The Bonneville salt flats are the scene of many a strange, speed beating creation and in this case we get a new project for a motorcycle land speed record from Laurent “Zen” Dutruel. On building a new Harley fit for Bonneville, the project is called Hagakure and involves a workshop-built bike based on racing concepts from a century ago, in a special version Bonneville racer that has no suspension and virtually no brakes.

So you’d have to be mad, right? The bike in the video is certainly beautiful, but some of its components look awfully flimsy to be doing more than 200 km/hr on (for those of us worried about our own mortality, that is). There’s not a lot of info available, but the bike apparently has no springs and no clutch (and the previously mentioned minimal brake set-up), and it could be the perfect machine for Zen Motorcycles’ third speed record attempt. In which case, it would also be one of the most beautiful bikes to take on the salt flat as far as we’re concerned.

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Denis Manning of BUB Enterprises is the man behind Bob Carr’s recent motorcycle land speed record of 367.382 mph and the designer of the BUB Racing Streamliner Seven.

Manning is a world renowned land speed racer and for over 35 years has designed and built some of the world’s fastest motorcycles and is also the founder of BUB (from Manning’s nickname, Big Ugly Bastard) Enterprises, a manufacturer of high quality performance exhaust systems.

In 1968 he built his first streamliner and in 1970 Denis built the world record breaking Harley-Davidson streamliner that was ridden by the late Cal Rayborn at 265mph and from there continued building streamliners for Harley, Triumph, and Norton to name a few. Denis has designed and owned 6 of the 11 fastest motorcycles in history.

This is Manning’s story by Lou Fischer, who was kind enough to send us this excellent video.

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The BUB Racing Streamliner Seven driven by Chris Carr set the new FIM world record and AMA national land speed record of 367.382 mph (591 km/h) as the fastest motorcycle in the world.

The record (still pending) was set on the Bonneville Salt Flats at the Land Speed Shootout promoted by Mike Cook. The Land Speed Shootout was created last year and brings together the fastest wheel-driven motorcycles and cars. The invitational event is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

The Seven is powered by a 3 liter, turbocharged, 16 valve V4 engine that produces a claimed 500 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque fitted into an 18 in. by 28 in. space.

Check out the Streamliner Seven testing in a wind tunnel after the jump.

Continue reading: BUB Streamliner Seven - Hits 367.382 mph

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What does a mother of two teenage daughters do instead of fighting about clothes, unsuitable boyfriends and school, she puts them on motorcycles and teaches them how to break Bonneville National Land Speed Records.

Laura Klock is the speed mom who set another new record of 153.9 mph on her custon HD cruiser which is know as the “World’s Fastest Bagger”. Daughters Erika,18, and Karlee,14, both had impressive runs of their own, posting new records of 132 mph and 110 mph respectively.

This mother/daughter/daughter trio was the first in history to hold Bonneville National Land Speed Records in the same year. Making it even more impressive is the fact that Karlee just received her driver’s license in her home state of South Dakota.
All class records are determined by bike size not the riders’ gender. Laura and Erica Klock were previously acknowledged as the first mother and daughter riders to set national land speed records and have now added younger daughter Karlee to that record.

Continue reading: Mother and Daughters Break Speed Records

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