Fastest Bike in the World! | Breaking the Land Speed Record! | ACK ATTACK | Full Length Documentary

what is fast this fast and then there's this half the speed of sound on two wheels this is the story of the quest for the motorcycle land speed record on the iconic Bonneville Salt Flats I think we've got a great opportunity to do this and you know we want to go away from this with the world record you the record it's not the ideal way to go but it's [Music] everyone who's ever owned a motorbike wants to know how fast it will go the fastest production bikes can reach almost 200 miles an hour but if you want to go that fast you need a very long straight and flat stretch of land there's a few places on earth better than here at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah this place is synonymous with speed poor mr. hundred years people have come here to set land speed records on two wheels and for Scott Horner is one of the handful of riders to exceeded 200 miles an hour on a conventional motorbike to go any faster you have to harness our knowledge of aerodynamics and filled a streamliner the last 10 years have seen three teams battle it out to claim the title the fastest bike in the world in that time the record has been pushed past 300 and then 350 miles an hour in 2009 Chris Carr pushed the bub streamliner to 367 miles an hour but this man is determined to go faster you know my dad rode motorcycles when I was a little kid erode triumphs and stuff and I started racing flat track for a while got in a speedway racing and I did some trials competition just motorcycles and competition I've been doing since I was probably 13 years old rookie started riding streamliners at Bonneville in 1997 and he's been hooked ever since the whole difference in Bonneville and land speed racing is just a sensation of speed I mean I love riding street bikes you push these around as fast as you can yeah it's a lot of fun but it's hard to match the intensity Atlanta speed racing when you're going 350 plus miles an hour and things are going by so fast your eyes don't focus at those speeds you know it's kind of a bird you got to get comfortable with that you got to get comfortable drifting the bike sideways you know it's always got a little bit of wheelspin you're fighting the wind and all that and there's no other kind of motorcycle riding or racing the compares to that me as sister ultimate thrill Rocky is one of only a handful of people who have experienced riding motorcycles streamliners over 300 miles an hour and is the only rider to survive a crash at that speed in 2007 he lost control of his machine at over 300 miles an hour in pencil roll 12 times before coming to rest amazingly rocky walked away with hardly a scratch before rocky can get back in the cockpit this year a huge amount of preparation has to be done back in the team's workshop the owner and designer of the machine is my kakoton he designed it around to 1,300 CC motorbike engines the primary goal of the design was to keep the machine as small and slim as possible all the necessary components are squeezed into it's 20 foot long body both turbocharged engines drive the rear wheel and small stabilizing wheels were trapped into the sides the nose contains a 30-gallon engine coolant tank brakes are useless at these speeds so two parachutes are built into the tail the first year we ran this thing we basically had to stock Hayabusa motors and we're able to go very fast with it like I say we went 336 miles an hour and oh for a first year we went out but since that time there's some real competition has picked up in this Court Dennis Manning and Kris Carr broke our record we sat on oh six just a couple days later it's been back and forth we've held it twice they've held it twice we're about 5 miles an hour slower than them right now I don't think we're gonna have that much trouble feeding that record our ultimate goal of 400 miles an hour which for motorcycle there's been a few cars that have done that but as far as a motorcycle goes it's done nobody's ever been near that number so that's kind of our ultimate goal but they have one main obstacle to overcome aerodynamic drag the faster a vehicle goes the more significant drag becomes as a vehicle goes past 300 miles an hour the power needed to overcome this drag increases significantly in fact it increases exponentially to go from 350 to 400 miles an hour you need 41 percent more horsepower the main way they squeeze more power to the engines is with ever more powerful turbos we have gone through five different turbo generation this turbo should get us up into the 30 to 35 pound range at Bonneville that's gonna make the huge difference as far as power goes the team have hooked up the machine to a dyno which allows them to tune the engine optimizing the settings of the engine management computer they are hoping they can squeeze a thousand horsepower from the power plant but generating enough power is only half the battle that power has to be delivered to the ground so the machine has to remain upright and stable and most importantly remain on the ground when rocky crashed in 2007 they attributed the crash to a wet patch of salt but in 2008 rocky again had stability issues it was only after they removed the rear parachute doors that they were able to set a new record of 361 miles an hour before returning to the Salt Flats in 2010 Mike a qatif wants to get to the bottom of these instability problems he thinks it's down to aerodynamics as a pilot is very familiar with aircraft aerodynamics but motorbikes driving a half the speed of sound though another matter in this airplane where 11,500 feet beautiful day and smooth air aerodynamics of airplanes are very very well understood they know exactly what will happen if you change the airfoil slightly very very predictable based on prior knowledge empirical data do take this airplane and put it on the ground take the wings off put some wheels on and say a Bonneville try to see how fast it would cope you're working with an unknown area the motorcycle going over half the speed of sound it just there's no data nobody's ever been there before nobody's ever studied that area mike has gone to swift engineering in Southern California to try to find some answers there wind tunnel is not big enough to accommodate the AK attack and can only simulate air flow up to 150 miles an hour less than half the attacks target speed of 400 but they have an alternative solution computational fluid dynamics where the aerodynamic forces are modeled by a supercomputer the lines here are surface streamlines so that gives you an idea of how the how the air is moving over the body and you can use those to see whether you have any separated regions regions that you might want to try to improve if you know that because any separated regions that's gonna add more drag the computer model shows that the AK attack is actually very streamlined but what they want to find out is what happens to this smooth air when any side winds act on the bike we took a look at the vehicle at what we call different betas or different side slip angles it's kind of like you have again the airflow is coming in kinda at this angle rather than straight straight down the centerline take a look at just the flow field you'll notice it's change now no longer symmetric and so you can see that as this flow comes in and accelerates around that nose you're getting kind of a low-pressure region around the nose so that's producing a essentially a lift which in this case is a side force okay and unfortunately is what it wants to do from an aerodynamic standpoint when you get in one of these side slips instead of instead of trying to turn into it and get out of it it increases that angle which makes it worse for you so what the computer model shows is that even a slight crosswind from the right creates a low-pressure region on the opposite side of the bike amplifying the force pulling it to the left this knowledge reinforces what Mike already knew it's very important that they don't run the bike in a side wind while Mike investigated the aerodynamics of the bike the rest of the team have been trying to chew the engine and it's taken much longer than the couple of days they had planned well we figured three or four days max you know but that's the way Bonneville lives and that's we talk about that all the time whatever time you estimate it'll take four times that much and that's like I just telling Mike you know you whatever time it takes it takes and you keep going till you get it done there's so many issues if Mike hasn't run in two years and bottom ville is just a terrible corrosive environment and we found most the connectors were corroded and there's hundreds of connectors in there so we would fit days checking soldering crimping connectors we found that timing was off on this thing from a goof up that happened way back in 97 we finally yesterday which is three weeks we finally found out the root cause of the problem and we change two sensors in the bike when we did this bike ran just perfect anyway what looks like we're good we're on our way I wasn't real hopeful to begin after about a week and a half of this or two weeks but now a very hopeful that this thing's gonna go pretty fast Bonneville Utah September 2010 six of the fastest vehicles on the planet have the massive Salt Flats to themselves an 11 mile long track has been laid out and for the next few days this will be the fastest racetrack in the world rocky Robinson joins the rest of the a Kotak team it's the first time they've all been back on the salt together for two years the first priority for Rocky is to check out the condition of the salt surface in the winter the whole area is flooded as the flats turned back into a lake they never know how much dry salt they will have available got an 11 mile long course and I'm so it's a mile shorter than when we set the record no wait the ends are a little bit loose softer so it's got to be real careful taking out but once you get going about 3/4 of a mile and it's really good so you know we know we're ready the bikes ready I think the course will be fine for what we're trying to do is just you know mother nature did you know has the final say in all this the crosswind is still over 4 miles an hour so they have to wait baki and the team have learned from experience that running in a crosswind can be disastrous that experience was confirmed by the aerodynamic analysis the Commission's just before getting to Bonneville the delay gives rocky a chance to mentally prepare for his first run there's nowhere else to practice and this would be the first time he's been back in the cockpit in two years [Music] when the wind finally allows him to run his speed will be measured by officials from the International motorcycle record Authority the FIM the rules are deceptively simple a vehicle has to pass through a measured mile in both directions within two hours its speed is measured by official timers in the middle of the course and the vehicles record speed is the average of these two times and breaking a record is all about aerodynamics traction and most importantly horsepower [Music] the turbocharged engine achieves its maximum power when fed with cool dense air so the team used ice to cool the air on its way to the engine and rocky likes to have a martini at the other end just run it to ten so you see that light shifted okay try to be ten grand going into the mile you'll have a big old record - you can do okay but soon enough the wind drops and it's time to fire up the machine it's a good first shakedown run but already rocky has come up against accessibility problem the bike is being pushed to the left side of the course as if there was a crosswind but all the wind meters were reading zero I don't know but that's what it was doing it just kept going laughs bye Kip if you watch of you'll see the rise and I just kept trying to creep it back on the course the rear doors which cover the parachute tubes were identified as the cause of the instability the last time they ran Mike active is determined to keep them on as they make the machine more aerodynamic and should help it cut through the air but they think they might be out of alignment causing the bike to steer to the left but rocky would rather take the doors off altogether he's sure he has ample power to counteract the aerodynamic drag use it however Mike active has another trick up his sleeve the aerodynamic engineers suggested that if they continue to have stability issues they could try fitting a vortex generator this device should smooth the airflow over the back of the machine so we did we've done all we can do back there don't work there come on rookie is sealed into his cocoon like carpet and sets off back down course hopefully the vortex generators will solve the aerodynamic problems with the rear of the vehicle [Music] the machine is picking up speed this time the engines are misfiring it looks fast but not nearly fast enough 287 he may have handling problem [Music] doors are coming off I open the doors halfway through the marks and aiming to lose and actually it gets better with the doors open for whatever reason the wires are coming off I'm gonna go back they said it with splatter it wasn't really bad for like the first mile and a half is just gonna pop up uh but the biggest my biggest problems is just wanting to go left me okay alright can't run out hard when I'm just trying to dad that's fine what we're gonna do we're gonna take a break okay time to take the machine back to their pits the vortex generators did not work so the first thing they do is remove the doors altogether but now they have to find out why the engine is misfiring this latest setback is a blow to the team especially after they received expert analysis of the machines aerodynamics and spent three weeks tuning the engine but rocky and the whole team know only too well how difficult what they're trying to do really is it's the holy grail of motorcycle racing you know it's not like you're going out to race a pack of guys and come in first place you're trying to be the fastest guy ever I think we got a great opportunity to do this and you know we want to go you know go away from this what the world record and you know it's only getting higher and harder and more difficult so you know you you just do your best and you know hope for a good outcome to have any chance of surpassing the current record of 367 miles an hour the team is going to have to work long into the night [Music] we've been up since 4:30 this morning our pork crew they've been working on a bike till about 12:30 last night got the engine running really good despite months spent preparing the bike the crews job is far from over once they get to Bonneville but they are satisfied the machine is now as ready as they can make it and Rockies impressed with the first run all right he says you know we spent all that time on the dyno so it's been fun it's a challenge but that's what this is about this is our life although rocky has blasted across the salt many times before his family are always there at the start I can't let him run without my being here this is nerve-racking for a mother because you're always going for higher speeds and you know it was great to go 300 and then now no that's not enough and how they want to go you know all the way up to 4 if they could so it is tough I'm just here to support my brother Dan so try to calm him down I don't know how good of a job I really do it that but the part that gets me is Racing's racing we come out here and it just seems like this you know this is what we do but as soon as they start strapping them in it starts getting to me you know starts choking me up and start seeing how serious it really is and it's for real and it's uh that's quite a feat rocky wins perfect been that way for about five minutes it's really calming down [Music] [Music] [Music] baki accelerates through the gears and tries to keep the engine above 8,000 rpm where the turbo generates the most power but the bike is still veering to the left and he has to lean to the right to compensate so we can't open the throttle all the way he went over 300 miles an hour but the machine is still leaning to the left he low-speed 307 it just always ends up on the left side of course and I'm just the other way I mean the bikes running good while I'm accelerating the bike ends up on the left side of course and I have to counter it to keep it from going off the course and as I do the only way to do is make the bike gain to the right and when I get where it's really lean and I can't stay in the throttle because the tires square it's got a corner when you get up on that corner you don't have any way with no crosswinds and aerodynamic effects ruled out suspicion fooled on the tires you can't buy tires designed to exceed 300 miles an hour in your local tire store they have to be specially manufactured and even these are designed for four-wheel vehicles not motorbikes since the machine last ran two years ago they fitted new tires but more careful inspection of them has revealed that they are not symmetrical well the only thing we haven't changed that we know works is the tire that we ran in 2008 now it's gone real fast we have any problems with it but they're back in the team shop a 12 hour drive away luckily mike has a plane fly to San Jose we're gonna pick up the tire that was originally used in 2008 and 2006 and handled fine that's the only thing we've changed in the motorcycles so if it still turns left I don't know what to say while mike active makes the 1,000 mile round trip the rest of the team can take a break and prepare for the final attempt the following day for rocky and his family this week is an emotional roller coaster everyone knows how difficult and dangerous what he's attempting is the motorcycles are so credible they have to have her perfect I mean it just there's no room for error at all we're a car we can run with us across land and stuff but the bike you just can't do it I don't know you know speed changes anything but whether you're going 100 in my eyes or 400 miles an hour yeah that's I don't want anything to happen to it yeah it's something that never changes you know right before a big run you know you're excited and Adrenaline's going on all that you know and there's a lot on the line and these things are so complicated sometimes there's problems so you get these big highs and then you have to go back to the pits and wait it out for a few hours while they work on it and you know and then you're down to low and you got to build yourself up all over again it's just this ongoing train wreck that lasts a week Mike Agata has retrieved the tire from his shop in San Jose but it's after midnight by the time he gets back to Bonneville the team are up again well before dawn to fit it to the bike they know they are running out of time to break the record but they won't give up trying we wanted to leave saying that we did everything we could possibly do to get this record and if we can't get it no that's why it's been there a long time and that's why it's a you know a very very tough record yep despite months of preparation and testing it comes down to the very last day of the meeting and the team are still struggling to overcome unforeseen problems finals known for that we call it Salt gremlins everything at home worked great but as far as actually running the bike with somewhere where he actually going we haven't had the opportunity to do that because there's just nowhere this big big got to do that so we would have known about the tire issues you know until we actually made some passes but today the winds not blowing it's ready to go we should be running within a half-hour or so and you know if that was the problem we'll know instantly if it was will go fast if it wasn't you know won't be under the next thing but we're all hoping that's what it is this is gonna be the morning okay it happened last time in oh wait and on a Friday run on schedule San hopefully this be the day the same place we were last time we got the record so but with more power so it should just go faster this has been a long night in the last four days they've modified the machines aerodynamics retune the engines and now replace the tires but at least mother nature appears for now to be on their side okay well the zero wind everywhere perfect if you can get it to near 10 grams six going in the mile you're gonna put down a good speed get much better okay [Music] it's vast but something else is wrong with the engines rookie has good and bad news what was the speed whenever go in the high gear I couldn't shift it I was at the rev limiter way before I'm on I kept trying to shift it wouldn't go the thing panels great I can drive it anywhere I want now it was stuck on the road limiter like a mile and a half before the mile I kept trying to shift it and wouldn't shift so it was like I could never get into sixth gear it's hugely frustrating for the team they suspect the gearbox has now given out the only solution is to replace it but they won't be able to do that before sunset today and the end of this event but there is a possibility that might cook will be able to arrange to use the salt the following day well if we did this we'd be ready to go like an eight and if we can't get it done by 10 o'clock we're just gone okay let me see what I know okay put two fresh new motors and that new gearbox is how long a job was at pulling the bottom off and changing out have you done it yo yeah let's take me probably an hour and a half to two hours of motor ok listen take us three or four to get these out yeah we got that BOC tight super stuff one minute just when the team thought they'd done it all now they have to take the whole machine apart again it's going to be another long night changing both motors took all day and most of the night but as the Sun rises on the sixth day the AK attack team think they're ready that's about 14 15 hours he's about 18 hours to change both good thing we only change one fired it up about midnight yeah good night we have the phrase burning the midnight oil we did I wish him the best they you can't say there hasn't been an effort made the entire week for these fellows it's unbelievable the tenacity and will to go it's it's amazing I love it let's get it ice right now we got only got 40 minutes we want to be sitting there at 8 o'clock this is the last day day number 6 the first three or four days we were chasing tire problems every pass I made the bike would try to turn left and I encounter Stewart and leaning to the right and so I just couldn't go fast because all I was trying to do is keep it on the track and so we kept making runs in the load 300 just yesterday was the first time we ran it with the with the tire which ran in the past and it handled good finally it went straight and so I was real excited about that I couldn't get it out fourth gear you know it's a six-speed gearbox so that was the next gremlin and but you know we got a new motor in it so hopefully we got that fixed so yeah the potentials there I just need two good runs a little bit of luck on our side maybe people will have that today with the engines rebuilt for most of the team that job is largely done all the pressure is now on rookie tired but he's not his best when he's that way but I just feel it I think it's gonna happen and we'll see you know really anything well but we're gonna do it this way [Applause] [Music] it seems like they're both running real well so this is it this is the this is the last shot right here if everything else works nothing else breaks it's possible we could get a pretty good record here I would feel bad if we left here and said ah we could have done this or we should have gotten that tire we should have changed that motor none of that we did it all so we'll get what we get on this next run there's no Bonneville axiom that goes there's a million in one ways to not get a record we found a whole bunch of them this week there's a lot of teams I've come out here for 25 years and never set a record it's hard to do you know there's a million stories of how about we almost got it done we may be one today you don't know from now on it's rocky and Lady Luck she makes the final decision can you give us a wooden record all the way down zero zero and one mile an hour get in there Rocky [Music] Araki this is my car keys in the bike they're just finishing strapping them in copy that wind is still zero here at the tower [Music] [Music] [Music] 3:27 327 CP 324 out the back well necklace [Music] hey come on I got going real hard but don't cheer too slow just bang that thing you hit well then when I had him on lined up after I got going real good but when I got to where I need to be in high gear it just won't shift it's just I mean they were lined up but it wouldn't go into the neck and I tried I pulled the clatchet back the trolley revved it okay well don't don't be just real gentle in that you got a bang that time I was I mean the mic works great I just can't get it to shift having spent all night replacing an engine Mike and the team don't understand why it won't shift into high gear thing is the last run yesterday it was exact same way when I got here just forget but just stab ship this thing flip it off get it okay if that works go to the executor next year as far as the handling thinks that part's great okay but the shifting and I know I struggled with it the whole room okay well we've gotta get you down there and get you back while the winds calm that's all good power could you repeat wins one more time for Rocky we got an hour [Music] [Music] [Music] I think [Music] and then the same thing I want to go to high gear it's just it just won't move I shifted the same all the way to do and all the other goods I'm perfect might get to go trying to get to the higher gear just to tell you in a fifth gear I was trying to go to the fifth I was knowing everything would jump want to go back Tom we got yeah well there's no idea there's no way to troubleshoot Dutch we don't take the end-use out take know everybody just say there's nothing exact same you know what I mean it's there's something going on in them I hear ya [Music] if they're going to solve this latest problem they're gonna have to move fast all week the team have come up against one problem after another and solved them all but my kakete fears they've run out of options and time Mike who do you want to do with this meet do you want to want us to hang you up or you want us to go gather why are we here over here to win set a record let's do it okay only four out of the machines six gears work the team are already running on borrowed time and now they seem to have ran out of ideas to solve this last problem rocky Robinson has already decided that this will be his last season at the controls of the AK attack but this was not the way he wanted to bow out he's racking his brains for a solution gearing to get us to death with with moving the Dobrev up higher I just had an idea that it'll shift to 4th and we got up to 3:30 on that last run I asked him what would happen if we'd gerd it taller and 4th gear since it's all I can get it into he moves the rev limiter higher can we go over 367 and 4th gear so you know essentially we're just gonna try to take 5th and 6th gear out of the equation and try to build speed with a 4-speed gearbox and if we had the gearing and if we can set the rev limiter high enough to pull the gear to run out to run a hard I think the bikes got enough power and we can still get the record it's not the ideal way to go but it's better than going home what's the draw to drive here 1.04 drink that I want to say 32 is on there right now 3 to 26 is a small and 4th gear to go 385 to pull the chain cases flip those gears somebody's changing the rear wheel where we've got to come off can you want to take over in the wheel nothing right there we got nothing to lose the bike has the power to do it and I'm excited to drive it so you know I like that we have a plan coming together and one to be a good place to be 10 1 or 10 to 10,000 367 so booked in town yeah he just wants it so badly I mean he's like I'm not leaving here until you I think that thing would go close to 400 if you got perfect conditions he's ready to do it too that's the cool thing we're good [Music] 360 more inward [Music] shootout continues well first run out of the way there's always two rounds to a world record this one is just on the limit we'll see if the return run is hired a long time coming and boy I mean last day last hour you know who getting too old for this stuff I'll tell you I said I don't think would have that hardest time beating Dennis's record we had a hell of a time trying to beat him as his record but it looks like we're gonna be able to do it this run if he gets in low gear could and everything else works it should be a real good run we'll find out shortly to beat the current official record their two-way average must exceed 367 miles an hour he needs at least 366 on this return oh that's way better already [Music] Oh close but no cigar why are knocking on the door can you give us a rough combined with the previous run but what's the mile average at three sixty six point three five nine so they're about exactly one mile an hour below what they need on a break loose record breaking right we have to go back because that would be our first time for the record as the machine now only has four gears rather than six they need more rpm from the engines Bob Werth has to reprogram the computer to squeeze out a few more horsepower man there have been one mile an hour off a record yeah this thing has to cool off though we just ran two runs in 366 it's a little tired only needs one more it's just amazing what a week it's been so we're gonna go back this way once we get regrouping everything and try it again we're close I mean he can't get any closer we're gonna put a little bit more boost to it for a safety net if I get in trouble with the drag race across the measured mile if I don't get that good of a run-up to it but you can only put so much to it and we've already squeezed a lot but we're gonna turn it just a little bit more hope I don't burn it up the only danger now is that the engine will simply explode before they can set the record you need 368 average you went in at 360 one last time I'm a little gear I'm going in faster I know for what has to be is very last chance this year the team watch as rocky strapped into the machine for possibly his last ride Tower this is drew because we have a wind report down the course please alright buddy [Music] come on [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] rocky you did okay [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] last day I don't know what time it is but it was awesome run we had a pretty ugly start again I got stuck to the truck I guess as soon as I got released I held it wide open break Gregg told me I'd leave wide open all run so anyways I had I had a twisted though man idea I had all the way straight off and the biking bike is portrayed no drama in the runner other than the take on once I got a hooked up going it just went thank our exit speed was 394 not a bad run well we talked earlier and I said this was the one right we did it I mean we did [Music] you

Channel: DANGER TV

Views: 156,752

Rating: 4.8211498 out of 5

Keywords: ack attack, attack, danger, dangertv, extreme, top 1 ack attack streamliner, top 1 ack attack, top 1, fastest bike in the world, the fastest bike in the world, danger tv, Danger, DangerTV, Danger TV, breaking the land speed record, breaking the land speed record on a motorcycle, breaking the land speed record at the bonneville salt flats, bonneville flats, racing, full length documentaries, full length motorcycle docs, racing documentaries, world speed record, racers, world records

Id: W4ic_7zmsSs

Length: 50min 7sec (3007 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 07 2019