Cycle Barn Rocket III at Bonneville

[DavePreston]

The Cycle Barn Rocket III, in partnership with Falkner-Livingstone Racing, retained it's title at "world's fastest" at Bonneville by turning an average speed just over 155mph in the up to 3000 production class. It was ridden by Kelly Boltz of the Cycle Barn MotorSports Group, and exceeded the next-fastest Rocket III by 15 mph!

Ta da!

[roadweazel]

Congrats on your record. I have a buddy who's into the top speed stuff and it's not easy to go fast at Bonneville. The altitude's a killer up there.
I'd be interested to know what kind of go fast goodies y'all used to help get you to your goal. Things that could be used on a street-able Rocket III. I'm sure that your team has things you'd rather not offer up to the competition but did you guys raise compression? Did you use better cams? Change the ignition timing?
Thanx.
Weazel

[rndtaylor]

Congratulations, guys!

I was at Bonneville in august 06 when the 140 mph record was set by a group from texas. what a great and fun group they were, and they really whetted my appetite for the bike with their stories of the power and flexibility of the bike.

That trip to bonneville was the most fun i have ever had with my clothes on, and I highly recommend it to anyone.

[DavePreston]

I am not sure of all of the changes that were made - I know they were minimal as the bike is in a "production" class. I do know that the exhausts must appear stock, but it was OK to open them up , gut them, and weld them back together. I believe there is also a K&N filter and a power commander. Not sure about the cams - I will ask. I know that the altitude and the traction are big problems - last year they had a lot of wheelspin and this year a monster car tire and wheel were fitted to solve that. The other concern in the gearing - you have to run the shaft drive of course, and any special gears you want to put in have to fit in the stock case and are very expensive. I have not had a chance to chat with Kelly yet - I will try to do that this week and report back.

Cheers!

[sweatmachine]

couldn't you convert it to chain drive? The initial expense may be high, but then gearing changes are unlimited.

I know there are kits out there to convert other shaft drive bikes to chain drive, the Vmax is one example.

Cool record!

[Pig9r]

I did the calculation for the highest possible top speed (not taking aerodynamics into account) of the Rocket (using max RPMs, tire size, tranny ratio, final drive ratio) and I came up with 179.3 mph.

[DavePreston]

We did similar calculations and came up with 172. The thinking is that there are still problems with spinning up of the rear tire, plus the aero drag.

Converting to chain drive is not available because you would then be taken out of the production class.