Written by Kyle
After attending World of Speed last September at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah to help my brother out, I decided to pull my bike out of retirement. My brother Tyler and bike whiz Tim Fiorucci had a large part to do with getting me back on the horse.
I spent a couple of months last fall working on the bike at home in Creede, CO, going over everything, upgrading the brake system, and making sure the bike was in running condition before hauling it back to the motorcycle shop in Ohio. My brother and Tim offered to handle swapping out the front wheel, as well as replacing tires, and installing some new Mikuni 34 mm carburetors. They also took it to a dyno, which allows you to run a motorcycle in a controlled environment, to tune the motor and make sure it was running well before racing. They were able to get the motorcycle tuned and running well ahead of the spring ECTA land speed racing event which is held in Blytheville, Arkansas on an old airstrip. I met my brother, my dad, Tim, and a bunch of our friends in Arkansas to test the motorcycle under real world conditions. My brother also brought his dual engine Triumph out to do the same, all in preparation for Bonneville 2025.
We arrived at the track on Thursday and went through registration and inspection. During inspection they go over the bike to make sure it meets all the rules and regulations and to be sure you are placed into the proper class. This year they added a new classic class so I was running on open records, which means any speed sets a record in that class. I went in, hoping to be able to run about 130, which puts it on par with past racing and gives us a good baseline. Most importantly, this event gave me a chance to get back on the bike after five years of not racing. Purpose built race bikes are very different from a street bike, you are pushing the limits of these vintage motors and testing all the fabrication and engineering you have done. They’re a very different riding position as well, they are extremely low to the ground so you need to get a position laying down on the bike with your feet back behind you. The idea is just creating a smallest hole in the air, trying to maximize aerodynamics, which is especially important with a larger rider, such as myself! We made it through inspection with no issues and spent time preparing and readying the motorcycle for racing on Friday.
Friday I woke up, excited and nervous, but with a heavy rain coming down. We decided to hold off on heading to the track since there would be no racing until things were dry out. We headed back after lunch, the rain had stopped and they were actively working on drying the course off so we would be able to run later that afternoon. Once they started racing we got into line to wait our turn to run! By the time I was able to run it was the end of the day, but I was able to run the full 2 km race course. The bike faltered in second gear, but eventually did pull through, and I was still able to complete a run and shake off the cobwebs. We headed back to the pits and started looking over the bikes to reset everything, check oil levels, fuel up, etc. and I discovered one of the slides in the carburetors was out of adjustment, possibly from transport, so we planned on synchronizing the carburetors again first thing in the morning.
Saturday morning was supposed to be be clear, but again we woke up to rain. Luckily this time it was much shorter lived! Around 10 in the morning, we pulled the bikes out of the trailer and synchronized my carburetors, which made an instant difference in how it ran. We did discover my tachometer, the only instrument on the motorcycle, died. These are electronic gauges and mine is a bit older, and unfortunately it chose that day to die. I knew this would be a challenge. This is the instrument I rely on, because of data from dyno sessions I know at what RPM the power is being generated and where I should be shifting, but without it I had to do everything completely by feel and sound. It is a challenge on such a fast short race track, there are so many things going on quickly. We headed back to the starting line; “Hurry up and wait” as we say in racing. I was able to do my second run of the event, and this time the bike ran absolutely amazing. I wound it out high in every year and was able to put up much higher speeds than the previous day, raising the records I already sent the previous day. Looking at the timing slips I did notice I had lost some speed between the 1 mile and 2 km mark, I tried to determine whether this was the motorcycle or my fault. After after reviewing the video my brother was able to take near the end of the race track we were able to determine that I let off on the throttle before heading through the 2K park. Again, it’s amazing how quickly things happen, I would’ve sworn I did not let up, but subconsciously I must’ve seen the flags and let off the throttle.
I headed back to the pit and reset the bike again for another run and had lunch with the crew. It is always great to hang out with our friends at a race! We headed back to line to do another run and worked our way up in line. This time I felt much more ready to go and comfortable on the bike, and I had a fantastic start. It is difficult to do identical runs, you have to guarantee every shift is clean, you get into position fast, and you need to run the bike into the power band in each gear….and terribly hard to do without gauges! When I got the timing slip, I found that I had unfortunately gone a little bit slower. I had more of a cross wind this run, which can affect things, but most likely I just did not shift quite as well as I did on the second run. After going over the bike, I made the decision to run further this weekend. Without being able to do consistent runs it’s extremely difficult to achieve faster speed, or sort out tuning issues.
I’m still thrilled with the weekend, it felt great to get back on the bike and the changes we made all seem to be positive. My bike went back to our shop in Ohio, where it will receive some more work on the exhaust system and tuning in the search of more horsepower. It will also receive a brand new tachometer so I don’t have the same issues with that, as well as a few other small tweaks. The goal is to get everything back and ready to go to Bonneville in September for the World Finals! In 2011 I set the class record for A-PG 650 at 116.541 mph, and it was taken from me a couple years later and set to 130.51. Last time I ran at Bonneville in 2020, I was only 1/2 mph off the record, I’m hoping to be able to go back and take my record back. To be continued!
Current ECTA Records set by Kyle Malinky
Class A/PC-65-/4
1/2 Mile: 118.172 MPH
1 Mile: 126.086 MPH
2K: 124.550 MPH
Ramble Around 