This report captures Bartels' trip to the Bonneville World Finals in Oct of 2004. Dave Rivera is the top engine builder at Bartels' H-D with over 15 years of experience in the Bartels' service department. My name is Keith Kardell and I am the rider and we are the Bonneville race team at Bartels' H-D.

Besides testing at El Mirage, dyno runs are a key tool in the development of a race engine. Success in this sport comes from hitting the right combination and altitudes plays a big factor. El Mirage is at 3,200 feet, Bonneville is at 4,100 feet and Marina Del Ray is near sea level. Having expertise in landspeed racing means being able to compensate and gear correctly for the various race conditions.

I live in South Carolina now (my job transferred me there from Southern California in 2000) so this is a jaunt for me. I first fly 2000 miles across the country and jump into a truck with Dave and we drive for 16 hours to Wendover, a small town bordering Nevada and Utah . I couldn't get over all the tools and spare parts Dave packed on this trip. His comment was “If we don't have it, then were going to need it!” The trip to Bonneville takes you through some very beautiful but desolate country. When you arrive at Wendover, you are welcomed with a sprawling casino town which makes for great accommodations.

This year at the entrance to the Bonneville Salt Flats there were several trucks and tents and a lot of activity. We learned that they were filming a move “The World's Fastest Indian” about an individual named Burt Muroe (staring Anthony Hopkins) who set a Bonneville record at just over 200mph riding an Indian streamliner in 1962. The movie will be out in a year.

Tech is the day before racing begins and we breezed through it with no issues. We have done this enough times before that we knew everyone in Tech and we know what they expected. There will be four days of racing. With landspeed racing, there are few schedules. You simply go get in line and when you make it to the front of the line, you make a pass.

On the morning of October 13 th it was windy and cold (45 degrees) but it was dry. Rain is a big concern at Bonneville because the salt flats are the catch basis for the mountains in the area and rain water can sit on top of the salt for days. The drivers meeting kicked off at 8:00am.

Before the first pass, Dave had to add fuel so he carefully measured a new batch of 20% nitro. The hydrometer is calibrated for 66 degrees and the thermometer at the bottom of the hydrometer showed an adjustment of -4 due to the cold temperature. Our plan was to incrementally add more nitro and carefully tune the engine at each level. Working with nitro you must be careful not to let the engine run lean or major engine damage can occur.

Dave does the starting duties as he has had more experience starting the bike while doing dyno testing. The large displacement, high compression and cold morning air does not make for easy starting conditions but soon we were building up heat in the engine. We use two deadman tether lines; one clipped to my right wrist pulls the handlebar fuel shut off and the one clipped to my left wrist pulls an ignition kill switch should I have an unexpected ejection from the bike. After the bike is started Dave connects each of the tether lines. Bill Taylor watches closely the process and has me tilt my head back so he can insure the helmet strap is pulled snug. Dave pushes down my visor and gives it one final wipe to insure it is clean.

The bike sounded good as it pushed away from the line. Riding a street bike all year long and then climbing on the race bike the first thing that hits you is the sound of the exhaust and then the vibration felt through the handlebars. It's like a wake up call; this is not a dream; this is the real thing. I count gears revving it up to 6,200+ for each shift as Dave had suggested. With each gear I crunch down into a tighter tuck.

The bike never missed a beat. Shifting gears was more radically like an on/off/on switch then what you feel with a normal street bike. This is because the bike is only tuned for top end power and nothing else. I was told that the engine would produce more torque but less horse power but it didn't feel like it. The bike pulled hard in each gear and I ran it to just before the 2 mile mark before I shifted into fifth. I watched closely the shift point from 4 th into 5 th . At that point it was 6,200 and it dropped down to 4,500. The bike is geared very tall for landspeed racing so you must make sure to carry it high enough in 4 th or when you shift into 5 th , it may drop too far out of the power band and not be able to climb further.

At this point, my body is wrapped tightly around the bike and the front bottom edge of my helmet is now vibrating occasionally as it hits the gas tank. I move my feet so the ball of my feet is riding on the pegs. I ride with my hand on the clutch listening closely to the scream of the engine and hopefully I don't hear any destructive sounds. Somewhere about forth gear, you stop hearing the sound of the valve train and as you continue to gain speed, the throaty rawer is almost overcome by the wind noise.

The course was in great shape and I watched the slowly weaving line patterns from pervious vehicles that had ran in an attempt to stay in an area with no loose salt rolling on the top. The lines bordering each side of the course are made from used motor oil pored directly on the salt. This is not ecologically damaging because oil is found naturally under the salt. And after the first rain, this is where this oil will go. There are large orange markers at each half mile. The ½ mile markers were blank but the mile ones each had a large easy to read numbers although they did come up and go by quick. The engine pulled up to 4,800. I knew it would have to hit 6,000 at the gearing we were at to set a record. A disappointment but there was still many more opportunities to come.

Not wanting to loose any opportunity, I always let the bike run a second or two past the three mile marker. Then it's shut off the throttle, pull in the clutch, shut off the gas, kill the ignition. It's fun at this point to sit up a little and get hit by the wind. You can feel the turbulence with your fingers as you reach to shut the fuel off and pull the ignition. It's kind of like being on a two lane road wide open and having a semi pass you in the other direction except it doesn't aggravate you. I studied closely the return area and when I got down to about 80, I started to pull off. At this point, the clutch is still in and I'm still in fifth gear. Getting from the course to the return road requires a different approach if you're not under power. Its 1,200 feet of ungraded salt and you have no idea if there are any wet slippery spots.

Sometimes new comers to Bonneville fail to make it to the return road after killing their engine. I begin by vectoring off and then following a straight line while I'm still at high speed. Because of the speed, you don't want to be making turns in the soft stuff. However, it is nice to do a U-turn so when you come to a stop, you are looking down the return road Dave will be coming with the truck. It's nice to watch the other vehicles coming down the course. So when I down to 40mph I make a big sweeping u-turn.

One might believe that a critical element of landspeed racing is the brakes but the truth of the matter is that unless something serious happens, you never apply the brakes. In fact, the bike doesn't even have a front brake. Bonneville is just that big. At Bonneville, they have a rule that all race vehicles (cars and bikes) cannot be run under power on the return road, the road to the staging or in the pits. As I coast to a stop, I hear the sound of the salt crackling under the tires. When you get to a complete stop, there is this big contrast with the adrenaline running through you and how stunningly quite it is. As I pull off my gloves and unattach the deadman lines, I hear every sound. First, I perform a quick visual inspection down both sides of the bike. And I feel the heads to get an idea of the temperature. Then I go over the notes in my head. What was the tack readings? Did the bike pull? Were there any unusual noises? I like to take a guess at what my speed was. Sometimes I know from the tack reading; sometimes the sprocket changes have left me guessing. Then I see Dave in the distance coming. I watch his face as he pulls up looking for signs of excitement or signs of disappointment.

There are many variables that must be addressed when landspeed racing. Things like gearing, fuel mixture, jetting, ignition timing, exhaust tuning, compression, etc. Being successful in landspeed racing comes from having the right equipment and finding the right combination. We got in eleven passes over the four days and the bike held up very well. Our fastest speed was 154mph against the class record of 169. We were running a methanol / nitro mix at full throttle for 3 mile stretches and the engine didn't loose any compression over the four days.

You can't race at Bonneville without watching to see what others are doing. Oren Harper on a 124CI H-D from Billings Montana (Bare Tooth H-D) set a record at 131mph. We have shared tools and parts with him several times so we were happy to see him do well. California Fritz who has been running a red streamliner H-D on gas in the 2000cc class for the last three years qualified at 226mph but couldn't back it up. In a vintage class, Dave Matson did 207mph running a Vincent on nitro. Jack Costella running an 80cc streamline which sits very low to the ground went an outstanding 142mph. Jim Odom riding for the Ack Attack team captured the fastest motorcycle record at 328mph with a twin Hayabusa engines after struggling with clutch and chain problems for most the meet. The fastest 4 wheel streamliner was 437mph.

Bonneville landspeed racing is much tougher than other sports because you race against all time records. Unlike other racing sports there's no such thing as winning a race because the tough competition didn't show up at the race. At this event, we were the only entry in our class. We have set three records in the past and we are in this for the long haul. Our race program is strong and we will succeed in landspeed racing again through persistence and superior performance. Bonneville has not seen the last of the Bartels' team.

At Bartels' our strategy is to leverage engine building and bike building across all forms of motor sports. Knowledge gained in any one area is combined with other areas of racing to achieve the winning combination. When you ride a Bartels' H-D, you can be confident that your bike is the strongest and most durable.