| Author | Message | ||
     Jester |
Thanks Loki. | ||
| Hootowl |
Interesting... http://www.craigjones.com/craig-jones-bikes.htm | ||
| Phillyblast |
At this moment I'm hoisting a Yuengling Lager to Team Elves, and hoping no one is looking in the window wondering why I'm toasting a laptop screen and wiping back tears. Congratulations to all of Team Elves, and burnt piston or no, you got the record, got the 200 club for Richard, and sent a pretty hefty shot across the bow of the competition with the 208 run. Musta been some puckering in the nether regions in the Perkins camp waiting to see if you backed that up, huh? Gonna have 'em scratching their heads and wondering about next year, since the MO for Aaron & Co. is "next year it's faster". Funny how the passage of time seems to validate the creations of Erik Buell. Guaran-effin-teed we'll be sitting here 20 years from now talking about what a seminal event in motorcycling the introduction of the XB9R was. Team Elves Rocks! David | ||
| Jester |
Ralph, I sent you an email. | ||
| Bigj |
Congrats, all you Elves!! Great job!! | ||
| Madduck |
LSR fans, Pictures of interest on the SCTA-BNi site. Thur: S&S RR1000 custom Fri.: FMJ looking damn proud with his Paul | ||
| Peter |
I'm guessing this was the sneak entry?  PPiA | ||
| Grizzlyb |
Court, no words  Grizzly | ||
| Hans |
Thanks Court. You kept us tied to the screen: Almost a live report. Besides that, every time, when there is a dark, heavy, cloud deck, you start ranting and we take for granted, that there will appear a small silver lining around the clouds but what: When we look up there is a great, bright, blue sky with only a few silly puffs of far away gun smoke behind our back. You should have seen the face of my wife. Few days ago we saw on TV a program about speed. A man dangling between ropes in a windtunnel, "flying", his cheeks flabbering in his misformed face at 165 km/h. Then, as last, the speed skier, special outfit: Huge helmet like a nose cone covering his shoulders seamless with his one piece shining frog`S suit without any wrinkle or fold, pointed sticks with razor sharp trailing edges, trailing edges behind the calves of his legs. When I rushed down: They did it on the salt. Did you remember the terrible speed of the speed skier? Yes, was the prompt answer: 240 km/h. Well, what do you think: They got a second chance after the rain in september. Aaron was there again with his prepared Buell, one of the Nallin brothers tied his shoe laces extra firm and put his good old thrusty helmet on his head and maybe they even taped his gloves to his suit and then on the throttle.... Think 240 km/h, think 250 km/h, think 270, 280, over 300, think over 325km/h. Just to give her time to open her mouth wider, eyes bigger and bigger, almost popping out of her head, chin on her chest. Next time I will take that picture. Hans | ||
| Ralph |
Interesting choice for a number on the "other" RR. bighairyralph | ||
| Bandm |
Captpete Speaking of fishing Catch of the Day Mark | ||
| Aaron |
Well, we're home, left yesterday afternoon about 1:00 as Richard had to catch a plane that afternoon. The event has been extended through today due to the cumulative effects of an unanticipated large turnout and a series of delays, causing long lines and few runs. But we had commitments and unchangeable plans and couldn't possibly stay another day. And, as you know, we had an injured race bike. I lost my web access last Thursday, so until now, I hadn't seen y'alls congratulatory sentiments. Words can't express how they make me feel, but at the same time, one thought that goes through my mind whenever I read that stuff is that the people congratulating us are the same people who had a HUGE hand in making all this happen in the first place. So who should be congratulating who here? Right back at ya! Seriously, this is a TEAM, not a handful of individuals. Our success is the direct result of a whole lot of people (i.e. YOU) literally from all over the world who've pulled together. It's amazing what a team can accomplish. The week was frantically busy, except for the waiting in line part of course. Things went pretty much exactly according to plan up until we got the word about the S&S bike. First off, keep in mind we were dealing with an untested bike, the only place that bike had ever been ridden was on the dyno, and it has several untested chassis changes, not the least of which is the fitment of bodywork that was never intended for it. I told Richard to feel the bike out carefully and don't pin it if it feels the least little bit uncomfortable, because there could be issues and there were things we could adjust. Well, he came back with a 188mph time slip (on gasoline only) and glowing reports of a rock solid stable bike. Man, the S2 chassis rocks. As does the RR bodywork. The little things we tweaked to keep it on the ground and going straight at these speeds worked to perfection. That was a huge relief. Second, that freakin' motor flat SCREAMED. Richard got off the bike and he just couldn't say enough about it. He was amazed at how much stronger it was than the 1000cc motor and how much it changed the bike. The dyno bears that out of course. The motor was just as perfect as a motor could be. And the bike, even without nitrous, was running faster than anything out there that resembled a stock Hayabusa. Take a bow Wes Brown! Your motor technology is most impressive. FYI ... Richard reported that 188mph pass was not full throttle. He had instructions to only go as high as 5th gear, and in 5th the gearing was too short, pinning the throttle was overrevving the engine. Our correctly geared gasoline capability is something higher than 188. But with phase 1 out of the way, we weren't particularly interested in the bike's gasoline-only capability, and we didn't pursue it. Okay, with a stable bike and a perfect running motor and a record under our belts, it was time to think about 200mph. As I've been saying all along, with Wes & the Cycle-Rama crew on our side, and the laughing gas under the tail, we can make the power needed to get this done. The only question was whether or not the technology existed to make one of these motors live at that power level for that long. I made it a point to dial in just enough power to get it done, to give us our best chance of survival, and it did survive. Mission accomplished! Of course we could go faster, we knew that, it's just that the risk would be higher. But by the time we learned that there was a real need to go faster, we had spent too much of the motor's finite life to get away with taking that risk. Hey, you make your best choices with the information you have in hand, and you go for it. I'll not second guess what we did. I don't know what broke yet, but hopefully I'll get time to tear it down later today. From the outside, it doesn't appear to be catastrophic, the fire went out in the rear and we've got a bunch of oil on the plugs, but no extra engine ventilation, no knocking, and no signs of shrapnel. Thanks again for your support everyone, and once again, CONGRATULATIONS, you're a big part of this and this is your success. AW | ||
| Road_Thing |
Aaron, that's great! Hope there's no massive internal injuries to the motor. Next year is gonna be something to see! r-t | ||
| Court |
Wanna have some fun........ The Nallin Clan, as I type this, is gathering for a family celebration dinner with Janis cookin' up about 10 dozen "shrimp and taters". All e-mails received at teambuellelves@aol.com within the next 90 minutes will be forwarded to the family for reading at the end of dinner. Be sure to include "Rapid Richard" in the subject. Court | ||
| Rattler |
Great report Aaron! I'm glad you are home safely & the others got back safely. I know you are right in that the set-up was capable of more than 188 MPH, after seeing the report on the Team Elves sight that it was 5th gear & part throttle. Your competitor certainly surprised us last year also when he came out on the salt with that 100" mill...of course it was visible & out in the open then, back in Sept of 01. Luckily, he was running a different class & things went wrong later for him...not that I wish that on anyone. But now, a lot of us are aware of this bike & as you mentioned, strategy can be formulated. Kudo's to Team Elves for a fantastic showing! Dale A. | ||
| Peter |
Aaron, Swings and roundabouts. It will come back to bight them. Congratulations to al'y'all! PPiA | ||
| Court |
This just in from the folks in Utah. I am reposting here for info and as a sobering reminder that this is a very high stakes hobby we play. I will, on behalf of Team Elves, insure our condolences get to the family. Court I just received a phone call from Dave Koehler notifying me that Nolan White passed away during the night. He never regained consciousness after reaching the hospital. The family had requested that there be no updates on his condition but the life support systems had been removed over 24 hours ago. This is a loss to the whole Land Speed family. Nolan never stopped trying to go faster and proved that his theories and his car could do it. He lost his life doing what he had done for some forty years, going fast. His car performed well but other factors entered into the equation. He died chasing a dream while doing something he loved. When you push the extreme limits you test the results. How many of us will be as fortunate? When there is news on where to express condolences I'm sure the word will be available on the list. All our love to the White family. Wes | ||
| Aaron |
Wow, really makes you realize how inconsequential our little disagreements can be. Godspeed Nolan. | ||
| Jima4media |
Aaron, Richard, Court, Erik Buell, and everyone else in Team Elves. Great Job! Remember two years ago when I posted on badweb that you guys ought to pull out all the stops and go for 200MPH? No one thought it could be done. I looked for those posts last night but couldn't find them. Maybe Blake has them in an off-line archive somewhere. You did it! I knew you could. Jim Armstrong X-2.5 | ||
| Court |
I've got a question. . . . | ||
| Court |
Would you let this guy ride YOUR motorcycle?   With warm thanks to all the folks who makeup TEAM ELVES around the world. Richard Nallin - Team Elves Rider Life Member - 200MPH CLub Bonneville Salt Flats | ||
| Paulinoz |
Court no worries Richard could ride any time, any place, any bikes I own, but you have to be available to do the talking to any officers that may require clarifcation. I feel very very proud to be part of Team Elves and to be able to talk to people down here about what my mates have done on the salt. WELL DONE ELVES | ||
| Anonymous |
MAN! That is on cool golfin' hat and shirt! Congratulations Elves! R | ||
| Grizzlyb |
Court, He can ride my bike any time over here. I'll try to chase him and tell the guys its OFFICIAL POLICE BUSINESS. Grizzly | ||
| Court |
As Manager of TEAM ELVES, I am pained and it is with deep sorrow that I report to you, the team, that in 4 attempts down the Salt, that Perkins Performance failed to complete one run, having turned off the course each time. The details are here Court | ||
| Choptop |
Team Galbraith -Back from the Salt. Mucho adversity, mucho fun, 4 records (2 with the SuperModel on her Harley, 1 each for me Dad and I on the Triumph). First and foremost, a HUGE thanks to Aaron for letting us camp out in the Team Elves Pits and beg parts and duct tape and JB Weld and firesleeving and whatever else we needed to keep our bikes sputtering down the Salt. Second, hearing that Nolan White passed kinda puts all the stress and perceived adversity that we went through out there in perspective. None of us got as much as a hangnail while on the Salt. It could have been worse. We are all home safe and sound, drinking beer, and making up tall tales of our record runs. Our thoughts are with the White Family. Third, when is the next meet? We'll be back.  | ||
| José_Quiñones |
Congratulations again to the Elves and FMJ and Team Galbraith. However, let me be the first to congratulate the 2002 F. USA Buell Lightning Series Champion Bryan Bemisderfer!!!!! Not bad for a guy who got dropped by his team (HD of Frederick, MD) with two races to go..... Congratulations to Michael Barnes, FUSA Unlimited Superbike Champion (and last year's Buell Champ, 2nd in this years championship) BTW, a Suzuki SV650 won the Thunderbike class..... | ||
| José_Quiñones |
 Michael (1) and Brian (98) from this year's race at Summit Point, WV | ||
| Turnagain |
motley comes to mind:  now this one shows an air of havin' his stuff together:  w/ congratulations & condolences | ||
| Road_Thing |
Court: Damn, I hate when that happens.  Can you say "disingenuous"? Did anyone else notice the number change on the silver bike between the picture on that last link and the one that was posted earlier? Is there some significance there? Terrible news about Nolan White. It certainly puts Aaron's attitude about safety into perspective. In addition to our collective glee about the achievements of Team Elves (and Team Galbraith!) we should be proud and happy that there were no injuries incurred while those guys (and gals) were having fun on all of our behalves. FMJ: I think I may have a house fire soon. Could you ride that brute to Houston and put it out for me? Beautiful bike, amigo, well done! And Mr. Nallin, you "cajon" incroyable, you can ride any of my bikes anytime! r-t |
