Beachcruiser-A little Pumpkin Pie-A Little Humble pie-a great BBO

  Hey,

I hate making a faux pas and I really try hard not to but I gave you just a smidgen of mis-information.  I told you that Matt and Roger would be racing against each other at Bonneville when, in fact, they were racing against the world record in two separate classes.  The winner was judged on the performance of his motorcycle but, there was also a judging by a few “experts” as to who built the better motorcycle.  This particular build-off was arguably the most amazing one ever.  Both men built incredible, unique, one of a kind, custom motorcycles.  These bikes were built mainly with only one purpose in mind.  That purpose was to set a land speed record in each particular class.  They both accomplished what they set out to do only Roger did it by smashing the record for his class which was modified frame.  The old record stood at 109.2 m.p.h. Roger bested that by almost 20 m.p.h.  It was just an extraordinary example of true genius.  The guy just blows my mind.  He wasn’t thinking about looks, he was only thinking about the task at hand.  He built his motorcyle with only one thing in mind.  That thing was how to go the fastest he could without being foiled by the racing conditions.  When you ride at Bonneville, you have to think SALT.  How to keep from wrecking your machine while performing to the max.  That’s an incredibly difficult thing to do.

Matt went out and as usual he pushed his comfort zone.  Matt is a perfectionist as is Roger.  Matt decided to go with a Vincent.  He called it the Black Shadow because Vincent had originally named that model the “Black Shadow”.   He used  an engine built by Steve Hamill.  Steve is known as the very best at building this type of engine.  The engine alone had a price tag of $85,000.  That’a a lot of beef jerkey to most of us but Matt is known for using only the very best everything when he builds a motorcycle.  The Vincent was no exception.  He said the engine “was worth every penny”.  Matt uses a guy named Andy Palmer to build all of his tanks.  When you see Andy work you can see why.  The guy is an artist at what he does.  He is a pretty muscular man and after seeing the process he goes through to shape a tank you understand why.  It takes a long time and a lot of pushing and pulling to fabricate one of his tanks.  It turned out that Matt thought  10 inches wide would be the right size for the tank.  When Andy finished, Matt felt it was too narrow and that 12 inches was what was needed.  So, Andy went back to work and 12 inches turned out just right.  Matt used a 1950’s Vincent rolling chasis front end.  He built a rigid one off rear end.  He topped the tank off with a solid brass gas cap.  The motorcycle was black with a few graphics but, that was about it.  It had great wheels and was built for speed.  The paint job on Matt’s bike was done by Air-Trix paint shop in Santa Barbara California.  He did use Verigated gold leaf and a Vincent logo.  The painter mentioned that Verigated gold leaf was one of Johnny Chop’ s (r.i.p.) favorite touches.  When complete, the motorcycle was one kick ass bike and ready for the salt.

Now Roger, as I said, really blew my mind.  His shop is up in British Columbia.  He took a stock Honda dirt bike and used it as the basis for his build.  He did as far as I could tell almost all the fabrication himself.  The guy is an absolute perfectionist.  He made the gas tank as the frame dictates.  It turned out really funky looking but, as Roger said “it’s gotta feel right”.  He fabricated his own aluminum fender designed to protect the bike from the sand and made it out of aluminum to keep things light.  Light=speed.  He used carbon fibre wheels for the same reason.  Carbon fiber is very strong and very light.

Roger made the trip over to see his painter on an amazing speed boat.  It seems that besides having the same first name, he and Roger Bourget have at least one similar interest.  They both love fast boats.  Roger’s painter is Jerry Ashley.  Roger wanted a very natural paint job with the name Experimental on it.  The name speaks for itself.  There was a bare aluminum curved radiator Roger used for his machine.  Jerry decided that the motorcycle needed a skull painted on it.  He did that and when Roger saw it, he politely told him it had to go.  It was refreshing to see someone actually want his motorcycle to be as natural as possible with less instead of more.  Minimalist if you will.  Jerry removed the skull.  Roger said ” the art must match the curves”.  He wanted bare aluminum because he felt it would slip through the wind.  The build was for speed so, kind of makes sense.

Roger did run into a problem.  This motorcycle was so different he needed another motorcycle to get the engine going.  You’ll never guess who showed up to run the other bike.  It was hugh King “the chopper king”.  He even had the x-bike which Arlen and the boys built for him in “combined genius” Hugh got his “face time” and more importantly got to rub elbows with Roger Goldammer.  Well, even with Hugh’s help they couldn’t get “experimental” to turn over.  Roger had to call in some help as the motorcycle needed a new ignition coil.  They got it to run inside the time limit so next stop was Bonneville.

The bikes were inspected at Bonneville to make sure they met specifications and were safe.  Both bikes passed muster.  The deal was to run two 3 mile races with the third mile being clocked for the official speed.  As I said, Roger broke the clock.  I mean beating the exisiting record for his class by 20 m.p.h. is tantamount to hitting a 650 foot home run.  Truly amazing.  Matt’s bike passed muster as well.  He was in the unique position of being guranteed a world record because he was the first person to ride in his class.  In other words Matt fabricated his own class.  That’s pretty amazing if you think about it.  The man built a motorcycle in a class that had never been tested for speed before.  The class was another Matt Hotch original.

Well Matt took off and was doing about 100 m.p.h. in third gear when his motorcycle developed a pretty serious front end wobble.  Matt did exactly the right thing and called it a day.  In his own inimitable low key way he said “that’s what racing is for”.  You find out about problems and fix them.

The performance of the motorcycles and the “experts’” opinions resulted in Roger Goldammer winning the BBO and Matt Hotch coming in second.  It was the first time Matt didn’t win a BBO.  As fate would have it Roger’s bike was his entry in the Artistry in Iron show in Las Vegas just a short time later.  Roger was the two time defending champion and this time he didn’t win.  To sum it all up, these two are about the best our industry has to offer for sheer talent, artistry, imagination, execution, and the way they represent themselves and the industry we love.

                                                                    Bravo — I loved it — Beach