Michelle Mielke

Day two in the Bag. Come on Day three!

2009-08-31T23:41:00.000-07:00

Short and sweet today. I’m so proud of Michelle. She is doing great. She only made two passes down the course today but they were enough to bump up her record. Her first pass was at 140.021 mph and she had a return run with a bit of a head wind at 136.920 mph. With an average speed at 138.470.
Michelle was staged and ready to run again today but racing was called due to high winds blowing across the course. She is number one on the list and will be the first motorcycle down the course in the morning.
This is exciting!

My Mom and Dad are still here for another day or so.

Tiadra worked the radio tower where they announce all the runs and times. They even put here on the horn a couple of times.

These are just a bunch of shots from the day.
Peace
Joe

Day one of the 2009 AMA Speed Trials by BUB

2009-08-31T00:26:00.001-07:00

Sunday was an Amazing Day, Simply an Amazing Day. The weather was beautiful and the track conditions improved as the day went on. Early the track was a bit wet and turned a lot of riders away for the day. Which for us worked out fewer riders means shorter lines. And those who stuck it out were able to get in some good runs. Here is a brief look at Day one on the Salt.

Michelle, Myself and daughter Tiadra. Photo courtesy of Cyril Huze Blog.

I'm so lucky to have my mother Marlys and father Dan spend some time on the salt with us this year. Again photo from Cyril Huze

One more from Cyril. Be sure to check out his blog for everything that is news in the motorcycle industry.

Staging

Heading down the salt.

Michelle getting here engine sealed by the course stewards after putting down a record run. She is in the record books again! Now we work on bettering our own record unless another motorcycle comes in this week.

Day one and Cyril Huze has been so kind to our team and to my wife Michelle. Here Cyril is with Michelle and her timing slips. 136.439 mph with a backup run of 138.390 mph. Monday we hunt for 140 mph.

Our teams heroes of the Day. Ross Tomas and Michelle Mielke. Both set records on Sunday which are subject to AMA scrutiny and may or may not hold out through the week.

More info about Ross on Cyril's blog. http://www.cyrilhuzeblog.com/2009/08/30/ross-kiwi-thomas-youngest-indian-rider-on-the-salts-of-utah/

This is why we love Bonneville. Great friends and those little slips of paper that make us smile and some times cry!

Congratulations Ross and Michelle! Love you both.

Joe

We made it to Wendover and tomorrow we race!

2009-08-30T03:07:00.000-07:00

What can I say. Been a long week since my last post. I hope to post some exciting stuff over the next week. I'm going to catch up with a bunch of pictures and some info and leave it at that. Thanks to all of our supporters and to Klock Werks and Kiwi Indian.

Joe

John (Quigley) Patton washed the cylinders down before I gave them a bath in hot soapy water then wiped them down with ATP.

John is here ringing up the Wiseco pistons from Baron after he sized he pistons and cylinders.

Michelle and John installing the cylinders.

New high compression pistons.

Michelle cleaned all gasket surfaces before we assembled the remainder of the topend.

One of the brackets I made to set up the rear sets. I made them so they are fully adjustable up and down for rider comfort.

Speaking of comfort, I laid up a fiberglass seat pan so Michelle would have a soft place to rest her behind.

Here is the first stage of exhasut construction. The head pipes for a two into one setup.

Close up of the collector.

Another shot of the head pipes with the merge section.

I made my own exhaust body too.

Starting to take shape.

Had to cut a couple of plates to finish off the merge section of the pipes.

Complete minus the header wrap. Check out the killer rear sets.

John and I got the Warrior on the Dyno right away and seasoned those new pipes!

Steering dampeners are required. We got the best from GPR. They don't make a model specific for the Warrior but Loren at GPR got me parts and I made it work.

All business on the Vortex clip ons.

I had to modify the Baron Big Air kit to fit the new Dynatek coils.

Fuel management, timing and everything ignition is handled by Dyno Jet/Power Commander.

Gearing ratios are key to land speed racing. Here is a Vortex rear sprocket I used for the new chain drive. I have PBI tranny sprockets.

My mess

Shot of the DEI fuel line sleeve we used. New rule this year that all fuel lines must be protected from heat with some sort of sleeve.

More sleeve and an inline Pingel fuel shut off valve. There was a bit of talk back and forth about this new rule requireing a positive fuel shut off valve. We'll know for sure when it comes time for tech inspection.

Almost there! Check out the Titanium header wrap. New product from DEI.

The other side.

Last few things to pass tech. Safety Wire!

Just got back from the first run NOT on the Dyno. I could not get going fast enough on the street to get out of first gear. She should move out pretty well. It did 150 on the Dyno at 5 grand. We'll see how we fair at the flats.

Ross had to check it out.

Everything on the list is taken care of. The rest is up to Michelle. If your reading this say a prayer for our Team and for all the other Teams on the Salt to have a fun and safe week of racing.

Peace

Joe

I need to get to bed. But first!

2009-08-21T00:38:00.001-07:00

Last order of business tonight or this morning was to make a list of to dos. Got a lot to do. But should have a bunch checked off by the end of the weekend.

Peace

Joe

Home work gets done and did some machining.

2009-08-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

Klock Werks is literally a family affair. Michelle and Ti came into the shop about 6 pm with fried chicken, chocolate pudding and strawberries. I put up a lift wiped it down with brake cleaner and we ate supper at the lift. When we were done Ti got out her homework and Michelle started sketching ideas for a paint job.

I found that I needed to turn down a collar on the front sprockets for clearance purposes. So chips flew.

The part below is the front sprocket shroud. The boss on the right hand side with the two holes is in the way of the new chain drive and has to go. So I cut it off and had to fab a bracket to replace the support that was removed when the boss was removed.

While working on the new support bracket. Michelle asked me to pose for the camera and this is what she got.

Tacking

The new bracket on the sprocket shroud tacked into place.

Rear set parts came in this morning from my friend James Ramsey. These are some clean and functional parts. I will need to fab some mounting brackets and linkages for them. They should function just fine and look good too.

Should work well right about here.

Gonna be sweet!

Peace

Joe

Tire bustin and modifyin.

2009-08-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

The other night it was a few steps forward and few steps back kinda night. Pull the wheels. Mount new tires. Mount the wheels, mount rear fender, remove the wheels, remove the swing arm.

Go chaing drive, install sprockets. Install the swing arm, install fork legs, install front wheels. Take it all off, lower the rear end, lower the front ende. put it all back on again. This thing is going to be low and bitchin.

Michelle bustin her first motorcycle tire.

New Vortex sprockets. 38, 40,41,42 rear sprockets to choose from.

Chain drive mocked up to check sprocket alignment. Dead nuts on it was!

Gettin Low.

Peace

Joe

Warrior posts high speeds at Speed Week.

2009-08-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

I have been bouncing questions off of Nigel Patrick of Patrick Racing about their Warrior engines. He shared this picture and a bit of info about it. The Warrior in the fore ground is a Bonneville project that was started by the late Cliff Gullet. Cliff died last year due to injuries sustained when he lost control of his streamliner at 239 mph on the Salt last year. The man sitting on the Gullet Warrior is Cliff's brother Dale I believe. I don't have a lot of info about the motorcycle. I have not spoken to Dale but the information I have from Nigel is that Dale picked up the project and brought it to Speed Week to race in his brother Cliff's honor.

How honorable is that!?! Not to mention he pushed the warrior to 170mph. I do not know if that gave him a record or not but damn...he has all my respect for sure.

Great job Dale!

Peace
Joe

Day one gone and I ain't slept yet! Why, Cuz I'm not bright.

2009-08-19T01:27:00.000-07:00

Today the brown truck brought us a few more items for the Salty Warrior. From Baron Custom Accessories. John at Baron supported the cause once again this year. We received a Carbon Fiber B-1 fender, Stealth Big Air Kit, Air Injection Block Off Kit, and a set of Baron's Wiseco Hi Comp pistons for the Road Star Warrior.

Compression is good!!

I put Michelle to work today. I called her at just after five pm Tuesday and asked if she was ready to work on the Bonneville bike. She said yes and we went to work. Worked about six hours tuesday night and got a great deal accomplished.

Get the Lowdown here!!!

Peace!
I.R. Mielke

Two weeks till we hit the Salt!

2009-08-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Meet my lovely wife Michelle, She is currently an AMA land speed record holder. In 2008 she set a record of 102.1mph in the M-P 650 class on her 2000 Yamaha V-Star 650 Classic. Her personal best was 102.389mph

This year ('09) Michelle will be piloting a 2002 Yamaha Road Star Warrior. We have many things to change before it is race ready. Looks pretty stock now but in two weeks it should be a full on Land Speed Racer.

We will be adding a new set of skins from Avon Tyres

We will be lowering the rear end with an 1" lower shock from Progressive Suspension.

Fuel management will be tuned with a Dyno Jet Research Power Commander III. Running through the gears will be aided with a Dyno Jet Quick Shift that will be attached to the new rear sets I will be fabricating to fit Michelle.

We will be upgrading to high compression pistons and putting fire to the cylinders with new coils and plug wires from Dynatek High Performance Electronics

We have only run the Warrior on the Dyno up to top speed. In top gear at 5000 rpm it does 125 mph. We plan to push it faster down the measured mile. To help us do that we will be losing the stock belt drive and running a chain drive with tranny and rear wheel sprockets from Orient Express Racing.

I have more parts on the way and will update when they arrive. Be looking for updates on the project as it progresses over the next two weeks.

Peace

Joe