Airstrip Tests, Second Go

We loaded our bikes up early this morning and headed back to the airstrip for some more test runs just days before we hit the road to Bonneville. It was a perfect morning weather-wise for it, we unloaded the bikes and set up to run. I started my bike and did a first run as a baseline for some fine tuning, and it went pretty well, just a little break-up in my mid-range, but the bike handled great and no issues.
I got back and started to make adjustments while Tyler fired his bike up...slight problem, it was kicking back pretty bad. He realized that in doing some work on his bike yesterday the timing probably got thrown off and since we didn't have the proper tools or time this morning he wouldn't get to run. A pretty big bummer for him but better here than the first day on the Salt.



I got to run my bike a half a dozen more times in between the planes taking off and landing before we had to clear out. Back to the shop, get some work done then any last minute adjustments on our bikes before they go into the trailer. Tomorrow we will load the trailer up and then off to Utah! Cheers, Kyle

Loaded and Ready For The Test Run

About to leave for the airstrip for our final test runs before we leave for the Salt on Wednesday

Tyler

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Finishing Up The Final Touches

Test run in the morning, final work getting completed. Chronometric tach is in place with new bracket. Can't wait to run this again in the morning with the fairing and my leathers

Tyler

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Loading Up, 3 days 'till we go!

3 days until we hit the road for Bonneville Speed Week! We are excited as hell to hit the road and are knocking out the million details beforehand. We just finished up our race trailer, checking the AC unit (hey Utah is hot!) new tires, pack the wheel bearings, and of course letter it up. So if you're making it out to the flats, keep an eye out for us!
We get a few more hours on Monday for some more test runs at the local airstrip then load the bikes up until we get to wheel them out onto the salt for the first time! Make sure to keep checking back, we will be doing daily updates once we hit the road and uploading video to our YouTube page of all the cool stuff we get to see and do! Cheers, Kyle

The Salt Raper In Full Dress

The Salt Raper is in full dress now, complete with fairing. I am going to be running it both partially streamlined, as pictured, and without the fairing, or naked. The Salt Raper isn't really my bike's name, I am not really much of a bike-namer, but who doesn't like a comical reference to rape. Right...? Anyway..



I will be test running this Monday morning at the airport again, this time with the fairing, so it should be fun and interesting!

Tyler

More Pictures From Yesterdays Airstrip Test Runs

I sorted through more pictures from our Airstrip test runs yesterday, some really cool pics came out of this. We had some video too but unfortunately a bunch was real shaky and with the position you couldn't make a lot of it out. A huge thanks again to the staff who let us do these runs, it saved us at least a day of dealing with gremlins on the salt.
Both the bikes fired right up with no issues and ran great, a couple small oil leaks but they have already been fixed. Anyway what British bike doesn't leak a little?

My first run went fairly smooth but found I had some linkage issues and also had to adjust the position of my rearsets as when I upshifted it ground the tip of my boot off! I have a reversed shift pattern, right hand shift, first gear up, 3 gears down. Have to make sure to remember that one come raceday!

Other than the few small issues and some normal tuning the runs just got better but we still kept them around 4000rpm, letting the rings seat and breaking the new motors in. I arranged a few more hours of track time Monday morning so we should be able to just go and run them again, this time a little more aggressively and really get a feel for the bikes. Just 6 more days until we hit the road for Bonneville!

Video of My First Triumph Test Runs This Morning

Just uploaded a couple quick clips of me taking off and returning from our test run session this morning. No good footage from down the strip further at higher speed, we are planning another set of test runs for Monday morning so I will try and get some better video then.

Tyler

First Test Runs On OurTriumph Race Bikes

Here is my version of the story, Kyle will likely tell his own as well. We just got back from testing our bikes at a local county airport just miles from our shop. Kyle went over there and talked to the manager, and he said they weren't allowed to let us do anything like that there. But come back Wednesday at 8am and he would shut down a runway and let us go at it for a couple hours, he wanted to see us run! The runway is about .7 miles, smooth blacktop, slightly uphill. Foggy morning, perfect as there wasn't any air traffic to speak of. I was breathing hard by the time we we ready to fire them up, adrenaline pumping and nervous energy.


My leathers aren't in yet (this Friday!) so I just wore some pants, Kyle's street jacket and my Bates drag racing boots and a pair of Vanson gloves. Bike fired up easily, checked for oil return, made sure my fuel shutoff and kill switch worked, and ready for a run.



Shifted great, I wanted to rev it up but was shifting probably around 4 or 5000 RPMs (my tach isn't on the bike yet, not enough time before this test), I could just feel it wanting to pull like mad when I would let off and shift due to the fresh motor. The power band with these cams is at high revs, I am hoping to be shifting at 7000 RPMs minimum when racing. The brakes suck, that is for sure, I stopped about 20 feet shy of the end of the runway. At Bonneville this won't be an issue though. It is amazing that just sitting on my bike in the shop made my nuts hurt like crazy but with the adrenaline I didn't feel anything til we got back to the shop, and I don't know if my stomachache is from hunger, excitement or mashed testicles.

On my second run up it started faltering just as I was starting to slow down, and upon stopping I realized my petcock was off. I have a bar mounted, spring loaded fuel shut off, and it was mounted to close to the grip and I think I shut the fuel off when starting it or while riding, that has to be moved and the cable adjusted. The trip back down I did the same thing and drained the float bowls half way down the runway. I was kicking it and the right clip-on handlebar was a bit loose and was moving, and I was too tired to know if I was starved or flooding it, so I walked it back down to get my breath and calm down.



I have a couple small oil leaks to fix, and for sure adjust and move my fuel shut off lever. The beauty of this whole thing was two hours of local testing saved us frustration and probably a full day at the Salt Flats waiting for runs just to work this stuff out. The manager and staff at the air field couldn't have been nicer and more accommodating. Kyle has some more good photos and his experience to tell, stay tuned.

Tyler

New Sponsors Are Down with the Lowbrow Holeshot

We asked for support from some other people in the motorcycle community to help make the Lowbrow Holeshot a free event. People have started coming forward, and we would like to thank the following companies for helping out.




Click on their logos above to visit their websites if you already don't have them bookmarked. We here at Lowbrow are really stoked to have Fab Kevin, Greasy Kulture Magazine and Sideburn Magazine as sponsors, thanks guys!

Tyler

Bonneville Speed Week

I got this cool old water transfer in my package of cables that I got back from Flanders Cables the other day. They shortened some throttle cables for me and clutch cables for Kyle, for our race bikes. Pretty cool 1968 Bonneville National Speed Trials transfer, seems like so long ago thinking this is 2010, same event.

Tyler