Ready to Roll

Made the lists, ran the errands, shopped last minute while Rob loaded the trailer. Hayabusa, Aprilia, parts, wheels, tools, gears, bicycles, fuel. What did we forget? Thirty-seven feet of trailer starts looking awfully small.

Typical of me before a trip, I can't sleep. Still up doing little chores. We'll hit the road early with Rob doing the lion's share of driving.

BUB and Bonneville or Bust!

Building the Buell

Randy Miller and Rob Williams assemble
the BBND Buell

Randy works best under pressure, and preparing so many Harleys for Sturgis has buried him under plenty, but now the benches at Speedwrench are cleared for Bonneville action.

Few bikes represent the spirit of the Salt Flats better than the BBND Buell. It began life as a 1200cc Lightning, but L.A. Sleeve reduced the cylinders to make it a 500cc twin. Custom pistons from JE Piston and redesigned heads from Ken Weber at 10-Litre Performance are being fitted with an XB1 crank.

Randy places the sleeved cylinder

It is, at least, a highly unusual motor. We don't expect to see Eric Buell rushing them into production, nor even many copycats on the Salt next year.

But if it does what we expect this year, we'll have it back in a different form in 2013, also.

Twelve days.

Triumph over Software

It would be so much easier if I knew what I'm doing.

The fuel injectors in the Hayabusa are more than three times the volume of those that delivered its nitro methane mixture in 2010, so it takes a whole new fuel map just to be able to run it well enough to start and run on a dyno.

"Boost by Smith" gives us a starting point, but Rob's strong suite is all mechanical. That left him looking at me to make the computer talk to the Busa.

What do I know about assigning com ports and finding .bin files?

Obviously not much, because it took me twelve hours to feel confident editing data and flashing them to the ECU. I didn't know what TPS and IAP stood for, much less how one fuel map differs from another.

But tonight the BBND Busa crackled to life on alcohol. Tomorrow we'll start it up on nitro methane, and with luck, it will be on the dyno this week.

It just seems wrong to have it depending on computers.

Nineteen days and counting.

Doldrums

The electronics of the Hayabusa are at Kinsler being mapped for nitro methane, the Aprilia is at HighGain Tuning having fuel injection installed and the Buell sits at Speedwrench waiting for the motor to be assembled. With thirty-three days until we pull out of the driveway, I'm getting itchy.

Rob keeps busy improving the trailer. Last year, it was loaded so lightly that it nearly bounced the Aprilia apart. Rob's solution: add shock absorbers. Apparently, there are no kits that fill his needs, so it's fabrication time again. It keeps him off the streets until the bikes are back in the garage.

Think salt rusts metal?

Wrong Bikes

Rob Williams on his H-D Road Glide

The Colorado weather is beautiful, if somewhat windy, and Rob and I have been out on our bikes, both with friends and just the two of us. It's lots of fun, but dang, things are standing still on the Bonneville bikes.

Of course, there's plenty of background work. Rob has been working on the electrics in the trailer and installing the little bike trailer in the big trailer. All know all this is necessary, but I wnat to see that Buell motor in a frame. I want to hear the growl of the nitro methane in the Hayabusa.

It's only three months away!
 I want to be ready for Bonneville!

Joining Glenn Vaad's race

Julianna, Rob and the Big Bad Nitro Daddy Aprilia recently appeared with Senate District 23 candidate Glenn Vaad. Glenn finds the small but efficient character of the 50cc Aprilia an apt parallel for his ideal of government.


We happily support Glenn and wish him the best in his quest to bring conservatism and fiscal restraint to the Colorado Legislature. 

Mapping the Aprilia

The first step on any map is to find "You Are Here."

That's what we did at Richard Bruckner's HighGain Tuning. Richard ran the BBND Aprilia on race gasoline on his DynoJet SD12 to establish a performance baseline. Once we know where we are, we can determine where we are going.

Although the bike has run well on gasoline, fuel starvation issues on alcohol have been difficult to overcome. By fuel injecting the motor, Richard believes performance will be improved with gas, and an alcohol/nitro methane/air mixture will be predictable from zero to top speed.

Rob and Richard load the Aprilia on the DynoJet

I am really eager to see how this evolves.