A Day at the Races

Conditions at Bonneville could not have been better the day we were there. The temperature dropped by nearly 20 degrees, the skies were clear and the wind was nil. The BUB motorcycle only event was much more enjoyable in the fact that there were less people and you could focus on one subject alone - motorcycles. The bikes ranged from right off the street (Run Watcha Brung) to ground up from nothing creations (Special Construction). There were brand new 2010 bikes to the oldest which I believe was a 1937 Indian. They also ranged from one which had two engines combined which was over 2000cc down to a 50cc 60's era Honda. That last bike belonged to a young lady whose husband raced a bike on the salt. She said that she could ride a motorcycle in a straight line, so he got her this rusty bucket basket-case, and restored it back to life. They were from Cleveland Ohio and all she had to do was run it through the measured mile and she would have a record set, for none existed for that size motorcycle in that class (Vintage). There was another 50cc bike (different class) that ran at a speed of 50mph. Now think about that. That is one mile per hour for each cubic centimeter the little quarter-sized piston displaced. No other motorcycle can lay claim to that.

Later in the day some clouds blew in, the wind picked up a bit and they stopped the runs about 20 minutes before the scheduled time of 6pm. Although I wore long pants, a long sleeve shirt and was in the shade most of the time my face still got sunburned from the reflected glare off the salt.

Heading for home now with an overnight in Lovelock most likely. At the time as I am writing this it is 7am on Monday morning. Last year at this moment I would be just arriving at my camp site in Burning Man recovering from the madness of crawling along in line starting from 3am. I miss it none.