Special Delivery!

Katy brought a box up to the office today and I opened it up and surprise! My Bonneville Speed Week trophy! We actually didn't even know until 6 months ago they gave trophies out still, and when I opened the box I was surprised to see how big it was. All I can say is this is Awesome!Also, I think it is great I got mine before Tyler, his were being sent to his home address, so he is chomping at the bit to head home and see if his have shown up! Hah! Seriously though this is such an inspiration for next year, only 9 months to go!

Bonneville Short Film Teaser!

Lowbrow Customs Bonneville Salt Flats 2011 Trailer from Jon on Vimeo.

Our friend Jon Glover came out to Bonneville Speed Week 2011 with us this past August and took thousands of great photos as well as filming throughout the week. He told us he was going to put together some cool clips, but then sent us this, A teaser for a short film he is putting together on our 2011 race experience! It looks amazing Thanks Jon, we can't wait to see it!

Cycle Source: Salt Flats Edition

We just got a copy of the November issue of Cycle Source in, featuring all of their Bonneville coverage and were happy to see BUB covered, as well as a few other people we know or met out there during Speed Week.
They also published a feature on us with photos by Jon Glover, check it out on news stands soon!

Bonneville Speed Week 2011 Photos

The Ohio Flag - Not Puerto Rico as some think.

A big thanks goes out to Jon Glover of Salt Lake City, our Lowbrow race team photographer and an all around good guy. I just got in some photos from him from our endeavors at Speed Week 2011, and uploaded some of my favorites to a Flickr album here.

Dang, my bike looks mall in this picture.

Kyle ringing it's neck.

Lanesplitter.

You meet the nicest Australians at Bonneville.

Nice.


Had to throw another shot of Kyle & his bike in. For some reason I am partial to that green bike, guess Kyle should have done this blog post if he wanted more photo-action! ha.

Front Page News in Medina, Ohio

Our local paper, The Medina Gazette, featuring the highest distribution rate in the United States just behind the New York Times, featured some dapper gentlemen racing their motorbikes on the cover of today's issue. OK well maybe the Gazette isn't quite that big, but we were pretty stoked on them covering our Salt Flats endeavors thanks to Greg's call to them with a tip on the story and even putting it as front page news. Maybe I will get recognized when I go to Chipotle for lunch, hope hope. Thanks go out to Jon Glover of SLC for the photos!

Bonneville Speed Week 2011 Wrap-Up

We want to extend a heartfelt THANKS to everyone who helped make our race endeavors at Bonneville Speed Week 2011 a reality. To everyone who bought a support t-shirt from us or one of our land speed racing compatriots, to Wes at Four Aces for his help and guidance, Vanson for the custom-made leathers, Biltwell, Inc. for their continued support as friends and business associates, Jon Glover for being there to capture the week on film (tons of photos and video coming soon!), and we absolutely couldn't have done it without our crew, who dealt with high stress levels, long days, and verbal abuse, all for the love of being there. Denny our dad and crew chief, Greg who seems to be able to thrive on work without need for food or rest, Jon Glover our team photographer for the 2nd year running, with his ninja like abilities to capture all on film without being seen, and Ava for her help and majestic cleaning abilities (which works out well since she also spilled 672 drinks during the course oft he trip, including 492 cups of coffee in the RV).


Kyle and I both set the goals we set out to achieve. Kyle's 'happy speed' was to break 110 mph this year. He did it his first run and went on to break the APS-PG 650 c.c. world record, upping it over 117 mph. I set the record I bent a valve pursing last year and also knocked another one out of the book. The 750 c.c. APS-VG record was set by an Indian motorcycle in 1995 at 105 mph and change, though I have now upped it to about 117 mph. The A-VG (no fairing) record was open, and I set that at a similar 117 mph speed, with a top recorded speed of 120.9 mph.


Between the two of us we did 7 world record runs, with records being broken Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Not bad, this is going to be tough to beat next year! We will be posting more photos and video as Jon gets them over to us. All the photos in this post are by Ava Larkin, thanks Ava!

1955 Triumph Salt Flat Racer Dyno Run

Myself, Todd, and our friend Greg made it over to Northern Ohio Ducati and Triumph today to give my 1955 Triumph pre unit land speed motorcycle a go on the dyno. Stan was the man at the helm and due to his personal passion of vintage motorcycle GP racing and vintage bikes in general, he was likely the best suited dyno operator I was going to find to do some pulls on my bike. Check out the video above of a couple of pulls, your motorcycle sounds much louder in a small room when it isn't going anywhere, yikes!


I learned quite a bit from the few hours spent this morning, and have a follow up booked for this weekend to try and glean the last bit of horsepower I can from my Triumph before leaving for Bonneville Speed Week next Thursday!

2nd Annual Salt Flat Social - Salt Lake City, August 12th, 2011

Andy at Pangea Speed puts on the Salt Flat Social, and the 2nd annual one is coming up quick, this August 12th, 2011 in Salt Lake City. Check out the Salt Flat Social blog for details. The Lowbrow crew will be there, we are going to stop on our way to Bonneville Speed Week as we drive right through Salt Lake City, and will be spending the night and finishing the trek to the flats early the next morning. Make it out and have a good time!

The Final Countdown!

No I am not talking about the power ballad/metal (?) classic, I mean 12 days until we hit the road to Bonneville Speed Week! Tyler and I have both been scrambling between shows, work, prepping the bikes, and the other 1000 things going on but today I am feeling pretty good.
My friend Tom from TNT Custom Paint dropped by with his big ol' paint chest and laid out some racing numbers on my fairing. How can hand painted race numbers with double pinstriped borders not look great on a vintage race bike!?!
This weekend we have the Salt Ghost World Premier out in Orange Ca, which I sure will really get us worked up into what one woman described to us a few years ago as a "Salt-Gasm"! Come out, have a drink and watch with us if you are in the area! Check out the event page on Facebook HERE

Show 'N' Go......

That sums it up. I made it pretty but it's built for a purpose....to go fast! I know chrome don't get ya home, but I never heard anything about polished aluminum! Seriously though, everything on this bike is there (or not there) for a purpose but there is nothing wrong with making it look good!
I finished 90% of the assembly today and mounted the polished aluminum fairing with the windscreen for the first time and I am pretty happy with the results.
Still some final adjustments to make but it is custom made to displace the wind so it moves around me. I am not a huge fan of fairings honestly, but I needed one for the class I am running and it can make a big difference aerodynamically. My goal was make a fairing cool enough that I would like it, and a polished aluminum fairing works for me. This should be a huge improvement over last year!

Gonzo.

30 Days until Speed Week....

All my major fabrication work is done and I am starting reassembly! I finished rebuilding my rocker boxes and torquing down my top end today, and started putting it all back together. I bolted up my new David Bird hardtail section with a couple additional inches of stretch which should really help my riding position.
I also started bolting up all the shiny bits: rebuilt hand polished Amal carbs and port matched carb spacers as well as my oil tank. I welded an additional bung to the top of the tank to help with side to side vibration issues I ran into last year, as well as had it fully polished. I can't wait to get the rest of this together and see how it turns out! And yes I know it looks pretty, but it is built for one thing....Speed!

Sneak Peek of my Fairing!

Tyler is not the only one who has Salt on the brain, I have been laboring away for weeks rebuilding my bike to be ready for Speed Week 2011. I haven't shown any progress on my all aluminum fairing as I wanted to make sure it would work first!
Today I finished the fairing supports and got it mocked up for the first time. I have more time on the English wheel ahead and a bunch of timing but this fairing will do its job and direct the wind around my upper body and arms and hopefully give me the streamlining I need to get my record this year! (And how cool will a fully polished aluminum fairing look?)

July 1st: Full Race Mode Begins Now

July 1st. That means Bonneville SpeedWeek is next month, which means I am getting my ass in gear and getting my bike dialed in for racing. Above is a video of a run I did on a vintage 650 c.c. Triumph motorcycle last year. I cannot wait!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to everyone! I spent the day with my family but Friday and Saturday I was busy in the shop working away on my Bonneville bike. I got the oil tank repaired and re-mounted, finished my new control linkages and made a new chain guard to pass tech inspection. I am getting through things pretty fast although I still have to finish my fairing which is the big project.Less than 2 months until we leave for Bonneville, I am sure I will be ready but it is closing fast! If you want to help support Tyler and my race efforts you can but a Lowbrow Customs Bonneville 2011 support t-shirt HERE!



The Smokeout and Born Free 3 are this week, and The Salt Ghost World Premier and Mid-Ohio are coming up in July as well.

Check out my Triumph LSR re-build on Chop Cult!

I am continuing to work daily on my race bike to get it ready for Bonneville Speed Week 2011, and as stoked as I am about it I don't want to clutter up our blog with updates every day so I started a build (or re-build) thread on Chop Cult, you can check it out HERE if you are interested in following it! If you haven't checked out Chop Cult make sure you do, it is a pretty cool forum for choppers and bikes in general run by our friends at Biltwell Inc.

1967 Triumph Bonneville Salt Flats Racer Redux

Just last week I brought my race bike over to the new shop. Pretty late in the game (less than 3 months to Bonneville) I know, but between the holidays, our big move, the EDR and other big changes and projects in the work (Just wait!!!) I just didn't have time to get working on it. The great thing that came out of that break was a real excitement to get to work and a LIST of ideas for this season. I didn't hesitate once I got it on the lift to start stripping off the old hard tail, oil tank, primary cover, fender etc.

Some thing in store......a new 6" over David Bird hard tail for a little more room, re-worked rearsets (back by the axle) a new design oil tank, a full aluminum rear fender, a rad polished flat track primary cover (this is taking some work with the racing belt drive, but it is way too cool not to use!), a new exhaust, and a partial fairing. That is probably leaving off about 20 more changes as well as re-working all the little things I ran out of time for last year since I built this in less than 4 months! Stay tuned for some updates...
80 Days and Counting until 2011 Bonneville Speed Week!

Bonneville Land Speed Racing Support Shirts 2011

Well we are several months behind schedule getting these done and out, but we now have Lowbrow Customs and Four Aces Cycle Bonneville Speed Week 2011 Support Shirts available! There is a black as well as a natural color Lowbrow Land Speed Racing t-shirt available.



As well as a black or a white Four Aces Land Speed Racing shirt! All money from sales of t-shirts goes to support our joint land speed race efforts, and perhaps a small amount of debauchery and hell-raising.