Norton speed record at Bonneville

Norton is presently tied on the Bonneville land speed record for non-streamlined 1000cc pushrod fuel with my old race buddy Fred Eiker in the saddle and tech guru Jim Mosher at the wrenches. Last year he tied the record within one thousands of a second at around 155 mph which makes it the fastest unstreamlined Nort at Bonneville so far. Its a Seeley frame and last year used an 870cc motor on nitrous. Fred said that the vibration was too severe so this year they're running JS lightweight pistons punched out to 920 cc and is also looking for a little more HP by replacing last years PW3 cam with a JS stage 2 cam & lightweight lifters. Jim Mosher has profiled the piston domes for high compression and has carefully timed the cam. The motor has a very rare RH7 factory racing head as used on the dirt trackers. These heads have different intake valve angles that allow bigger valves and various cams without valve clash problems. It also has a bathtub combustion chamber, solid steel crank, 35mm Keihin flatslide carbs etc etc.

Freds bike below:



The Harley below that Fred and Jim are in competition with and hope to beat this August at Bonneville speed week:



Fred (dark jacket) being teched:



Note the custom 2-1 exhaust fabricated by Jim Mosher and the lowered suspension (no rear shocks).

Freds bike will be tuned to the max and keeping it together is always the question at Bonneville so give him your support however you can.

Now that's a rear set! Good luck.

Dave
69S

Wow, if the HD were any lower the rear wheel would be an optional accessory :mrgreen:

Good luck to 'em both- make the photos b&w and it could be 1968!

Interesting so see a bike from a factory that died 30 years ago still cutting the mustard against one that is still going strong. Testament to some very hard working and enthusiastic gentlemen. Huzzah!

Unapproachable!

crusadersports said:

Interesting so see a bike from a factory that died 30 years ago still cutting the mustard against one that is still going strong. Testament to some very hard working and enthusiastic gentlemen. Huzzah!

Click to expand...

Are you talking about Norton or Harley cuz both are still going, mostly. :mrgreen:

Ok Swooshy, very funny- yellow is brighter :mrgreen:

I'm sure Mr Hopwood would agree, and for that matter Messers Hardly and Ableson

Very cool.

...almost as fast as hobot!

Can't touch LAB,

Think he's converted to OHC :mrgreen:

Fantastic team effort to root for the Norton image. The moral dilemma is which brand is still being truer to its history to stretch their envelope. That HD tail section is a very effective drag reducer so how do they get away with that?

What rpm level is this unCommando special reaching? What size tire/rims?
What fuel? Hope it all comes together and stays good to wow us all some more.

hobot said:

Fantastic team effort to root for the Norton image. The moral dilemma is which brand is still being truer to its history to stretch their envelope. That HD tail section is a very effective drag reducer so how do they get away with that?

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The same way they won all their other races, cheating. :mrgreen:

The way these bikes are in the pictures they dont run in the same class, One is running fuel class the other in gas class.

Hortons Norton said:

The way these bikes are in the pictures they dont run in the same class, One is running fuel class the other in gas class.

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Either bike could have run either fuel or gas - they may run more than one class with different plates. Those photos are all I have. I don't know all the details.

Freds Norton pulled strongest at 7100 RPM last year. Who knows this year.

And rules have gotten tighter on streamlining.

Ok 7100 last peak out. HD also cheating with the flattened fork sliders ugh.

Thanks for the imfo Jim, all the best to all involved.
AC.
I give the new Avatar, A thumbs up, Swoosh.

I can add a few more details on Fred's bike. It was originally Martin Adam's Commonwealth Racing bike, shown here In Daytona trim back in '87. The frame was a Seeley replica by the late John Caffrey, built to order for Martin. The fairing is a John Player upper and two TZ250 lowers grafted together. Front forks were 35 mm Marzocchi with magnesium sliders, and rear shocks were from Works Performance. It had Performance Machine four-pot calipers and 18" Astralite wheels. The engine used a one-piece Nourish crankshaft, Crower titanium rods, and 79 mm Omega pistons for 872 cc. As Jim said, it has a short stroke 750 (RH7) head. The head was modified by one of the ex-factory tuners (Jim Messler, I think) to a bathtub combustion chamber with even larger valves (titanium). Cam was Axtell. It ran a very neat crank-triggered (Hall effect sensor) Lucas ignition system. The gearbox was a Quaife 5-speed, with belt primary drive from Norman White. Jim Mosher, Fred's engine guru, has made some changes to the engine, including replacing the AMAL carbs with modern flat slides, and some changes to the exhaust system. He's probably made some other changes as well, but I don't know all the details. As Jim said, they are upping it to 920 cc for this year. Should be interesting to see how much faster it is. Fred is determined to set a record this year, not just tie one.



Martin loaned the bike to a friend of mine to race at Laguna Seca, but the engine fragged itself in the race. I offered to rebuild the engine for Martin for the cost of parts (I wanted to see the inside) and haul it back East for the 1987 Daytona race, which turned out to be its last one. In return, Martin offered to sell it to me for a bargain price some years later (1992, I think). It had been stored in his brother's barn since 1987, and was a bit scruffy. I bought it from him, cleaned it up and went through the enging again, and eventually sold it to Fred in 2002. In 2008 Fred took it to Bonneville, and got hooked on landspeed racing. He's made a lot of changes to the bike for Bonneville, but all are reversable, so he can restore it back to original later, if he so chooses.

The first year he ran the bike in the gas class, with a best speed in the low 130s. It was pretty much original except for removing the fairing and changing the seat. This is a picture of it on the salt in2008.




In 2009 he added a nitrous kit, switched to the fuel class, and got in the 140s. That's also when he made some chassis changes, including a small custom gas tank, 17" wheels from a 125 racer (Honda RS or Yamaha TZ, I've forgotten which), and custom foot controls. In 2010 they bumped up the nitrous dose, and ran the 155.722 mph time.

Ken

For the Brits among us,

What IS the difference between fuel and gas?

Gas is petrol, right? Here gas is used for central heating and powering the, er gas hob on the cooker. Fuel is a generic word for anything that makes an engine run, including coal! Steam powered sprint bike anyone? :mrgreen:

I'm guessing 'fuel' means alcohol, av'gas', etc?

Gas is standard octane range pump gas, fuel is Nitromethane, alcohol, and other exotic blends.

Thanks GP,

Thought it was something along those lines. Two cultures divided by a common language :mrgreen:

Note that the mile high altitude at Bonneville robs power and slows you down about 10mph.

And the lower air resistance at a mile high means you effectively gain about 10 mph... ?

At ~18,000 ft altitude, air resistance is about half that at sea level.

Bikes running In the "Gas" classes at Bonneville have to use one of the approved "EVENT GASOLINE" grades sold by the official event provider. Fortunately, the available grades include high octane racing gas.

This is a shot of us at the fuel station in 2001.



When you add gas to the tank, they seal the filler cap. If you run anything besides the event gas, or if you don't seal the filler cap, you have to run in the "Fuel" class. It's not unusual to set a record in a gas class, then remove the seal and try to set one in the fuel class, even though you are still using the same gas. We did that our first year at Bonneville, and set records in both classes. To be fair, two of the records we set were in classes with no existing record, and the third was against a pretty low number set by a Triumph. Generally speaking, setting a record in fuel class with a serious existing record requires serious fuel, usually a methanol/nitro blend or nitrous oxide.

At other venues, like El Mirage Dry Lake, you bring your own gas, but it has to meet SCTA specifications for dielectric constant, specific gravity, etc., and they can test it as part of the teardown required if you set a record. In the fuel class, any approved liquid fuel can be used, including alcohols and esters, nitromethane, nitrous oxide, hydrogen, and unapproved gasolines. I'm not sure what other fuels are approved, but I'm pretty sure hydrazine is not allowed.

Ken