Antique & Classic Cars Blog

Some people are into Vincent motorcycles. Some are way into them. Steve Hamel from St. Paul falls into the latter category. You can’t show him a piece of Black Shadow or Black Lightning and not have him know exactly what it is, where it goes, what it does, what its stress limits are and whether it can be tweaked for more go. Speed records have fallen from that competence. More will fall.

Steve (right) and friend Dyo prepare to fire up the Vincent.

In less than two weeks, Steve will take his own modified Vincent with its huge suck-up-a-flock-of-geese Mikuni carburetors out to the most famous dry lake bed in the US and try to hit 161 miles per hour, a class record for a modified gasoline powered cycle. (Dyo, in the photo above, has had some thrills on two wheels too. In about 1962, he rode a BSA 250 over the arch on the Robert Street Bridge. Today that stunt would land you one of two places: the river, or jail.)

Making 100+ HP at 7500 RPMs requires big carbs and a lot of air.

Until race day Steve will work to wring another 5 horsepower out of the engine, which already makes 105 ponies at the rear wheel. Add 5 and he’s super confident he can hit his mark. Right now? Doubt he’d go out there if he thought she’d fall short, but he’ll keep wrenching in search of horsepower insurance.

“I think I see some trapped horsepower right here.”

So does a bike like this get skittery on the salt at those speeds? Nope. Hamel says it’s solid, which at a hundred-’n'-a-half-plus must lend some comfort to the effort. Biggest concern for the racers this year is water, which is presently puddled on the course. All they can do is wait for the desert to do what they do. Dry up.

(I covered Steve, his garage, and his Bonneville pursuits in Dream Garages.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 8:33 am and is filed under Motorcycle tales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.