The Land Speed Bug...It Bit Me

Sometime last year, during the build of our 1964 Bridgestone 90 Racer project, I got to thinking about Bonneville, and wondered if there were classes for small displacement bikes like we tend to ride and collect. After a little searching online, I came across www.landracing.com which appears to the best source of information for land speed events. It is a great technical resource, with links to all the different LSR clubs that run throughout the country. Being new to this world, I immediately downloaded just about every rule book and record list I could find online, and of course enjoyed the countless photo albums.

It took a bit of research and note taking to make it through the various rule books and record lists, because the classification system for motorcycles uses a lot of letter and number designations. Some of which make perfect sense, others that do not. And not all the LSR Clubs and governing bodies use the same rules and class designations, so that can lead to some confusion. In fact, I'm still a little confused about how this bike will cross-over into other clubs. And that brings me to the club/organization I have decided to run with. Long story short, I have Chosen the BUB Speed Trials group for several reasons, one of which simply comes down to the fact I’m a Nervous Nelly when it comes to new events, and it appears that the motorcycle only BUB group will have an event more geared to my rookie tastes. It was also nice that they have their rules available online, and have a great group of people willing to answer questions.

Now, what about the class and bike? Well, my original intent was to look at the various 50cc engine classes and make a decision on what type of frame I wanted to build. I actually wanted to build something, as in create something, so the Production frame class was thrown out. That left me with Modified Frame and Special Construction, as I wasn’t interested in building a streamliner. I had originally intended to go Special Construction, as it gives a builder a lot of freedom to design a bike. Perhaps too much freedom for a rookie builder though. So in the back of my head I had settled on a Modified Frame class, which as the name suggests, requires the use of a stock production frame, but allows all sorts modifications to things like engine, suspension, seating position, controls etc. In fact the rules are quite a bit more open than how I’m building my bike, which will be explained later.

In terms of 50cc engines, it was obvious that most of the classes have been dominated by late model water cooled 2-strokers, like the Aprilia RS50s that currently hold half a dozen records. For a while, this put me off, because building up a bike with a modern 2-stroke engine doesn’t even remotely fit in with my hobby of restoring 1960s Japanese bikes. Until I saw the engine class specific to pushrod engines. Yes, that’s right, Land Speed Race clubs still cater to the crusty old pushrod. Having a restored Honda C100 in the collection, I immediately remembered that these early engines were pushrod operated, and that Honda even offered a hot rod version of the venerable Cub, called the C110 Sport. I didn’t have one of these in the collection, but it has been on my list for some time. So perhaps I’ve come about this all wrong, or perhaps it will work as planned, but I chose a Modified Frame 50cc Pushrod engine class simply because I’ve wanted to build a Honda C110. Genius.

As for the existing records, it appears that a C110 in fact currently holds the record in both Gas and Fuel (Alcohol) categories in the Modified Frame class. There is no record set for Modified Frame Partial Streamlining (same frame class, but you can run some limited fairing and aero work to speed things up ) so perhaps if I feel frisky I’ll enter two classes, with and without fairings.

So there you have it. I’ve chosen a Club to run with, a Class to build to, and a Bike to build. Only problem was, I didn’t have a C110. The search began…

Chris H.