I can't speak for others but in my youth I was (as they used to say) a tearaway. I spent way too much time in traffic court for street racing and speeding. At that time it was just a fine. To a 17 year old know it all it was no big deal. Until the traffic court judge looked over his bench and said "Bill, If I see you in here again in the next six months I'll take your license for a year". Thse were sobering words. Thats when I decided that going fast should be on a race track. I still tore around and street raced but with a less impunity.
I guess racing for the past 45+ years has made me a cynic. No time slip no believe. Most speedos are wildly optomistic. GPS is amazingly accurate. John Noonan was timed at 161 at Bonneville a few years back and the difference between the SCTA clocks and his GPS was less than 1 mph.
Bonneville records are an average of two runs over the same timed mile. El Mirage is a 1.3 mile run at the lights. Maxton, Loring, Texas and Mojave are all 1 mile courses. They are all paved courses. El Mirage is dirt.
Bonneville's altitude makes it difficult to get the set up right. The density altitude can go as high as 8000 ft.+ The highest DA I experienced at Bonneville this year was 7930 ft. The salt can vary. Last year it was damp to wet in the morning and like concrete in the afternoon. Most of the 'Busas and other large capacity bike have traction problems there. All of them have some sort of ballast bolted to the swing arm. If they could get grip like on asphalt or concrete most of them would be running 20-30 mph faster.
I'm not making fun of the claims here. I'm just not believing them all. As I said before with some of the claims here those bikes should be at Bonneville where they would become stars. I'll stick with no time slip, no believe.
I guess racing for the past 45+ years has made me a cynic. No time slip no believe. Most speedos are wildly optomistic. GPS is amazingly accurate. John Noonan was timed at 161 at Bonneville a few years back and the difference between the SCTA clocks and his GPS was less than 1 mph.
Bonneville records are an average of two runs over the same timed mile. El Mirage is a 1.3 mile run at the lights. Maxton, Loring, Texas and Mojave are all 1 mile courses. They are all paved courses. El Mirage is dirt.
Bonneville's altitude makes it difficult to get the set up right. The density altitude can go as high as 8000 ft.+ The highest DA I experienced at Bonneville this year was 7930 ft. The salt can vary. Last year it was damp to wet in the morning and like concrete in the afternoon. Most of the 'Busas and other large capacity bike have traction problems there. All of them have some sort of ballast bolted to the swing arm. If they could get grip like on asphalt or concrete most of them would be running 20-30 mph faster.
I'm not making fun of the claims here. I'm just not believing them all. As I said before with some of the claims here those bikes should be at Bonneville where they would become stars. I'll stick with no time slip, no believe.
