THE WORLD'S BIGGEST, SMALLEST, FASTEST, DIRTIEST MOTORCYCLES.
Fastest
Motorcycle Speed
America's
Dave Campos, riding a 7m (23-ft) long streamliner named Easyriders, set American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and
Federation Internationale de Motorcyclisme (FIM) absolute speed records with an
overall average speed of 518.450 kph (322.150 mph), and completed the faster run
at an average of 519.609 kph (322.870 mph), at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA,
on July 14, 1990. The Streamliner weighed 1133.9 kg (2,500 lb) and was powered
by two 1,500 cc Ruxton Harley-Davidson engines.
It is said that this record attempt drew the largest ever crowd to
the Bonneville Salt Flats. Rather than attract corporate sponsorship, the Easyriders
magazine "went to the people", offering each $25 contributor the
opportunity to attend the event and have their name printed on the side of the
Streamliner. Over 10,000 took up the offer, although the crowds began to thin
out after a few days.
In the 16 days it took to break the record, the team endured every
sort of mishap and hiccup: on the third day, Sunday July 1, the Streamliner went
into a wobble and crashed at around 300 mph. Campos emerged unscathed apart from
a bruised thumb (and skid-marks in his jocks), but the Streamliner needed
extensive repair work that kept the team of 15 – and several of their sponsors
– working non-stop for three days on repairs.
The front tyre was also a constant source of trouble, since the only tyre suitable for the attempt – 5.50 x15 Firestones rated at over 400 mph – were last manufactured in 1967, and the team had to make do with a limited number of rare second-hand specimens.
The streamliner is owned by Joe Teresi, owner and publisher of Easyriders
magazine.
Smallest
rideable Motorcycle
Tom
Wiberg of Sweden has built a rideable motorcycle with a front wheel diameter of
16 mm (0.62 in) and a rear wheel diameter of 22 mm (0.86 in). The micro machine
has a wheelbase of 80 mm (3.14 in), a seat height of 65 mm (2.55 in), weighs 1.1
kg (2.4 lb) and is powered to a top speed of 2 kph (1.24 mph) by its 0.22 kW
(0.3 hp) engine.
Although its size means the rider cannot sit on it in the conventional manner, Tom Wiberg rode it for a distance of more than 10 m (32.8 ft) early in 2003.
Tom Wiberg also holds the record for building the tallest rideable
motorcycle (below).
Tallest
rideable Motorcycle
The
world's tallest rideable motorcycle is Bigtoe,
which has a maximum height of 2.3 m (7.5 ft) and a top speed of 100 kph (62
mph). Built by Sweden's Tom Wiberg,
it is powered by a Jaguar V12 engine. The
bike cost $80,000 to build and features hydraulic steering and a 500W
4-speaker CD player.
Longest
Motorcycle
William
Longest, Rick Dozer, Bill Decker and Rob Moore (all USA) built a rideable
motorcycle measuring 8.9 m (29 ft 3 in) wheel to wheel. The Harley-Davidson
chopper-style monster has forks 4.57 m (15 feet) long and is 1.8 m (6 ft) tall
at its highest point. William Longest rode it on a public road near Georgetown,
Kentucky, on June 15, 2003.
Fastest
Motorcycle Wheelie over 1 km
British
daredevil Dave Rogers reached a record speed of 220.3 kph (136.9 mph) while
performing a motorcycle wheelie over a kilometre at Elvington airfield in
Yorkshire, UK,
on 28 October 2002. He smashed the previous record – set at the
same track a year earlier – held by Christopher McInnes (UK), who reached a
speed of 203.4 kph (126.4 mph).
Most
Career World Motorcycle Championship Race Wins
The
most World Motorcycle Championship races won in a career is 122 (68 at 500cc
class and 54 at 350cc class)
by Italy's Giacomo Agostini, from April 24, 1965
to September 25, 1977.
Most
World Motorcycle Championships
The
most World Motorcycle Championship manufacturer's titles won is 54 by Honda
(Japan) between 1961 and 2004.
Honda was founded in 1948 by Soichiro Honda. The
company is the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world.
Longest
Motorcycle Journey
Emilio
Scotto of Buenos Aires, Argentina, completed the longest ever journey by a
motorcycle, covering over 735,000 km (457,000 miles) and 214 countries
and territories, from January 17, 1985 to April 2, 1995.
When
Emilio Scotto of Argentina was nine years old he decided he wanted to wander the
world. On January 17, 1985, aged 30, he quit his job, jumped on his Honda
Gold Wing motorcycle, affectionately named "the black princess", and
with $300 in hand, he headed down the street. Ten years, two months, and 19 days
later he returned home to a hero's welcome, having circumnavigated the planet
both clockwise and anticlockwise consecutively, visiting 214 countries and 28
territories.
On his amazing adventure, Emilo filled 11 passports
of 64 pages each. He learnt five languages, was imprisoned six times,
arrested on suspicion of drug dealing, of being a Russian spy, and of being an
agent for Libyan leader Colonel Gadhafi, was accused of being a Rwandan spy,
encountered cannibals and contracted malaria – yet somehow he stayed alive!
His girlfriend, Monica, joined him in India, and they were married in a Hindu
ceremony, before traveling on together.
SOME OF THE
THINGS EMILIO USED ON THE "WORLD'S LONGEST MOTORCYCLE JOURNEY":
42,000 liters of gasoline,
9 seats,
12 batteries,
86 tyres
and
700 litres of oil.
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Thank you for visiting Redline's "The World's Biggest,
Smallest, Fastest... Bikes".
If you have a bigger, smaller, faster or dirtier motorcycle you would like to see in this section,
e-mail
your contribution/enquiries to: kenn@redline.co.za
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