbed/Commandos, the bike looks great so best of luck.

Ashley
 
We had some big thunderstorms this week again and snow in elevations above 11,000 feet! Today and rest of the week should be sunny and dry. Haven't seen a salt report yet this morning. Hope it dries out in time...either way I imagine the times will be slower at the beginning of the event till the salt gets harder. Hopefully Ken will post a salt report tonight when he gets back to the hotel.

Cheers,

Tom Kullen
Event Coordinator
Bonneville Vintage GP
AHRMA 44x Formula 750/BEARS
2010 AHRMA Sportsman of the Year
www.bonnevillevintagegp.com
tomkullen@bonnevillevintagegp.com
435.649.7169-home/studio
801.557.4255-cell
tom@smithsgaugesusa.com
www.smithsgaugesusa.com
 
Good luck boys.

You boys are killing me though... I SO want to ride at Bonneville one day ... !!
 
Next year I decided Norton will be the featured marque for the Motor Cycle Classics Magazine Bike show at the Bonneville Vintage GP to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Norton was the featured marque during our inaugural event. So you can come out and do the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials on the salt the week before and when it ends Thursday you drive 90 miles east (I-80 has an 80 mph speed limit) to Miller Motorsports Park for a weekend of road racing and bike shows. One of the most unique motorcycle weeks on the planet and you can only do it here in Utah! :D So plan your trip now...you have a year! If anyone wants to ship their bikes overseas...we can help with getting your bike from the freight depot and storage.

Cheers,

Tom Kullen
Event Coordinator
Bonneville Vintage GP
AHRMA 44x Formula 750/BEARS
2010 AHRMA Sportsman of the Year
http://www.bonnevillevintagegp.com
tomkullen@bonnevillevintagegp.com
435.649.7169-home/studio
801.557.4255-cell
tom@smithsgaugesusa.com
http://www.smithsgaugesusa.com
 
Arrived yesterday and registered. Got the Norton through tech, and hope to get a run or two today. Salt condition in the pits is pretty sticky. We'll see how it goes today. Might wait another day to run if course doesn't look good enough. Saw one stock production class Commando going through tech today.

Ken
 
Lcrken and Comnoz on the salt.

Norton Ready for Bonneville Speed Trials


And a shot of our pit setup.

Norton Ready for Bonneville Speed Trials


Didn't get to run today due to problems with the event fuel supplier. Finally got race gas late today, so should be running in the morning.

Ken
 
Paul Bilton-Smith arrived yesterday with his very trick 500 cc Norton twin racer, started by his late dad, Sir Eddy, and finished by Paul and friends as a tribute to his dad. They've been having the usual first time, new bike challenges, but Jim Comstock will be giving them a hand with tuning today, and I expect them to get some good runs in before the meet is over, weather willing. We do get thunderstorms here pretty regularly this time of year. In any case, the bike is gorgeous. I didn't get any pictures of it on the salt, but Paul posted some great pictures here on the forum recently.

Ken
 
I sure am glad the sun came out to dry the salt!

Hope everyone stays together and safe.
 
I'm having to miss this wonderful Nortoneers event as only got 250 m from home when '96 Olds radiator blew out on turnpike spiking engine heat before I could pull over so lost engine d/t cracked head. Ken was gonna deliver Peel's 7+ yr in shop engine and meet my late brother Dale's son for 1st time with photo's of daddy he never meet either while mystifying the gearheads with a vapor powered mini bike. At least had SV650 to get home same night. Plans of mice and men, all the same to me.
 
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