FJ2400 - Bonneville Land Speed Racer

[freakhousecustoms]

I was really surprised in the amount of flex the temporary brackets showed.  Looked like it was going to slowly settle to the floor! 

It'll be impressive to see the custom frame as it come together 

I was surprised that it moved that much also.
I, almost immediately, welded together an upper frame support out of some scrap I had laying around, which eliminated that flex.

[fj1289]

I was really surprised in the amount of flex the temporary brackets showed.  Looked like it was going to slowly settle to the floor! 

It'll be impressive to see the custom frame as it come together 

I was surprised that it moved that much also.
I, almost immediately, welded together an upper frame support out of some scrap I had laying around, which eliminated that flex.

NEVER in FJ history has a coil mount of one frame been connected to the frame stay mount of another!  Awesome! 

[fj1289]

That "scrap" looks suspiciously familiar too!

[freakhousecustoms]

That "scrap" looks suspiciously familiar too!

Sorry, that scrap isn't something I cut off an FJ.

It's a "bad bend" I had on my Chopper build.  I had one of my crazy notions to build a bike using only square/rectangular steel.
It's also why I had to take the GloWorm apart, I needed one of the engines so I could have a street bike again.


Also might explain why I don't have a problem riding 10-foot long motorcycles all day long. LOL!

#ifItAintLongItsWrong

[freakhousecustoms]

NEVER in FJ history has a coil mount of one frame been connected to the frame stay mount of another!  Awesome! 

Haha!  Nice!!!
If I can't make history any other way, I'll be happy to say I was the first to do this!


Now, I will say that, in the coming weeks you're going to see a lot of "never in FJ History"... but -let's be honest- it's more because NO ONE should be doing the things I do to an FJ (or 2)! 

[freakhousecustoms]

Episode 6!

Building a seat gets me one step closer to actually piloting this beast!   

[racerrad8]

Please, please, please put some tape over those carbs (both sets) to keep the welding slag, grinding grit and dirt out of the carbs.

I see the rear frame has tape over the steering head bearing/cup to protect that. You're wearing gloves and a helmet to protect yourself, show those engine some love and protect them too.

I would also recommend putting something in the exhaust ports during this time too if the headers have been removed as that is a direct drop into at least one cylinder per engine.

Finally, if you are building a custom frame, I would start that sooner than later to get away from the lateral frame design of the original frame. That will change a ton of stuff and save time like mocking up that seat for a frame that honestly should be of a totally different design. I'm looking thinking an under engine frame with a single upper backbone. That cleans up so many things and makes the frame narrower for your riding position.

Randy - RPM

[freakhousecustoms]

Tape over the steering head is simply to stop from getting bearing grease on my shirt every time I leaned over to reach for the bars.

LOL - so... nothing about welding above the open and FULL fuel pump?  
I didn't even realize I was doing that until I was editing the video a couple days later.

#notTheSharpestToolInTheShed

I will try to do a better job of protecting the engine(s).

It's funny because my wife keeps saying the same thing:  "Why are you working so hard on something that won't exist a couple months from now?"
For me, it's all part of the learning process.  I'm a computer programmer by trade, you'd think I'd just whip everything up in CAD and then easily pump out a frame that just works.  But no.  I LIKE this part of the build.  For me it's not so much about racing or setting records as it is about figuring out HOW I did it, and (hopefully) how I can improve later.  A very foreign concept to some, but to me, it's just how I do it.   The next video... and probably half a week in Real Time... is about how I built handlebars for the bike so I can ride it.  Some would call it a waste of time, but I NEED to ride this thing first, to see where to go from there.

(we need a Caveman emoji for me)

The videos are about a month behind reality.  Had to do that to give myself time to edit and re-shoot if necessary.

Here's the sketch I posted on the first page, in case you missed it:

[fj1289]

Talking with Randy yesterday. Wanted to pass on something else from him - when you are thinking your way through the frame design - you only need to use the lower engine mounts front and rear.  This should help you same a little length on the build. 

I was going to make a freight train reference and I remembered the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe.  JMR - Mike Rieck - did (or is doing?) the heads for Collins Jr's rebuild of the bike.  Mike may be able to get you some insights (or access?) to what (as you know!) is probably the fastest multi-engine ride-on bike ever built!

[freakhousecustoms]

Talking with Randy yesterday. Wanted to pass on something else from him - when you are thinking your way through the frame design - you only need to use the lower engine mounts front and rear.  This should help you same a little length on the build.  

Ha!  Irony of ironies, I just finished editing the video that describes how I'm going to build the frame and engine plates.

The prototype bike is currently 9' long.  With a nip here and a tuck there with the frame I built, I've been able to get it to 8'7", which is only a half foot longer than my Drag Bike.

[fj1289]

The 8'7" measurement - is that the wheelbase?  Or the leading edge of the front tire to the trailing edge of the rear tire?

And on the drag bike - is that including the wheelie bars?

[ribbert]

I'm not particularly into the salt or LSR attempts but one can't help but be sucked in by the technology and human endeavour that goes into such events and I always find it interesting.

A devastating lost opportunity in my life was missing out on buying a wheel from Donald Campbells "Bluebird" at an auction of automotive memorabilia. A last minute mishap kept me from the event and it sold for a mere $1800, substantially less than I was prepared to bid. The wheels were 52" solid aluminium with pneumatic Dunlop tyres running at 160 psi.

These wheels were obviously unique to the car and this one had been used.

Without looking it up, I believe his record of around 450mph took place in 1964 in Australia, on what to this day is considered the best "salt" in the world. I also believe his record still stands for wheel driven cars. It was gas turbine powered connecting to conventional diffs driving all four wheels.





And, does record chasing get any better than Burt Munro, of "World's Fastest Indian" fame, being the absolute antithesis of today's computer generated machines. I hope you've all seen that movie.

Noel

[T Legg]

In the summer of 97 I took my family out to the black rock dessert several times to watch Craig Breedlove and Andy Green compete to be the first car to officially break the speed of sound. There were few people there to watch. We were allowed to drive right up to their camps and take pictures and talk to the crews as long as no one was making a run. The 9,000 lb spirit of America accelerated much faster than the 20,000 lb thrust SSC but due to technical problems I never saw it break 500 mph. Craig's team was still waiting on new wheels that were rated for eight hundred miles an hour when Andy greens thrust broke the sound barrier. We were there sitting on a small hill with maybe a hundred people present watching the first time the Thrust SSC  broke the speed of sound with a speed of 767 mph. Those of us on the hill knew before Andy Green that he had done it because we could hear the sonic boom. They weren't able to make the return run that day so the official record of 763 mph was made later that week. The funding for the Spirit of America dropped out after that so the wheels were never finished and it never ran again on the black rock. The sound of those cars accelerating across the lake bed was awesome. Plumes of dust rose hundreds of feat behind them. The sonic boom was much quieter than the boom made by the fighter jets I used to hear regularly as a kid.

[freakhousecustoms]

The 8'7" measurement - is that the wheelbase?  Or the leading edge of the front tire to the trailing edge of the rear tire?

And on the drag bike - is that including the wheelie bars?

That is: "leading edge of the front tire to the trailing edge of the rear tire"
As in... "what fits (and actually doesn't fit right now) in my truck".

I've got her all loaded up (kinda) in the back of my truck right now, heading over to Douglas County Fairgrounds to ride & shoot video later today if you want to witness the insanity. LOL! 


I never count the wheelie bars on the drag bike... especially since I don't even need them yet.  They're just on there for show.

[Firehawk068]

I'm not particularly into the salt or LSR attempts but one can't help but be sucked in by the technology and human endeavour that goes into such events and I always find it interesting.

A devastating lost opportunity in my life was missing out on buying a wheel from Donald Campbells "Bluebird" at an auction of automotive memorabilia. A last minute mishap kept me from the event and it sold for a mere $1800, substantially less than I was prepared to bid. The wheels were 52" solid aluminium with pneumatic Dunlop tyres running at 160 psi.

These wheels were obviously unique to the car and this one had been used.

Without looking it up, I believe his record of around 450mph took place in 1964 in Australia, on what to this day is considered the best "salt" in the world. I also believe his record still stands for wheel driven cars. It was gas turbine powered connecting to conventional diffs driving all four wheels.





And, does record chasing get any better than Burt Munro, of "World's Fastest Indian" fame, being the absolute antithesis of today's computer generated machines. I hope you've all seen that movie.

Noel

The Bluebird car you have shown set the record at 403 mph in 1964.

The currect wheel-driven record is held by George Poteet at 437 mph, achieved at Bonneville.