First man over 300 on a bike. new world record set here in Maine

[Guest]

This was at Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine.


I had planned on heading up there Sunday to see this happen (it was this past weekend) but everyone bailed on me. I didn't want to make the 3 1/2 hour drive alone and stand out there in the heat so I decided to not go. What a shame. I know the video seems like you can't see much, but you really do get to stand there with them at the starting line and it's a good spot to watch. There is a hill in between the runways that you can sit on and watch and it's about half way down the part you accelerate. It's fairly fast paced and a blast. I suggest anyone into racing and in New England to come up to it next year.

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/17/sports/warner-sets-world-speed-record-at-loring/

[whereiwannabe]

All I can say is "WOW"!

[7981GS]

Wholly ****!

He is certifiably crazy!

Daniel

[chuck hahn]

Just over 130 on the Cooley was plenty for me..

[steve murdoch]

...and a couple months later in Texas...ouch!
Amazing how must the speed climbs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2j68kptHqU

[sedelen]

He did say in the first post trying to stop the thing was a little scary, as it was hopping, skipping, sliding. Looks to me like when he went from concrete to asphalt (and that was rough asphalt too) the bike just slid out from under him, tires were probably hard as rocks for those speeds. Luckily he was only doing 100.
Wonder if he'll do it again? He needs to find a much smoother surface next time.

I'm with Chuck, 130mph is more than fast enough for me. Only been up that high once, on a Skunk, and the bike gets very "light" at that speed.

[chuck hahn]

Something happened right at around 200 MPH. The bike seemed to lurch a bit and he began to shut it down.

[trippivot]

300 plus mph is a gass

Chris Carr did over 350mph in Utah with a special built 3000cc V-4 bike years ago. I have a signed poster from the guys. -- oops that was in a enclosed cycle.

Still, this event is very impressive and mostly suicidal. Not a simple task getting to that velocity

This record is in a specific class APS/BF-1350 /4 streamlined special construct where the rider has to be outside. he could have run multi engines according to the rules

incredible!

[Normk]

Truly impressive as is the engineering needed to even begin to understand the conditions in effect. Perhaps someone has some more detailed insight but one issue is that the drag increases to much at higher speeds that the bike's ability to develop sufficient traction to effect the drive is insufficient.

Can anyone less lazy than I (Wow, that takes in a lot of territory!) run up some estimates for how much power is required to drive an open bike to 300+ mph? How can they develop that much traction? Obviously they do....so wonder what is the limitation?

[850 Combat]

I would like to ride up to Loring and see one of the events some time. There are autocrosses there too, obviously not on the same weekends as record runs.

[Flyboy]

Norm, you are dead right in what you say, ultimate top speed is not a function of horsepower, but one of drag, I am also too lazy to crunch the numbers now and its 3:30am so not fully in thinking mode, but basically the drag goes up by the square of the speed.
Hense the fact that even a 550cc can run to 100mph but to go only 30mph faster to 130mph, you need something like a big 1000cc or 1100cc. One would assume, twice the power would give you trice the speed, but we know that is not the case at all.
Eventually you would get to a point where the drag is so great that it would be akin to putting your front tyre against a wall and doing a burnout, no more speed would be possible from a wheel driven machine.

Here is simple drag graph of an aircraft, but it is all the same, for the motorcycle we can ignore the induced drag and total drag curves, as they don't apply, what we want to concentrate on is the green line, the form drag, see how steeply it climbs with an increase in speed.

[Normk]

It's good to know that the aerodynamic principles also apply south of the equator.

It's difficult to shift those stubborn laws of physics although some people seem able to do so according to the outrageous claims I hear from time to time.

The difference between indicated speed and real speed is another matter so these speed records are even more impressive. Bonneville Salt Flats runs have big issues, or so am told by acquaintences who have run there, with traction as wheel spin often limits vehicle speed.

It shouldn't be difficult to accept that this is the case if one has noticed the difference in rear tire life when riding at normal highway speeds as compared to averaging 20 mph faster. One can almost see the rear tire decreasing when a Wing is running really fast as the power required really challenges the contact patch.

Still hoping to see some numbers, just for interest.....

[Big Jay]

Bills speed is the fastest for a sit on motorcycle

For the enclosed streamliners, it is Rocky Robinson in the Ack Attack, which set a record of over 370 mph at Bonneville, with an exit speed of 394 mph.

[SqDancerLynn1]

I have been 120 mph on my 850 that's more than enough for me

[850 Combat]

Jim Ludiker is a 1000G owner. I was helping him fix it up a little last summer. He has a record of 166 mph from 1985 which still stands. It was on a Honda 350 four, blown on alchohol using fuel injection adapted from an offenhauser indy engine, I think. He's got a couple Z1R-TC's in his kitchen. He also removes bee hives as a hobby business, and drag raced electric cars.