OK, I've finally gotten around to getting the few pictures I took at the Bub Speedtrails event at the Bonneville Salt Flats. There's not nearly as many pictures as I intended to take. Either of the trip out, or of the event. On the trip out, I just didn't feel like stopping to take pictures, and at the event, to be honest, there was just not that much all that interesting to take pictures of. At least not as far as snap shots go. I mean, if I had wanted to get all artsy and set up "interesting" pictures, that would have been one thing. But it was too darn hot to want to do that. Anyway, below are a few of the more interesting things to look at.
Here's Tron (That's what I'm starting to call my 1983 R65LS) sitting in the middle of no-where on HWY50. While something like a brand new K1200S would have made this trip faster, maxing out at like 90MPH makes you look around a little more.
Another view of the above scene... I'm not sure why I always end up taking lonely looking pictures like this. Maybe because that's kind of why I like to ride... To get out and experience fairly wide open spaces with no one else around...
Obligatory shot of Tron next to the official Bonneville sign. Keep in mind that to actually get to the event, it's about 5 miles on the salt. The salt is not nearly as smooth as it looks in pictures. Riding out to the event after the pavement ended it was like riding on the moon. Craters, pot-holes, etc. everywhere. My Krauser bags were still on the bike, and as I had yet to stop at the hotel, were still full of my stuff. I thought for sure that they were going to bounce right off the mounts. Or perhaps my entire bike was going to just rattle itself to death and fall apart. Thankfully nothing happened more severe than my Pringles getting turned into dust...
Here's a panorama shot of the entrance. Yes, the seam joins are crap because I was too lazy to get my tripod out, so it was handheld. Still gives a little idea of the kind of expanse it is out there even before you get to the salt.
Here's an artsy-fartsy color version of the above image.
Here's Tron parked next to BMW corporate's expansive hospitality booth. If you squint really hard you can see it. It's the white one that you can hardly tell is actually even a BMW tent.
The above two shots are of the Confederate Motorcycles Wraith. Definitely one of the coolest looking bikes I saw out there.
A couple of speedy scooters...
This was, in my opinion, one of the coolest, baddest looking bikes out there. It's from Krugger Motorcycles.
No idea who's, or what, this bike is, but I thought it just looked pretty cool.
The above are a few shots of TheCrucible.org's bio-diesel powered BMW. Not quite a BMW motorcycle as it actually has a 2L diesel engine from a car and the rear-end of a BMW motorcycle.
Pretty sweet looking Vincent...
An even faster and wilder looking Vincent!
No idea...
San Jose BMW's insanly fast airhead R100.
Like, stupidly, "how in the hell did they do that" fast...
A few shots of the folks from MaxRPM and MaxMoto working on Andy Sills's K1200S. Sadly the engine was just not up to the task and died an early death on the salt. Hopefully next year BMW will throw some genuine support Andy's way and give him a bike he can set a record with (or at least have complete and tested before the actual event...).
Well, that's all for now. Come back in a week or so and I hope to have some pics of our Fall open house. Or at least a bunch of the umbrella girls... :)
Labels: Bonneville, Motorcycles, R65LS, Rides
I'm obviously back from Bonneville, and just as obviously I have yet to get my pictures off my camera or to write about my experience. I've been on the road pretty much the whole month, most recently returning from Las Vegas where the Shop.Org Annual Summit was taking place (all the better to learn me something new to make our website more better).
While I was gone, this cool little bit popped up in my Google Alert for "BMW Motorcycles" about the folks at The Crucible and their astounding bio-fueled Die Moto.
I saw this thing in person, and the pictures on their site do not do this thing justice.
Check out the cool Die Moto page on The Crucible site to learn more!
Labels: BioFuel, BMW, Bonneville, Motorcycles
My first post on my brand spanking new blog is about my pending ride across NV to attend the BUB Speed Trials in Wendover NV. BMW is throwing down some cash on some pretty cool events there, mainly because Andy Sills (Mr. High Speed BMW) is going to be running a pretty intense turbo-charged, chain-driven K1200S to attempt to set yet another record.
If you ride a BMW, get signed up on BMW's XPLORE site for more cool stuff!
This will be the first long ride on my R65LS. I've done a few weekend rides of around 200-250 miles, but this is going to be the long one. Just got my valves done to make sure they can handle the NV heat. Turns out the exhaust valves had almost no clearance, so it was a damn good thing I had them done (as opposed to melting down on the side of the road in NV and getting to meet some buzzards up close and personal!).
I'm taking my sweet time to get there so I can hopefully get some good/interesting pictures out there in the desert. Check back in a week and see if 1) I made it there and back again, and 2) I actually stopped to take any pictures.
I'm sure I'm going to come away wanting to move to the desert. Every time I go to the desert I want to move there. Even though I hate the heat... Go figure. I'm complicated like that.
I also just bought a new pair of BMW's Airflow II Boots. My feet will thank me I'm sure. Airflow II's are like armored flip-flops! :)
Labels: BMW, Bonneville, R65LS, Rides