It’s time for another round of my favorite posts to share: Bought on Bike-urious! This time we’ve got an unexpected salt flat racer that started as a Suzuki 250! Now it’s in the collection of Bike-urious reader Chris T!
Chris kindly offered to share his experience, and I knew you’d appreciate it!
General Background:
“I have been on the lookout for something like this as a bit of a tribute to my Dad. He introduced me to bikes as a kid, and it was always something we had a lot of fun with (I now take care of 5 of his old airheads and a ’72 Guzzi and my grown boys and I try to keep them running and ride them all a bit). He and I joked for years about finding a class at Bonneville to run in, and especially to get my kids (who were think little guys at the time) to ride for us to give us an unfair advantage. Anyway, this bike popped up and I chatted with my boys (23 and 20) and they were in, so we bought it.
Bit of a story there as well – the seller is a great guy that already holds a record, he had a ton of bad luck with this little Suzuki in terms of weather, etc, but he is off to retire in Portugal and just wants to see it get run in anger.”
Chris has good taste in bikes and shirts!
The Plan:
“The boys and I are going to run the bike in Montana sometime in early summer – I want to make sure it works, and that we are competent with it – and then we will be off to UT in late August where we hope to get a record run in the books. After that we’ll take further turns seeing if we can push it harder and see who amongst us is the fastest. Then it comes back home where we’ll probably find a way to hang it on the wall of my barn/shop to hang there until the boys have to deal with when I’m gone.”
“Happy to keep you posted, I think there are a few fun stories to be told. The old guy that built the engine for the seller is a hoot with ties going back 50 years in racing, the seller’s story is kind of fun – his other record bike is an old Benelli that’s now at the LeMay, and then us three dilettantes going to Bonneville with no experience and trying to set a record will surely be farcical and full of the kindness of strangers saving our butts.”
Congrats to Chris, and best of luck with your adventure! I look forward to keeping everyone updated on his exploits…