THE BIKE in the picture has just cracked a two-way average speed of 146.77mph, setting a new land speed record for the 125cc class at Bonneville Salt Flats.
The machine is a 41bhp, Honda RS125-powered streamliner, piloted by American Scott Kolb.
Having already achieved 126mph on an unfaired bike, Kolb was intent on breaking the 27-year-old record of 136.1mph, and did so thanks to the new streamline bodywork and some alteration the bike's geometry.
However, disaster was narrowly averted after a retaining screw on the rear hub assembly worked loose to within millimetres of the bike's swingarm.
“Given the bike is a two stroke that is held wide open for over 75 seconds, every nut and bolt has to be either safety wired or given a generous helping of Loctite,” Scott told HfL. “The hub center assembly in my haste to complete the bike did not get a generous helping of loctite and what you see is a bolt that had backed its way out.”
Source: Hell for Leather
