Triumph Gyronaut X-1 and Castrol RocketFor motorcycle enthusiasts, The Quail Motorcycle Gathering is a must-do event. Many unique motorcycles are featured at the show, which will be held Saturday, May 17, including two of the World’s Fastest Triumph motorcycles the Gyronaut X-1 and the Castrol Rocket.
The Gyronaut X-1 and the Castrol Rocket were each hand built with twin Triumph engines for setting world land speed records at the renowned Bonneville Salt Flats. The one-of-a-kind motorcycles are appearing as part of The Quail Motorcycle Gathering’s “100 Years of Speed Trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats” exhibition to celebrate the pursuit of being the fastest motorcycle on the planet.The Gyronaut X-1 was built in 1964 and first set the motorcycle land speed record in 1965 at 212.689mph. It’s 1966 record at 245.667mph stood until 1970 and is the last Triumph motorcycle to hold the ultimate motorcycle land speed record.The Castrol Rocket was built in 2013 and produces 1,000hp from two turbocharged Triumph Rocket III engines. Built like an airplane without wings, the 25.5’ long Castrol Rocket will attempt to surpass the current motorcycle land speed record of 376.363mph and be the first motorcycle to surpass 400mph.The Quail Motorcycle Gathering features more than 200 of the world’s most striking and never-before-seen motorcycles. The sixth annual event takes place this Saturday, May 17, 2014, from 10:00am to 3:30pm at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley, Calif.British Customs, one of the leading aftermarket parts manufacturers for modern Triumph motorcycles, is organizing and leading a ride from Los Angeles to the event on Thursday, May 15, with the hit Why We Ride feature film’s Producer/Director Bryan H. Carroll and Producer James Walker. The ride celebrates Southern California’s rich motorcycle heritage with an assortment of stock and custom Triumph motorcycles.General admission tickets to The Quail Motorcycle Gathering are $75 per person ($15 for children 12 and under) and include a gourmet barbeque lunch, offerings from local wineries and breweries, and live musical entertainment. To purchase event tickets, please visit www.quaillodgetickets.com.
Hello everyone and welcome once again to the Ultimate Motorcycling podcast—Motos and Friends. My name is Arthur Coldwells.
Motos and Friends is brought to you by the Yamaha YZF-R7—Yamaha’s awesome supersport machine that is as capable on the racetrack as it is on the street. …and it’s comfortable too! Check it out at at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.
In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena rides the BMW K 1600 GT. This is the sporty bagger version of BMW’s K series of machines, those are the models with the awesome 6-cylinder engine. The GT has been given a little makeover for 2023, and Nic gives us his take.
In the second segment, I chat with one of my all time heroes—three-time World Champion racer ‘fast’ Freddie Spencer. I’ll do my best not to come off as too much of a fanboy here, but frankly it’ll be tough!
In my humble opinion, Spencer is a contender for the GOAT—greatest of all time. Sure, his career was a little shorter than some, and his number of championships falls behind the likes of Lawson, Doohan, Rossi, and of course Marquez. But at the time, Freddie literally changed the way motorcycles were ridden. 30 years before Marc Marquez, Freddie was able to push the front wheel into a slide, corner after corner, lap after lap in order to get the bike turned faster than anyone else. Freddie took completely different lines and was able to get on the throttle so early he could out accelerate anyone off a corner.
In the modern era, of course Freddie is the chairman of the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel. This is the panel of referees for all three classes of Grand prix racing. I talked to Freddie about his task there, and although for contractual reasons with Dorna and the FIM he cannot talk about specific riders, teams, or events, nevertheless his explanation of the job makes for interesting listening. It’s a tough job, and frankly I wouldn’t want to do it!
At any rate, Freddie’s new book ‘Feel’ is available on Amazon—I’d highly recommend you reading it whether you’re a fan of Freddie or not, even whether you’re into racing or not; every rider has something to learn from his mental approach.
Actually—Ultimate Motorcycling is giving away five copies of the book—signed by Freddie himself—to the first five listeners who contact us with the correct answer to the question: How many national AMA championships did Freddie win, and which years were they?
Please email your answers to producer@ultimatemotorcycling.com and we will contact the winners and send you a signed copy of Feel. Those five winners will be announced on a future episode. Unfortunately for legal reasons this offer is ONLY open to US residents.
So, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
