2011 BUB MOTORCYCLE SPEED TRIALS..........reflections.

Over for another successful year,the 2011 Motorcycle Speed Trials by BUB was a tremendous event,made possible by many people,volunteers,staff,BUB officials,the brainchild of BUB himself,Dennis Manning,and the racers who come from far and wide to pay the entry fee for the privilege of running their motorcycles on the Bonneville Salt Flats,a dry lake bed from thousands of years ago,as fast as they possibly can.


I ride out for New York City tomorrow(Monday 5th Sept)in order to photograph Team Red,White and Blue's NYC Memorial Run.

So before I go,I wanted to put up some more images of the BUB event for those who may not have seen them,or who were not lucky enough to be there in person.

Rex,Tower Control.

Tom Burkland,Tower Control.

"TR",Keeper of The Salt.

There were two bikes that for me were my favorites of the 2011 BUB meet this year.Jim Moshers twin engine Indian is one.
This bike has to be seen in person to fully appreciate the quality of construction and design that went into producing it.

And for that "awwww" moment,this is Jims dog "Scout" when she was a pup.

This was the other bike,which was the #1 bike of the meet for me.
Sgt.Robert. M. Bennett,A Company,3rd Battalion,39th Infantry,9th Infantry Div, built this bike to commemorate and memorialize the men of his company who never made it back home.

The names of the soldiers who didn't make it back will go along with Sgt.Bennett when he get's to run at 200mph,the goal of the bike.

It's a very powerful piece,made all the more intense in the interview I did with him when we sat down to talk about the bike.Due to this fact,I have decided not to post up the video just yet until Sgt.Bennett sees it and agrees  to let it be published.It is without doubt an incredibly personal interview,a look inside a mans soul of the pain and grief that he and many like him still carry to this day,many years later,and to whom we all owe a great debt of gratitude to.

 Set-up for the 2011 BUB.

 Dave,James and I went up to one of the peaks overlooking the course to set up the repeaters for the radio communications.

For those who have never been to a Land Speed event out here on the Bonneville Salt Flats,this is a Drag,towed behind a vehicle and used to "drag" or "smooth" the salt or course that the racers race on.It's basically 5 I-beams welded together,and when dragged along will either cut or smooth out the rough course.

I'm signing out now,I have some packing to do for NYC.

Thank you to all for the continued support,especially to Joe Amo and Garth Graham for their generous contributions for,as they both put it the same way,"Blog and Facebook coverage and entertainment".

Joe Amo used to own Landracing.com,so he knows how much work goes into event coverage like this.

For those wishing to buy prints,I will have my SmugMug account straightened out for this shortly.

My next blog/Facebook update will be en-route to NYC.

Until then......

Murph.

THE YEAR IN REVIEW WRAP UP......on with the show.

Arches NP Moab UT Oct 2010

As I looked through my albums of 2010,I tried to put up the images that reflected the places I visited and people that I met,but it`s very hard to condense it down to a few posts.

Plus in places like Death Valley and Utah the vista changes daily,really a beautiful part of the country.Of course,that also depends on the time of year.I think i`ll pass on June-August in DV.100° temps are not my thing.

Arches NP Moab October 2010

Monument Valley UT Oct 2010

Monument Valley UT Oct 2010.

Monument Valley UT.Oct,2010.

S.I.T.S. syndrome(stuck in the sand) Death Valley Sept 2010.This wouldn`t of happened if I had a sidecar rig.

Road to The Salt.Bonneville UT Sept 2010

Mexican Hat UT October 2010

Off in the distance by the Joshua Tree in the middle of the pic is a U2 shrine,which was the question in the "Where Am I" contest I ran in December.Only one person figured it out,which was one more than I thought it would be.It`s not something thats widely known about.Quite a few know of the shrine,but very few know of it`s actual location.

The Mormon Missile was back on the salt this year.

Gopi Shastri at the Mike Cook Shootout in October doing a piece for the Discovery Channel.

Bonneville Salt Flats Sept 2010.

Sweet Guzzi

Drool.....

Double drool.....

Bonneville was a blast in 2010.The only event that I didn`t go to was Speedweek,all the rest I was at,either working as crew with one of the competitors,or working at as event staff.Hopfully I get to make it this year too,but there maybe a different venue looming on the horizon.

TR was a great guy to make friends with.

He works all the Speed Events from August thru October,staying in his Mini-Winne,his `76 Winnabago at the "Bend".Thats where I had set up camp also,at times in between events we were the only two out there by the Salt.

" `Scuse me,ya dropped sumpthin".

One of TR`s jobs is to drive the course daily and look for debris,stuff that`s either fallen off or exploded off the cars and various machines hurtling down the track at speeds in excess of three hundred miles an hour.The man`s got "Hawk Eyes",he can see something as small as a 1/4 inch metal screw driving along in his car.Some of the stuff he`s picked up is unbelievable.There`s the $40 titanium bolt,bits of a magnesium blower,a few oil lines,and this:

At 200  mph on a bike,these`ll ruin your day.

At 300 mph+ in a streamliner,any one of these small pieces of debris could be fatal to a driver.At those speeds tires are extremly hot,it doesn`t take much to pop one.

This troopy was obviously going in for repairs,after having been trashed in Iraq.

Got it?.....riiiight on.

So as another new year starts,many new roads lie ahead to journey on.

At this time i`m not quite sure where that may be,but year two on the bike is a place that I never really though i`d be.

Another place I find myself in,where at the time it was very hard to see past is two years sober on the 17th of this month.Amazing when I think back at all the wonderful things that have happened by quitting drinking that had zero chance of ever being realised while drunk.But at the time,there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel,in fact there was NO tunnel,just a black hole swallowing me up.

I`m not a religious person but I have a lot to be thankful for.

In the next post thanks to Kriega U.S.,contest #2 will have a 1st place prize of a Kriega 10,a $70 value.

I have two of these on my bike attached to the top of the panniers.

They`re 100% waterproof and indestructible.They have a removeable inner liner that can be taken out and washed in case of spills.They`re also modular,so you can piece together a system to suit your own needs or the type of bike you ride.

For more info log on to Kriega U.S.

or call Scott at 480 782 9300.

Murph