Granddaddy Joe 2ft X 3ft Poster

For all you old timers that go back away, there is something new on the Home Page of my Web Site. If you had one on your shop wall, you could give it a good luck pat, you could throw knives at it, you could put some PO on it and put a match to it, you could write dirty remarks on it, you could use it for toilet paper, any one of those things and many more that you could think of could make you a happy person.

Detail in the future.

NHRA Bands Hydrazine

TwoFaced,

Yes, Hydrazine is bad stuff. NHRA in the old days put the Yellow dye or what ever it was in Nitro to detect Hydrazine; they didn't want anybody to run it after some bad "Bangs". I remember Leo Payne had one gallon buried in the back of the shop at S&S Cycle, don’t know what ever happened to it.

The first contact I had with PO was from the guy that introduced the stuff to the Drag Racing Motorcycle World, Richie Richards. He had a pint can of it when we were in my garage/shop and he took the lid and filled it with PO and poured it on the garage floor, stepped about five foot away and dropped a lit match on the floor and it lit that PO. I right away started learning about mixing the stuff with Nitro. I found I didn’t need a lot to help the Alkie become a good igniter.

Here’s something of interest. I was at Union Grove on a Match Race with the local big shot fuel bike guy and I needed some Nitro. I went down the Top Fuel Car line asking to buy some and came to Big Daddy Don’s pit area, and he said he would give me what ever I need for the race. Then he asks me what color do you want? He had pure Nitro in Red, Blue, Green and the original yellow. This was during the Hydrazine band time. I took the yellow and never ask about the colors and still don’t know.

Is Nitro good forever

Two Faced,

I never had nitro that lasted very long, I got a 55 gallon drum every year from one of my Sponsors and by the end of the year I was ready for another drum... I do know that in the 60’s the nitro that some of us was buying came from an old Air Force Base some place in Southern California that was stored in underground tanks that went back to P-38 Fighter days in World War ll.

I use to keep a pretty good record of all mixes, how much Alkie and Propylene Oxide was in each one. I wasn’t ever worried too much about the Alkie content but PO evaporated fast and I was always able to use up older mix pretty quick. I used the older mixes on testing and weekend fun runs. If it was a race weekend and I was running a mix the next day that I mixed the day before I always figured the PO was gone and added what the new mix required, always seemed to work. Maybe someone that has Nitro around for a long time can answer your question, if it was Pure Nitro I probably wouldn’t worry about it, if it was a mix because of evaporation I wouldn’t know what it was unless you could analyze it.

400 X 18 Drag Slick across the Pond

TwoFaced,

A few pages back, Terry, Trigger996 and Paso were working on getting some 400 X 18 Tires, never heard how it went. And after I learned how to do it I made quicker and faster no smoking the tire runs with a 273 to 1 High gear only ratio.

Burt Monroe and Sonny Angel

Here's another great picture from the past, from the picture files of BAZ.

Sonny Angel has a Motorcycle shop in National City, California and has been there since 1953 and sells Motto Guzzi and works on British Motorcycle. His favorite Motorcycle is the Vincent and in 1951 he worked at the Vincent Factory. He’s been going to Bonneville for over 50 years racing his Vincent and Manx Norton's and other British built Motorcycles.

His brother Don is the man who pilots the twin engine S/C Vincent Streamliner at Bonneville last year at 222 MPH using one gear after the gearbox broke. They have an Italian built gearbox for the Vincent when they run Bonneville this year, looking for better luck.
When Burt Monroe came to the USA for Bonneville week he stayed with Sonny, they were good friends.

Bonneville Week

When Baz and I had our Visit a few weeks ago he brought along his Friend John Noonan and this is John's Turbo Suzuki street bike; note the lead weights on the swing arm, when it reaches speeds of 225 MPH or more the nose of Standard Fairing pushes down so hard the rear wheel lose traction so he has over 100 lbs of lead on board.

This bike has turned 259 MPH at Bonneville on street tires.The bike makes 550 plus Horse Power at the rear wheel, but depending on the conditions he may take 150 Horse Power out to get traction.

Best Oil for Nitro

Pete,

I got some bad answers for you on the oil issue. I also was sponsored by Valvoline in the same years; I had a garage full of the stuff, everything they produced. But to use it with Nitro, I didn't like it at all, it separated too much, you know, the oil was bright yellow after a run. I know about the Castro oil but I couldn't get them for a Sponsor. The best Oil I ever used with Nitro was Torco Racing Oil. I tried most Oil there was including Pennzoil, had a Sponsor from them for one year but was glad to get back to Torco. The answer you want about Valvoline, maybe someone else will read your posting and have an answer for you. By the way, Two Faced, Cool looking bike.

Was he really the character everybody said

When I first met Mr. Monroe at Bonneville in the 60’s I felt he was a little on the weird side. He was almost to the point of being obnoxious. He loved the women and in the evening when we were in town and crossed over into Nevada where there was a Casino he was very forward with the younger women. It didn’t seem to hurt his popularity because every one including me really loved the guy. I’m glad I got to meet the man that owned “The Worlds Fastest Indian”. That movie has been playing on our local cable TV for some time now and I have watched at least four times. As I remember some of his tales, if they were to be believed then the movie is pretty accurate.

Worlds Fastest Indian

Here's a picture someone sent me in my email, the old racers will probably know who this is, I met him the first time in the late 1960's at Bonneville.

Mr. Bert Monroe, what an experience of a life time it was to meet that man. I must say that on the first meeting and looking at his race machine that I had never seen a more crudely put together thing in my life. But it did work.

Here he is taking a break from machining some of those home made pistons.

How many Race Frames did you build

Keith,

I built five singles and one double that I altered four times during it's career, I also built another Double Engine frame that I believe Marion Owens now has. They were all built to fit me and I rode them all. Jim Cook rode "Rat Too" one year at Indy and got Runner up, he was my size and weight at the time. Ron Fringer rode the Double the last year I was in Drag Racing and I had to move the rear pegs to the rear a little for him.